Poll: Is Halo a generic shooter?

[thiosk]

It's only generic because every FPS has tried to copy it since Halo: CE.

Pretty much this. The Halo formula defined the console shooter. That they've stuck to their basic formula is in my opinion nothing to fault them for.

Its like complaining that nutella has tasted like nutella for too long, and its time for a change.

 

[Thespian]

One could say that Halo was original when it came out, and has been mimicked again and again to the point where it became the very template for a shooter, through no fault of it's own, and thus appears to be generic... But one could also say that after nigh on a decade, they haven't exactly changed much. They've taken one or two steps backwards, actually, albeit for the better. It's not bad, it's not great, but it's certainly not innovative any more.

 

[Wolfenbarg]

It's become generic in feel, but when you grandfather in so many changes to a genre of games, how can you call the innovator generic? Halo brought limited weapons (realism!), regenerating health (annoying to no end, but it makes sense in Halo), and obligatory vehicle sections (other games had these, but I can't remember them ever being so prominent). It also had ridiculously smart AI that I'm pretty sure hasn't even been matched by its sequels. It's a good game.

The series is kind of generic though, because while the first game ran on innovation, the others are almost higher-res clones of the same game.

 

[Netrigan]

Forgot about limited weapons. Well, there's obviously games like Rainbow Six, which helped usher in the whole realistic shooter genre.

But first time I ever encountered having more weapons than you had slots was Blood 2, which had the usual number of weapons slots for a PC game, but had more weapons than slots, so you had to drop one to pick up a new weapon.

But I think Halo was one of the first (if not the first) to create a really easy game mechanic for doing so. Blood 2 required you to physically drop it before picking up the new weapon, instead of hitting a button to swap weapons.

Halo didn't do much (if any) of this first, but they often came up with a much better way of doing it. And there's absolutely no shame in that... no matter how much I enjoy playing "The Simpsons Already Did It" game.

 

[hittite]

If it is generic, it's only because it was the one that started a lot of the modern FPS trends.

 

[superbatranger]

Well, because of the fact that there are so many first-person shooters out in the market today, by today's standards, Halo would probably be considered generic.

 

[Netrigan]

Motion detecting radar... look no further than 1999's Aliens Vs. Predator which ported the idea over from ALIENS.

And I'm sure they weren't first.

And is that a screenshot from Rise Of The Triad... I only ever played the shareware of that one, but it looks like that OTT classic.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Timesplitters by comparison was released over a decade ago before Halo 1 was even out.

2001 - 2000 > 10 ?

It was released October 23 2000, its now November 9 2010, that makes it 10 years, a few months give or take.

That has nothing to do with anything. You had said that Timesplitters was released more than a decade before Halo 1. Did you think I just picked 2001 at random?

Even if you meant Halo: Reach Timesplitters was still released a month and a half less than a decade earlier.

EDIT: This really isn't a response to you Hardcore_Gamer, but I really hate when people discuss this topic. It's nothing but ignorance and semantics.

 

[Fluse]

Try and look up Starsiege: Tribes, a game released 3 years before Halo Combat Evolved. Or Tibes2 released the same year as Halo Combat Evolved.

Vehicles that you could enter, drive and leave at will - check

expansive, outdoor areas with multiple methods for approaching your target - check

And as far as i remember, you where limited to a 2 weapon + melee + granades setup. main weapon + side arm. altho, it is a long time ago so im only 90% on that one.

that leaves you with a granade button and a health bar modification, not exactly a revolution if you ask me.

I'd genuinely forgotten about the vehicles in Tribes and I'll give you that - I was wrong about the vehicles. But I've played both Tribes and Tribes 2 - the "wide open outdoor areas" in those games are simply not present in the scale you attest to.

Now, let's suppose for a second that they are present in that form. Let's just say for a moment that I agree with you - Tribes did wide open areas with multiple approaches first in a manner equal to or greater than Halo's.

That does not just leave "a grenade button and a slight modification to the health bar". I appreciate a debate with someone who holds an opposing viewpoint, but your attempt to strawman my side of the discussion is ridiculous and lends nothing to your argument but ignorance. What it "leaves" is:

A dedicated grenade button
A dedicated melee button
Two weapon capacity
Regenerating health

Now, let's toss aside two weapon capacity and regenhealth for a second, because those are heavily divisive features. No one can argue their prevalence and impact, but they're not universally approved of, so we'll just pretend for a moment that they don't matter.

