Poll: What's Your Opinion of the Halo Series?

[Korten12]

I consider it the best gaming universe of all time.

No, I'm serious.

The games are fantastic (excluding Wars and ODST), but it's the novels and expanded universe that really give it life. Even Wars is a fun distraction and with a HEAVILY reduced price tag, ODST could have been great.

I'm also a sucker for epic and the Halo games and universe have some of my favorite moments ever.

I adore the story and have been following for a long time.

AND THEN GREG BEAR HAPPENED.

I despise the Forerunner books more than anything else in my life.

Hopefully Halo 4 doesn't embrace them too much.

Yeah... They're embracing it fully to the point where they have to release the last book of the Forerunner trilogy as it would spoil everything in Halo 4. They're connected in big ways.

Also what's so bad about them?

Truth be told, I've never even looked at the second one because I despised the first so much.

I just felt so many of the story decisions were shitty retcons.

Here are just the problems I had with the first 30 pages.

1) Calling themselves the Forerunners. No. It's stupid. I don't care what "We know we're coming before other people" explanation they give.

2) A war with a human empire a long, long time ago. Again, it just felt silly. How is there ZERO evidence of this previous human empire ANYWHERE in the galaxy or on Earth???

3) Normalizing the Forerunners so much. They didn't seem special in the slightest. They complained their jobs. They tried to live up to their parents expectations. They weren't the ancient god creatures they should have been.

And that segways into my main problem with the book: It exists. I feel the Forerunners should have NEVER been explained t any extent. The whole POINT of having an Ancient Alien Race is that they are mysterious! If you explain them, they aren't nearly as interesting because there is nothing left to imagine about them.
And yeah, they sort of saw this coming, so what did they do? Well, there just happened to be ANOTHER Ancient Alien Race before them! What do you know! They even went so far as to name them after the TV Trope I linked to.

The whole thing felt utterly artificial, pointless and destructive to canon.

Maybe I'm not really a Halo fan anymore because this hatred, but I still hold hope for 4.

As long as they keep the crap about the Precursors and the ancient human empire out, it should be ok.

There was no retcons at all, it explained more things but nothing was changed.

1) The Forerunners are actually called the Ecumene, they're just called Forerunners for translation.

http://www.halopedia.org/Ecumene

2) When the Halo rings exploded they destroyed most of the Human tech, and also the planet of Heian has Human ruins on it from that ancient era. Plus when they lost the war all their technology was stripped and they were devolved.

3) You mean they're more fleshed out and made out to be like actual living creatures with morals and backstabbing? le gasp! Guess they should be like all other sci-fi ancient beings enlightened and also assholes, because that's real original. Hell if you looked at the freaking terminals in Halo 3 it showed they were the ancient god beings we thought they were.

They needed to explain it because they couldn't just deny it forever, it had to explained and if they ever wanted to do Forerunner stuff they needed to explain them or else it would just feel annoying and contrived.

Dude... You think PRECURSOR is the name for a trope? It's a real word that prexists the internet by many years.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/precursor

You know what also means Precursor? FORERUNNER, they both literally mean "what came before."

And it's highly hinted at that the Precursors are the main ancient evil for the whole next trilogy with Halo 4. Based on the ending of Primordium they're bringing the backstory full front to the games.

Hell, Halo: Silentium like I mentioned before would have been possibly released earlier but it would spoil Halo 4 because they're connected that much.

Also Greg Bear was hired to write the story, it wasn't his decesion to make the story like how it is, 343i layed out what they wanted and Greg Bear wrote it.

So if you don't like it, I would suggest staying away from Halo 4. Hell The Didact from Halo: Cryptum is in Halo 4, hell hinted that possibly both Didact's might be in it.

 

[ZehMadScientist]

Oh I like Halo a lot. I won't dare try to give an estimate of how much time I've poured into Halo 3.

I've never really played the Halo games for their campaigns (Though I did finish 'em all on Legendary, co-op campaign was actually really damn fun and challenging), the multiplayer is what ate away a few months worth time of my life.

I like how, as opposed to CoD and such where you are dead within two shots to the foot, you've actually got a fighting chance even though you didn't get the first strike. It is more 'tactical' of sorts (I'm using that word loosely here). It also had way more variety in game modes and customization than its brown counterparts.

I am really looking forward to see what 343 has done with the franchise.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

I consider it the best gaming universe of all time.

No, I'm serious.

The games are fantastic (excluding Wars and ODST), but it's the novels and expanded universe that really give it life. Even Wars is a fun distraction and with a HEAVILY reduced price tag, ODST could have been great.

I'm also a sucker for epic and the Halo games and universe have some of my favorite moments ever.

I adore the story and have been following for a long time.

AND THEN GREG BEAR HAPPENED.

I despise the Forerunner books more than anything else in my life.

Hopefully Halo 4 doesn't embrace them too much.

Yeah... They're embracing it fully to the point where they have to release the last book of the Forerunner trilogy as it would spoil everything in Halo 4. They're connected in big ways.

Also what's so bad about them?

Truth be told, I've never even looked at the second one because I despised the first so much.

