Over-thinking Halo

[Korten12]

If you've been awake for the bast few years chances are you've heard about Halo. Whether you love it or hate, I think you'll agree with one thing: Halo is half-baked. Why do I say so? Because I have nothing better to do than to analyze a game that has as much depth as a piece of paper.

Let's start this little nit picky analysis with the conflict itself. It's man vs. alien, a tale that has been told before hundreds of times. It gets the job done in terms of transporting Master "Rambo" Chief to his alien filled destination but it doesn't take too many creative liberties. How so? Let's start with:

The aliens:
The covenant, a group of aliens. That's it. They fall into a few cliches such as the "Aliens Speak Perfect English" cliche and the "Tiny aliens make a lot of growly noises and act "funny" while big aliens roar a lot" cliche but it doesn't copy and paste the interesting cliches. No giant, multi-story tentacled alien monster eating cities or anything exciting like that. Just Grunts, Jakals, Elites (to a point), Brutes, Head crabs and the occasional Hunter do little to excite. They're not threatening or varied, they're just there to shoot at, and they don't even die that spectacularly.

But, the aliens are just half of this conflict.

Humans:
Marines? In space? Is it because they're in ships? Makes sense, I suppose. What makes no sense are the weapons. Why are the humans armed with assault rifles and pistols? They're fighting aliens! They should have weapons specifically tailored for the situation. They should have guns made to pierce a Brute's armor, guns made to shoot down a fast moving Elite and guns to deal with large numbers of head crabs. Not weapons made for killing soft, squishy humans.

While we're at it:

The weapons:
The aliens' weaponry is appropriate alien, what with all the "pew pew pew" and neon lasers. It's standard stuff, they get the job done. But the human weapons lack power. The assault rifle sounds like it's coughing, doesn't recoil and does as much damage to an alien as farting on it. They feel inadequate. It's like you're up against vampires and you're armed with standard military weaponry but no silver bullets, wooden stakes or crucifixes.

The Technology:
It's the future and humans haven't developed unmanned combat drones, jet-packs, or transport vehicles that don't look like Jeeps. It's all very understated and unimaginative. The Army is coming up with more creative weapons/gadgets/vehicles as we speak. The Halo universe isn't limited by such pesky things such as physics or realism, they could have mechs and transforming tanks.

The Environments:
The ring world of Halo looks a lot like Earth. Then you're on Earth.

Master Chief:
The fact that he's the pinnacle of armed combat yet relies on underpowered guns, can't fly, doesn't have night vision, can't sprint or take cover really makes think that the bar for "the pinnacle" will be lowered significantly in the future. That and the fact that he doesn't even have a combat knife makes me think he's an under-trained soldier who taped some tin foil to his kevlar.

The ODST:
They're useless in Halo 3: ODST. They have knives but don't use them as a melee attack, their guns are even more underpowered and they're just cliches. The worst part? They were supposed to go raid a huge covenant ship with just a silenced SMG and a Pistol when you need around 2 clips to kill one brute. It's like trying to raid a NAVY Carrier with a Magnum and a smile.

Halo is an average game with a half-baked universe which offers nothing to 'wow' over.

Opinions?

Sorry for the kilometer long post. D:

Read the novels, you will get greater depth and something i actually prefer than the Games, the novels are very enjoyable as is the Anime that was made.

The aliens:
The covenant, a group of aliens. That's it. They fall into a few cliches such as the "Aliens Speak Perfect English" cliche and the "Tiny aliens make a lot of growly noises and act "funny" while big aliens roar a lot" cliche but it doesn't copy and paste the interesting cliches. No giant, multi-story tentacled alien monster eating cities or anything exciting like that. Just Grunts, Jakals, Elites (to a point), Brutes, Head crabs and the occasional Hunter do little to excite. They're not threatening or varied, they're just there to shoot at, and they don't even die that spectacularly

a group of aliens formed through war over Forerunner technology and tricked into following by a fake religion because of a mistranslated Forerunner Glyph, that leads them into a cover up story which revolves around the Genocide of Humanity..I find that pretty cool.

Well actually only a handfull of them knew how to talk it, most hated the human language. only the Uggoly actually bothered to actively learn because they actually enjoyed it. Again in the games you need the aliens to talk, and apparently Both sides have Translation Gear in their helmets, at least Spartan III's do.

I saw some of those "Massive creature divouring cities" In the Aninme, so... Yeah?.

