Poll: Is Halo a generic shooter?

[BiggityB05]

Halo isnt even generic now. Generic is realistic shooters. Everyone is trying to be COD: MW thats why we have all these brown realistic modern shooters.

 

[Madara XIII]

I'm not sure so correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Halo Reach the first game yet that has multiplayer and singleplayer 'Armour abilities' that you can switch out and change and has a unique and better reticle bloom system changing to way you have to fire and time your shots.

I didn't play the first one but Halo 3 did remind me of other shooters I played before however I feel Reach has some new innovations and good stuff in it.

You are wrong, holy crap you are wrong.

EDIT: No offence.

OT: Halo stands out to me as the ultimate generic title. Not only does it really not do anything different from other games, it doesn't change significantly from game to game... Hell it doesn't even change WITHIN the game. To me, the antonym of "generic" is "innovative", and i doubt anybody has really had a moment while playing Halo when they think "oh man, this [new exciting thing] is really cool, it really is a change of pace from say, shooting the same enemies again and again." (That said, i haven't played ODST, and the detective mode MAY qualify for that statement... if you're a retard.)

It's basically the Madden of Shooters

 

[Geekosaurus]

You could argue that, when it was first released, Halo was particularly inventive. However now it seems very generic.

 

[Netrigan]

Halo isnt even generic now. Generic is realistic shooters. Everyone is trying to be COD: MW thats why we have all these brown realistic modern shooters.

Those are your two flavors of generic. Sci-fi military shooter and military shooter. Vast majority of shooters seem to fall into one of those two categories with the same regenerating health/shields, two weapon limit, grenade button, melee attack, lots of enemies hiding behind things and trying to flank you.

Halo is at least colorful. I usually stand up for Halo when someone calls it a brown shooter, because that's all about using the most advanced graphic capabilities in fleshing out the different shades of grey, brown, and fuzzle-flash. Halo at least has a lush look about it, even if the fairly novel play experience of Combat Evolved has long ago devolved into run-of-the-mill FPS action.

Of course, with cover-based combat and iron-sights being all the rage, it's almost retro these days.

 

[Shycte]

No it is not. I would be so bold to claim that there is more speaking for my statment than against it.

If it's good or bad is a matter of opinion though.

 

[IamSofaKingRaw]

I'm not sure so correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Halo Reach the first game yet that has multiplayer and singleplayer 'Armour abilities' that you can switch out and change and has a unique and better reticle bloom system changing to way you have to fire and time your shots.

I didn't play the first one but Halo 3 did remind me of other shooters I played before however I feel Reach has some new innovations and good stuff in it.

I swear thhey are only armor skins. Some do stuff (I think one makes your head blow inot confetti when you get headshot)

Killzone 2 already does your second point. (You only have to time your shots for the br and sniper, everything else is the same.)

 

[Th37thTrump3t]

The only reason Halo is considered generic right now is because almost every FPS game has copied bits and pieces of it to the point where almost everything great Halo had going for it became commonplace in almost all shooters.

 

[Ashcrexl]

each individual game of Halo is NOT generic at all! colorful graphics, interesting enemies, functional and somewhat original enemies, fun levels, robust multiplayer, was actually the first major FPS to do regenerating health and 2 weapon carrying capacity, and GODDAM HALOS! does anyone else think the concept of a halo is awesome as all hell? anyway the only issue i have with the series is that it is a series. the gameplay gets pretty repetitive after finishing the second one.

 

[Continuity]

Most games are in a genre and therefore generic... that's not a fault.

 

[Netrigan]

does anyone else think the concept of a halo is awesome as all hell?

Of course it is, that's why they stole it from the Ringworld series

 

[Ashcrexl]

does anyone else think the concept of a halo is awesome as all hell?

Of course it is, that's why they stole it from the Ringworld series

oh my god you're right! i just looked it up on wikipedia and on the cover, BAM, halo! still, stealing elements from an obscure source that no one else has stolen yet doesnt make you generic, it makes you a smart thief.

 

[Netrigan]

does anyone else think the concept of a halo is awesome as all hell?

