Why does everyone hate Halo?

[Cobelo]

I actually really enjoyed Halo: CE, but when they started doing sequels, it got stale quick. They didn't make any real innovations past that, and all the little things they did and the tweaks they made were minor enough that it just stayed stale. Don't get me wrong, i've played (and beaten) all of them with my friends. Reach was probably the most fresh with the armor abilities and such, but it still got stale quickly.

 

[Grimlock Fett]

I don't hate halo. I think CE was one of the best (fps) games I had ever played... at the time.
the story started to drag its feet HARD by the 3rd game! Also It may have just been me but the people playing it online were some of the worst people Ive encountered while playing online games! Most unfriendly over competitive and just rude! Perhaps I bring it out in people! Just the experience I had!

 

[The Human Torch]

I don't hate it. Played Halo 1 to 3, they weren't bad, but they were not very good either. Just an average game that for some reason sold over-average.

 

[lord canti]

To go more in depth with my answer. Once again halo is not a bad game it actually does somethings right. However the series seems to not want to fully explore the amazing potential the universe has, and that doesn't include the books either. Another reason I don't like it is because I believe it to be incredibly mediocre after the first one. The main reason I don't like the series is probably the same why most people don't like other franchises, the fanbase.

 

[Unnamedenemy]

I don't know about anyone else, but I don't HATE Halo, I just don't like it, for several reasons.
first-because it is completely unengaging (as in, uninteresting characters, predictable story, etc),
second-because it is one of the LEAST original games of the last decade (seriously, every single concept of the game came from somewhere else where is was done better),
third-the game design itself was unimaginative,
fourth-it spawned a generation of smack-talking 11-year-olds who swear like drunken sailors and use the "n word" like a 14-year-old girl uses "like" (or FOX using "nazi"),
fifth-because the vehicles (especially the warthog) ranged in handling from "meh" to "flaming pile of ass",
sixth-it got a plethora of perfect scores in spite of all this, which to my mind is incomprehensible (with the exception of reason #4, you can't judge a non-MMO game based on its online community).
So yeah, that enough explanation for you?

 

[fierydemise]

Since everyone seems to be suggesting that those who don't like Halo hate it out of some irrational need to be contrarian let me try to provide a better rationale.

It really isn't that I hate Halo but it does not deserve the praise it gets. Halo: CE deserves some credit for really kick starting the console FPS genre, while I don't particularly enjoy the genre, credit where credit is due. Where Halo becomes very off-putting to many (primarily PC) gamers is when Halo gets hyped not just as a revolutionizer of console FPS games but rather as the progenitor of all FPS games which ignores a lot of early game evolution on the PC. Halo's mechanics are standing on the shoulders of giants and there is nothing wrong with that, thats how gaming (and most things develop) not by constantly reinventing the wheel but by progressing on what has come before.

In a similar line of objection Halo's story gets far too much credit for being some kind of narrative masterpiece when its really pretty standard shooter (and Hollywood action movie) stuff, albeit with better production values. Master chief is not some deep and complex character, he is a pretty standard action hero. Again there is nothing wrong with that I don't always want to go see a movie (or play games) that forces me into important philosophical questions, sometimes I do just want to see Iron Man blow shit up.

Really its not that Halo is a bad game, I actually thought Halo:CE was pretty good, nothing revolutionary but a solid shooter that was fun for a play through. The objection is more to the somewhat rabid fanboys who insist that Halo invented the genre and that Master Chief is a character worthy of Shakespeare. Obviously judging a game by its fanboys isn't fair in the slightest but its hard to not have it leave a bad taste in my mouth.

 

[minimacker]

I guess when people say "It's popular", I think they mean that some things get so much fame and money, even though it could almost be seen as mediocre.
Halo isn't mediocre, we know, but it's not the titanic supergame that people make it out to be.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Snip

No, i'm not saying its not, I'm just saying, those numbers are overinflated. Besides, how popular do you think Halo still is now, where there are new online FPSs to play?

Anyways, a game doesnt have to be good to sell extra stuff. I'mg onna kick myself later for this, but look at the Star Wars universe and all its expansion. cause that wasnt really popular to write about it till after the 1990s/2000s games sold well and the prequel movies.

So no, I wont argue straight face its not one of the better selling franchises, but I will argue straight face about how much of that is actually fans still playing or just spur of the moment and waiting till the next popular FPS comes out.

Snip

Oh, well, oka then. But the card is true, people are gonna hate something cause its popular. I hate Half life (Oh I know. Come at me), just cause of that, but thats just me, and I dont like pc gaming. Or xbox gaming. Though the xbox gaming is more after just a bad experience.

 

[Soxafloppin]

Only played it briefly at a friends house, seemed like a very standard FPS, personally i don't enjoy FPS so i wasnt going to like it in the first place but it doesnt stick out as worse than any other shooter in the world.

