orannis62 said:
muffincakes said:
Anyway, the first Halo was innovative because it was pretty much the first console game with online multiplayer that was easy to use and fun to play. It also introduced the "sissy shield" ie. hide in a corner to get all better. I suppose that some find that as an innovative addition as well. Other than that, Halo was your average FPS.
Thing is, the regenerating health actually made sense in the first one, because your health didn't regenerate: your shields did, and health was a separate meter. All other shooters with any kind of regen health took away the separate meters though, including Halos 2 and 3.
That's true, but the health bar was not necessarily a bad thing. It added another small layer of depth and tactical thinking; when your health was low, you wouldn't be able to easily rush a large group of enemies or a base; you would try and keep your shields from depleting, and take less risks, as once they were gone you would be dead very quickly, which simply isn't the case anymore. Health was also a risk when falling. The shields were there to protect the health, which was static, not to protect another weak recharging shield.
Another thing I'd like to point out is the environment; it may have been great back then, but the real meat is in its direction. The developers created the game so that it had as few dead ends as humanly possible, and tried their damndest to make sure the player never got lost. Even in The Library, you had the glowing blue flying ball to keep you on the right track. In most other FPS games I played at the time, I got lost several times, and quite often in Timesplitters.
Vehicles have been covered, so I'll leave that.
The weapons; They may seem simple enough at first glance, but looks can be deceiving. In Halo: CE, every weapon had its place, with the exception of the Pistol, which brought the game so much WIN. The Assault Rifle was good for taking out health fast at medium-close range; the Pistol was great for headshots and medium-long range fighting; the Shotgun was a devastating close-range weapon, that could still do damage at medium range; The Sniper Rifle was effective and had a few nice bells, i.e.range & elevation-finders; the Rocket Launcher was a powerful anti-tank weapon, as most are, but it also had the bonus of having a good area effect. The Plasma Rifle was a
rifle that ravaged shields; The Plasma Pistol was a basic infantry gun, that had a secondary option of charging to remove all shields from the target; The Needler could cause a massive explosion when enough poked a target, but was also guided, ignited fallen grenades, and prevented shields from recharging; The Fuel Rod Cannon was the enemy heavy weapon, but had a drop-failsafe that caused it to explode so the player wouldn't pick it up; The Energy Sword also had a less explosive failsafe, but was a devastating close-range weapon that caused players to focus on it before they died. The grenades were even honed as well; Frag Grenades had a large area effect, and "shoved" the players a bit; Plasma Grenades were fairly short-range, but stuck to players and vehicles, and had a delayed explosion; both these grenades could be ignited on the ground, causing huge chain reactions. And yet, somehow, they managed to balance all of these weapons so that every weapon had a niche, and no weapon would allow the player to dominate in every area. This is what is truly innovative about the weapons.
Fall damage; while not necessarily original, it caused the player to be temporarily frozen after a fall, as an additional consequence.
I don't necessarily mean to be a fanboy here, but I do like to be precise and thorough. There's still likely stuff I've missed, though.
Decoy Doctorpus said:
W
4: The rechargo-shield.
Regenerating health, although not perfect, is a step forward for shooters in my opinion. Life bar based shooters always reward defensive play and punish aggression because of the constant threat of being crippled by a lucky enemy. Regenerating health or shields, providing the timing is right, allows a player to move into advantageous positions, wait a moment, then attack. This encourages a more tactical approach that takes the terrain into account rather than simply testing the player's reflexes.
I have to disagree here. The shields do recharge yes, but offensive behaviour is only punished if the player rushes into a group full of enemies, or charges a sniper across a map. I still play online, and you
have to be aggressive, or you just get rolled over. Being defensive
in small plays works wonders, i.e. laying a grenade at on a hill just as the enemy is about to walk over the top. Being constantly defensive just makes the game longer, and less fun.
