- ng3
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- Exalted Heroic Member
I was never a big fan of Halo: CE's multiplayer (my expert screenwatching friends killed the experience). The campaign, however, was the most amazing FPS experience I'd had since I discovered Marathon 2 bundled with my new Power PC as a kid.
I was ecstatic about Halo 2. When it came out, I stayed up all night and played through the campaign. The next night I played my first Halo 2 multiplayer match on Xbox Live. Big Team Battle at Waterworks. Multiflag.
I was hooked.
I'd never played a game of CTF in any video game prior to that moment. The only shooter I had been playing at the time was Counter-Strike for Xbox. I was used to "objectives" that were easy to accomplish because your enemies stayed dead. Other multiplayer shooters I had played were always strict deathmatches.
This realization of a layer of FPS strategy beyond out-killing your opponent was paramount. With regular play I soon discovered the thrills of things like daring flag runs, clutch saves, and communicating team strategies beyond how you're going to kill the enemy.
The icing on the cake was the physics engine and masterful multiplayer design that led to the most WTF OMG DID YOU SEE THAT moments I have ever experienced in a video game. Whereas a game of Counter-Strike was predictable and repetitive, every objective game of Halo was an action-packed thrill ride of hilariously unexpected moments.
Halo 2 came and went, Bungie crossed off a few items on its world domination list, and Halo 3 was finally released into the wild. The addition of equipment and some of the creative new weapons and vehicles (not to mention Forge) expanded the OMG possibilities to dizzying awesomeness.
I'm a big shooter fan. I've played all the big third and first person games to come and go, but none deliver a multiplayer experience that even scrapes the explosive zaniness of Halo's combat. Halo is crazy fun, and that's why I keep coming back.