- MrPinke7103
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- Noble Heroic Member
The less than a second latency of online play is a better system to play off of than more health.
You realize this system is just as host based, right? because if you're fighting host, or someone with a better connection to host, and you each start firing at the same time, his BULLETS will register first, giving him slightly more health if the melees happen at the same time.
So would you rather have the BS of both, or just one?
-HaVOk1228
-One of the great things about Halo 1's campaign was that it quite honestly did not try, nor need, to tell a story. What story players are given is often cryptic or a simple order to carry out often self explanatory missions.
-Heck the first two missions simply have the player scramble about trying to rally troops or depart the area. Level 3 is a very well done prison break that is only explained in a brief (but still adequate) in between missions bit of dialogue. Missions 4 and 5 have you playing, once again, great guerrilla attacks that only advance the story through some minor cryptic discoveries. While the rest of the game tosses you about on some first and foremost great missions that so happen to serve as vessels for the narrative.
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-Enter halo 2 and 3 and we suddenly see every cut scene transformed into lengthy cram sessions for "the story bungie wanted to tell" about this (possibly) overly ambitious space opera involving a rushed (and then quickly forgotten) civil war, an eon old strife between ancient aliens and more disease like ancient aliens, and some great secrets held by some crazy religious leaders that despite all this cramming was still only revealed in external materials. I'm all for following alternative media to get a better picture of a story but if you simply cannot explain enough of it to both make sense and not overwhelm the gameplay then just cut some stuff. The covie civil war still feels like the biggest blow to the halo series as all it did was rob us of real foes for the the past 2 games (3 and ODST) whilst only confusing matters by suddenly adding way too much to know about species in the covenant that never existed (game wise) until they were already calling for civil war.
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-Hopefully enough people at Bungie will realize that some really great missions can be had if they simply let the chaos of the game set an atmosphere of "who cares" across much of the game and let the level designers simply make fun experiences that focus more on varous useful small events (like the silent cartographer's search to unlock some mysterious door, or being led by a mysterious floating ball through a zombie infested space dungeon, or heck even rescuing a character whom is only known before that as simply being an officer of a higher rank (as was the case with the original Keyes)). Don't try to force some story down our throuts, just let level designers make the missions and tell the story team to do what they can with them.
EDIT: On a final note, playable spaces should be prioritized well above pretty ones. The halo series has become more and more good looking (downright beautiful in ODST) but it feels as if some levels are designed to simply look better than they actually play. The flood structures of halo 3 were nice but to be honest their gameplay was trumped by even the empty hallways of halo 1's library (having zombies crawl out of every tunnel and over every wall is better than a straight path with those same zombies forced into kill zones). While forerunner structures seem to be less open and more restrictive in overall direction options (you can find half a dozen ways to move around silent cartographer, or avoid enemies in assault on the control room (and not just with a banshee), but halo 3 just gives us narrow spaces packed with enemies that are almost always on the defensive and will never try to force you from your position(s).
[Edited on 10.13.2009 10:02 PM PDT]