The Escapist Game Circle: Halo

[Russ Pitts]

The Escapist Game Circle: Halo

In honor of the most awe-inspiring media spectacle of all time, the game for October is Halo: Combat Evolved [http://www.mobygames.com/game/xbox/halo-combat-evolved], the game about a cyborg with a hologram in his head that started it all back in 2001. Was the story really inspiring enough to justify two sequels? Does it make any sense at all that this game and its spawn have sold millions of copies and defined "shooter" for the last two console generations? You tell me.

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[Andy Chalk]

I ain't doin' it.

 

[SatansBestBuddy]

Way to let him down gently, Malygris.

I haven't actually played Halo, and seeing what all the fuss is about seems like a good idea, but I've already got my mind set on Hotel Dusk, and I'm one of those poor souls plugging away at Deus Ex, so it'll have to wait.

Maybe in a couple of weeks.

 

[keithburgun]

I just want to say, I love this site. I love the critical attitude, it is SO refreshing, and I love the focus on discussion and questioning. I wish there were more sites like this one. Maybe I'll pick up HALO and try it out (again) (I tried it for PC and was like THIS SUCKS, uninstalled.)

-Keith

 

[Dyselon]

I played through the first Halo just a couple weeks ago with my wife, and we had a great time. Here's some notes:
* We both felt it was pretty average as far as first person shooters go, but that basically any game is great if you can play it co-op.
* The Library level was pretty miserable, and sort of soured us to the last couple of levels. We spent a lot of time after that basically trying to skip as many encounters as we could.
* The game has a lot of identical corridors and a fair amount of back tracking, but I didn't really mind it that much.
* Knowing that people go ga-ga over the Halo story, we were a little disappointed to find that there basically isn't any this game. You crash on a planet, and pretty much spend the whole game just trying to get your shit together.
* That being said, the "story" such as it is (i.e. Cortanna telling you what to do) does a good job keeping the levels and encounters tied together. I often didn't really know when one level was over and the next one had started, at least in the first part of the game. The pacing is really good until... Hmm... I think the part when you grav lift into the Covenant ship is where things became a little disjointed for me. It could have just been fatigue, though - We played through the whole game in basically a day and a half - so maybe I'd have liked it better if I'd taken things a little slower.

 

[John Funk]

It's sort of not quite fair to Halo to discuss it without discuss what made it an enduring "classic" in the yes of many gamers--the multiplayer. I played the splitscreen multiplayer with good friends for a few years before I ever got around to beating the actual game myself (I had a difficult time finding my way around the first level where you meet the Flood, and the Library level that Dyselon mentions is yes, the worst level in the game).

So in addition to beating Bungie's first title in this massively profitable series, grab a few friends and a case of beer and blow each other to kingdom come in splitscreen.

My personal favorite level is Hang Em' High.

 

[goestoeleven]

Halo gets unfairly bashed because of its popularity in the mainstream. It's not the most innovative game - in fact, it's often extraordinarily derivative. But it feels right. It's simply one of the most smooth, intuitive games ever made.

The mix of tactical action and fast-paced shoot-em-up, the weight and feel of the weapons, the sense that the levels aren't completely scripted (ahem, Half-Life), and an above-average story in execution, if not content.

I don't mean to simply fawn over it. It's got its fair share of major flaws, namely repetitive level design and bland interior graphics.

But as far as its position as console gaming royalty, I think it's well-deserved. We can't honestly expect a game like Deus Ex to appeal to everyone, even though it may excel in the areas we (as quote "intelligent" gamers) find more important. Halo finds a way to appeal to just about everyone in some way or another.

Plus, it has co-op. And just about any game (except Brute Force) with co-op immediately shoots to very good, if not right to great.

 

[LordLocke]

One has to remember that Halo is basically the first console FPS that did everything right- or at least right enough that even PC gamers were sitting down and taking a look at it. Goldeneye and Perfect Dark were ok games, sporting some good design features that I'm glad that live on in most FPS games (Quick setup, large number of gameplay modes, high customization) but between the spotty controls, the awful framerate, poor hit detection, and limited view, I can't see anyone who had access to a PC and Quake/Quake II actually giving those titles a second glimpse come time to actually stop fiddling with the options and start the blasted game. (I didn't.)