That leaves dedicated grenade and melee buttons.

Do you not understand just how revolutionary those two features alone are? FPS before Halo featured grenades and melee that you had to switch to. Hell, many FPS titles didn't even feature grenades. They just weren't worth having. The grenade button alone in Halo changed FPS forever, particularly FPS multiplayer. It created so many more options and strategies and removed a lot of fumbling.

The same goes for the melee button. It seems like such an arbitrary addition, but the impact of not having to switch weapons in order to whack an enemy who got to close is exceptional.

There's a reason these two features have made it into every FPS ever since Halo:CE. It's because they were brilliant, effective, game changing and innovative design choices that add so much more strategy with such simple additions.

Honestly, if you just want to rag on Halo, rag on the fact that it hasn't done anything worth a damn since Halo:CE. But don't pretend that Halo:CE wasn't the father of modern console FPS, because that's just inaccurate.

Oh, and to the guy who posted the pics of dual-weilding in earlier games:
That's not what we mean when we say "Two weapon capacity". We mean the fact that you can only carry two weapons at once, not that you can use two at the same time.

Im not saying there is anything wrong with Halo CE. i was only pointing to the fact that dispite what most younger people, or people who only play on consoles think, Halo CE was not a huge revolution, but more a contiuation of a long tradition of PC based FPS games, its most remarkable feature beeing the platform it was released on.

Also, the outside maps in Tribes / Tribes 2 where every bit as expansive as those in Halo CE, large enough enfact for aircraft to have a sigificant travel time from one side to the other.

 

[kickyourass]

I think you need to change the last option to "WAS an innovative series." I don't really think you can call Halo generic, at least when it first came out, it revolutionized FPSs. But it has since BECOME generic, so I guess my answer is, sort of.

 

[Dark Prophet]

I voted for the somewhat option because I have played only the first one and it was somewhat innovative, gameplay wise that is, but story and the setting were as generic as they come. And mind that it was somewhat innovative for it's time, starting some great trends in the FPS genre as well as some not so great ones.

 

[Grunge4Ever]

Halo Combat Evolved added regenerating health and limited weapons. That's all. I always ask people why they like Halo and they always have these lame excuses like "you just can't beat it on legendary". Halo had bad level design, cliched storylines, cliched characters and plotholes like the fact that the humans never took the time to study covenet weapons, produce and improve them, and give the best weapons for missions in case of emergency rather then give you weak guns. Bungie always focuses on multiplayer design then campain , hence Halo Reach. This franchise is the reason that there are so many generic shooters all over the place. So yeah, GENERIC.

 

[sdafdfhrye3245]

IMO halo is not generic CoD is but just because something is not generic doesn't mean it is innovative.

 

[Icarion (aka Stockholm)]

It's only generic because every FPS has tried to copy it since Halo: CE.

Yeah this. In one of the ZP episodes Yahtzee says that Halo: CE is to shooters this century as Doom is to shooters of the mid/late 1900s. Halo essentialy set the bar for "Generic" and no generisism isn't nessisarily bad. I mean everything is generic in one way or another. You can be generic and still be great. (Personal Opinion) Dragonage Origins was the most generic WRPG to come out in a while. And I loved it. So no its not bad to be generic

 

[SnakeCL]

Halo had bad level design, cliched storylines, cliched characters and plotholes like the fact that the humans never took the time to study covenet weapons, produce and improve them, and give the best weapons for missions in case of emergency rather then give you weak guns.

Snipped a bit there, since quite a lot is opinion, and you're welcome to it.

But the reason covenant weapon designs were never improved or reverse engineered was because they were far and away beyond what humans could understand, to the point of them opening it up and realizing that the trigger had no physical connection to any other component in the weapon, and other components had no visible point or connection to OTHER pieces. They only god shields for the Spartans on accident when they came into possession of a partially disassembled Covenant hand-shield.

 

[Hazzaslagga]

Halo i think was generic but then again when compare dto most other recent shooters e.g. COD BFBC2 MOH,(it's nothing like theses). Theres also gears of war and other thirdperson shooters revolving around get behind wall, poke head above wall, shoot, duck so you can regenerate. halo is also unlike these and thus i would say that despite the setting(space marines etc...) the actual gameplay is not generic at the current moment. Note this does not mean you must love it. also does anyone know of any other game that have gameplay like halo reach which are recent?