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This topic has moved here: Subject: Difficulty levels in games, namely FPSs
  • Subject: Difficulty levels in games, namely FPSs
Subject: Difficulty levels in games, namely FPSs
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One of the reasons I like Halo so much is that the difficulty between Easy, Normal, Heroic and Legendary is very noticable, and rewarding in it's own way. IMO, it's slightly more refined in Halo1 than 2, but that's a different kettle of fish.

But ask any Halo veteren about Halo on Heroic and Halo on Legendary, and many will swear it's an almost different game, and in many aspects I agree entirly.

However, this situation could be made even better… Bungie, please take note. ;)

GoldenEye. Remember that? No, not the crappy EA release that's just been, er, released, but the game that Rare made on the N64. Often quoted as a "classic" example of a spot on FPS, it had many truly awesome features, including duel weilding, *that* sniper rifle, James Bond (Natch) but even better, was the way it approached it's difficulty levels.
It's got the standard modification, just like Halo, whereby the harder the game difficulty the less hits you can take, and the tougher the enemies are. However it goes that extra step: Objectives.

For example, a level on GoldenEye may look like this:

On normal? Just escape the secret research lab Mr Bond.
On secret agent (Heroic)? Escape, but grab them documents first though. Yes, they're in the safe, so break it open.
On 00 agent (Legendary)? Escape from jail with no weapons, break open the safe, grab the docs, find the security pass to hack the mainframe, copy the data, blow up the mainframe, photograph the instalation, kill the commander and THEN escape. In under 5 minutes please. And if you're passing by the London offices on your way, brew up too.

Can you imagine if the same was applied to Halo?

Take "Two Betrayals" in Halo1.
Basically all you have to do is shove the MC into three beams of light.
What if on Heroic you first had to hack the security system, to release the locks on the doors?
Then on Legendary, what if by stepping into the beams of light you triggered an energy feedback loop, which was sending Halo to the point of obliteration, or worse, you inadvertantly accelerated the process, so you had to shut off power to them systems? Or maybe you have to steal a Wraith and use it to blow up a regulator in the powergrid?

The possibilities are endless. Of courese, on Normal, the Legendary objectives could be completed, but on Legendary, they'd HAVE to be completed. You could open up entire new areas, make things optional to aid you (For example, if you infiltrated a Covenant Battlecruiser you could have an optional objective of taking out the alram system first. Doing so would be tricky, but you'd be aided by the Covenant being unable to call in re-inforcements to the command deck or similar)

I appreciate that stuff like this would be tricky to do, but I really do think it's something for the developers at Bungie to consider...

  • 12.01.2004 2:05 AM PDT
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Amen m8, goldeneye was awesum that would put the cherry on the bungie cake.
Good thinking

  • 12.01.2004 4:07 AM PDT
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I think so too. It would be nice if a mod sent this to a nice developer in Bungie.

(hint hint Shishka. ;) )

  • 12.01.2004 4:25 AM PDT
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*bump* for the evening crowds...

  • 12.01.2004 10:57 AM PDT