What have the Halo games done for us?

[Ghaleon640]

Now I haven't played a lot of shooters, but generally I have felt that a part of what made its multiplayer so good is that even if you are caught from behind, depending on the weapons, you have a chance to get out alive, and it still feels relativly balanced. I love perfect dark, (yes a really old game,) but its no fun to die a million times over by instant kills, bombs and the like. At least with a rocket launcher you can dodge.

........ long story short, I think players felt screwed less often because you could fight back, and it was fluid. The aiming worked well, the weapons had a nice variety, and there was still a sense of balance. .... (if my answer is stupid, I blame it on being tired as hell. Long last few days.)

 

[redisforever]

I had fun. That is what they did for me.

 

[Polaris19]

For the history of games or recently?

Either way, a lot.

Halo pretty much made console first person shooters a thing. If you play any FPS on the 360 or PS3 today, you have Halo to thank for proving it was something that could be done, because prior to Halo, people were unsure if first person shooters could even be done on a console, much less be successful.

Bungie, who made Halo up until now, are also the model of fan interactivity. They have always been very caring about their fan base, far and above most other developers. They have also used fan input in making changes and fixes to the games numerous times.

The Halo multiplayer also has more pieces to it than a lot of people seem to think, and it takes more than just having the best gun and position. There is a skill level to this game, despite what some people say about it.

It;s also the reason the Xbox had the reception it did. Halo was the game that made the console, just like Mario makes Nintendos years ago.

Aside from that, the two weapon inventory, Red vs Blue, regeneration, forge (which brought some amazing custom games that kept me up late many times).

It's done a lot really, it's just that in this day and age people seem more interested in this whole 'modern war' thing not to mention Halo has been around for awhile and now seems to be falling a bit in some peoples eyes. I still love it though, I thought Reach was a return to form, but that was just me it seems.

 

[flaviok79]

The guy below said it best. Before HaloCE,shooters werei based on Doom.Halo made it work for consoles and more, made most weapons matter, with the carrying limit.before it, nobody used the first weapons after getting the great ones.It is the template of all modern shooters, the reason Xbox is alive and so many other things I can' t begin to make justice. Look it up.

It proved shooters could work on a console.

The Xbox would not have been successful without it.

It became the template for the modern FPS.

It has provided us with many hours of entertainment.

So yes, it has done quite a lot for us.

 

[IDS3Remix]

I have yet to this day been able to think of anything positive Halo has done for the FPS Genre, aside from bring it to the forefront for a larger audience. Regenerating health and the two weapon limit as seen in most FPS games today, I have Halo to thank for that. If Halo was a person, I would thank them with a bullet.

Gone are the days where you had to learn via trial and error, with a small amount of health you weren't always able to gain back easily. I miss running from helicopters, scared for my in-game character's life, because if they got shot one more time, that was it! Now I can get shot with missiles, stabbed, shot, and the only con is that I have to wait for the blood to fall off my face so I can get back into battle.

Pretty much, everything Halo did right (i.e: vehicles and jetpacks), Starsiege: Tribes did better, and earlier, but do they get any recognition? *sigh...

 

[Xanadu84]

It was popular, and however much we like to whine about this, if a game is that popular, it did something very right.

As for what it brought...well, it brought the FPS into the mainstream. It was the wobbly first steps of a genre giant onto the console stage.

 

[ResonanceGames]

Pretty much, everything Halo did right (i.e: vehicles and jetpacks), Starsiege: Tribes did better, and earlier, but do they get any recognition? *sigh...

Uh...what? Starsiege tribes did not have vehicles and Halo didn't have jetpacks until last year. Tribes was and is a great game though, no argument there.

 

[AJax_21]

They've provided me with many, many hours of entertainment and fun with my friends.

... That's about it, really, and that's all I was looking for.

yup, that's about it. And you get to punch a tank in the face.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

They have created something that everyone else is talking about..

Also:

Brought peace?

Oh peace.... SHUT UP!

Next you'll be telling me they brought the Aqueduct.

 

[hailfire]

halo CE revolutionized first person shooters by popularizing the recharchable sheild bar, and making a game so perfectly balenced that it ushered in the age of LAN partys, which evolved into the Xbox live partys we know today.

