Poll: what was wrong with halo?

[Kapol]

I think it's a good series overall, if a bit bland thanks to the wave of FPSs. But still, I do enjoy the story, and the gameplay does change a decent amount with each game. It's one of the few non-PC games that attempted to allow users to customize their games, to the point of being able to basically build entire levers with Reach (namely the forgeworld map being so large as to allow almost anything). Of course, it's not as good as, say, Timesplitters in level-creation, but I think it's a good game overall.

On that note, I'd say that Reach was my favorite overall (even if the story was predictable, though of course it kind of had to be given it was a prequel to the first game and such). I still prefer it over CoD or MoH.

I think a lot of hate comes from the popularity. I think it's earned the popularity to a degree, as it was one of the main console games to bring multiplayer into a more mainstream viewpoint as far as I know, but I also think it's because of that popularity they didn't experiment as much as they should have.

 

[snowpuppy]

Eh, it started a trend I guess. It never really 'evolved', much unlike the namesake.

It's true. I think that's its greatest downfall. All of the subsequent games after Halo: CE have been updated retreadings of the previous entry. Sure, there might have been a feature or two added, weapon power modified, or any number of minute variables altered, but you're essentially paying for the same game and the same experience every time...

No, that's the new CoD games.

 

[DirtyMagic]

I have a weird relationship with the Halo series.
I buy them all and then while playing, I realize that I don't really like Halo in the first place.
But when Reach came out, I just bought it again because you know, it's HALO.

Hmmmm... >_>

 

[Hypertion]

The ascetic and the vehicle gameplay is what made halo great for me.

I always liked how seamless the vehicle gameplay was in the Halo games. for me that was probably the primary thing that made the series great. i did multiplayer since halo 2 and always did best in a warthog driver or gunner. i was always nearly unbeatable in a banshee in halo 2. halo 3's additon of the laser and missle launcher really threw off that bit of balance tho.

the multiplayer however had major kinks that irked me seriously at times. biggest of which was how hard it was to kill and how terrible the accuracy of the weapons were. i am not a fan of random chance in gameplay and will openly condemn those aspects of games when it is central to gameplay. Hence on foot gunning with anything but a Shotgun or Sword was just annoying to me.

another thing i hated was the fact weapons are placed on the map and you have to fight both your enemies and your teammates for anything other than a terrible starting gun. Simply put i liked the way guns were handled in Modern Warfare 2 better as they actually had impact.

In the halo games theres no real way to survive if the enemy gets the drop on you due to weak weapons. Head shots in Halo where mostly pointless with the exception of a small list of weapons, and if your enemy had a better gun chances are by the time you got their shields down to land a head shot they would already have killed you thanks to the random chance weapon spread. the fact that the guns used random chance didn't help this at all and the Assault rifle would have been infinity better if it shot where i pointed. i don't care about ADS stuff it the gun shoots straight...

the matchmaking was OK but rage quitters effected halo terribly as you could not join in progress games. i cant count the times i found myself in 1 on 8 matches. however i will say that it didn't always make the game bad as that one time i found myself alone vs 4 right at the start and still managed to win was probably one of the best win moments of my gaming life, partially because i used stealth, which earned me a angry message over XBL and managed that win to an almost shameful level. Like hell i am going to just lie down and let you win for free you bastards, i am going to shame you to hell and back with ninja skills. I am going to win despite the fact 2 teammates betray-booted each other and the third one quit!

sorry about that nerd moment.

probably the worst thing in Halo Multiplayer was the extreme GRENADE SPAM. the chances are if you find someone with the starting gun in a online match the first thing they will do is toss all their grenades and finish off any health you still have with the pistol. the fact that you can freely pick up nearly infinite Frag Grenades off dead enemies didn't help and the maps could become littered with the damn things at times. so a bit of bad design there.

For me what really made Halo great was the SINGLE PLAYER story and the ascetic that went well above many of the games i have played.

 

[Daniel_Rosamilia]

Halo was actually the first FPS I ever played, and I loved it.
Halo 2 was good fun, but I thought that the third was somewhat lacking in the 'fun' department.
Halo Wars was a pile of tripe, with shoddy controls and some cheap winning tactics (play as Prophet of Regret, send him in to enemy base, space laser, YOU ARE WINNAR).
I still haven't plated ODST, I've heard it's good fun, a bit strange, but hey, the Halo series has always been a bit strange.
Reach was a brilliant swan-song from Bungie's part of the Halo series, and I just hope that 343 Industries carries that prowess on.
Now, there are bad bits to the series:
The online was never al that good (mainly the community, but you can't hold that against the developers), the AI could be either completely derptastic or insanely smart, but never somewhere in-between.
Some of the guns were overpowered (Halo 1 pistol, I'm staring intently at YOU) or incredibly weak (Halo 3 assault rifle, MAN UP).

