Banthor Stands Defiant.
Halo

Microsoft / Bungee

2003

I Stand Defiant.

Even with our glorious leader stricken I will not forget the reason why this site exists and why I am sitting here typing while my boss is not looking. And that is to warn you, the reader, of games that suck. And if a games sucks I will say so, no matter who or how many people think otherwise.

Halo is one such game. Loved by Movie Stars, Professional Sports players, and millions of Gamers and Jocks the world over, it is not loved by me. Frankly I see Halo as being a little higher than Red Faction 2.

I am not saying the Halo is a BAD game, I am saying that it is not a GREAT game, certainly not worthy of the popularity it has received, which confuses me greatly. Has my PC made me Jaded? Have FPS console games sucked so much that one would BUY A WHOLE SYSTEM just to play a decent one? Is the market now so ruled by Jocks and those gamers Spike TV’s Game Awards were marketed to that those like me are doomed to play these watered down games? Or is it simply that Halo just found a never before seen niche in the gaming market?

To kill any claims that I did not like the game because I set my hopes too high, keep in mind I waited over a year to play this game, so I was in no rush to get it. I did play Halo all the way though on the PC, but I have played it a bit on the Xbox too. So to even the playing field I will only make comments about the general game play, not things specific to either platform. Except for this, I could not use bind the enter key to jump. Ever since I have been ABLE to jump in a PC game I have used enter to do it. Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to un-train myself to use enter?!? It would have cost them dearly if there was a jump puzzle in the game.

So, why do I think this game is not the “ultimate gaming experience” it has been marketed as?

Well first off, there is NOTHING new in Halo. All of Halo I have seen before in other games. Aliens bent on the destruction of earth? Been done. Zombies? Been done. Under-used Vehicles? Done. Lone gun-touting super-warrior as humanity’s last hope? Been done to DEATH. Yes, Yes, I know it has been done to death for years and will for year to come, and we will still think it is cool, but come on! Give Master Chief a flaw or some sliver of nuance to character, please!

Second is the game play. For starters you only move at one speed, a cautious walk. Which is fine, except when you are tiring to get away from, say, A FREAKING GREANADE!! Turning was slow too. And some reason, at least for me anyway, it felt like the game had a very narrow field of vision. I would often die, especially in the multiplayer mode, and not know what hit me. That got really annoying fast.

Note the Evolution of Combat. Then there were just some odd aspects of the game that did not make any sense. Like the vehicles. They were pretty much in the game for multiplayer, but they insisted on putting them into the single player mode. So you use them precious few times, and not for very long. The Warthog is used the most used by far, but all you ever to is drive it, you never get to shoot anyone with the cool machine gun on the back, at least not without getting killed quickly. Also the vehicles are indestructible. If they get hit by a rocket or grenade YOU and every one inside dies, but the vehicle itself is fine. What, are explosions at a premium now? This aspect is extremely aggravating in the multiplayer, but I will get into that later. You could also not move the camera independent of a vehicle, which lead to blind turns. Also - with the tank, being unable to shoot anything unless it’s right in front of you makes you an easy target.

Then there is the Level layout, starting with the planet itself. You are on a “ring-world”, meaning: there is only one path, there will only be one working door, all the rest are for decoration. You spend three-fourths of the game pretty much going one way. Then for a change you get to backtrack all the way back to the begining, yea! And the levels themselves are not much better. You go though the same 15 floors and 2 bridges again and again, only in different orders.

One of my favorite parts is when “The Flood” was introduced, called that because it is the only word for “large unorganized group” NOT already copyrighted by Blizzard. I like this part because it is both well made and poorly made at the same time. Yes I know, I was baffled too. The beginning is very creepy, one of the only times in the game I felt anything but disappointment or melancholy. But soon after, you are running though a level where they throw truckloads of baddies at you. Which was a challenge and by itself would have been fun, but they chose this time to have an NPC fill you in on the back-story. I couldn’t hear him over my own gunfire!!! What genius though this up?!

“Hmm, what would be the best time to let the player know what is going on?” “Oh, I know!! When there is a be-gillion baddies coming for them and they need to concentrate the most so they do not get killed”

I mean really!!!

In the game it seems like the Master Chief is loved by all men; this also confuses me. I would think that after the second or third time ol’ MC returned with and EMPTY Warthog that once carried two brave gunners, the men’s favor would quickly disappear. That and the fact the Master Chief has this habit on being the ONLY survivor, I would think his men would like him about as much as Zap Brannigan’s men love him (See Futurama if you don’t get the reference).

Now for the multiplayer part.

…

Ok, let me stop shaking first,

…

Alright, NOW for the multiplayer part.

Let me go though the events of my first minute of playing multi-player Halo capture the flag.

0:00 - Spawn
0:01 - Killed by fuel rod from a Banshee.
0:11 - Re-spawn
0:12 - Ran over by own teammate.
0:22 - Re-spawn
0:23 - Sniped by camper
0:33 - Re-spawn
0:34 – Sniped by camper AGAIN.
0:44 – Re-spawn
1:04 – Killed by unknown means after picking up rocket launcher.

After a few days I did find SOME enjoyment in it, but it was mostly by sitting in the turret of a Warthog and waiting until someone decided I needed to be somewhere else. However the game is still poorly designed. I can accept quick death and friendly fire as nuances of the game (that’s nuances, not nuisances!). What is just poor design are the exposed spawn points, the lack of anti-vehicle weapons in or even NEAR the bases, and the indestructible vehicles. All this leads to really aggravating situations. Like spawn camping, or the winning team getting a stockpile of vehicles, (from dispatching the previous owners) and bombarding the other base with them. Meanwhile, the other team can’t survive long enough to reach a weapon strong enough to do real damage to a vehicle, and if the DO manage to get into one of their few vehicles left, they get gang-bombed before they can get their cross hairs pointed in the right direction.

What all this means is that the game is usually decided in the first few minutes, and you are either winning, or you are waiting to re-spawn more that you are actually playing.

The other multi-player modes are not as unbalanced, but that are just different flavors of plain ol’ death matching.

Microsoft BOUGHT a whole company, Bungee, just so they could get this game, so clearly they saw a lot of potential in it. Now, how much potential the game had before the marketing campaign we will never know, but I find it scary that a board room of suits and yes-men could see that this game could be great, and I still can not.

What liked: Everything I like about every other FPS, killing things and blowing stuff up.

What disliked: board-straight linear plot, unbalanced multi-play, very little originality.

What to expect: Every other FPS you have ever played, only on a narrower map.

What not to expect: Invigorating plot, multiple ways to do, well, anything, dramatic depictions of men bonding through the horrors of war.

What's so different from this and other games of it's genre: it’s not except that everyone loves it for some reason.

Ratings on:

Control: 7 – Poor movement on foot, and in the vehicles.

Graphics: 5 – The graphics were not bad but, again nothing new except for maybe looking up and seeing the rest of Halo over head.

Sound: 5 again, nothing special.

Style: 4 – This would be lower but Halo does have it’s few moments.

1st hour: Ah, Aliens, how original.

5th hour: Oh, now I’m fighting Zombies, what next Robots or Nazis?

6th hour: My God, I’m actually fighting Robot Nazis!

2nd week: Multi-player, Ultimate gaming experience? Hardly.

#1 reason why I hate this game: It was supported to be new, it was supposed to be awesome instead it was a way to part me from 30 dollars. Maybe two years from now my review of Halo 2 well be more positive.

By Banthor – let the flaming begin!