Quote: "And Halo is good because it's a scifi shooter that works and is light enough in style that most people can enjoy it. It's epic enough that you feel like a hero player it, and you don't have to worry so much about your health, giving it an arcade feel where it doesn't matter if you die so much. Also, it has a ringworld, which is cool."
I've often found it quite amusing that people have said the Halo-Series are the best ever game (or FPS whatever...
)
Simply because there are better FPS games out there.
Thing of it is though, is every one I've played over the years; which is an absolute crap-load as I like my FPS games.. is that they all seem to really excel in one particular area.
Halo on the other hand really doesn't focus on anything in particular, which to a few people might come off that it's bland and adverage; but here'in lies the beauty of the masterpiece that Bungie has made.
Does Halo have the best story ever? No
Does Halo have the best single player experience? No
Does Halo have the best graphics? No
Does Halo have the best controls? No
Does Halo have the most varied gameplay? No
Does Halo have... etc.. etc...
The thing is, if you ask if it's the worst the answer again is no for everything.
In-fact something you could answer every game aspect with is that it works how you expect it to. Halo has some of the best game balancing I've ever had the fortune to experience.
There is a deep storyline, but it doesn't go off on it's own tangent for years on end trying to explain every little detail; but it does give you enough to make you want to play on and see what happens. Quite in-genious really, because it's like a constant teaser trailer making you want to push forward... however it doesn't over-shadow the actual game itself. It doesn't distract you away from the fact that at the end of the day it's an FPS and the key element of FPS is that you get to shoot lots of things.
Part of the charm of the storyline and enemies in Halo is that it is very obvious who is "Evil", and the fact that you're playing as the underdogs (either as the Master Chief or Arbator) the fact is you're always playing the lone wolf underdog of a given situation trying to blast your way to your objective of basically staying alive enough to help save your own people.
As the series has gone on, the story has become deeper and deeper; with the last part quite frankly answering a few questions but leaving so many many many more unanswered.
Something that is amazing though is the gameplay of what happens between the story that is outline to make you want to progress through each ~30minute section of gameplay itself. The controls are that which are basically so simple that you can pick them up and within a couple of minutes it's obvious what does what without any need for tutorials.
Anyone remember Grand Theft Auto 4? You remember how over half the game (which btw can last for between 20-50hours depending on how side-tracked you get) are basically tutorials on how it works.
What makes that game worse is that the controls at times are sluggish, unresponsive and often a pain to actually play outside of a vehicle. While sure you can say "well GTA is about the vehicles" the fact is that it is a perfect example of a game throwing in an aspect because people expect it but obviously not being focused on enough.
Halo however doesn't suffer from this. Driving, Shooting, or just running around Stealth Killing everything in sight. The game is just so smooth at everything it does that you forget about what unresponsive difficult to control aspects are and can just enjoy the games' mechanics of blowing crap up. While sure it doesn't really bring anything particularly new to the table, once you learn the basics which take a couple of minutes; quite simply it's just a case of everything becoming second nature to get good at it.
Weaponry, Enemies, and Vehicles are all very very well balanced. Although sure everyone ends up with their favourites, that end up more down to personal taste and gameplay style than anything being unbalanced in any way.
What I feel is truely amazing is that this all translates between the multiplayer and single player aspects of the game seemlessly.
It's not a case of a Single Player game with some Multiplayer taked on because someone up-stairs felt it was necessary because everyone is connected to the internet... or a Multiplayer game with weak Single Player because they feel they needed to add something for the hopeless shut-ins and loners.
Both aspects of the game work doing the same thing absolutely amazingly. Half-Life for example has always been a great single player game.. but online it feels quite lack-luster. Conversely Unreal Tournament is a great online game, but off-line it feels like someone spent the afternoon at a Starbucks trying to find a way to make people feel a bit better they don't have friends.
Halo that just isn't the case!
With that, we come to the actual online aspects. This is where the game really did shine and make break-throughs.. while those who've only played it on the Xbox 360 will be used to having a truely social aspect as-standard. Those on the Playstation 3 will know that it's only a few titles (well until recent XMB updates) that really supported Voice, Messages, etc..
Halo and Halo 2 are basically the social aspects of Xbox Live we've all come to now take for granted. TruSkill, Messaging, In-Game Voice, Partying, Clans, Inviting to Games, etc...
This all began in these games, and in Halo 3 once again they've expanded to show what socialising online can really offer. As you can share maps, gametypes, movies and screenshots with friends; as well as being able to checkout your friends profiles and statistics.
Online this game is extremely social, and you'd think they would've ignored that for offline; but the social aspect has always expanded to getting a few mates around for multiplayer on the same console or co-operative story play. You can even take people you have on the same machine and play online with them without any graphical changes (coughtomclancygamescough)
As I said in one of my first posts, what is so great about the Halo-series isn't that it has feature X which is great. It's that all of the features, from graphics to level design; are all done in such a balanced way that while it'll never really win many awards for innovations or "greatest at.." awards. It will always be a game you can keep going back to because it is quite frankly enjoyable to play.
At the end of the day, the players enjoyment is paramount.
If you're going to focus on one aspect of the game, sure do that... but don't neglect other features simply for the games party peice.
That's the key to Bungies success with Halo.
Make sure the game is enjoyable, balanced, responsive and easy to use without looking in a manual (which honestly how many here do that until they truely get stuck?) ... and you've got a winner.
Alright so that was one of my trademark epic posts, but hey probably not gonna post again for another six months.
