It would be hard to argue Halo's greatness. The most important parts of any game were on the frontlines. Controls and fun factor. The weapons and vehicles enjoy classic status, because of the extremely tight control. The overall feel of Master Chiefs movement was top notch. You felt like you had weight under that suit and as a result, Halo also enjoys great pacing. Controls and weapons. Like chocolate and peanut butter. It made for a whole lot of fun during campain and especially mutiplayer.
In Halo the shotgun felt nasty! It had power, and you never wanted to come up against it. In Halo 2 I don't even pick it up. The assault rifle was awesome, and it would shred it's opponents, but where did it go? The original Halo sniper was very cool, and included a nice touch with its night vision mode. Gone in Halo 2, but we did get picture in picture. Thanks Bungie.:P Halo was cool because it also added some sweet plasma guns. The plasma rifle and pistol had some unique features. The rifle would almost stop you in your tracks as your opponent moved in for the melee. What if you were stuck with the plasma pistol? No worries, just shoot away. But in Halo 2 it does about as much damage as a flea.
Which brings us to the human pistol. Power and precision. Maybe a little to over powered, but it sure was fun. The pistol may as well not exist in Halo, because it's that broken. How about when Bungie said we would want to pick up the needler. I'm still waiting...:| How about the Covenant Carbine, or sniper? Trash! Brute Shot? Trash! Plasma rifle? Trash! There all trash! Halo 2 has garbage weapons, and garbage control. The only good weapon's in Halo 2 are the Battle rifle, human snipe, and rockets. We all wanted the sword, and look what happened. Now we all fly through the air without any skill.
Halo 2 has the worst sense of melee ever put forth into a game. How is it physically possible the lunge in mid-air? Guys lunge at me from 15 feet away, and in thin air no less. It literally ruins the game, and makes it fun for unskilled noobs. What happened to the hard hitting melee of Halo? It took skill to beat down you foe in Halo, and it felt strong and powerfull! In Halo 2 we fly and miss each other, only to be assassinated from the front. WTH?:|
I remember all the hype from Bungie about Halo 2. There were all these cool possibilities for Halo 2. We would be able to pilot dropships, or at the very least blow them out of the sky! More Spartan soldiers! System link co-op, and an amazing campain! All lost. They were all lost. Instead we get a forgetable campain, Terrible A.I., and the brutes to go along with it. What about the that Longbow bombing run from the E3 video years back. Nothing! What did we get? We got to play as an Elite.:| Who cares? I was pissed! There go 3 of the coolest aspects from Halo. One, playing as Master Chief. Two, playing an awesome campain. And three, the A.I.. The A.I. in Halo was enough to make you cry. Now I get stupid Elites who jump on crates, so that I can get a better shot at them. Wow.:| So I'm calling out Halo 3. I'm telling it like I see it.
Halo 2 makes me realize that Bungie never knew what they had to begin with. The only good thing Bungie gave us was the abbility to finally play multiplayer online, and they couldn't even get that right. We spawned with SMG's, so that we couldn't defend ourselves. Further proof is the fact that they had to update their own game, so that we could have the original Halo grenades back. WTF Bungie? Halo was an accident. Pure and simple.
Halo had something special within it's simplicity. If the fans could have made the second game, they would have made Fall Of Reach into a game! Maybe tweak the pistol, and add a sweet campain. Simple stuff I guess, but look what happened. Anyway, for those who don't know, Fall Of Reach was the first Halo novel. I would have atleast put some sort of cool flashback sequence. Something. Anything! Anything but what we got. I'll expect nothing different from Halo 3. This game shouldn't even come out until it becomes something epic. Something memorable. Even if they had until 2008 I'm not sure if it would help.
If after 3 years we got Halo 2. 3 years! Is there any reason to believe Halo 3 will be any better? From what I've gathered of various leaked videos, community, and weekly updates; the answer is no.:( Don't get me wrong. I think Halo 3 will end up being exact what the fans want. The multiplayer will destroy everything else, presumably because it will be just like the first game. Bungie will probably fix the melee, shotgun, and plasma pistol. The sniper will be just like Halo's. They will bring back the trusty pistol and assault rifle, and they'll throw us the very cool Spartan Laser. I here some ohhh's and ahhh's. Even the art direction resembles more of Halo than it does Halo 2, which is a good thing. If we're lucky we may just get the control back, but it won't be enough to save what could have been a great series.
I believe this game will slip through there fingers just as the second one did. This is Halo 3 people! We should be involved in large scale warfare, with multiple tanks, and large forces clashing at midfield. Longbows streaking through the skies dropping all kinds of hell. There should be other Spartans fighting along side you. We need to be Master freeking Chief! Give us the pistol!! We should have been destroying the Elites, not becoming them. We need to be able to finally pilot those dropships, and take them down. Friend or foe, take them down! Everybody should fall. I should be able to take them all out. That's what made Halo fun. It was fun to take on your own soldiers. Bring back the A.I.. Bring back the tough, hard hitting melee that you lost. We want the control back! Give us the first 4 person co-op campain online, and make it amazing. Fix that level design, and make me want to play further than Cairo Station. Give us a story to remember. Bring back Halo!
Please bring it back.
But these words go unheard. We go unheard. We are going to lose everything Halo before Bungie gets done, and there is nothing we can do about it.:(
The only constant throughout all this is Martin O' Donnel's amazing musical score, because it was the only thing good about Halo 2.
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