 

[Hamster at Dawn]

I honestly really like the Halo games. I don't expect everyone to like them but Bungie puts a lot of work into making the games simply fun. The story and characters mostly suck although are considerably better in ODST/Reach and I must enforce that there IS a story, even if its rather cliched and uninteresting. And whilst the story might not be amazing, the overall lore of the Halo universe is fairly impressive.

In terms of the actual game, it's always been fairly revolutionary. Don't give me that crap about it being the same thing since CE, look at all the features in Reach. Look at the depth of customisation options for multiplayer, firefight and even campaign. Find me another console game which has matchmaking, a map builder and a theatre mode AND implements them as well as Reach. You're going to struggle. Yes, this stuff has been done before in other games. In some games, it's probably even been done better. But look at the overall product.

So yes, Halo has it's flaws but to loosely quote Yahtzee:
"Some times things are popular because they're actually good... or because they have Will Smith in them."
I see a slight irony here since Yahtzee is not a big fan of the Halo series and it's ok to not like it, that's down to preference. But it's like an intricate painting, you might think it looks like ass but you can still appreciate the craftsmanship. So if you don't like Halo for your own reasons then that's allright with me, just don't go slagging it off without good reason.

 

[Samechiel]

I don't hate Halo.

I just think the series is terribly mediocre, and I have difficulty understanding why everyone is so batshit crazy for it.

 

[Netrigan]

Snip

Oh, well, oka then. But the card is true, people are gonna hate something cause its popular. I hate Half life (Oh I know. Come at me), just cause of that, but thats just me, and I dont like pc gaming. Or xbox gaming. Though the xbox gaming is more after just a bad experience.

I think we were both saying much the same thing. Popular things gets more eyes upon them, which inevitably leads to quite a lot of people disliking it. Whether it just be simple differences in taste or people thinking something is good but horribly over-rated.

Halo ends up being at the center of a perfect storm. It changed a lot of core game play in FPS, so many people hate that. It was instrumental in moving the focus of FPS gaming away from the PC, which many people hate. It has among its fanbase some really annoying and ignorant gamers, so that inspires hate. And a lot of people just simply don't think it's good enough to deserve its reputation.

Take Half-Life. You can criticize it all you like, but there's certain innovations that can't be denied. In addition to technical innovations like being the first FPS to feature lip-sync and skeletal modeling, it also brought a lot of new narrative techniques to the table. You're not exactly going to find a lot of people who say that lip-syncing destroyed the genre. Whereas Halo's legacy (I can't quite bring myself to say "innovation") is far more controversial. Things like limited weapon slots and recharging health radically changed the genre... and not always for the best.

 

[GiantRaven]

Its because it's just all been done before. I haven't played them but it looks like (and is from what my friends with Xboxes have told me) a slightly rubbish CoD. With aliens.

Just so you know, Halo came out 2 years before Call of Duty.

But why let silly little things like 'facts' and 'research' get in the way of your argument...

 

[Dfskelleton]

I've played them all once or twice, and I don't really hate it, it's just not as good as some other things out there. In fact, at one time, I was a total Halo fanboy, but then eventually I had enough. I only play it when friends want to or if I want to do something silly in forge, which isn't as cool anymore because I've been spoiled by Gmod and Minecraft and LBP. Also, it's pretty generic when compared to others. I guess out of all the generic FPSes I've played, Halo is my favorite, which isn't saying much.
Oh, and it takes itself far too seriously. Being serious is okay, but when it's taken too serious then it gets silly. This is the same reason why I don't find Dead Space that scary.

 

[Chris646]

Let's see; I dislike Halo because, at best, the game is mediocre,it is unreasonably popular (to quote Yahtzee, "Halo is more popular than God"), and a game should stand up on its single player campaign rather than the multiplayer one, which is most people's reason for liking the Halo games.

 

[Mr Companion]

Its because people spent so much time crapping on about how great it that then you play it all the way through and find out half the content is copy pasted corridors and holding down the trigger on aliens. And then you die because something flew out of nowhere you could reasonably be expected to look at and you have to play the whole damn section of copy pasted corridors over again. THATS why.

 

[imnot]

I don't, I love Halo. I married halo!

 

[WayOutThere]

People (quite reasonably) perceive it as being over-rated and they start resenting it for being far more popular than it deserves to be. People keep saying it just gets hated on because it's popular and the haters think hating on popular things makes them cool. This may be the case for many but it IS rational to feel antipathy for something that is more popular than it deserves to be and is crowding out things that genuinely deserve to be more popular.

Edit: For the record, I think the Halo games are respectably good.

 

[fierydemise]

Find me another console game which has matchmaking, a map builder and a theatre mode AND implements them as well as Reach. You're going to struggle. Yes, this stuff has been done before in other games. In some games, it's probably even been done better. But look at the overall product.

This line here I think also sums up a lot of PC gamer annoyance toward Halo. Its not that it is a bad game but it often feels like since it was on a console its been graded on a curve. I will agree that many of the things Halo has done have been revolutionary for a console but too often Halo is talked about as revolutionary without that ever important modifier.

 

[aguagu1]

I find the combat to be slow and clunky in the multiplayer, but the single player campaign is actually pretty good.