Reasons why I love Halo
1. Sense of Team - I think Halo does team gameplay better than any other shooter on the market to date. There are a number of reasons this could be, but at the end of the day, I've never felt more on a team in Halo games. Even the original one. Free-for-fall games and team slayer games felt intrinsically different. The COD series all feel so jumbled and busy. That's not always a bad thing, but when everyplayer is fighting for their own selfish kills, so they can get their own selfish killstreaks, the "team" that wins is the team who had the best players, not the team that worked together. We usually played objective based games in the older Halo's anyways, but even the most chaotic fight out there still had a sense of cooperation for me.
2. Objectives - I'll openly admit that I haven't given the objective playlists in COD a fair shake like I have with Halo, but my experience with them has been miserable. It seems like all the objective stuff in COD has to do with bringing something someplace AND killing the other team. It's that big AND that frustrates me. The objective isn't the only goal, which distracts from the point of an objective gametype. Domination, if it can be called an objective gametype, is probably the closest fit out there, but I think it's because everything happens so fast and close together, the objective is barely noticeable.
Halo, on the other hand, rewards players with a strong focus on the objective. A player is rewarded with communication and teamwork. Counter to COD, killing isn't always the best option. Letting the enemy attack your base for a while could allow some sneaky guys to get in and get the flag unopposed. I'm sure that COD could be played with that level of coordination, but the general feeling and aesthetic aren't nearly as conducive to it.
3. Films/Photos - Hey, look what COD took from Halo! Obviously, both games now have a film and and photo mode, but I'm gonna go on a fanboy limb and say that Halo's is overall better (and if any of my reasons are wrong, do correct me). Halo's has a vertical navigation that makes capturing that perfect angle easier than ever before. Halo automatically tags photos of you that are connected to your gamertag, which makes it fun (and sometimes humiliating) to take photos and post them online. Bungie.net support allows the players to come in and download high res versions of their photos for personal use. The only thing COD has is the ability to string clips together with a crude editing system, a function that is cool in and of itself, but frustrating as all get out to use with their other tools.
4. Map/Game Editor - This one might not be the biggest selling point for some, but the level of control Bungie has released to the player in their map editor is disturbing. They've blessed the player with a fantastic selection of items to use, reached out to the fans of older halo games and included full set pieces to recreate favored structures and maps, and given the game editing tools to change how gametypes work on the players own terms. I sometimes wish I was more deeply involved in the custom game community due to all the possibilities. I'll post photos of my own map, and maybe videos of it in gameplay sometime.
The map editor also allows bungie to rexamine their game all the time, and not have to release full patches of the game - removing or moving items and weapons, changing gametype set-ups, and anything else they need to do, is all updated through the playlists, not the software (in other words, due to it being integrated into the game, no one needs to download additional elements or information since it's already there!) This leads to my next point...
5. Post Launch Support - I can't think of a game studio who gives more post launch support than Bungie. Additional maps (both free and of value), new gametypes, new playlists, an array of challenges to always be looking for. Maybe Epic Studios, but do all those updates and game fixes really count?
6. Character Creation - Another one that probably isn't the biggest deal, but as a dabbler of game philosophy, I really appreciate it. I think it's amazing how people can interact in a digital world. Lead Salad's facebook has recently posted photos of me - well, it's Halo me, but anyone who plays with me knows that there is no difference - that is me, avatar or not. When he and I or anyone else interact in this virtual world, it's us. (Even without the pretentious reasons, it's really fun to customize your guy and make him cool to your own liking).
7. Well-rounded - I won't bother listing everything here, but Halo is really well-rounded too. You could have that game for a few weeks, and besides everything being shooting based gameplay, you could play a different style of game, with a different goal and objective every day. Where's the coop campaign Black Ops?
Things I don't like so much (to be fair)...
- Grenades work like stink bombs, causing not much more of an irritation to the enemy.
- Armor lock - I won't even bother... actually, most of the armor abilities big me, but that's just a big one. Hopelessly broken...
- No ranking system for matchmaking - The leveling up system has nothing to do with player skill or ability, so sometimes the matchups online feel unfair. Fortunately the times it feels unfair are generally balanced out with times it feels unfair in your favor. (and anyone playing a sysmetrical CTF games against my brother and me will always feel like they got robbed!)
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Feel free to respond... or just read it... or don't. I felt like writing something and this one's been on my mind due to a conversation I had with a buddy from my church. Heck, I still play COD - Black Ops is (statistically speaking) the COD game I've been the best at so far. And nothing is as smooth as COD on the consoles control wise. That still won't keep me from loving Halo. Peace, brothers.
Good read for sure and I agree that Bungie did a LOT first and best with Halo on the console. Making a shooter that controlled great. Regenerating health is another mainstay in almost every FPS to this day. Forge and the video makers and all that jazz are still awesome and put just about everything else on the consoles to shame.
ReplyDeleteMy problem with every Halo since the original is they tried to cater too much to the more casual gamer. I remember when we used to talk "my first shooter" stuff, but really I don't think that's a bad thing. I mean Halo is pretty similar to Quake 3 arena (one of the most loved shooters of all time) it's just much slower and methodical. Being simple doesn't make it bad. Unreal Championship 2 was a very difficult game to master and it was a phenomenal game that rewarded hard work and practice. Rebounding a sniper shot with your melee weapon and scoring a headshot is still the most rewarding thing I've ever seen in a shooter.
I do think Halo is good, but it hasn't changed with the times and don't forget that Halo took stuff from CoD. Ranking up and loadouts of armor and unlocking things were all CoD. They threw away their leveling system for Halo 3 that was more fair for the CoD style.
