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Subject: The Repetitiveness of Halo CE Campaign

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Okay, try to put all nostalgia aside and view this with an open mind, please.

In my opinion, Halo CE had the most repetitive campaign of all the Halos. Half of Assault on the Control Room was going through the same corridors over and over again. Two Betrayals was going through those corridors for a second time. Pillar of Autumn had the same scenery and hallways as the Maw, despite the Maw having a few new additions (Flood). Truth and Reconciliation, the second half, had the same purple corridors, which were very easy to get lost in and backtrack.

I replayed Halo CE's campaign less than any other Halo's campaign, not because it was harder, but because it was so repetitive. With an open mind, please explain to me why so many people think that Halo CE had the best campaign.

  • 04.04.2010 2:14 PM PDT

I personally didn't like any levels after The Library, but all the levels before it I've played a lot.

  • 04.04.2010 8:26 PM PDT

I really thought that the tactical engagements were more balanced, challenging and fun.
Two that come to mind are the grav-lift room aboard Truth & Reconciliation, and the succession of six dropships just before 'Reunion Tour'. Few gaming experiances can match that.
You have a very valid point about the repetiveness and recycling level design into the game. Having to put arrows on the floor so as not to get lost on AotCR is pretty classic!

  • 04.05.2010 2:38 AM PDT

Its the story! If you listen to the story than you will know you had to go to the control room than cortana got in there was overwemed with info, than saw somthing about the captin. cheif ran off and when they got back cortana and 343 had a fight chief sided with cortana and they went back through the same tunnals to destroy the main pulsars so 343 cant fire halo.
in the maw the only ship known to have a engien capable of blowing up halo is the pillar of autam. concidering the coenent are not native to halo.

plz no comments aboput my spelling.

  • 04.05.2010 5:08 AM PDT

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Posted by: SniperYough95
Its the story! If you listen to the story than you will know you had to go to the control room than cortana got in there was overwemed with info, than saw somthing about the captin. cheif ran off and when they got back cortana and 343 had a fight chief sided with cortana and they went back through the same tunnals to destroy the main pulsars so 343 cant fire halo.
in the maw the only ship known to have a engien capable of blowing up halo is the pillar of autam. concidering the coenent are not native to halo.

plz no comments aboput my spelling.

I'm pretty sure about what the story is, thanks. My point is that Bungie recycled level parts, such as the Library hallways, over and over again so that once the player goes through them so many times, it gets boring/loses replayability.

  • 04.05.2010 7:10 AM PDT

I myself enjoyed CE's campaign up to the Library, then I started to get annoyed. The Library was just repeating corridors, oh look, a combat form *BANG* wait for door. Then everything started to repeat. Now normally I replay a game on Legendary/Veteran/European Extreme once I complete it, but I left CE. Only yesterday did I discover the secret ending, which was actually pretty creepy.

I loved the driving section, and the fact that the Marines didn't drive, something that annoyed me in Halo 3 (run to the hornet, oh you jerk.) While the first few levels are pretty cool, they get boring going through the same environments OVER AND OVER again.

To this day, I still don't know why people think it's so damn awesome. Waiting for trolls to arrive as well.

  • 04.05.2010 9:01 AM PDT

While I didn't enjoy Keyes, I loved all the other levels. Environmentally, yes, they were repetitive, but the combat scenarios were so much better than those in Halo 2 or even Halo 3 that I hardly cared. I'd prefer if the game had been longer with more repeating environments, actually. You saw some of the same bridges or hallways but they were always littered with completely different combat scenarios. And the fact that all of this architecture was ALIEN meant that it made sense within the fiction.

I have played a TON of every Halo game, and none of them come close to the amount of hours I poured into Halo: CE, not because of the different level designs, but because of the combat balance, weapon balance, AI, mission structure, etc. The openness of the levels is probably the single most important aspect, it meant that once the AI was released, it was free to roam in different directions creating a more realistic sandbox with much less repetition. In Halo 2, I remember certain alleyways where a jackal would pop up in the same location and you could memorize spawnpoints and do the same thing everytime you played. It was like Call of Duty.

  • 04.05.2010 3:38 PM PDT

Doc: "i'm a pacifist"
Caboose: "your a thing that babies suck on?"
Tucker: "no dude, that's a pedephile"
Church: "tucker, i think he means a pacifier"

Considering that there are a ton of games out there that require retreads of already explored ares's, I don't really see this as a strong enough reasons to dislike the game. Considering that you weren't just walking back through killing the same people that were there the first time around, and there was actually purpose to the retread, it didn't bother me.

CE's campaign told the best written and best paced story out of the trilogy. Not to mention the enemy AI was to this day the best, and in terms of legendary gameplay, it is the most enjoyable. But that is just my opinion.