Humans:
Marines? In space? Is it because they're in ships? Makes sense, I suppose. What makes no sense are the weapons. Why are the humans armed with assault rifles and pistols? They're fighting aliens! They should have weapons specifically tailored for the situation. They should have guns made to pierce a Brute's armor, guns made to shoot down a fast moving Elite and guns to deal with large numbers of head crabs. Not weapons made for killing soft, squishy humans

Actually from the novels,anime and games we can draw that they worked really well, so much as Spartans prefer it to Covenant Weaponry.
Their weapons are pathetic in Ship to ship Fights, anyone whose read the novels knows the Marines nearly always got their asses kicked if they didn't try something out of the ordinary.
but they never could get a hold of the Alien technology for Ship shields,lasers and that Guided plama stuff.

The weapons:
The aliens' weaponry is appropriate alien, what with all the "pew pew pew" and neon lasers. It's standard stuff, they get the job done. But the human weapons lack power. The assault rifle sounds like it's coughing, doesn't recoil and does as much damage to an alien as farting on it. They feel inadequate. It's like you're up against vampires and you're armed with standard military weaponry but no silver bullets, wooden stakes or crucifixes.

i felt the weapons were alright, the recoil is not meant to be there on the count of your a goddamn spartan.

The Technology:
It's the future and humans haven't developed unmanned combat drones, jet-packs, or transport vehicles that don't look like Jeeps. It's all very understated and unimaginative. The Army is coming up with more creative weapons/gadgets/vehicles as we speak. The Halo universe isn't limited by such pesky things such as physics or realism, they could have mechs and transforming tanks

They build things for its Usage, not for how it looks, before the aliens, they were fighting themselves, why would they need something Overtly kick ass to fight themselves?.
When the Human-Covenant war began we they did develop a Mech actually, and it was BadAss as well as cyclopses which were also badass.

The Environments:
The ring world of Halo looks a lot like Earth. Then you're on Earth.

The forerunners could of lived in a similar enviroment to us and this is supported that the "Librarian" actually lived with humanity for a time before the Halo's were activated and even if they weren't they knew that everything they built was going to be left for the "Reclaimers" (Humanity) so they could pick up "The Mantle" so they probably built it so the Humans could access everything easier.

Master Chief:
The fact that he's the pinnacle of armed combat yet relies on underpowered guns, can't fly, doesn't have night vision, can't sprint or take cover really makes think that the bar for "the pinnacle" will be lowered significantly in the future. That and the fact that he doesn't even have a combat knife makes me think he's an under-trained soldier who taped some tin foil to his kevlar.

Again Read the novels, it paints him in a different light and he does have a knife in them

The ODST:
They're useless in Halo 3: ODST. They have knives but don't use them as a melee attack, their guns are even more underpowered and they're just cliches. The worst part? They were supposed to go raid a huge covenant ship with just a silenced SMG and a Pistol when you need around 2 clips to kill one brute. It's like trying to raid a NAVY Carrier with a Magnum and a smile

Again read the novels, it paints everything differently and more realisticly than in the games
and suicide missions is what they were bred to do

good job, you did what I wanted to say but am to lazy to post.

this is an average article with a half-baked topic which offers nothing to 'wow' over

same thing was brought to my mind.

 

[Wicky_42]

The aliens:
The covenant, a group of aliens. That's it. They fall into a few cliches such as the "Aliens Speak Perfect English" cliche and the "Tiny aliens make a lot of growly noises and act "funny" while big aliens roar a lot" cliche but it doesn't copy and paste the interesting cliches. No giant, multi-story tentacled alien monster eating cities or anything exciting like that. Just Grunts, Jakals, Elites (to a point), Brutes, Head crabs and the occasional Hunter do little to excite. They're not threatening or varied, they're just there to shoot at, and they don't even die that spectacularly.

If you noticed, over the course of the series the aliens seemed to get better at speaking English - in fact, as the Arbiter in Halo 2 they seemed to speak it just fine! Wait - maybe that's because of the translation software built into your suit, learning as the languages get steadily more deciphered? How many times did elites go 'wort wort wort' in Halo 3? Yeah, exactly...

But, the aliens are just half of this conflict.

Humans:
Marines? In space? Is it because they're in ships? Makes sense, I suppose. What makes no sense are the weapons. Why are the humans armed with assault rifles and pistols? They're fighting aliens! They should have weapons specifically tailored for the situation. They should have guns made to pierce a Brute's armor, guns made to shoot down a fast moving Elite and guns to deal with large numbers of head crabs. Not weapons made for killing soft, squishy humans.