I just felt so many of the story decisions were shitty retcons.

Here are just the problems I had with the first 30 pages.

1) Calling themselves the Forerunners. No. It's stupid. I don't care what "We know we're coming before other people" explanation they give.

2) A war with a human empire a long, long time ago. Again, it just felt silly. How is there ZERO evidence of this previous human empire ANYWHERE in the galaxy or on Earth???

3) Normalizing the Forerunners so much. They didn't seem special in the slightest. They complained their jobs. They tried to live up to their parents expectations. They weren't the ancient god creatures they should have been.

And that segways into my main problem with the book: It exists. I feel the Forerunners should have NEVER been explained t any extent. The whole POINT of having an Ancient Alien Race is that they are mysterious! If you explain them, they aren't nearly as interesting because there is nothing left to imagine about them.
And yeah, they sort of saw this coming, so what did they do? Well, there just happened to be ANOTHER Ancient Alien Race before them! What do you know! They even went so far as to name them after the TV Trope I linked to.

The whole thing felt utterly artificial, pointless and destructive to canon.

Maybe I'm not really a Halo fan anymore because this hatred, but I still hold hope for 4.

As long as they keep the crap about the Precursors and the ancient human empire out, it should be ok.

There was no retcons at all, it explained more things but nothing was changed.

1) The Forerunners are actually called the Ecumene, they're just called Forerunners for translation.

http://www.halopedia.org/Ecumene

2) When the Halo rings exploded they destroyed most of the Human tech, and also the planet of Heian has Human ruins on it from that ancient era. Plus when they lost the war all their technology was stripped and they were devolved.

3) You mean they're more fleshed out and made out to be like actual living creatures with morals and backstabbing? le gasp! Guess they should be like all other sci-fi ancient beings enlightened and also assholes, because that's real original. Hell if you looked at the freaking terminals in Halo 3 it showed they were the ancient god beings we thought they were.

They needed to explain it because they couldn't just deny it forever, it had to explained and if they ever wanted to do Forerunner stuff they needed to explain them or else it would just feel annoying and contrived.

Dude... You think PRECURSOR is the name for a trope? It's a real word that prexists the internet by many years.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/precursor

You know what also means Precursor? FORERUNNER, they both literally mean "what came before."

And it's highly hinted at that the Precursors are the main ancient evil for the whole next trilogy with Halo 4. Based on the ending of Primordium they're bringing the backstory full front to the games.

Hell, Halo: Silentium like I mentioned before would have been possibly released earlier but it would spoil Halo 4 because they're connected that much.

Also Greg Bear was hired to write the story, it wasn't his decesion to make the story like how it is, 343i layed out what they wanted and Greg Bear wrote it.

So if you don't like it, I would suggest staying away from Halo 4. Hell The Didact from Halo: Cryptum is in Halo 4, hell hinted that possibly both Didact's might be in it.

1) Alright, fair enough.

2) Terrible explanation. A galactic civilization can't just disappear.

3) I read the terminal, and sure, they weren't perfect and that was fine! But the way the wrote them in Cryptum was just too simple and stupid. Fine, have them have character. Having their kids whining about what their expected to be when they grow up is idiotic.

They didn't NEED to deny it forever. What they NEEDED to do, was leave it mysterious. What they NEEDED to do, was let Bungie end the damn series where they wanted to so the problem wouldn't even come up.

You're really not helping your case with this one. Yeah, I know the word previously exists. They couldn't think of anything to name them except the absolute bare minimum definition? Really?

And yes, Forerunner essentially means the same thing, but at least it SOUNDS interesting. Plus, they can get away with it once, but twice is going too far.

Another reason for me to dislike 343i.

Oh I'll be playing 4 for sure. At the very least, I can enjoy the micro story about the Chief and whatnot if not the macro Forerunner stuff. Besides, I'm sure the gameplay will be tons of fun. And the Didact was in the Halo 3 terminals, so I have no issues with him being there.

As for the macro story, well at this point I've come to terms with the book(s) we've been discussing. I simply consider them a non-canon fanfic much like how many Star Wars fans view the prequels. Anything that tries to make them part of my beloved universe is thrown in the same pile. Yes, I know how stupid and immature and wrong and blah blah blah this is. I don't really care. I'm so much in the minority on this issue (though I have met a few other hardcore Halo fans that feel the same way), I need to make up my own version with sparkles and rainbows. It allows me to continue loving my favorite series.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Snipped for brevity.

Halo 3 was okay. I could play it again. Not often, however. Halo 2 was trash as far as I'm concerned. Halo 3 ODST was awesome simply because of the more open world it had going on. I loved it. I also loved getting to see things from the eyes of a Marine. As far as Halo Reach goes: I played it, I beat it, I had fun with it, I'm over it.

 

[Torrasque]

I'm only going to say my position then abandon this thread because I absolutely love the Halo series, and one of your options in the poll is "Halo!?! Pffft Console Trash!", which makes me angry. Halo is objectively one of the best First Person Shooters in all of video gaming. It single handedly made the xbox successful, could be blamed for the surge of FPS games you see today, and still has one of my favorite campaigns to play through. I can't tell you how many times I've beaten Halo: Combat Evolved, the campaign is just so much fun.

