Before There Was Halo

[lukemdizzle]

Ive always had a theory that if halo had come out as a PC exclusive it would not get near the amount of hate that it does but it also wouldn't be nearly as successful. I do understand why people who are use to PC shooters would dislike halo as it broke allot of pc shooter conventions. all around good article.

ps. I would always recommend playing halo on console. I have both halo pc and for the xbox and the xbox version is much much smoother and controls better

 

[Tsaba]

Halo pretty much defined the current economics of this consle generation, the FPS is king! I will say I prefer Halo to CoD, mainly because Halo is more interesting than CoD and I can actually do something other than get sniped and killed by campers.

What are you babbling about? Defined what? Halo established the xbox as a gaming platform with a good game, I can recall several times where when I asked someone, why should I get an xbox their only real reason was to get it for Halo. Halo I do admit was a fun game that I had a blast doing LAN parties with, but, I wouldn't say it's the FPS king, and if anything, it lowered the gaming standard with regenerating shields and now health too. If anything Counter Strike is the predecessor of current realistic shooters, PS and Xbox just opened the door for the now popular use of the current controller scheme.

 

[Turtleboy1017]

The only good thing Halo brought was Red Vs Blue. The FPS genre was evolving anyway and it has swung way too far to the "Brown Realistic Multiplayer First" side of things. if that was because of Halo, it certainly did not change shooters for the better. Its just the case of the biggest thing at the time taking credit for the overall evolution of a genre that had begun before it came out.

This is the first time EVER that iv seen someone call HALO brown and realistic.

The main character is green and gold, the side kick is blue, the enemies are mostly purple and blue, while some are orange.

Most of the maps in Halo CE is either inside blue spaceships, in grassy landscapes or in snow.

And for the realistic... Do I really need to rant about that?

ok we'll go slow here, keep up.
Shamus said that Halo LED US to where shooters are today. I SAID that TODAY, we are stuck with a bunch of, as Yahtzee put it, a bunch of shooters that are ultra-relaistic (ha) Brown hazy shooters. So, Halo LED US to the modern brown hazy shooters. I did not SAY Halo was a brown realistic shooter. I said that Halo LED US HERE. That was Shamus's point, that Halo is responsible for the modern age of shooters. I was saying that is not a good thing. If you cannot understand my point now, I cannot help you.

I'm sorry... please clarify on how Halo led all current day shooters to be browinsh and gray? I really don't get your argument. You stated yourself that it wasn't brown and gritty, and then go on to say that it led us to becoming brown and gritty.

That's like saying I cook eggs with the yolks nice and soft, but I inspired the next generation to cook theirs hard and disgusting.

 

[DiscoAtThePanic]

What I hate is, I have done target shooting all my life. Any Skeet-shooter will tell you its always harder to hit a target while you are moving than it is to hit a moving target.

 

[BobisOnlyBob]

Well, Shamus made the claim that Halo changed the genre. The brown hazy multiplayer realistic shooter is the state of the genre, what dominates it now. If Halo changed the genre, and this is where we ended up, Halo had to have had something to do with where we are now, IF Shamus is right. I am not sure he is. I am only pointing out that for his statement to be true, that also has to be true.

I believe you are making a faulty assumption. Shamus claims that Halo led to the modern console FPS. However, at no point in the article does he discuss aesthetic: he discusses controls and gameplay. At no point does he mention colour, grittiness, or realism. He doesn't particularly address story and narrative, either. Halo's controls and mechanics are the focus of the article, thus he claims that the controls and gameplay of Halo led to modern console FPS controls and gameplay. The brown-and-grey aesthetic that plagues modern shooters was likely inherited from elsewhere (I blame Quake and old WWII footage), as Halo is a rather bloom-heavy, purple-and-blue-and-yellow (main colours I remember, anyway!) science fiction shooter. It features lots of grassy green areas too: Halo's up there with the Kirby series for bright aesthetic. Halo did NOT lead to the modern aesthetic of shooters. To believe that, or to believe that Shamus is claiming that, is in error.

Halo LED TO one major aspect of modern shooters, the bit that you play, not the bit that you see.

What I hate is, I have done target shooting all my life. Any Skeet-shooter will tell you its always harder to hit a target while you are moving than it is to hit a moving target.