Of course it is, that's why they stole it from the Ringworld series

oh my god you're right! i just looked it up on wikipedia and on the cover, BAM, halo! still, stealing elements from an obscure source that no one else has stolen yet doesnt make you generic, it makes you a smart thief.

Ringworld isn't exactly obscure. It's an award-winning sci-fi series. Currently a ScyFy Channel mini-series in the works, and Halo is far from the first property to be inspired by it.

And Larry Niven, the writer of Ringworld, was approached to write the first Halo novel, so they pretty much wore the influence on their sleeve.

 

[Ross B]

A lot have people have already made the point that its become the norm because absolutely every single FPS game since 2001 has copied from the series, so I wont go into that, seems people have it covered. I will add though, and correct me if someones already said this, that the shield bar isn't just a double layer of health which recharges, from a campaign point of view it is but it adds a much deeper level of complexity and skill to the multi-player. With your shield up your immune to head-shots from all weapons except the sniper rifle. Sounds amazingly basic but when your playing a match where everyone has the same gun and no perks (CoD could do with stealing some of our balancing along with recharging health, 2 guns, melee button, grenade buttons, theatre mode, file shares, feel free to add the ones I'm sure I've missed) it means you (in 2 and 3) have to land 4 perfect shots for a kill on a highly mobile target, 5 in reach, the last of which has to be in the head. My point being its not just an extra health bar, its game changing in multiplayer.
Off topic maybe but find me a shooter that works better for 4v4 tournament game play and, well frankly I'll disagree with you.

 

[Ross B]

does anyone else think the concept of a halo is awesome as all hell?

Of course it is, that's why they stole it from the Ringworld series

oh my god you're right! i just looked it up on wikipedia and on the cover, BAM, halo! still, stealing elements from an obscure source that no one else has stolen yet doesnt make you generic, it makes you a smart thief.

Ringworld isn't exactly obscure. It's an award-winning sci-fi series. Currently a ScyFy Channel mini-series in the works, and Halo is far from the first property to be inspired by it.

And Larry Niven, the writer of Ringworld, was approached to write the first Halo novel, so they pretty much wore the influence on their sleeve.

I didn't know that last bit, which is interesting because I think the first book was released before combat evolved, which could imply that they wanted to just make a game version of Ringworld. By the way I haven't read / watched / heard of ring world so any further comparison by me is gonna be purely hot air.

 

[Netrigan]

does anyone else think the concept of a halo is awesome as all hell?

Of course it is, that's why they stole it from the Ringworld series

oh my god you're right! i just looked it up on wikipedia and on the cover, BAM, halo! still, stealing elements from an obscure source that no one else has stolen yet doesnt make you generic, it makes you a smart thief.

Ringworld isn't exactly obscure. It's an award-winning sci-fi series. Currently a ScyFy Channel mini-series in the works, and Halo is far from the first property to be inspired by it.

And Larry Niven, the writer of Ringworld, was approached to write the first Halo novel, so they pretty much wore the influence on their sleeve.

I didn't know that last bit, which is interesting because I think the first book was released before combat evolved, which could imply that they wanted to just make a game version of Ringworld. By the way I haven't read / watched / heard of ring world so any further comparison by me is gonna be purely hot air.

I've not read Ringworld either, but I've been around enough sci-fi fans to have known about it for something like 20 years.

I took the book offer two ways. First, getting Larry Niven to write a Halo novel would give the book a lot more credibility... which was probably quite a concern early on, what with the literary masterpieces that were the Doom novels. Secondly, it would let them toss some money toward the man whose basic idea they were using.

And as much as I enjoy ragging on Halo, I'll be the first to admit that using the Ringworld concept was something fairly novel to games, which they mixed in with the far more typical Aliens and Starship Trooper lifts. I said it elsewhere, but I consider Halo to be a more respectable Quake. It came up with a pretty decent plot and back story and it's a well put together game... but it bores me to tears, which is a common failing of FPS that do the good AI thing (good AI requires more CPU usage, so fewer enemies on the screen and higher hit-points to not only up the challenge but to let them live long enough to show off the good AI). Unreal was the first game that played that card (using bot AI for the main baddies) and it bored me about five levels in, too.

 

[Reptiloid]

While I'll admit Halo did some good for console FPS's, it truly brought NOTHING to PC gaming. It's the blandest FPS I've ever played.