Now, I shall leave and wait for Vrex to turn up and completely shatter the thread with his Halo-fanboyism.

PS: Halo Legends was pretty good.

 

[Adultism]

I read half way through OP's post and stopped because there were no periods; and I forgot to pause, so I didn't understand any of it.

Anyways, Halo is a okay game, its nothing new, it was something when the first one came out, but now its just been milked to death. Its a good time waster but nothing special. I wouldn't but the special edition for it at least.

 

[Mordwyl]

If we settle for mediocrity, then we ourselves are mediocre people.

 

[Podunk]

When it came out I had to judge it by the last FPS I enjoyed- TimeSplitters: Future Perfect. It just does not hold up well in comparison.

 

[circularlogic88]

I don't think there's anything wrong gameplay-wise. I think ODST was my personal favorite. I do have a problem with them blatantly ripping off the space marines, main assault rifle and Pelican-type flying vehicle from the Alien movies though...

 

[ParkourMcGhee]

The first game had a nice mythos, the campaign was solid, the multiplayer worked and was simple enough to be enjoyed by all, and made into other things such as the various (one in particular) machinemas.

The second game was turning meh, but the difficulty was a nice challenge and there were some new toys balancing out the system better. After that got boring, there were multiplayer bugs (superbouncing) and a zombies game.

The third game had nothing to offer in my opinion and I stopped paying attention after that.

EDIT: Oh and I bought Xbox for Halo 2, so I wasn't going to buy 360 for Halo 3, that seriously swayed my view to the halo franchise just being a money cow after even 1.

 

[shiaramoon]

I don't really have a problem with Halo, but it was never the game for me. Games like Halo are primarily multiplayer FPS games and generally the "community" that evolves around those games is not one I wish to become a part of, plus I'm not that into FPS in the first place.

EDIT: Also, while I think that Halo is, from what I have heard, a solid game, I do think that it is overrated, although I've never fully understood why. I think it has something to do with the fact that, as far as I know, it pretty much carried the XBox into the gaming market and made it a serious competitor. Why it did that, I do not know. In short, it's a solid game, but not really worth the cult following that it seems to have.

 

[Darkwhite]

Generally I really don't like halo (only really tried 3), story or online. However when drunk at 2 in the morning with 3 friends on a multiplayer map, i'm yet to find a better game ^_^

 

[Buizel91]

I first played Halo 2, Loved it ever since, it's what got me into gaming really.

Ever since then i have loved Halo, Sure CE was good, but sometimes it feels a bit mehh...

And for anyone complaining that the enemies are predictable, play Halo: Reach on Legendary... i dare you.

 

[hobohazard]

Original suffers from some copy-paste corridor level design, especially in later stages, but other than that I love the series. At least the Bungie-made ones. People just like to complain about popular things (well, everything, really) because it they think it makes them "cool" and "edgy".

Spoiler

(we can all just agree to forget about Halo Wars)

i actualy thought that halo wars was a shining exsampel of an rts on a console even thou it went out of canon.

and also i liked the halo francise and yes, im a bit of a fan boy but it is realy good.
halo 1 the best
halo 2 somewhat laking
halo 3 god but not qwite the original
halo wars i liked it...
halo odst bleh
halo ladgends the dule was bad the pagedge was epic every thing els whas ok to meh
halo reach still playing it

 

[elvor0]

Also, I gotta ask something - why do so many people consider Master Chief to be a bland character, while Gordon Freeman doesn't receive anywhere near that amount of criticism? Mind you, I like both the Half-Life and Halo franchises, but this is something I've never understood. Not trying to incite a flame-war here; I'm genuinely asking.

I think it's because Freeman is a silent protagonist, so he just has no spoken personality, but a lot of his back story is derived from other characters or the environment.

Master Chief on the other hand has a personality of sorts,but it's got almost nothing to it at all, we have his back story, but he only says stuff like "what do we do?" "We're going over here now", he has no personality at all, yet he speaks occasionally, and the only stuff we get is stuff that doesn't really reveal who he is as a character, like we have no hint of what he is like as a person if you know what I mean.

 

[Sun Flash]

I love the series. My only niggles would be the Flood levels (nothing wrong with the zombies, those levels just seemed needlessly repetitive) and 2's and 3's storylines. They confused me until I looked it up but got better towards the end.

Plus I seem to be in one of the few that think Reach is the best.

Also, I'm a bit surprised at the result, considering the hate it tends to get on this site. Vocal minority, perhaps?