That would be a perfectly good argument - except that human weapons are built for shooting humans because that's what they were used for. The war against the Covenant wasn't some titanic, century-spanning brawl, it was a systematic extermination, with humanity falling back and being wiped out time and time again. That doesn't leave a whole lot of time to make magic energy-shield busting weapons (though a grenade launcher might have been a start, tbh). As it is, if you've got an entire galactic military armed with assault rifles, shotguns and smgs, recalling all your weapons and beginning RnD on new ones whilst you're being invaded might not be the best idea - make and make do, am I right?

While we're at it:

The weapons:
The aliens' weaponry is appropriate alien, what with all the "pew pew pew" and neon lasers. It's standard stuff, they get the job done. But the human weapons lack power. The assault rifle sounds like it's coughing, doesn't recoil and does as much damage to an alien as farting on it. They feel inadequate. It's like you're up against vampires and you're armed with standard military weaponry but no silver bullets, wooden stakes or crucifixes.

I loved the assault rifle in Halo 1, and sorely missed it in 2. Its noise was great! Recoil may not make sense in the Halo verse, but remember that you're playing the part of a cybernetically enhanced armoured super-soldier tank thing - you shouldn't expect your crosshairs to climb :/ [sub](damn you SMGs :/[/sub] You comments on their effectiveness makes perfect sense in the universe context - human weapons kill humans and unshielded targets well because that's what they are designed to do (civil war and all that), whilst Covenant weapons blaze through shields (alien tech vs alien tech is effective, obviously). Oh, and as for lacking power, Mr Shotgun disagrees

The Technology:
It's the future and humans haven't developed unmanned combat drones, jet-packs, or transport vehicles that don't look like Jeeps. It's all very understated and unimaginative. The Army is coming up with more creative weapons/gadgets/vehicles as we speak. The Halo universe isn't limited by such pesky things such as physics or realism, they could have mechs and transforming tanks.

Yes. Pure and simple, Halo is lacking in the sort of high-tech toys it could have had. Then again, so do the majority of 'sci-fi' shooters, once you get past the colourful ammo. Not an excuse, but certainly a valid observation.

The Environments:
The ring world of Halo looks a lot like Earth. Then you're on Earth.

Erm, ok... but no.

Master Chief:
The fact that he's the pinnacle of armed combat yet relies on underpowered guns, can't fly, doesn't have night vision, can't sprint or take cover really makes think that the bar for "the pinnacle" will be lowered significantly in the future. That and the fact that he doesn't even have a combat knife makes me think he's an under-trained soldier who taped some tin foil to his kevlar.

A lot of those points are just quibbles with the sort of game Bungie made. The MC of the back story would have made a VERY different game, full of stupidly fast movement and god-like stealth. IMO that would have been a more entertaining game, but hey. That's not what Bungie made - and of course, a lot of the funky tech stuff is in Halo Reach, so enjoy!

As to the 'no combat knife' thing... dude, he can PUNCH THROUGH TANKS. He needs no knife, and that's why his fists kill faster than most weapons. And it wasn't tin foil on his kevlar, it was a shield generator. And armour plates. And shock gel, for when you really have to fall out of orbit...

The ODST:
They're useless in Halo 3: ODST. They have knives but don't use them as a melee attack, their guns are even more underpowered and they're just cliches. The worst part? They were supposed to go raid a huge covenant ship with just a silenced SMG and a Pistol when you need around 2 clips to kill one brute. It's like trying to raid a NAVY Carrier with a Magnum and a smile.

Eh, ODSTs are just meant to be sooo kickass that they'll take on the Covenant bear-handed if they have to. Storming a cruiser with SMGs is pretty much a day in the life for them Then again, why were they taking sniper rifles on such a mission? Mysterious... o.0

Halo is an average game with a half-baked universe which offers nothing to 'wow' over.

Opinions?

Sorry for the kilometer long post. D:

Well, you can dismiss Halo's backstory if you want to, but it is there, there is reinforcing canon that sheds more light on the plots of the games and expands the universe - so don't ***** about it! That's like moaning about the 'unobtanium' in Avatar without checking to see if Cameron's worked out all the backstory (which me has...)

So yeah, opinions are good but facts are better

'Sorry for the kilometer long reply'...

