Halo: Overrated?

[Koenig]

Watching Spike TV today, they did a whole show on Halo 3 and the Halo franchise and how awesome it was. Now, we all know that Halo has a huuuuge following and has sold tons of Xbox's by itself. However, I've never been a huge fan myself. I've played 1 and 2, and the single player for each were 'meh'. Nothing too ground-breaking, the single player for HL/HL2 blew it out of the water. For sure the main reason why people play Halo is because of multiplayer. But having grown up playing CS, UT, and recently TF2, I can't say that the multiplayer in Halo is better than those games. I DID have a cracking good time playing 4 player Halo while in college with housemates.....but tbh, we could've been playing any game and still have had a good time.

So the question is: Is Halo overrated or does it deserve the hype/praise?

[powah]

Wasn't it a revolution in terms of FPS's? Just guessing...

[jetsetter]

Halo is not overrated, it just kicks ass.

[Koenig]

Originally Posted by powerof1000

Wasn't it a revolution in terms of FPS's? Just guessing...

What revolution are you speaking of? Because I sure as hell didn't notice any....

[cvrefugee]

Goldeneye for the N64 was way better than Halo, but then again I'm too old for this shit.

[Vltros]

Definetly YES!!!

Anyone who has played many FPs's in all platforms (PC & Consoles) knows that there are better games than HALO. I've got HALO 1 for PC and it will never be a match for a Half Life 2, Far Cry (PC) DOOM3 etc. And I'm saying that having in mind the whole HALO saga.

Yes!! It 's a good & entertaining FPS but it's not the best.
The whole hype it's due to the Multiplayer which leaves the franchise and the story arc of HALO as an excuse to make a multiplayer game.

Anyway, all I said it's IMHO.

[Buba]

Well, dunno... I didn't get all of the story, because I didn't finish Part 1, didn't play 2 and 3 was a bit confusing then. Gameplay was great, though.
Not as good as CoD4 or Ep2, though!

[swek]

If you ask me the Halo games are overrated. I played every single one of them and I can't remember any of the story. It's just average sci-fi filler material which wouldn't even make your sub-par cable show. Storywise it's a no show. It's okay for a shooter I suppose but it makes for some strange "Who is that guy and why am I helping him again?" moments.

Next up we have graphics. The first one looked pretty good with bump mapping which back then was not all that common. Plus it had those vast outside scenarios with vehicles which brought something new to the table.
The last installment, while keeping it consistent lookwise was a major disappointment. As a singleplayer enthusiast I don't care about your game recorder. I take state of the art over that anyday.

What really annoyed me though is the repetitive nature of the leveldesign. I have no idea how anyone could have fun clearing the same corridor the 1000th time.

If there's one word that describes Halo it's "repetition".

Why do pople treat it like the holy grail of gaming? I have no idea.

[YF19pilot]

Well, Halo has a bit of a following and is held in high regaurds because it was the XBox's killer app. Its what really got the two ton black box from looking like a total loss to a system that was worth something. Also, it really didn't have much in the way of competition on the original 'box. Now with developers jumping ship from PS3 exclusives, we do get to see it stacked up against other games.

I kinda liked the story myself, and always get a kick out of multiplayer. Is it the best? No, I always liked Soldier of Fortune II the best, but there are a group of people who only play consoles.

Halo 3 isn't revolutionary, and probably isn't suppose to be. Its just the final installment in a story they could've put into a book, but then most fans wouldn't bother with it. And it's still bloody good fun.

[KaJuN]

Originally Posted by swek

What really annoyed me though is the repetitive nature of the leveldesign. I have no idea how anyone could have fun clearing the same corridor the 1000th time.

If there's one word that describes Halo it's "repetition".

Why do pople treat it like the holy grail of gaming? I have no idea.

I totally agree. The repetitive levels make single player sooooooo boring. And I really don't see why so many people are hyped up about the multiplayer. Whenever I play it with friends I just end up getting pissed off and yelling at them. I can shoot someone with three blasts from the shotgun at basically point blank range and he turns around and hits me once with his gun and I'm dead. WTF?!?!? The regenerating healh thing just pisses me off even more because instead of being very nearly dead from my shotgunning the guy is back to full health by the time I get to him again. Yeah that's fair. Whenever someone picks up that gay powersword I just lay my controller down until they lose it. There's no point in trying when that weapon makes whoever has it virtually invincible.