 

[VoidWanderer]

What they have done for us (in a positive light)...

Storyline, no that's been done better.

Gunplay... Nope, that's not it...

Narrative? Marines fighting evil aliens... oh look another alien race.... Nope, not original.

Brought the Unreal MMOFPS to the console? Yeah

 

[Cpu46]

Strangely i can only think of bad things...

Introduced hundreds of thousands of 7 year olds to the glorious wonders of rapid-fire swearing down a microphone in a voice like nails on glass in such a way that even 10 years later those same [REDACTED][footnote]I did that instead of coming up with a decent insult, so shoot me.[/footnote] can still go back to having voices like nails on glass. And who are to this day putting people like me off ever playing console FPS's online again.

Arguably it was more the Xbox than Halo itself that brought the children. Consoles before then had always been aimed more at younger audiences who couldn't or chose not to use PC's for multiple reasons. The Xbox, being the first to have online play as a focus, was picked up by the tikes. The resulting shitstorm was inevitable, Halo just happened to be the major launch title.
Also, I find the players in the current Halo games to be much more sociable and nicer than the players in Call of Duty or Battlefield. But that just me.

Popularised the two-weapon-inventory system, which later spawned the two-weapon-inventory-and-token-sidearm system.

The weapon system in Halo worked brilliantly with the combat system. The fact that subsequent games decided to use it too is not Halo's fault.

Gave us the greatest "How to not do RTS games" guide to date. Called Halo Wars, if youve forgotten.

Agreed, moving on.

Popularised the concept of regenerating health, which i wish could just be turned off for real men who like deflecting bullets with thier chins.

This one is a tough one. Halo had regenerating shields under which there were many squishy bits that required medpacks to heal. Halo 2 technically was the first one that had regenerating health. It had shields and a health bar that was not visible and the invisible hit points did regenerate once the shields started recharging. However I feel like most of the blame rests on Infinity Ward. Call of duty 2 had what we now know as regenerating health, with the screen turning red and the heartbeat and whatnot. It was released less than a year after Halo 2 and it is safe to say that the health regeneration was planned early in COD 2 development.

Popularised sniper wars. Something i will hold against it to my grave and beyond.

Having one sniper rifle (Two if it was a CTF map) on a map can cause a sniper war? Unless you played a custom game then there should have been no such problem. Unless you mean Halo 3's shotgun/sniper online multiplayer mode.

 

[Terminate421]

Provided us with many many many hours of entertainment and fun, and a formula that only belongs to that franchise. All the haters who say all FPS's are the same, have never played Halo.

Also, Red Vs. Blue

 

[Erana]

At least they didn't try to be realistic, and they could justify the health regeneration. Unlike all the Modern Warfare clones (and just so you know, I did enjoy Modern Warfare 1 for a while.)

This, totally.

I've tried a lot of FPSs, but the ones I find myself drawn to are the ones that aren't trying so hard to be "realistic." Halo:CE was colorful and fantastical and even the most loathed and boring level, The Library, had an aesthetically pleasing palette and construction.

Spoiler

Lol, random warthogs

And then the neon blood, and the suprisingly mild gore of the Flood just really clicked with me. I don't want to play a FPS for gritty realism or violence, I just like the gameplay.

I wish that was part of what swept the FPS genre...

they basically fucked up the genre in my eyes, since it has two weapons and all.

I wouldn't go blaming Halo for messing up the genre. I mean, picture the game if it hadn't been such a hit- the regenerating shield and the two weapons systems would have just been an interesting gameplay quirk in a footnote of history.

I can't help but wonder what a lot of gameplay mechanics would have been like if they had become as common as regenerating health...

 

[Torrasque]

It became one of the most popular FPS games ever made, probably started the current FPS craze that MW3 and BF3 are riding, broke records with every single game they released, and single handedly made the xbox successful.
Not to mention that Halo has some of the craziest die-hard fans out there, even playing xbox live until they physically cannot play it anymore.

For me, I've always been able to play Halo because it is so fun. Whether it is firefight in ODST, campaign in Halo 2, or MP in Reach, Halo is just really fun.