It's a fair point. The console paradigm for aiming and shooting pretty much requires you to take shots on the run, but the only decent alternative is a degree of auto-aiming, which gets vocal amounts of hatred. Forcing console games to require mouse-like precision is an exercise in futility and frustration.

 

[-|-]

I do like the regenerating shield/health system, since it lessens the importance of who shoots first.

Yes, when it's done well it's great. Halo got it right. The first resistance got it right. Very few other games manage it though and would be better off with a normal health system.

 

[Bitter_one13]

Dammit, I was actually just working on this whole essay in response to Moviebob/Game Overthinker on Halo itself.

 

[Outright Villainy]

Ah, never liked Halo. Somewhat Ironic that it's how I got into Pc shooters though, no? Although that's more by virtue of it just being the first pc game I bought, and I found out how awesome using the mouse was. And this was a stupidly old mouse with a roller ball. Ah good times. I always thought it was pretty bland though, and the feel of the guns or enemies never clicked with me; it had this weird disconnect for some reason. It's incredibly difficult to explain.

What is easy to explain is the Library.
Seriously, fuck that level! And the rest of the game from there on in fact, I absolutely loathed the swarm and everything to do with them.

Edit: I do like Halo's split screen multiplayer though, thought I'd point that out. Nothing beats a sword v shotgun match.

 

[SantoUno]

"Yes, it was GoldenEye that explored the frontier, but it was Halo that built the first city."

What does this even mean? GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, and a million other console FPS games were the actual innovators, and Halo just copy/pasted the concepts into a bigger game world? Whoop-dee-freaking-do.

Halo did nothing new except popularize the sci-fi space marine setting that we now can't get away from in any game. Yea, thanks a lot. I'd castrate every employee at Bungie if I could. Those people shouldn't breed.

And neither should you with that attitude.

OT: Even though I don't really enjoy Halo that much anymore, I will always cherish the awesomeness of the first Halo. It was a great game that brought much fun to my life back then when I got my XBOX.

 

[MrJohnson]

Well, if Shamus is right, and remember, we]

You could apply that same argument to Quake, DOOM, etc.
Halo changed things forever, but it's not at fault for all the brown "realism" in games.

I think it got that bad because of all these WWII shooters, it's just a guess though.

I agree, but tell Shamus. Its a process of evolution, and Halo is no more responsible for changing the genre than Modern Warfare 1 or Duke Nukem 3d

Look at a screenshot from Modern Warfare.

Look at a screenshot from any of the first person shooters that aren't Halo made after the original Modern Warfare.

Yep, definitely no one copying them or their mechanics their.

Actually, look at a screenshot from Call Of Duty 1.

Look at a screenshot from any shooter that's not sci-fi or made by Valve after that.

Dear LORD!

Actually, let's take a look at Quake and Doom.

Compare their color palletes and general gameplay and compare it to every shooter made after them.

Congratulations, you realized the shooter genre has always been the same, it just used to be you had to walk an extra five feet for a health pack instead of sitting behind a box.

 

[Vrex360]

It's nice to see at least one article about how Halo influenced the gaming world without just reducing to a:
"OH GOD BUNGIE RAPED THE VIRGIN GAME INDUSTRY WITH THE THROBBING PHALLUS OF MEDIOCRITY, OH WOE!!"
So yeah, just the fact that the author was able to be calm and constructive and actually say a few good and informal points in Halo's favor was a selling point to me. I also agree with a lot of his points, especially about the use of controllers in console games.

Anyway, it's nice to see something said that is positive, or at least not drowning in negatives, for once on the topic of Halo on this site.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I actually rented an XBox to play Halo way back in the day. While I wasn't at all pleased with the weapons balance (handguns should not be a better medium-range weapon than assault rifles!), and really hated some of the Flood sections and the copy-pasted indoors sections, I thought it was a competent shooter with excellent outdoors combat, a few nice twists (am I the only one who thought the limited-weapon inventory adds more tactical decision-making than the Magic Gun Rack?) and an entertaining, if not exactly deep or revolutionary, story.

I think my primary Halo-related problem has come from those whose first FPS experience was with that game, who therefore think that no other game can possibly compare with it in any area.

 

[Roboto]

Halo's shield was ground breaking. You could go a long way on one health bar, whereas with other shooters before then you'd have to just give up.

Tribes has the health kit and shield pack, to be fair. I say has since it is still played!