 

[Wicky_42]

Spoiler

Humans:
Marines? In space? Is it because they're in ships? Makes sense, I suppose. What makes no sense are the weapons. Why are the humans armed with assault rifles and pistols? They're fighting aliens! They should have weapons specifically tailored for the situation. They should have guns made to pierce a Brute's armor, guns made to shoot down a fast moving Elite and guns to deal with large numbers of head crabs. Not weapons made for killing soft, squishy humans.

Last time I checked in Halo when you shoot at an Alien, it does die. Why would they be making Brute Armor piercing weapons when a Sniper does it anyways? Why do Aliens need special types of weapons to fight them? Lead works on all the species to exist. When you shoot an Whale, it dies. When you shoot a human, he dies. When you shoot an alien, why wouldn't it die?

Lead kills elephants, yet hunters use elephant rifles/bullets to kill them. Same thing but with a specialized use.

What I'm saying is that after years of fighting aliens, you'd think humans would have built a gun that could kill an alien faster than punching them.

Hunters use elephant bullets because its more efficient.

However, in Halo, using a Sniper Rifle is as efficient as you can get. Why would you develop anti-brute armor when all the guns already do it.

As I recall, Sniper Rifles are pretty useless against a tough, armoured creature such as a Hunter, and I think that's the point he's trying to get at. Why are there no specialized weapons designed for dealing with Hunters?

Pistol from Halo 1 They really shouldn't have kept the only models on the Pillar of Autumn... XD Also, missiles.

 

[Legion IV]

Well, I haven't read the novels or anything, but I've heard they're quite good.

And you said that Halo has a depth of a piece of paper? You realize they simplified the story in the games just so the games don't end up like MGS4 with it being 90% CSs and 10% gameplay because that is what they would be like if they bothered to put at least half the stuff in the books into the game. You can't analyze the Halo universe from just the games. Sure, they could improve the storytelling in the games in many ways but this is what I think: "If you want a story, go read a book, if you want gameplay, play a game." And I do enjoy my games with story too but I don't mind it if games lack story as long as they have good enough gameplay. As far as cliches go, every game has cliches it's just whether they work nicely or not and I think in Halo, they fit pretty good for the most part.

I just have to respond to this. Bungie dosent care about the books the books have no impact on the halo universe or the cannon because bungie is already messing the great novels up. There re releasing fall of reach to accomodate the game. Theres even a chance brutes will be in reach! was that in the book? No! but bungie dosent care about the books so as far as am concerned the guy was right because all he can do is look at the games. the books mean jack to bungie.

 

[Korten12]

snip

another good response from someone who knows what they are talking about.

 

[Wicky_42]

snip

another good response from someone who knows what they are talking about.

^_^ It's only 3am here, so I'm still coherent enough to carry an argument/make my point. Wait, am? Shit.
/sleep

 

[Blueruler182]

Couple things I need to correct. First, the thing that separates these aliens from most others, is that they're intelligent religious zealots. They're a culmination of multiple races on a religious path going to decimate a small species. When I thin "generic alien" I automatically think... well, Alien. And the head crabs were only really in the Halo mythology for about a year, when they were found on Halo.

Second, alien weaponry only advanced because they found it, while our weaponry is crap (though why you'd say there's no advancement when we've gotten rid of recoil altogether is beyond me) we've had to invent it as we go on. The alien weaponry wasn't invented by the aliens so much as found and remade from weaponry that would by thousands of years more advanced than current day technology, which means at least fifteen hundred years ahead of the then. The humans did adapt, it's how the Chief got his energy shields, we only had thirty years to adapt to technology that often self-destructed before we could get it or... well, we'd lose the battle. Repeatedly. Advancement of weaponry was at a crawl simply because resources were sent to the battlefield.

Third, human weapons would seem to lack firepower since they're fighting thins with armor designed to negate shit twice as powerful. Think of it this way, the grunt is the equivalent of a standard armed and armored marine of today. They're the lower tier of the covenant. While the weapons aren't particularly imaginative on the human side, they are most definitely as powerful as they should be.

Fourth, tech. Bubble shield, energy drainer, jet pack, Mjolnir armor, MAC guns (ship and warthog sized), SPI armor, Cortana, the list would go on if I cared enough to remember.

Fifth, read the books. It makes a lot of this make a lot more sense and a lot of it a lot cooler. I will admit the game leaves out a lot, but you're not overanalyzing the game, your underanalyzing the parts of it you decided to look at.