That said, Halo still holds up pretty well today, even against it's sequel (I haven't played H3 yet, so I can't comment about that) and Half-Life 2. It's campaign is a pretty entertaining affair on it's own, but with full two-player support for co-op, as well as linked-system multiplay, there was little excuse not to be playing it with other people when the chance arose. That said, the game occasionally fell victim to "I'm a generic sci-fi universe syndrome" where all the areas look like they were ripped straight from Babylon 5 concept art, but the enemies managed to (mostly) buck that trend. The levels got a little repetitive (apparently, Bungie forgot some of the lessons learned with Marathon and decided that every level was going to play out exactly the same, just with Flood instead sometimes) but it was repetitive of what is probably the best-balanced FPS experience of the time- so it's not entirely a bad thing.

Still one of most recommended titles for someone looking to get into FPS games from the console standpoint, especially if they got a buddy to play it with 'em.

 

[Andy Chalk]

Halo doesn't get bashed because of its popularity, it gets bashed because it's a half-assed shooter. It may have been the best FPS to ever land on a console, but compared to shooter titles for the PC it was sheer mediocrity. I can't speak about Halo 2 or 3, Bungie may have upped the ante considerably with those efforts, but the original Halo was a massive hit primarily because there wasn't much else out there to compete with it.

I picked it up awhile after it came out and muscled my way to the end of the Library or whatever the hell it was, a tedious slog through one of the worst examples of cut-and-paste level design I've ever seen, only to find out I had to turn around and do it all again, backwards. That's when I became of common mind with Keith, THIS SUCKS, uninstalled.

I can be pretty masochistic with my games. It takes a lot to bring me to ground before I reach the end of a game; I could probably count the total number of games I've failed to finish over the past ten years on one hand. But Halo is one of them. The weapons were boring, the enemies were repetitive and dull and the aforementioned level design was painful. I feel kind of bad putting the boots to this thing so enthusiastically on its first day, but I honestly can't see why it's regarded as a good game, much less the unprecedented hit it became.

And I still ain't doin' it.

 

[LordLocke]

(That above said, I'd still suggest that anyone with a half-decent PC forget that Halo exists and grab the Half-Life games first for single-player, and a Team Fortress and Unreal Tournament title for multiplayer- Halo's the big fish of the small pond, and it's still second banana at best once put against it's PC brethren.)

 

[John Funk]

Malygris, I feel your pain about the single player. Might you try my suggestion for friends + splitscreen + beer = multiplayer fun? The multiplayer game is arguably as important to the Halo games (if not more) than the singleplayer, and it's worth a shot.

Yes, PC FPS' have great multiplayer too, but a good console FPS offers an experience difficult to replicate on PC--being with your friends together in a room, slaughtering each other in virtual form on the screen, and just having a blast in general.

 

[Alex Karls]

I think that Halo succeeded because it broke open FPS for the console players. I can't really say that it was better or worse at being an FPS than any random PC FPS, mostly because that's a really subjective statement that I'm not sure can really be made. That said, it went to the top of my list within a week or two of being released.

My favorite levels are probably Assault on the Control Room and Two Betrayals. Both take place on the same map, one going in, the other coming out. Each experience is also completely different. One way, you're busting Covenant heads and engaging in traditional warfare. The other, you're dealing with the Flood. I cannot count the number of times I replayed both of those levels, both single player and co-op.

So, anyone else find the Flood a really really creepy version of zombies?

 

[Joe]

Malygris, I feel your pain about the single player. Might you try my suggestion for friends + splitscreen + beer = multiplayer fun? The multiplayer game is arguably as important to the Halo games (if not more) than the singleplayer, and it's worth a shot.

The sad part is that doesn't have to be the case. Take a look at Goldeneye. The single-player was damn fun, if based on the movie, and the multiplayer was better than Halo's.

That's why I like this Game Circle idea, actually. It gives us all a chance to go back to the beginning and take a second look at what we really like (or don't like) about the Halo series.

 

[Evilducks]

I played Halo through and all I can remember is the Library. Few things in gaming have burned my brain to the point of inspiring a cringe every time I recall the game. I thought perhaps that it was a problem with being on the console so when I happened across it for the PC I gave it another shot. 15 minutes into the Library I quit and uninstalled the game all together. I was shocked that despite the huge gap between the xbox and PC release nothing had been done to correct that.

I liked the multiplayer aspect of Halo, but only after we had derived games that essentially took the FPS completely out of that particular FPS. We ended up creating a game we jokingly refer to as Jeepy. You get you and 3 of your friends in Blood Gulch with warthogs and invisibility and try to run eachother down. The only weapon you can use is the grenade to get people out of their jeeps and kills with grenades don't count. If you're wondering, we managed to get Warthogs EVERYWHERE in that level trying to get to people. On top of bases, through caves, in bases, it was good times.