Shooting enemies felt like spraying cardboard cutouts with a supersoaker. It seems like a "My First FPS" type of game. As in, mostly for kids.

That's not to say I think anyone fresh to PC gaming should be introduced to the FPS genre with Halo, that would just be cruel. Start'em off with some good old DooM.

 

[BiggityB05]

The way I see Halo as still not being generic is that it has a lot of things FPS games still dont have today with the exception of a few. How many FPS games have the deep backstory that Halo has? Most FPS games are just go get this bad guy cuz of this reason. Also look at the level designs compared to other games. Halo has a vast number of changing environments when most shooters are the same general type of setting recycled the whole game whether it be the same type of buildings or the same type of jungle, etc. Same goes for enemy variations, most FPS games enemies all look the same except maybe a different color or some extra armor. One example is BFBC2 the biggest difference youll get in enemies is a different color hat. A small detail but still doesnt change the lack of variation.

Seems like every FPS game has a grocery list of what they have to put in a game to meet criteria. 3 basic level designs/textures recycled, same basic weapons, same basic plots, generic bad guy antagonists, same old same old. Sure Halo isnt 100% innovative, thats hard to do nowadays but it had a lot of new things going for it when it came out and even now. I know Halo is the greatest game ever, personally I think Halo 2, 3 and ODST sucked compared to Halo 1 and Reach.

This is a good way to tell if something is generic or not, think about all the FPS games out, how many of them remind you of Halo? My guess would be not many.

 

[lukemdizzle]

Halo is generic in the same way that COD 4 is. they both did something relatively novel really well so everybody els tried to copy them.

 

[AfroNinja117]

The first Halo was not generic. It was a trailblazer, a genre definer for its generation. Hell, if it hadn't been as popular as it was, it would probably be looked upon as one of the greatest accomplishments of the 128 bit consoles. But, no. It was loved by the mainstream, and spawned a franchise. So the same people who extoll the virtues of Goldeneye 64 also condemn Halo, even though, in the long run, Halo: CE did far more for console shooters and tried many more new things. By today's standards it can certainly be called generic, but only because so many of the unique aspects it pioneered have been copied so endlessly ever since.

The second Halo couldn't have been called generic at the time - it was still arguably the best of its kind when it was released - but it was the beginning of what would become the Halo strategy: minimal changes, no new innovation. However, it was a technically superior game to the first, it did attempt a couple of new things and, most importantly, it succeeded at online console play like nothing before it.

Halo 3 is where the accusations of genericism start to gain weight. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it's a fine game - critics certainly seemed to like it - but it continued to lack new innovation. This was largely excused at the time because "omgnextgenhalo!". The trails blazed by Halo: CE were commonplace in shooters now. Halo 3 was, technically, proficient in all areas. It was almost certainly better than its immediate competition. But no one can argue that the series wasn't beginning to stagnate as early as its third entry.

Halo ODST is probably the most divisive of the lot, excluding Halo Wars. It attempted some new things, but the new things it attempted weren't any good. Everything else was the same as ever. The multiplayer offered nothing significantly new, the campaign was too short, it was dull, it should have been a $15 expansion for Halo 3.

And then there was Reach. A Halo game that added very little that was new, and the stuff that was new barely affected the unchanged gameplay at all. You might point out that Halo "has bright colours", but since when has graphical style excused stagnant gameplay? Of course, I suppose I can't criticise it too much, I mean, the thing sold like...well, like a Halo title. And yet, while nothing worth a damn has changed, it's still fun. A lot of fun, especially with friends.

Halo is a game series with five major titles released over almost a decade that has barely changed at all since the 2001 original. It is a game with a silent space marine protagonist who shoots aliens with big guns, and takes place in a universe where humanity is at war with an alien alliance. It is a game with regenerating shields, a two-weapon limit and run&gun gameplay.

Yes, it is generic. There is no argument here - it is the very best example of a generic shooter. If I wanted to show someone an example of a generic shooter, I would show them Halo.

That doesn't mean it isn't good.

/thread

 

[CopperBoom]

If it was not at first, by the second yes.
Though rechargeable armour and floaty jumps is not exactly huge either.