That being said I will agree that the game is an average game, even if I do enjoy it a hell of a lot more than most. But don't say you're overanlyzing something when you're neglecting a great deal to make your point. If you overanalyzed it you wouldn't say Master Chief isn't a god. Master Chief *****-slapped a missile out of the air and is able to go rambo on the covenant. And it's not that he doesn't sprint, it's that he doesn't slow down.

And after all that I feel like more of a fanboy than I have in years. Now I want to play Halo.

 

[dennis321456]

I can smell the rage coming towards this thread a mile away.

 

[Blueruler182]

I just have to respond to this. Bungie dosent care about the books the books have no impact on the halo universe or the cannon because bungie is already messing the great novels up. There re releasing fall of reach to accomodate the game. Theres even a chance brutes will be in reach! was that in the book? No! but bungie dosent care about the books so as far as am concerned the guy was right because all he can do is look at the games. the books mean jack to bungie.

The writer of the Halo games wrote Brutes into Harvet's first conflict in a book (Contact Harvest). They were rarely seen in after that simply because, until Halo 2, the Brutes were just some little part of the covenant that the prophets didn't trust and the Elites hated. The Elites rules the battlefield for the covenant at the time of Reach, so having the brutes on small parts of the battlefield where the prophets deemed it important enough that the Elites would allow it as opposed to widespread over the planet makes sense.

The books are canon. They're based on something Bungie calls the "Halo Bible", a timeline of events in the Halo universe, names of characters, and everything that is Halo. They hand bits of that to writers and get them to write the details of the event down and release it to the public in the novels. I think when the writer of the game itself writes one of the books it's safe to say that the books are canon.

 

[Hiphophippo]

When a game series is this big people will always argue over it's merits. Nobody is going to prove a point in this thread and nobody is going to emerge from these posts a changed man / woman. Just give it up. It's a good game.

Whether or not it's any more than that is just your opinion.

 

[Thaius]

Yeah... it's definitely over-analyzing it. And for the record, I disagree with anything and everything you say about the story and universe having nothing to offer. All you did was pick apart some small crap: that hardly renders the story or universe as a whole as having "little to offer." Not to mention you displayed either ignorance of or disregard for what the story actually is when only mentioning The Flood in passing as "headcrabs," saying there is no variety in the Covenant ranks (Jackals have shields that can't be shot through, and hunters are crazy armored with one weak spot in their back: how is that the same as Elites or Grunts?), and... wait, the human weapons are underpowered? Did you ever use the pistol in Combat Evolved? Or the human sniper rifle versus the Covenant one?

Beyond that, you made a thread with no purpose but to bash Halo. That's generally looked down upon in these forums: there are too many mindless Halo-hating sheep here that have done the same thing in the past. It's gotten old.

 

[Mitchell_R]

I didn't used to like Halo1 when it first came out, and then I skipped Halo2 for the most part cause I had a Ps2 and I only played that when I went over to a friends house (so no campaign really) and then Halo 3 came out and I paid no attention to it cause it never wow'd me before. But then I think 2 years after it came out I played it for the first time and I really enjoyed the story. So then I went back to beat Halo 2 to like bridge the gap lol and I think definitely, that the story wasn't being told to it's potential in the games cause at this point I think I read ghosts of onyx? I don't remember. I fucking love Halo though. I'm gonna go play some Halo 3 now.

 

[Mitchell_R]

I think Dr. Emo is mad 'cause he got out Br'd in Multi-player.

 

[Angry Caterpillar]

Master Chief:
The fact that he's the pinnacle of armed combat yet relies on underpowered guns, can't fly, doesn't have night vision, can't sprint or take cover really makes think that the bar for "the pinnacle" will be lowered significantly in the future. That and the fact that he doesn't even have a combat knife makes me think he's an under-trained soldier who taped some tin foil to his kevlar.

Alrighty, so, I'm tired and lazy and everyone else has already picked everything apart so I figured I'd focus on one thing my half-turning mind is being annoyed by.

A) Everyone has said armor weight blah blah blah blah for sprinting, but at no time was the Chief's maximum sprinting speed established. Who knows? Maybe Spartans can run as fast as they fucking can whenever they feel like it. They're super soldiers. Roll with it.

B) The Chief is one of my favorite characters in any game for the simple fact that he's a completely blank slate, so he is and acts in a situation as you would play him. This means that if you want to take cover, you do it your own damn self. It's a simple two-step process.

1) Put something between you and your enemy.
2) Crouch.