I guess if you want to rely on the players to make abstract rules to make your game fun then it did well, as an off the shelf shooter with standard multiplayer elements it wasn't anything to brag about.

 

[supernaut [deprecated]]

i'm a bit of a mark for the halo series, i wasn't into fps's alot before halo was released.
It wasn't the storyline, or the balance in multiplayer, or anything that was mentioned that hooked me like a retarded cod, it was the simple fact of vehicles. Vehicles in an fps that didn't suck, it looked like the starship troopers cg show, it had a tank, who needs anything else. looking back from halo 2 the game wasn't very smooth or balanced, the storyline kinda bites but i still like it, and yes, the campaign sucks, but the countless hours of multiplayer is what made me love this game so much, which i hardly play anymore, halo 2 is my current lover, and as soon as i get a chance i'll dump that ho for halo 3, it looks amazing ( because I don't speak latin) it is as close as i can get to my ideal video game, and it wins) that game is a cross between oblivion and halo, and warcraft, and world of warcraft, with great graphics and AI and specific customization, maybe in ten years or so

 

[Zoidbergio]

People that don't understand the fuss about Halo are missing the point. As a big fan, I don't give a crap about the campaigns, they're good to play through once or twice but they aren't what makes halo great.

It's all about the multiplayer.

Back in the N64 days, GoldenEye came out and was the first console FPS that you could play for hours with your friends and have lots of fun.

Then Halo came along years later and upped the ante.

System link and great gameplay was what made Halo so loved by so many people.
I remember so many fun nights linking up xboxes and battling it out.
4 people in one room with one xbox and 4 people in another room with another xbox. One room housing the blue team, the other, red.
3 hour capture the flag sessions on sidewinder and blood gulch were the most fun multiplayer you could have.
The excitement of a good kill or a flag capture can result in yelling to the other room, and the system link games generally were very spirited, lively, and a total blast.

The console equivalent of a LAN party, I guess.

Halo 2 was the first truly great online FPS for consoles.

Fun as hell gameplay.
A great matchmaking tool to get right into the action.
A great community of custom games; Zombies, Tremors, and other honor-based fanmade gametypes were always a blast.
And the ability to track stats over the internet was cool to play with.

Halo 2 had a replay value of literally years and I still popped it in on occasion up to the release of halo 3.

Now Halo 3 is here.

I finished the campaign, had no idea what the hell was going on most of the time. Couldn't understand what cortana was saying 3/4 of the time. The plot was a joke and the ending made no sense, neither did the rest of it for that matter. But it was a fun playthrough.

The multiplayer is great. It's just really fun to mix it up with other people, win or lose.

The halo series offers above average single player campaigns which are fun and challenging but do not make halo what it is.

The Halo series in each iteration has been the best, most fun, and longest-lasting, multiplayer experience of its time on any available console. That is why it sells like crack and millions of people love it so much. Because it is the most fun way for console gamers to play together.

 

[timbo1138]

I still have a borrowed copy of Halo for PC lying around somewhere at home, so if I can find time over the next month in between the glut of better games coming out, like the Orange Box and Quake Wars, not to mention Crysis and UT3 next month, I will chuck it back on and have another bash at it.

I'm not sure how far I got through the game percentage-wise last time. I believe I was just escaping from the Covenant ship after rescuing Captain Whatshisname, so I dunno, halfway maybe. I found it... okay. I didn't like the chunky console-port feel that the controls had, but I suppose that's unavoidable. The combat and general gameplay was alright, but I didn't feel like it was anything to write home about. It felt like a fairly generic shooting gallery in a series of pretty-looking environs. The AI was fairly uninspiring, with "Check it out, we can hide behind rocks and jump out" about the smartest move they ever pulled on me, but at least the friendlies seemed pretty smart. The story was derivative and largely unoriginal, but no more so than most any tough-space-dude-shooting-aliens film or game you could care to name.