I always had wayyyyyy more fun playing Day of Defeat or Call of Duty online. Even the old days of Quake and Unreal were way better than Gaylo has proven to be.

[Narcolepsy]

Its really about the first Halo, it was the best of its time, keep in mind it was 2001. It was up against things like Red Faction and return to wolfenstien, Max Payne, and the original GTA3. COD4, DOOM3, Half-Life2, none of that was around yet. The original was the key player that managed to get enough of loyalty to spark a franchise. I'm sure now that plenty of other FPS's are on the same level, and the Halo sequals weren't the same step forward the first was.

Regarding the original: I didn't find it really revolutionary in any way. But some how, the way they did lighting and textures and music created a sense of ambience other FPS's didn't, and rooms were exceptionally well designed to not seem like typical FPS rooms, not all blocky and constraining. Likewise, frame rate was a priority, so its pretty much always smooth. The engine for vehicle explosions was the best I had ever seen at the time too.

But I think the main thing that made Halo great was the easiness of the controls. They were really user friendly and balanced in a way that made it easier to aim and control. Most games have a couple "what were they thinking" little idiosyncracies, but in Halo they had beta tested enough to get them out. Other console FPS's are really awkward and cumbersome, you are always trying to get your bearings, where in Halo you're not.

Also the game content was nice and easy. I own Killzone, where kills are frustratingly hard to get, whereas in Halo the hit boxes are much more forgiving and slow enemy fire is avoidable.

Someone actually bothered putting some decent thought into things like the plot and music. Halo didn't do anything special or revolutionary - it just did everything RIGHT, it was gratifying, involving, and more accessible to more people than past FPSs. Sequals managed to keep that momentum going and preserve the qualities of the original. /Rant

PS: Its also the what kept the original Xbox above water - so Microsoft has been advertising the sh*t out of it, they are doing everything humanly possible to generate hype.

[Koenig]

^
I do agree with some of your points. Halo DID do a lot of things right, but it did things right for the console. It was the first FPS since Goldeneye for the console that didn't leave people shaking their heads. But therein lies the problem......FPS games play better on PCs and will always play better on PCs. I just never understood why people would play a shooter on a console and use a gamepad. What Halo did do, was they opened up the FPS genre to all the console gamers who have never touched a PC FPS before.

[DLT]

Yes it is overrated. I played it with my friend and I just can`t grasp what`s the hype about, I had 0 fun playing that game...But then again, I`m not that big of a fan of Sci-Fi based FPS games. Just my opinion.

[lilblackdemon]

Halo is not overrated.

I say this as a jaded PC gamer, and for several good reasons.

1) Halo is the first game to really get the controls right on a console. It sounds like a minor thing, and other control schemes were good (Goldeneye), but the fact that Halo nailed it was a big boon to console FPSs everywhere.

2) Halo got the gameplay right, even if it didn't expand it. Half-Life and Unreal Tournament keep pushing the gameplay to expand and evolve, but Halo simply takes what they already did and perfect it. Halo is all about the perfect 10 seconds, done over and over and over again. Each iteration should give you something new, and it usually does.

Any game that manages these two points should easily fall within the top 10% of games, and Halo definitely does.

Halo: not the best, but damn good for what it is.

[Susurrate]

If you shoot a guy 3 times with a shotgun and he doesn't die, you're not doing it right.

[Buba]

Originally Posted by lilblackdemon

Halo is the first game to really get the controls right on a console. It sounds like a minor thing, and other control schemes were good (Goldeneye), but the fact that Halo nailed it was a big boon to console FPSs everywhere.

He has a point there (+1, btw)

Anywayz, I have to add, that I played any enormous amount of Halo1 MP on LANs. Only Blood Gulch, though, the ONLY map that was fun...

[watisdis]

Originally Posted by lilblackdemon

Halo is not overrated.

I say this as a jaded PC gamer, and for several good reasons.

