Before There Was Halo

[PunkRex]

Although I give them props for making the alterations and have to say if Halo does anything well its the vehicles, I cant give them that much credit. As you said Golden Eye was proberly the one that really refined that stlye and it lead on to far better games like Perfect Dark and my favourite game francise of all time TIMESPLITTERS!!!
But they did help FPS's move on from the online arena's they seemed trapped in so... yeah... I suppose.
Oh I also really like their trailers, there the reason I think a Halo movie may at least LOOK nice.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

I'm just glad it gave us regenerating health, I hate backtracking for some health pack I may or may not seen half an hour ago.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

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.

 

[DiscoAtThePanic]

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.

By your own admission, you've never even played Halo. How can you comment on it?

Never said I had not played it. Played Halo and the first sequel many times. I was never impressed by them or fond of them, other than my ability to butt-stroke hy partner on co-op mode in the back of the head, accidentally killhing him just before a big fight started, my first time playing Halo 2. Other than that, meh.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

Timesplitters 2 which was released the year after HALO by the Goldeneye team had MUCH better gameplay both in the single and the multiplayer.

The damn thing even came with a MAP EDITOR! Timesplitters 2 was 100x more fun than Halo ever was, it just didn't have the fratboy following that has been dumbing down gaming since 2001.

The co-op in Halo was good, I'll give it that, but so was the co-op in Timesplitters 2.

Regenerating shields is a gameplay retarding abomination. And the awesome "innovation" of only carrying 2 weapons at a time and taking forever to switch between them added a new level of tedium.

Also the combat in ME2 sucked. I seriously looked for a "skip combat and assume you win" mod. The "charge" and other biotic powers much ballyhood in the trailers was useless in 3/4 of the situations. The sniping was much better gameplay wise but turned every fight the exact same.

I intentionally didn't upgrade my sniper rifle until the very last fight just so it was somewhat of a challenge.

What exactly was wrong with the realtime pause system of Kotor that bioware had to muck it up with all this "action" crap?

The conversation system was brilliant however and I hope they keep it up in other games.

 

[tlozoot]

I think Halo gets far more flack than it deserves. "It's popular so I must bring it down a peg" mentality. I personally find it very fun, and like Bungie as a developer.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Well, it certainly was above other shooters of the time in terms of plot. The only other shooters with an actual plot outside of Halo on that pre-Halo era time were Half Life 1. And System Shock 2, iirc.

 

[civver]

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

 

[Rad Party God]

I was thinking almost the same thing about this article. Almost every game from a lot of genres owe a lot to Halo, like it or not.

I'm almost on a strict diet of PC Borderlands right now, playing with a fellow vault hunter, we're right now on Playthrough 2 and we're having a blast. Most mechanics that Borderlands uses were taken/inspired by Halo, the shield recharge (wich feels a bit old school Halo 1), the vehicle driving, although it's not as good as Halo, it certainly took it from Halo, the enemy AI wich I felt sometimes it belongs on a console shooter and more specifically, behaves a lot like Halo's AI. Even a lot of weapons feels a lot like were taken from Halo, especially the assault rifles and the SMGs.

Also, Halo was one of my first few FPS games I've ever played on a PC, and the first time I played Halo was way back on 2004/2005 when Halo 2 was already out and I wanted an Xbox so bad (wich didn't happened and I'm still glad I sold my 360). I didn't played a lot of FPS on a PC before, but I had a blast playing it, it seemed so fresh and new for me at that time.

Like it or not, if it wasn't for Halo we'd still be stuck on FPS tournament games, although today we're on that already, with anual installments of Call of Dutys and Battlefields (or whatever is being played these days) being made specifically for the multiplayer in mind and not for the single player.

 

[Sidereal]

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/reticule , btw.

 

[Irridium]

Timesplitters 2 which was released the year after HALO by the Goldeneye team had MUCH better gameplay both in the single and the multiplayer.

The damn thing even came with a MAP EDITOR! Timesplitters 2 was 100x more fun than Halo ever was, it just didn't have the fratboy following that has been dumbing down gaming since 2001.

The co-op in Halo was good, I'll give it that, but so was the co-op in Timesplitters 2.

Regenerating shields is a gameplay retarding abomination. And the awesome "innovation" of only carrying 2 weapons at a time and taking forever to switch between them added a new level of tedium.

Also the combat in ME2 sucked. I seriously looked for a "skip combat and assume you win" mod. The "charge" and other biotic powers much ballyhood in the trailers was useless in 3/4 of the situations. The sniping was much better gameplay wise but turned every fight the exact same.

I intentionally didn't upgrade my sniper rifle until the very last fight just so it was somewhat of a challenge.

What exactly was wrong with the realtime pause system of Kotor that bioware had to muck it up with all this "action" crap?

The conversation system was brilliant however and I hope they keep it up in other games.

In Halo's defense, anything compared to Timesplitters 2 is bound to fall short. Or anything compared to the Timesplitters series in general really.

 

[Abanic]

I loved this article until the paragraph that was fourth from the end. It seems that, at that point, Mr. Young ends the wonderful history lesson and begins his conclusion. The confusing part is that he does not clearly state his case when making these conclusions, he assumes that the history lesson will lead the reader to the point that he is trying to make.

But I have to give the game credit for inventing a genre and fathering a dozen or more imitators.

What genre is he crediting Halo with inventing? The X-box shooter genre, or the console shooter genre as a whole? Please tell me it's the former of the two. To give credit to Halo for inventing the console shooter genre, a person must ignore the enhancements to the genre by games like: Wolfenstein, Doom, Star Wars: Dark Forces, Quake, Half-Life, Duke Nukem 3-D, Rainbow Six (all of which were originally designed for the computer) and console games like: Perfect Dark, Medal of Honor, Timesplitters, and Goldeneye. A person cannot credit GE with inventing the light bulb just because Mr. Edison's version didn't work as well as theirs. If Halo is the first 'city' of console FPSs, then it was built upon the foundations laid by the 'villages' of it's predecessors.