Christ, do you really need a game to hold your hand so much you can't take cover for yourself?

 

[w@rew0lf]

Humans:
Marines? In space? Is it because they're in ships? Makes sense, I suppose. What makes no sense are the weapons. Why are the humans armed with assault rifles and pistols? They're fighting aliens! They should have weapons specifically tailored for the situation. They should have guns made to pierce a Brute's armor, guns made to shoot down a fast moving Elite and guns to deal with large numbers of head crabs. Not weapons made for killing soft, squishy humans.

Last time I checked in Halo when you shoot at an Alien, it does die. Why would they be making Brute Armor piercing weapons when a Sniper does it anyways? Why do Aliens need special types of weapons to fight them? Lead works on all the species to exist. When you shoot an Whale, it dies. When you shoot a human, he dies. When you shoot an alien, why wouldn't it die?

Lead kills elephants, yet hunters use elephant rifles/bullets to kill them. Same thing but with a specialized use.

What I'm saying is that after years of fighting aliens, you'd think humans would have built a gun that could kill an alien faster than punching them.

QFT. I always felt that that was a gaping plot hole in the Halo series. I mean, humanity's back is against the wall, why are we not adapting and shifting from our 21st century weaponry to match that of the times? Why are we not attacking Covenant ships with thermonuclear weaponry? They live on floating cities for crying out loud - easy targets.

That would be true BUT in the Halo universe the space warfare of the humans when compared to that of the Covenant would be like comparing a paper aeroplane to an F-12 Raptor. If you read the books - which are pretty damn good by the way - you'd know that the whole reason humans were losing was because in Space they got horrifically ass-raped by the Covenant Plasma weapons and Energy Shields. On the ground they were on even ground (no pun intended) with the Covenant combat-wise. So High Charity being an actual planet would, in fact, be much more convenient for the humans as the space assault you're imagining would end with all humans involved dying painful deaths.

Time was also a major factor. You see, the Covenant had by the time of the first Halo had destroyed half of all the Human worlds. In 10-15 years. The whole reason for the paragraph above was to support the fact that even in the future going from completely outclassed to on par with superior technology while every day more and more of your worlds are being completely melted into glass, taking supplies, resources and personnel with each one would be preetty damn hard. Wouldn't you say?

Completely off topic: The Spartans weren't originally made to fight the Covenant. There were rebel groups called the Insurrectionists that were causing major troubles and without the Covenant would have more than likely started a civil war of some sort between humans. Those were the people that the Spartans were created to fight. At least the first 2 batches. Overkill? Yes. Convenient? Also yes.

To summarize. The Humans were pretty much fucked from the get-go.

P.S. Those Energy Shields I mentioned earlier. Nukes don't work to well on them.

 

[Fidelias]

Yep, sums it up. Gosh the level in Halo 1 where you met the flood, gosh that was SO BORING! So effin repetitive, and people keep saying it was a massive surprise and such, I didn't expect it, but wasn't surprised by it.

How could you not expect it, AND not be surprised by it?
I found that level to be amazing, it was different from the usual, go-in-there-kill-everything-rock-out that you usually did, and created a suspensefull and spooky moment.

And I still think the game had an amazing story for a FIRST PERSON SHOOTER! Did you see the caps? That's because everyone seems to forget that Halo is, in fact, a FIRST PERSON SHOOTER! It's not an rpg, it's not that Mass Effect type stuff, it's not Prince of Persia. It's an FPS. I have not seen a first person shooter that has a story that remotely compares to Halo's.

Everyone looks at the aliens and says, "Hey look, it's just stupid aliens again..." But each race of the covenant has it's own backstory. The games only focus on the brutes, prophets, and elites, but that's MORE than enough to show how detailed the enemies are.

The reason why the humans don't have guns or technology of epic proportions is because they are still on a budget. This is 500 years in the future, not 5,000. The death star will have bugs in it at this time. Also, while this was happening, humans were fighting civil wars and other things, so technology and unity was stunted. The humans were caught completely off guard when the aliens attacked, so they didn't create new guns. New guns need to be tested, then made to mass produce and such, MILLIONS OF DOLLARS!!! They'd rather make a few more gunships because they KNOW that the ships can kick ass. And don't give me that shit about the books not happening with the games. Most of the books came out between Halo 1 and 2, and you included Halo 3.

Back to the story, and somewhat about the aliens. There are four factions in this war. FOUR. Not just humans vs aliens. There's the humans, the covenant, the flood, and the forerunners/sentinals. And throughout the games, the aliegencies of each are changed.