1) Halo is the first game to really get the controls right on a console. It sounds like a minor thing, and other control schemes were good (Goldeneye), but the fact that Halo nailed it was a big boon to console FPSs everywhere.

2) Halo got the gameplay right, even if it didn't expand it. Half-Life and Unreal Tournament keep pushing the gameplay to expand and evolve, but Halo simply takes what they already did and perfect it. Halo is all about the perfect 10 seconds, done over and over and over again. Each iteration should give you something new, and it usually does.

Any game that manages these two points should easily fall within the top 10% of games, and Halo definitely does.

Halo: not the best, but damn good for what it is.

x2 To be a Halo fan, you need to have started playing Halo 1 before any of the aforementioned "hype" occured. Halo's "hype' only concerns the console gaming world to begin with, and as such, everyone comparing it to PC fps classics is way off base. There is a reason thousands bought an xbox just because of this game (myself included). You see when I first played Halo 1 (way back in 2001), there was no hype about it. My brother had it, I played it and got hooked. Simple as that. When I played it, I had no idea that it would become the franchise it is today. Some of you guys seem to have played it only after it had become hyped up and popular. Therefore your perceptions and expectations where ultimetly altered because of it. No, you can't please everyone (as is apparent in this thread), but Halo seems to have hit on a certain combination that many gamers found enjoyable. And that, is as good as any videogame can hope to accomplish.

[Koenig]

^^
Again, you bring up some good points. Some people seem to live their lives to hate things that are "hyped". When I first played Halo, it was at my friend's place (he bought it when it first came out). I had vaguely heard of Halo, so I didn't really have any expectations going into it, other than that it was made by Bungie. But having played Half Life before it, how can I not compare the two? Both are story-driven sci-fi shooters that prides itself on strong gameplay, and frankly, I found Halo to be lacking. Then all of this hype started, and I never really understood why.

[ViperVX]

Reasons Halo is so popular on consoles:
1)Controls that don't kill action in any way and are very easy to learn/play.
2)Very interesting & thrilling multiplayer mode with achievment system.
3)Standart fps stuff, interesting weapons, storyline, beautiful video cutscenes etc.

The only reason ppl brag about Halo (as well as other extremely popular console games) being a PR-ed peice of crap, is, that it's a pure concole game, ported on PC by accident or by some1's weak mind. So a big bunch of PC gamers installed it & didn't understand, what millions of HALO fans were on about for the last 6 years. It doesn't look very modern now, neither it did in 2001. It has standart FPS controls, standart multiplayer features & it's kinda arcadish. It lacks realism and a bunch of standart PC FPS features, like a proper menu, & quicksaves.

My [offtop] point is:

Almost NONE of the console-exclusive games (to which i inclide HALO, cause PC port is awful) do well on PC. Even such hits as Halo (again) & Gears of War can score 70-80/100 on PC level.

Let me simply put it this way, Console is like Lotus Elise, cheap, good lookin' quick car, & very fun to drive, but not very practicle. You buy it, you can do track day stuff with it, have lotsa fun, but you neither can do boring every-day shopping-kids-school-work stuff, nor you could do serious racing.

PC on the other hand is like fully adjustable car. If you put some cash in it, add a lil bit of talent & brains (most important), it turns into the F1 car & a practicle family car & everything you can possibly want at the same time.

That's why console exclusives (ported to PC) will always look kinda middle-class'ish on PC, & that's why PC exclusives of the moment (MMORPG games, Strategies, newest GFX-oriented games) will look silly & won't deliver as much on console, as they would on PC, and there are hundreds of examples.

The only All platform 100% succesful games i can think of are GTA 3 & GTA VC (not SA) and that's about it, really. I suppose all-platform sports games kinda work too, but that's very very questionable.

I am very happy, that nowadays, lotsa game-developpin companies understood that, finaly. That's why the newest PES2008 football game is the same on all the platforms (but also rubbish). That's why the newly formed Activion Blizzard stated, that Blizzard will contonue to work on PC-only games with no intervention from Activision (or any of it's sub companies) in any way, so they will stick to what they all are good at.

[Kip_6666]

Ah, i think we need this review in this thread, the normal site seems down.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/clips/zero-...o-3-306687.php