...instead they made crucial alterations to game mechanics and ended up with a game that perfectly suited the intended controller...

This led to a lot of shooter fans rejecting it, simply because the game wasn't what they expected or enjoyed. (I'm one of them.) And this break from expectations gave rise to the Halo hate flamewars that are still burning eight years later.

My second issue with this article came from the second to last paragraph. Just because this is the reason that the author didn't enjoy Halo, doesn't mean that "a lot" of fans had a problem with it's control mechanics. Quite a few had a problem with it's "exclusive" status to X-Box (sour grapes), and quite a few had a problem (and still do) with the arrogance of Halo owners thinking that the game was the equivalent of the Second Coming and (like the author) ignoring the contributions to console FPSs that had been made by previous games.

I will agree that Halo was the right game at the right time for the X-Box, but I wonder why a self-confessed NON-FAN of console FPSs feels the need to give his opinions of Halo. A non-fan is a great choice for a history lesson because they can remain impartial; but when you are extolling the values of a game, wouldn't it make more sense to have an article from someone who actually enjoys those types of games? Nobody would expect Yahtzee to sell the praises of an RTS, so why is Mr. Young writing about a genre that he doesn't care about?

 

[Albino Boo]

Well, it certainly was above other shooters of the time in terms of plot. The only other shooters with an actual plot outside of Halo on that pre-Halo era time were Half Life 1. And System Shock 2, iirc.

There was also Deus Ex, Thief and Unreal. Most PC shooters by 2000 had some kind of plot admittedly most of them were not very good plots but they had them. Halos contemporary on the PC was Deus Ex which was far better plotted and had multiple endings

 

[Albino Boo]

I will agree that Halo was the right game at the right time for the X-Box, but I wonder why a self-confessed NON-FAN of console FPSs feels the need to give his opinions of Halo. A non-fan is a great choice for a history lesson because they can remain impartial; but when you are extolling the values of a game, wouldn't it make more sense to have an article from someone who actually enjoys those types of games? Nobody would expect Yahtzee to sell the praises of an RTS, so why is Mr. Young writing about a genre that he doesn't care about?

Wild stab in the dark here, because hes paid to?

 

[Abanic]

WOW, I started my post when there was only 6 posts and typed so slowly I made it to position 32!

 

[Abanic]

I will agree that Halo was the right game at the right time for the X-Box, but I wonder why a self-confessed NON-FAN of console FPSs feels the need to give his opinions of Halo. A non-fan is a great choice for a history lesson because they can remain impartial; but when you are extolling the values of a game, wouldn't it make more sense to have an article from someone who actually enjoys those types of games? Nobody would expect Yahtzee to sell the praises of an RTS, so why is Mr. Young writing about a genre that he doesn't care about?

Wild stab in the dark here, because hes paid to?

Well, that IS the common sense response, I was just hoping there was something more to it than that, something a little deeper. Thank you though, for responding to a hypothetical question that was not directed to you and has nothing to do with you.

 

[Irridium]

I will agree that Halo was the right game at the right time for the X-Box, but I wonder why a self-confessed NON-FAN of console FPSs feels the need to give his opinions of Halo. A non-fan is a great choice for a history lesson because they can remain impartial; but when you are extolling the values of a game, wouldn't it make more sense to have an article from someone who actually enjoys those types of games? Nobody would expect Yahtzee to sell the praises of an RTS, so why is Mr. Young writing about a genre that he doesn't care about?

Wild stab in the dark here, because hes paid to?

Well, that IS the common sense response, I was just hoping there was something more to it than that, something a little deeper. Thank you though, for responding to a hypothetical question that was not directed to you and has nothing to do with you.

Probably because sometimes we have to give credit where its due. Especially when those games brought FPS games to the mainstream.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

I think Halo gets far more flack than it deserves. "It's popular so I must bring it down a peg" mentality. I personally find it very fun, and like Bungie as a developer.

There's good popularity and then there's stupid popularity, and whichever you're exposed to has a tendency to shift your perception of it. Most people loved Portal when it debuted, but now most cringe and groan whenever a 'Cake is a lie' joke is made. I myself loved the game but now I'm more bitter and derisive towards it and its sequel.

All the brown and realism wasn't Halo. Halo actually has some pretty colorful environments. Yes there's some browns but not much by today's standards.

I'd say we owe that to Quake.

 

[LostAlone]

Well, it certainly was above other shooters of the time in terms of plot. The only other shooters with an actual plot outside of Halo on that pre-Halo era time were Half Life 1. And System Shock 2, iirc.

There was also Deus Ex, Thief and Unreal. Most PC shooters by 2000 had some kind of plot admittedly most of them were not very good plots but they had them. Halos contemporary on the PC was Deus Ex which was far better plotted and had multiple endings

This. One million times this.

Halo didn't invent anything and indeed pushed things into the mainstream that are just bad. The regenerating health model is the bane of modern gaming, which encourages you to never be thinking beyond the current guy you are pointing at, and particularly it means there is very little reason not to just run at things. Basically it makes stealth and planning worthless. Scavenging for health kits sucks, and the idea is that you get better at fighting, or find ways to not fight directly, or use stealth to even the odds (See Deus Ex and Theif). Its especially crappy in MW2 and similar. A realistic shooter where you can actually tank a 10 guys in a bunker as you run to the next piece of cover (Not avoid, Tank) with no ill effects.

 

[DazBurger]

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?