And about the Halo rings looking like Earth. Yeah, that's kind of the point. It's supposed to be a mystery that is revealed in Halo 3. And it works.

In closing, I believe that the Halo games were very well made. Maybe after the first they got worse, but they were all great games.(I acknowledge that this is my opinion) I would like it if people stopped picking on a game they raved about five years ago.

 

[Vrex360]

The aliens:
The covenant, a group of aliens. That's it. They fall into a few cliches such as the "Aliens Speak Perfect English" cliche and the "Tiny aliens make a lot of growly noises and act "funny" while big aliens roar a lot" cliche but it doesn't copy and paste the interesting cliches. No giant, multi-story tentacled alien monster eating cities or anything exciting like that. Just Grunts, Jakals, Elites (to a point), Brutes, Head crabs and the occasional Hunter do little to excite. They're not threatening or varied, they're just there to shoot at, and they don't even die that spectacularly.

They are more than 'just a group of aliens'. For one thing, they have religion and each race had its own defined culture, the elites are the warriors, the brutes are savage and less developed and are pack orientated, the drones have a hive mentality, the grunts are basically the lowest of the bunch, the jackals are technically mercenaries, the prophets are the leaders and the Hunters are more or less just creatures that have no real loyalty to the cause. The aliens speaking english is explained as
A. the aliens are learning to speak human language
B. Humans are getting better at translating the alien language.
Plus, and it must be said, Halo is one of the few franchises (especially in a first person shooter) to characterise its aliens with personalities and in turn helps make them feel a little bit more 'human'. The way in which they are fleshed out is made clear in Halo 2 when you find yourself playing as the Elites rather than the Spartans. This is where it is made clear that they aren't simply baby eating hell spawn like they are characterised as in so many other games but are rather religious fanatics being lead unknowingly down the path of slef destruction and in their personalities to traditions... are actually kinda noble.

Also, I still declare the giant Scarab as being pretty impressive moments in game.

But, the aliens are just half of this conflict.

Indeed.

Humans:
Marines? In space? Is it because they're in ships? Makes sense, I suppose. What makes no sense are the weapons. Why are the humans armed with assault rifles and pistols? They're fighting aliens! They should have weapons specifically tailored for the situation. They should have guns made to pierce a Brute's armor, guns made to shoot down a fast moving Elite and guns to deal with large numbers of head crabs. Not weapons made for killing soft, squishy humans.

The Human/Covenant war was not something that has lasted a thousand years. It was, as memory serves, only thirty two years. While that is undeniably a very long time, humans had developed technology to battle among themselves what with the other five hundred years of space colonisation and humans being the only threat. Besides given that this is a genocidal war and literally every second counted, there wasn't much time to reasearch new weapon typoes. Especially when the standard lead still killed stuff.

The weapons:
The aliens' weaponry is appropriate alien, what with all the "pew pew pew" and neon lasers. It's standard stuff, they get the job done. But the human weapons lack power. The assault rifle sounds like it's coughing, doesn't recoil and does as much damage to an alien as farting on it. They feel inadequate. It's like you're up against vampires and you're armed with standard military weaponry but no silver bullets, wooden stakes or crucifixes.

I disagree. I always found the weapons did exactly their job, in Halo 1 the Assault Rifle and Pistol combo was brutal and they caused serious damage. In Halo 2 same again, I was still able to effectivley kill the enemy with the arsenal of weapons at my disposal. Part of the reasons some of the weapons in Halo 3 felt underpowered somewhat was probably due to the incorporation of multiplayer. The Assault Rifle for instance now had a shallow clip and it was essentially done so that players would have a weapon that they could hold their own in combat with, without being able to rely on it and also having to use the other two parts of the golden triangle of Halo.
Weapons, grenades and melee. So yeah it carried on into campaign as well but the fact is, the weapon is still effective just balance it with other weapons as well.
Still, if the weapons work then there shouldn't be a need to upgrade especially not in the kind of desperate war humanity currently finds itself in.

The Technology:
It's the future and humans haven't developed unmanned combat drones, jet-packs, or transport vehicles that don't look like Jeeps. It's all very understated and unimaginative. The Army is coming up with more creative weapons/gadgets/vehicles as we speak. The Halo universe isn't limited by such pesky things such as physics or realism, they could have mechs and transforming tanks.