Sure that shield pack existed, but I always played in light or medium armor. That meant I favored mobility. That meant I never actually used the blasted thing. I never understood how people played the game using it since the moment you put the thing on you sacrificed the initiative.

Unlike Halo, it was a specialized use. Mods had it for medium and light armors (if it wasn't already stock, it slips me). Whereas you sacrifice some energy from jetpacks to protection, it could mean the difference between living or dying with the flag, when one extra shot would be all it took to kill. All I'm saying is they weren't so ground-breaking in Halo, as far as recharging shields go. Halo brings it to the mainstream though, which Tribes couldn't do as far as I know. Still, I think more games need jetpacks, and not those flimsy Halo Reach jetpacks either

 

[Elementlmage]

But if you watch someone play a console shooter you'll see the game is less about precision aiming and more about precision timing. Instead of trying to line someone up with the stick, a player will get close with the stick and then run sideways, pulling the trigger during that split-second when the enemy's head passes through the reticule. Instead of trying to mitigate this, Bungie embraced it and made the gameplay revolve around timing. You've got a shield that recharges at regular intervals. Foes that take cover and fire at intervals. Weapons with cooldowns. If you charge out into the open like the Doom Marine you're going to get blasted back to the Game Over screen faster than you can say Larry Niven. Moving in and out of cover is an exercise in timing your shield, weapon, and enemy movement patterns. This is what Halo fans are talking about when they say the game is "more tactical."

To be fair, Counter Strike beat Halo to every gameplay point you just made, other than vehicles. If you try to play a PC shooter using just twitch reflex you are shooting yourself in the foot. If you REALLY watch yourself play, you will notice yourself using a lot of what you dub "console tactics"

 

[strum4h]

I never really played halo until later. I started playing Counter strike in january 2001. I was sad they switched from computer exclusive to xbox because of microsoft.

 

[mjc0961]

I'm still trying to figure out what exactly Goldeneye did aside from being another mediocre entry in Rare's history of mediocre title after mediocre title. Actually, calling some of those games mediocre is being a bit too generous... But I digress.

I didn't like Halo all that much either. Despite of all the good things it did, one thing is for certain: The Library is one of the most awful levels I've ever played throughout years of gaming.

 

[Awexsome]

Taste is a objective thing so the divide between people who like and people who don't like Halo is strong.

The game itself is a great game but it was definetly different for back then and a lot of people resent that today. I was on the Gamecube for the most part for that console generation so I never got to experience much of Halo until later on in my years but I still go back to play Halo CE and 2 from time to time.

The number one reason behind this is Bungie. I can stand people who hate on Halo but people hating on Bungie are just dumbfucks.

They've always tried to take the whole genre into something completely new with each game save for ODST which was a change in atmosphere more than the game itself.

And any Valve fan will agree that community interaction and suppport goes a heck of a long way. It's unfortunate that Halo got the stereotyping that Xbox LIVE brings with it nowadays but it's core community at the heart of the franchise is as strong as any out there. The people in Reach who will make the forge maps, create the extreme gametypes and spread them through the community. Roosterteeth.

TL,DR version: Bungie is one of the best developers out there that goes the extra mile in creating great games and in community interaction. And have been rewarded with a loyal core fanbase that's surrrounded by the Xbox LIVE stereotype that muddles Halo's image.

 

[Agiel7]

I have to disagree on your opinions on the Library level. It was the second Halo level I ever played, and for me, playing it Co-op was playing Left 4 Dead six years before Left 4 Dead came out. There were those moments when you were waiting for the Spark to unlock the door which seemed like the crescendo events in L4D, and during those goings, I was shouting to my buddy (right next to me) while I frantically reloading my shotgun (which was a wonder-weapon back then) and shooting my pistol at the hordes of Flood, and the hordes would finally relent when we had a sliver of health.

Now Cortana in Halo 3... ho boy... I think it was those new ranged flood that completely killed fighting the flood for me in Halo 3.

 

[Necrofudge]

I liked the halo games but I think that the shield system paved the way for the immortality (in theory) that a player has in all these new shooters.

As long as you duck for cover and wait for the screen to stop being red, or the shield to recharge, or the big red gear in the middle of the screen to go away, you'd be fine. It made it so that getting a bullet in edgewise means nothing anymore. I honestly preferred health bars for the slight realism.