I've been playing Halo 4 for a few months, and for the most part it's been good fun. The new guns are satisfying and the new enemies are fun to fight. Overall, I found it about as good as Halo Reach; 343 Industries have settled into the green armor of the Master Chief rather well.
After blasting through the campaign on Legendary and looking around for something else to do, I found a copy of Halo: Combat Evolved Aniversary (the HD remake of the original) in Game. Curious to see how far the series had progressed, I played through the campaign over the course of a weekend. So, without further ado, here are my observations.
1. Difficulty. This is the big one. While I was able to blast through Halo 4 on Legendary with only a few hiccups (fucking scattergun knights!) Halo 1 had me flinging controllers multiple times on Heroic. I think the difficulty stems from a lack of tactical options. You can't hijack or EMP covenant vehicles. The Carbine and Battle Rifle haven't been invented yet, leaving you trying to snipe with your little Magnum (no disservice meant to the pistol, it still saved my ass on multiple occasions). In Halo 4, there always seems to be a power weapon lying around to deal with challenging fights, whereas Halo shoves you into nasty fights with just you standard arsenal. Checkpoints seem to be stretched further apart in Halo 1 too.
2. Guns! As previously mentioned, the BR and Carbine are absent, so you're stuck with either the Plasma Rifle or Assault Rifle. I've always been a fan of the Plasma Rifle, and was dissapointed to see it replaced in Halo 4 with an inferior version. As for the Assault Rifle, there seems to be a shit-ton of ammo for it (massive magazine, dead marines with ammo everywhere, and then the Flood show up carrying it). Pity it takes about 10 seconds to kill anything with it. The Rocket Launcher and Sniper Rifle are pretty much the same insta-killing goodness, and ammo for them seems to be more plentiful than in Halo 4. The one gun that really surprised me was the Shotgun. From being a fairly rare weapon in later Halo games (and totally outclassed by the Scattershot and Halo 4), I ended up using it far more in the latter half of Halo 1 than the crappy Assault Rifle; mowing down Flood in one hit makes fighting them almost bearable.
3. Bad Guys! The Covenant are pretty much the same in Halo 1 and Halo 4. No Brutes, Drones or Engineers, just the trinity of Grunts, Elites and Jackals, with the ocassional Hunter pair thrown in. Pew-pew lasers and plasma 'nades, buisness as usual. The big area of contrast is between the Prometheans and Flood. After 3 games of cursing at those space zombies, are the Prometheans any better? They both epitomise different fighting styles. Whereas the flood love their Zerg-rush, and rely on weight of numbers, the Prometheans prioritise defence. Their Watchers can shield fellow Prometheans, and flee when you shoot them. The Knights can't be headshot, have shields, and teleport to escape you. When they die, they briefly leave behind a spark that can be ressurected by a Watcher Even their cannon-fodder Crawlers have decent defence, meaning they need to be headshot. The Prometheans are less single-note than the Flood (whose tactics generally boil dwon to: grab shotgun, shoot flood while moving backwards), but they can be just as frustratiing, with their habit to slip away just when you thought you had them. Ironically, the shotgun is as good for taking them out as the flood; a couple of quick shots a close range can catch a Knight before the bastard teleports away.
That's enough wall-o'-text for now; I might add some more points later. I always find comparing games in the same series to be entertaining, provided one can get past the Nostalgia Filter!
After blasting through the campaign on Legendary and looking around for something else to do, I found a copy of Halo: Combat Evolved Aniversary (the HD remake of the original) in Game. Curious to see how far the series had progressed, I played through the campaign over the course of a weekend. So, without further ado, here are my observations.
1. Difficulty. This is the big one. While I was able to blast through Halo 4 on Legendary with only a few hiccups (fucking scattergun knights!) Halo 1 had me flinging controllers multiple times on Heroic. I think the difficulty stems from a lack of tactical options. You can't hijack or EMP covenant vehicles. The Carbine and Battle Rifle haven't been invented yet, leaving you trying to snipe with your little Magnum (no disservice meant to the pistol, it still saved my ass on multiple occasions). In Halo 4, there always seems to be a power weapon lying around to deal with challenging fights, whereas Halo shoves you into nasty fights with just you standard arsenal. Checkpoints seem to be stretched further apart in Halo 1 too.
2. Guns! As previously mentioned, the BR and Carbine are absent, so you're stuck with either the Plasma Rifle or Assault Rifle. I've always been a fan of the Plasma Rifle, and was dissapointed to see it replaced in Halo 4 with an inferior version. As for the Assault Rifle, there seems to be a shit-ton of ammo for it (massive magazine, dead marines with ammo everywhere, and then the Flood show up carrying it). Pity it takes about 10 seconds to kill anything with it. The Rocket Launcher and Sniper Rifle are pretty much the same insta-killing goodness, and ammo for them seems to be more plentiful than in Halo 4. The one gun that really surprised me was the Shotgun. From being a fairly rare weapon in later Halo games (and totally outclassed by the Scattershot and Halo 4), I ended up using it far more in the latter half of Halo 1 than the crappy Assault Rifle; mowing down Flood in one hit makes fighting them almost bearable.
3. Bad Guys! The Covenant are pretty much the same in Halo 1 and Halo 4. No Brutes, Drones or Engineers, just the trinity of Grunts, Elites and Jackals, with the ocassional Hunter pair thrown in. Pew-pew lasers and plasma 'nades, buisness as usual. The big area of contrast is between the Prometheans and Flood. After 3 games of cursing at those space zombies, are the Prometheans any better? They both epitomise different fighting styles. Whereas the flood love their Zerg-rush, and rely on weight of numbers, the Prometheans prioritise defence. Their Watchers can shield fellow Prometheans, and flee when you shoot them. The Knights can't be headshot, have shields, and teleport to escape you. When they die, they briefly leave behind a spark that can be ressurected by a Watcher Even their cannon-fodder Crawlers have decent defence, meaning they need to be headshot. The Prometheans are less single-note than the Flood (whose tactics generally boil dwon to: grab shotgun, shoot flood while moving backwards), but they can be just as frustratiing, with their habit to slip away just when you thought you had them. Ironically, the shotgun is as good for taking them out as the flood; a couple of quick shots a close range can catch a Knight before the bastard teleports away.
That's enough wall-o'-text for now; I might add some more points later. I always find comparing games in the same series to be entertaining, provided one can get past the Nostalgia Filter!