To be fair, while they may lack unmanned drones they do have sophisticated and intelligent AI programs and have developed armor with sheilds. Still the fact is that humanity still isn't a very advanced race in the Halo universe. Certainly not as much as the Covenant and once again in this kind of a war no one is going to waste time developing a transforming tank or mechsuit when you already have perfectly workable tanks and the Spartan suits which if you read into the history, actually replaced mech suits sometime after the battle of Harvest.

The Environments:
The ring world of Halo looks a lot like Earth. Then you're on Earth.

True, the ring world has some very earthlike environments. But they are varied, from forests to jungles to deserts to beaches to ancient temples to flood infested spaceships to giant alien space stations.... you certainly get around in these games.

Master Chief:
The fact that he's the pinnacle of armed combat yet relies on underpowered guns, can't fly, doesn't have night vision, can't sprint or take cover really makes think that the bar for "the pinnacle" will be lowered significantly in the future. That and the fact that he doesn't even have a combat knife makes me think he's an under-trained soldier who taped some tin foil to his kevlar.

He's a Spartan sent in with a huge histroy of training and physical augmentations and the latest and greatest suit of armor from humanities technology. He can run very has, can lift a car by himself and is capable with nearly all weapons he needs. He doesn't need night vision as most of the fights are during the day (and even if he's in the dark he has a flashlight) and just because there's no cover system doesn't mean you can't crouch behind cover.
True he's not the most amazing protagonist ever but he still gets the job done. Personally though I still prefer the Arbiter.

The ODST:
They're useless in Halo 3: ODST. They have knives but don't use them as a melee attack, their guns are even more underpowered and they're just cliches. The worst part? They were supposed to go raid a huge covenant ship with just a silenced SMG and a Pistol when you need around 2 clips to kill one brute. It's like trying to raid a NAVY Carrier with a Magnum and a smile.

Knives are now being implimented in Halo: Reach as assassination kills so we can end the knife debate right here. Their guns aren't actually underpowered either, just put on silencers as they have an emphasis on stealth and entering enemy controlled territory undetected. True this isn't a vastly original premise but the fact is that soldiers like that do exist now and it seems very believable that they would still exist later. Besides coining the term 'cliche' is a little harsh given that if reading TV Tropes is to be believed nearly everything falls into some obscure catergory of a cliche... it's hard to always be original.
Plus, like I said before, ODST's are shock troopers. Hence they don't often need to engage the enemy, just slip right past them. Besides only the Rookie was using the standard SMG, the rest had a collection of other weapons on their disposal.

Halo is an average game with a half-baked universe which offers nothing to 'wow' over.

Opinions?

While I disagree with you on pretty much every point I still respect your opinion. What I've said here is not so much fact as it is my personal opinion on the matter. So be aware while reading this that I mean no offence, just stating my position on this.

 

[Samurai Goomba]

Awesome Snip

So that's what Halownage looks like.

I'd mention something about the OP being both wrong and boring at the same time, but looks like you've nailed all the major points. And if you haven't, a wave of other people have by now.

 

[Entropyutd]

well to point out, the flood are actually the main conflict that both sides are fighting, so they are really the big thing in the picture

and the games themselves, not too deep, but if you actually read the books, specifically the fall of reach and ghosts of onyx, then you will see how deep the books go and what it means to fight the covenant or be a spartan, where master chief isn't a cut out character really, and i haven't seen all of halo legends but from what i saw it was pretty interesting, so have a go at that, and believe me master chief is in no way "rambo" in the books, they use strategic small team based units to do missions.


i know you were over analyzing it..but try checking out all the material it has to offer, the games are just a taste of what halo really is (in my opinion)

The game itself was uninspired, the only reason anyone is even talking about Halo today is because they gave the frigging thing away free with every console.
For many it was the first fps experience they had.

Was it bad, no, it did an ok job.

Your "but the Books... THE BOOOOOOKS" argument is one of the lamest Ive seen.
The game came first, the books followed the manufactured success.
Hell if I had to buy and read a book to fully enjoy any game I played I'd need to convert my gaming room into a library.

The simple truth is, Microsoft forced the mediocre Halo franchise down the throats of everybody.

The people who saw it for the shallow piece of crap it was, spat it out.

The sheep swallowed, and when MS told them it tasted delicious they opened their mouths again for another steaming spoon.

 

[sheogoraththemad]

The Technology:
It's the future and humans haven't developed jet-packs,

you know they have jetpacks in halo reach?