Halo is still very slow and almost all the weapons feel like rubberband guns IMHO.
For team shooters Battlefield reigns supreme. I've said it a ton, but brjahu and I played the hell out of Battlefield 2 way before any of you guys ever got a 360. Bad Company 1 and 2 were both superior as well in my opinion as far as class based teamwork goes.
It all boils down to opinion and you have good points, but personally I checked out of Halo a long time ago. Also, if I took all the shooters I've played over my entire life I still have been more pissed at Halo than any of them combined. The MOST "Holy shit how is that guy not dead?!" and "How the hell did he kill me?!" moments ever.
I'm looking forward to Killzone 3 and giving that a go and getting into the mp early on and not jumping in a year and a half late and getting my poop pushed in.
P.S. I'm not really in strong defense of CoD either. I traded off Black Ops many weeks ago. I leveled up enough to unlock the Commando and I seriously never played again....goes to show how addictive unlocking is.
Yeah, I gotta say it's Battlefield for me. And I would say CoD then Halo both took the leveling up (ranking up) and unlock system from Battlefield 2... but then someone else can find another game much ealier (any RPG) where that idea came from.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, Black Ops is decent and I've put a good 68 hours into it. And with all my clan guys talking on vent, it can be pretty team-based. I prefer the objective gameplays over team deathmatch or FFA any day.
But the Battlefield series is where it's at for teamplay. I don't know how the newer Halos stacked up, as I only tried the mp on the first one and it was very unoriginal, I guess is the word. But that was on PC which had seen much better shooter games on it (I understand the significance of the first one on consoles and what it brought to the console community). But yeah, the Battlefield series is ALL teamplay. If you are the top scoring kill them all terminator on your team but the rest of your team sucks, you lose. One guy can't carry the team the way they can (potentially) in CoD.
Both shooters have their strengths and I am not bashing Halo so don't take this the wrong way. Just familiar with CoD and BF and BF rules.
3 anyone? GONNA BE AWESOME!!!!
Sorry, I should point out that I've played Halo 3 but it's only been local, not online. I have no idea what Reach is like. I was never good at Halo 3. The controls always did feel... lose. Maybe it was because I am so used to aiming down the sites now that not being able to felt... weird. :S
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I didn't even factor BF into the equation with most of these points. I do prefer the BF style class based system of loadouts to the COD anything-goes style loadout.
ReplyDeleteI never really felt like I got the hang of BF. I always felt like I was dying quicker than everyone else, or my guns were a few seconds behind. Maybe that's the lack of the hit markers when you take a guy down, or something else working there.
My favorite stuff in my time in BF was the vehicles, specifically the destruction of them. I remember the first time I C4-ed a helicopter before it took off, and detonated it a half mile away as it was beginning to reign fire down upon my teammates... epic.
Haha, yeah, BF has some great moments. BF is a different paced shooter and doesn't work for some people. Some prefer the speed of Halo or CoD. When I first picked up BF2, I was a noob. It was my first online mp game that I really played and I SUCKED! I remember going 4/20 one game and earning a Purple Heart for having a K/D less than 1/4, haha! BF is really team-based too. I feel that I play better and have higher points AND higher K/D ratios when I have a great team behind me.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little late here, but I'd like to chime in anyway. Obviously I'm in agreement for the most part (due to the amount of time I put into Halo 3 and Reach so far). I don't know if I'd ever thought about it in so much detail. The reason I prefer the games is simply the fact that I'm consistently better at them than any other shooter out there.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to just go into a bit more detail with the gripes, though.
-Grenades do pretty much suck. If you don't get them DIRECTLY under a guy's feet, it's not going to do to much. It's a silly thing to complain about, but it just seems to me that I take heavy damage from grenades while opposing players so often just run right through mine unfazed. I guess I just need to learn to place them better.
-I've come to terms with all of the armor abilities except Armor Lock. Losing mobility is NOT enough of a downside, considering that Armor Lock: makes you invincible (cannot be hit by gunfire, grenades or splattered by vehicles), lets out an EMP blast that removes other player's shields or overcharges vehicles,
allows you to recharge your shield completely if it's drained, allows you to change the direction you're facing. I fully believe it's a crutch that shitty players lean on to save them and I CANNOT believe Bungie kept it in the game after the Multiplayer Beta.
-I've also come to terms with all weapons except the sword and the hammer. It's just my opinion that they do not belong in a shooter.
-Finally, this last gripe is more to do with the community playing the game and not the game itself. Myself, Amateria, his brother and various other friends have been playing a lot of the "Big Team Battle" playlist lately and often people will vote for a Capture the Flag game, which in itself is fine. What is NOT fine, however, is when people just continue to "play" Slayer/Deathmatch in a CTF game. What I mean by that is they'll just go for kills the entire match and not make any attempt at the objective. Often, we will win the game and every person on our team will have a negative K/D spread. THEN, we'll ask the other team "how that beating felt" or something along those lines, and they'll just say, "My K/D was positive, I was +20." Our response is simple: "You LOST the game. If you want to go for kills, go play Team Slayer or SWAT or Snipers." People suck.
In closing, I'm still having fun with the game. Like any other shooter, there are good days where I'll do great and our team racks up the wins, and there are bad days when I can't seem to do anything well and we lose a ton. I really enjoyed the DLC and will continue to purchase if they keep giving us new stuff. I'm not such a big fan of paying for remakes of old maps, just cause I'd rather see new stuff. Over and out.