So my general feeling on the game really seems to be "I can't name anything expressly bad about it." Apart from the endless shooting gallery feeling and the checkpoint-based save system, nothing was particularly annoying about it when I was playing it, and I was finding it perfectly enjoyable. I stopped playing it because something more interesting came along. The fact that I can't actually remember what that game was might be telling, or it might not be, I don't really know. Halo, to me, is inoffensive fun that's nothing to write home about. I'm not particularly interested in the multiplayer because I have my own tastes in that arena, most of which tend more towards games like Battlefield and Quake Wars. I get the impression that Halo multi doesn't really translate too well to PC, kind of getting lost in the sea of other, better games. And honestly, that sums up the single player too, doesn't it? I'm a keen FPS player, and there are just so many PC shooters I can name that are better and more to my tastes than Halo, both in single and multiplayer. Perhaps the earlier poster who called it a "big fish in a small pond" was completely right: it's the single best shooter you can get on a console, but FPS has always been the PC's bread and butter and when yanked out of the pond and tossed into the ocean, Halo resurfaces bobbing around the area of "above average", looking enviously at the horizon where the more unique and exceptional games are.

I guess what I'm saying here is that I'm not really the best person to judge Halo's appeal. I'm not its target audience, in a number of ways. Its success is phenomenal, and it's sure done a great deal to push videogaming further into the mainstream, but that's about the limit of my thoughts and opinions on it. It's mass-market pap, I guess, but there's nothing expressly wrong with mass-market pap. Just like film as a genre needs to have dumb-fun blockbusters as well as highbrow, intelligent movies, so does gaming.

So yeah, Halo. I'm not a lover, and I'm not a hater. I'm basically completely indifferent to it, but do certainly understand the appeal. Hooray.

 

[erock7101]

Man, I'm almost afraid to post anything here about why I liked Halo, but here goes... My first experience with an FPS was Medal Of Honor: Frontline on the PS2. I had a friend who thought all things Sony and Sony related were pure evil, that they were out to take over the world, to use his words, with crappy hardware and games. Unlike MS, whose motives are completely altruistic, I said, but I digress. I was going over to his place and watching him play Halo constantly, praising it to the heavens. Interestingly enough, I only ever saw him play the Library level over and over, which is the one everybody here seems to hate the most. I'm thinking to myself, 'Well hell, this doesn't look any better or different than MOH. I don't know what the big deal is here', but he kept badgering me to try it for myself. I refused, stating that I was content to simply watch, though in reality I didn't feel like embarassing myself in front of him and his friends (I suck at FPSs). A few weeks later I bought my first X-Box, along with Buffy the Vampire Slayer (yikes, another friend's recommendation) and Halo. By this time, everybody was saying Halo was the greatest thing since sliced bread; I felt I had to give it a fair shake. After playing for several hours, I decided that this was one of the best games I had ever played. It felt smoother and more focused than MOH. I know this is gonna sound stupid, but I really got off on the reload animation for the AR; in the middle of a firefight, even more so. The multiplayer aspect was a really good time as well, when I was able to 1) get my friends to come over and play, and 2) not suck so much.

To my discredit, I've never played an FPS on a PC, and at the rate I'm going, I probably never will (new Mac owner, don't'cha know...). All this talk about deeper storylines and tighter controls on PC FPSs is going right over my head. I simply believe that Halo is a damned fun game to play.

 

[Alex Karls]

As someone who loves story in video games, I've always had a hard time with FPSs. They rarely deliver the kind of story content that actually leaves me satisfied. Halo was different. When I sat down to play Halo, I was well and truly satisfied. I'm not a big fan of eating take out, so I'd compare it to finally getting a home cooked meal when all I've been eating is fast food. It told a story, and told it decently, and in so doing offered me much more than I'd experienced before.

Just before it was released, I looked into the Marathon story. I'd never played Marathon single-player, just multi-player at a few cons, so I was kinda sad I'd missed out on the awesome that was that game. That is, until I learned more about Halo, and knew I'd get something approaching that old Marathon experience. Halo ended up being fairly light, compared to the multi-game crazy that was the Marathon storyline, but it did a damn fine job with what it had.

My one regret is Halo's ending. While they hit some good emotional peaks, it didn't pop like I'd wanted. That's probably the reason I now consider the last few levels to be the most important in terms of game design, as I believe a game story has to have a good conclusion. Anything else just won't satisfy the same.

 

[Andy Chalk]

Everytime Halo comes up in conversation and I call bullshit, inevitably one of the first things I hear is ...BUT THE MULTIPLAYER IS AWESOME! So, bearing in mind that I am absolutely not going to try it, someone tell me what was so amazing about it that it would be better to fire up at a LAN than Quake, Half-Life, UT (in any of their iterations) or a mod for any of the three? I'm serious about this; as a PC gamer I have FPS titles up the wazoo, plus access to infinity+1 mods for them, so what makes Halo stand out?