Also:
Halo 1 > Halo 3 > Halo: ODST > Halo Reach > Halo 2 > shit > regurgitated shit > Halo Wars

My favorite multiplayer is Reach, but I've also spent the most time on it.

 

[natster43]

It's okay. I like battlefield more, but it is still really fun with a huge group of friends.

 

[Tahaneira]

Meh.

It's not a bad series. But it's not a great series. I'll play it with friends if there's nothing better around. Like Gears of War. Or Borderlands. Or Mass Effect 3. The gameplay is decent, the story is decent, the characterization... leaves something to be desired. I honestly don't care enough about the series to form strong opinions about it.

Maybe 4 will change my opinion. Doubt it, though.

 

[F'Angus]

I think it's excellent, one of my favourite game series...and I don't even own an Xbox myself.

If I were to buy an Xbox it would be purely for Halo.

 

[ElectroJosh]

I played only the first two Halo games and, while I have nothing against them, I am not particularly interested in playing any others.

I don't think they are the worst thing ever or the best. But they aren't my cup of tea. I prefer FPS games that have a "scarier" atmosphere. Probably since my introduction was games like Doom and System Shock I have sought out games with a similar feel.

Probably the last FPS I really enjoyed was Bioshock just because the setting was different and it went for creepy.


The thing is that while I can't get enthusiastic about the Halo games I don't think they are rubbish but the fans and the haters both seem to assume my ambivalence somehow equates to me having a strong anti-Halo stance. This has obviously annoyed me enough over the years that I am willing to post about it on a Halo-related thread.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

In my opinion every new iteration into the franchise has been a step forward in many ways.

Halo: Reach remains my favourite competitive FPS to date, more so than TF2 on PC.

ODST was expensive but it was good; for it's story, characters, level design and the general feeling of being underpowered and alone.

Even Halo: Wars was interesting, even if it was also very expensive for what it was.

 

[AD-Stu]

I'm not much of a fan of FPS games in general, so the series never really grabbed me. The only one I've actually played is the first game, and it just felt a bit too... I dunno, cartoonish and kid-friendly for me to really get into.

 

[Reincarnatedwolfgod]

i know it is a fps. i don't dislike fps's but they are not my favorite genre either.
i have no opinion of halo due to the fact i never playing any of them.

 

[Phlakes]

Well, every game's been pretty damn good, and Halo 4 looks like a step in the right direction.

Hell, I even liked Halo Wars. It's definitely one of the best console RTSes (not that that's saying much), and like ODST it has a wonderful soundtrack.

If anything, the first game being so revolutionary and none of the games after that being offensively bad puts it at least above average.

 

[Westaway]

First three are all pretty good. I really love Halo 3. Halo Reach is just really bad.
Halo 4 looks just terrible, and I honestly get grumpy whenever I hear it mentiond.

 

[afroebob]

I find it to be a fantastic series. I'm actually kind of glad that Bungie sold it to Microsoft (hear me out) because Bungie seems like they ran their creative course with the series and now they need to move on. Now, whether or not 343 is going to do a good job is a different story, but I'm betting its going to be more good than it is bad.

 

[Ravinoff]

My opinion basically comes down to one simple statement: great lore, bad games. The background and universe of the Halo series is great (the terribly-written books notwithstanding). But I could never get into the gameplay, especially that bloody off-center crosshair.

 

[Ophiuchus]

Halo 3 was recommended to me as a nice smooth re-introduction to FPS after I stopped playing them 'round about the N64 era. I picked it up along with a random example of the 'realistic military shooter', got completely stuck on a campaign fairly early in the game and gave it up along with the whole idea of getting back into the genre. So no opinion really, but that's down to my own incompetence rather than anything wrong with the series.

 

[Windcaler]

One of the things Ive always really disliked about Halo is how reliant the story is on the books. I havnt read them myself but Ive been told the books really characterize Master chief well but hes hardly characterized at all in the games. Thats created a character that I really dislike in the games and paradoxically it makes it so I dont care enough about Halo to pick up the books. To me master chief is a violent adreneline junky with no discipline who has no place standing next to "real" soldiers. As an ex-soldier thats something that I really really really hate so the very character presence harms my experience in the game

That said, I like the setting. In a lot of ways its very unique but in others its far to formulaic. Overall it creates something thats different but just familiar enough to enjoy. Still my experience is harmed by the protagonist and thus the whole games turn into something I really dont care for.

Although I also need to mention that from a hardware perspective I have a hard time playing the game because Im so used to mouse and keyboard fir FPS games. Controllers just dont feel nearly as predictable or accurate to me. Its kind of like if you're used to driving a car down a 10 mile route and then are forced to drive a semi down the same route. Its doable but unfamiliar. This isnt really the games fault but it does play a part in how much I can enjoy the experience

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I've never played any of the games, so on principle, I'm not going to express an opinion. Because it'll probably be dismantled by someone who has actually played the games.

But it does look more or less like one of those games who has the mechanics tight and decided and is really just upgrading graphics. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Damn, I couldn't resist...