- SentientGiraffe
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- Exalted Heroic Member
Wow. I was not intending to write this much. This started as just a response to another post, but it's really drifted away from that.
Halo: CE definitely lacked in polish. I think that most of its problems come from this, but I feel that the overall gameplay is better. The spawning kinda sucked, and the game had some annoying glitches. Admittedly, I'm a total Halo: CE fanboy, but other than those complaints, I wouldn't change the gameplay at all. There is just an excellent synergy that involves the physics, the weapons, the maps, and just the whole game.
I think nostalgia probably makes a contribution to my perspective, but I don't think it's that significant. I don't think nostalgia typically has a big impact on me. For example, I used to love Goldeneye on the N64, but going back to it, it's not very fun. The same could be said for a lot of old NES games. I think some games stand the test of time better, and I think Halo: CE is one of them.
I've played Halo: CE since the day it came out, but the way I've played it has changed quite a bit. Even up through the launch of Halo 2, I pretty much played exclusively slayer games (usually TS pro or Snipers). I usually had radar on, even on the occasional rocket games. It wasn't until probably 2006 that I really got into CTF and games without radar. At this point (4-5 years after launch), Halo: CE had a sort of new beginning for me. I may be over-dramatizing the idea of changing gametypes, but my point is that I wasn't overly attached to the old way of playing. I was willing to try something new, and I ended up liking it better.
We were able to play pretty consistently through the first half of 2007. After that, it was more difficult to get games together, because a good portion of my friends were older and had graduated. So, this wasn't that long ago. It's not as if I'm looking back on my childhood and remembering the Halo days; it's pretty recent.
I naturally purchased a 360 and waited for Halo 3. The summer before Halo 3's launch I tried to give Halo 2 a chance, and I found it pretty unplayable. So, I played Halo: CE when I could, and I continued to wait for Halo 3. I initially embraced Halo 3(and still play today). It was of course much better than Halo 2, but it still lost its appeal much more quickly. I thought this may have just been matchmaking, but custom games couldn't be setup to really play how I wanted them to play. The weapons aren't as good, and the maps are much worse. Equipment is kinda lame. The new grenades are aren't really that cool either. Dual-wielding is improved from Halo 2, but the game would still be better without it.
So, I am unimpressed by most of the new features, but yet it's missing features. There's the health system that automatically recharges. There's no fall damage, which makes the maps less interesting. Hang 'em High? Damnation? Prisoner? How fun would those be without fall damage. Tombstone, for example, was disappointing. Movement becomes much less calculated when it's removed. It's easier to run away from a fight that way too.
The BR is nerfed from the Halo 2 BR, which was already inferior to the M6D. In Halo 3, we've essentially lost the mid-to-long-range weapon. So, the sniper is left unmatched if it's at any significant range. To counter this, the maps then have to be less open, and map variety decreases. It is further decreased by the tendency to have ladders replaced with lifts and teleporters replaced with lifts and man cannons. They're not the same. The few teleporters that are around are broken. You can't telefrag, and you can't go through them backwards. You can't even block them with vehicles for very long, because vehicles automatically despawn.
The despawning is annoying, because vehicle control was quite significant in Halo: CE. You could horde vehicles if necessary. The other annoying thing about vehicles is that you can't carry the flag ( or other objective items) while driving them. One of my favorite threads came out of that discussion; now that I think about it, that may have been part of the reason why I joined Bungie.net. Anyway, Halo: CE allowed it, and Halo 2 had an option to allow it. The Halo 3 option simply doesn't work. I can see the advantage for playing the other way, but I can't really see the advantage for getting rid of the option; it makes it much easier to play on large maps with fewer people. This discovery was a pretty big disappointment for me.
There are other things that I don't like about CTF. If your flag is away and not being carried, there is always an indicator, and you always know when the enemy drops the flag. Which means, you can't silently switch flag carriers. The enemy knows when and where that occurred. I also don't like the lack of touch return. There's a flag return range? That makes no sense to me; it's not king of the hill. You also can't really throw the flag, and that reduces some strategies. Flag throwing mixed with auto-pickup allowed for some pretty cool strategic maneuvers in Halo: CE.
When it comes to the fun and longevity of a game, it's the little things that count. Halo: CE's successors are lacking in this area. John Howard said he was basically in charge of fun, and I think it shows.
[Edited on 03.16.2009 10:13 AM PDT]