As you may already know I am a big Halo fan. I love the series in every single way you can possibly imagine: the story, art style, game play, soundtrack; well as I said: everything. I consider the series to be the most important shooter ever created (skipping Doom/Wolfestein obviously). But as I circled the internet forums more and more I saw lots of people saying Halo was overrated or that Half Life was so much better than Halo, etc. I got instantly mad, not for the arguments that Half Life was better, because that is mere subjective reasoning, but against the people that said Halo was overrated.
My question is: was there really a good shooter for a console before Halo? I really don't think so. Shooters in consoles were plagued with weapon scrolling, which had me switching over 20+ weapons to get the one I wanted. In this Halo succeeded immensely, because it was the first shooter to introduce primary/secondary weapon system, this not only added tons of strategy into the game, but also a perfect way to end that nonsense weapon scrolling, which works amazingly well on PCs, but not in consoles.
Another thing Halo Combat Evolved did wonderfully for console shooters is to actually create a perfect aiming system for joysticks. Up to this point I had to press a bottom to aim the weapon, or sometimes the aiming was stupidly imprecise. Yes, Halo uses lots of Auto Aim, but it leaves enough room for skill. And if you are the type of guy that talks sh17 like: "oh n03s! Hal0 n33dz n0 sk1llz" then man I invite you to play against me, I'll kick you ass of I promise.
Hell, for the first time ever in shooters using melee was actually useful and fun. I remember having to actually switch to "fist" in Doom/Golden Eye to save bullets, and it was practically useless as a weapon. Halo on the other hand had a melee system that was useful for a change, was fun, and actually implemented another layer of strategy to the game.
In my experience in gaming, which I have lots (check my XBL gamer score/GS collection for reference), I have never seen a good vehicle system that is not from Halo.Half Life 2 vehicle chapters just suck, for either PC/Xbox/Xbox 360. If I had to rate from 1 to 10 it I would put it a 2, and that is the second best vehicle system across all games. Using a warthog, a ghost, a banshee, everything, is just so rewarding: making splatters, taking your buddy with his flag back to base, supporting infantry with some air strikes, just amazing and fun.
Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3 campaigns are all superb. The storyline for the games is so good, with the books I think it's one ofthe best stories ever made for a video game (skipping adventure games like Grim Fandango/Longest Journey). Yes, Half Life for me is a straight second, and Metal Gear Solid a Third. Storyline is not the only thing that makes a good single player campaign, we also have to consider level design. This is where Halo CE and Halo 3 (not Halo 2) really succeed. Every mission is perfectly balanced, it's never too hard, or cheap hard, and it's never too easy. There are never too many enemies that could overwhelm you, and not so few to bore you, it's perfect. Rushing the beaches of Silent Cartographer, exploring the cold in Assault on the Control Room, taking a de tour in Sierra 117, landing into the epic Ark, all is just impressive and mind juggling. Going with my Scorpion Tank blowing every piece of **** that comes across my way, having my marines yelling: "Tanks beats ghost; tank beats hunter; tank beats everything!" Is so rewarding and epic. And this is exactly what drives Halo: coolness. For Bungie is all about making the game cool, period.
Many people still argue that Bungie never really introduced new game play to Halo 2 and Halo 3... Well, why mess with something that is already perfect? This is why Bungie went to other direction is the sequels of the first game, because you can't really improve what is already perfect, therefore Bungie added superb online to Halo 2, new enemies, new cinematic styles, a few gameplay reparations, and Halo 2 was still a very impressive game. Same with Halo 3, but Bungie did so much better with the last installment: FORGE, Saved Films, 4 player Co Op, super balance to every weapon in the game, equipment, armor permutations, double rank (skill/EXP), crazy ass roller coaster single player, meta game, better skull system, infinite multiplayer options, best AI in the market, tons of new weapons and vehicles, awesome graphics (just look at Sierra 117 for Christ sake), best soundtrack and sound mechanics ever build in a video game, and finally: best ending ever.
I'd like to mention something about that last point, and others I've talked about in this blog post. Just because the story isn't complex it means the story sucks, actually, Halo 3 script is very well written, and it's filled with joy, full joy. Bungie went in this direction with Halo after Halo 1: if you like to be complex, then go read the books, if you don't just play the game and learn the upper layer of the whole thing. To be totally honest with you I believe Halo's books are just too deep and interesting, every detail carried out nicely in the reading, and connecting these details with in game sequences is one of the best experiences I have come across in video games, ever.
To finish I'd like to say I AM missing TONS of good things about Halo, these are just a few, but this blog is to remind idiots that Halo is Halo, it's the same quality of game as Half Life or Call of Duty 4 if not much better. Yes, it's all subjective, but the reason it may seem that everyone hates Halo, is because the tons of people that love it and would defend the game till death are playing the game right now, unlike you with your games, cockbites.
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