  • 04.05.2010 3:50 PM PDT

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Posted by: SweetTRIX
Considering that there are a ton of games out there that require retreads of already explored ares's, I don't really see this as a strong enough reasons to dislike the game.

Never said that I disliked the game; in fact, first playthrough was pretty enjoyable. IMO, even though the enemies were different each time, the same rooms made them react the same to your attacks. "Halo" was the best level in the game, I think.

  • 04.05.2010 6:07 PM PDT
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In terms of actual gameplay, CE didn't resort to puzzles, which was nice. The "puzzles" were always, "How do I get through this configuration of enemies..." Everything was built into the shooting game itself. Yes, some stuff was "recycled," in terms of level design, but, in terms of the story, it made sense. Places like the Control Center and the Autumn would be points of interest/purpose that might likely be revisited, especially given what was going down in the story. And you have to keep in mind, this was basically an Xbox launch game that was using largely unknown tech at the time. I honestly thought the game was over when I took the Control Room. Imagine the surprise and excitement there when a player found that the game was not in fact over, but was merely halfway through. Was a different time, and nostalgia aside, Bungie made the most of what it had.

  • 04.05.2010 8:22 PM PDT

I want this to be played at my funeral, and I want my casket to be shot into space.

Posted by: Ramen 6378
Okay, try to put all nostalgia aside and view this with an open mind, please.

In my opinion, Halo CE had the most repetitive campaign of all the Halos. Half of Assault on the Control Room was going through the same corridors over and over again. Two Betrayals was going through those corridors for a second time. Pillar of Autumn had the same scenery and hallways as the Maw, despite the Maw having a few new additions (Flood). Truth and Reconciliation, the second half, had the same purple corridors, which were very easy to get lost in and backtrack.

I replayed Halo CE's campaign less than any other Halo's campaign, not because it was harder, but because it was so repetitive. With an open mind, please explain to me why so many people think that Halo CE had the best campaign.

Honestly, I couldn't agree more. I've always had that same feeling of recycled corridors and forerunner rooms (Which are very easy to get lost in). But whenever I replay Halo: CE, I think of the cutscenes at the end of each level. The cutscenes are kinda like a sweet reward for playing through the repetitive missions IMO, so it gives me more of a purpose to get to the end.

  • 04.05.2010 9:30 PM PDT
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This was Dootuz117 but i changed accounts
M!
97% OF TEENS WON'T STAND UP FOR GOD. IF YOU'RE ONE OF THE 3% WHO WILL, PUT THIS IN YOUR SIG.
Posted by: just another fan
Yeah, because we all know that weird guys on youtube always speak the truth.

Posted by: Hot Sauce 147
Posting on bungie.net should require that the user has had to have read a chapter book all the way through.

I loved Halo CE Campaign. In my opinion it was the best one.

  • 04.10.2010 10:16 PM PDT

Go Yankees

The question here it seems is just whether you felt the campaign was repetitive, not why it may have been. I was a late bloomer and my first playthrough was last year, and I have to admit I felt the same exact way as the OP. It certainly didn't hurt the game significantly though because it's so overwhelmingly strong in other regards such as gameplay and tone. The game has such an incredible feel when you play it and you can really get into it. This makes the repetitiveness somewhat overshadowed.

  • 04.11.2010 8:05 AM PDT

Laughing At Nothing

Well, up until you begin to revisit levels everything is very original in my opinion... Very fun stuff. Yes, you do return to certain areas but things have either changed aesthetically, or you go to a spot you didn't go to before, or your enemies are placed differently or are different enemies entirely.

For example: Halo's control room was such an important factor to Halo's story that, if you were really into it, you would understand how awesome the events unfolding are. By the time Guilty Spark betrays you, there are four factions fighting each other simultaneously, so you have to fight your way out of a culsterfook of Flood, Covenant and Sentinals to do anything. You visit a bunch of rooms you hadn't visited on your last visit to that level and you're following a different part of the story at a different time of day, with different weather.... Halo dishes new stuff out, it's not like you are playing the same level over entirely.

That being said, Halo 2 and Halo 3 have rooms that look similar to others. If we are arguing on that basis, the Halo 2 and 3 are as guilty as Halo.

  • 04.11.2010 8:48 AM PDT
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I'm sure I would notice the repetitiveness, obviously there's something that makes up for the backtracking and similar-looking corridors or else the Campaign wouldn't be fun. I love the way everything changes once you get back to the same area, like the Pillar of Autumn and The Maw missions, or Assault on the control room and Two Betrayals, not only aesthetically but also enemies and all that.

  • 04.11.2010 10:08 AM PDT

E4web

It's called resource management or 'use what ya' got'. Level parts were recycled because there were no other assets to use, it was cheaper (both fiscally and capacity-wise) and in most cases made sense with regards to the story.

You need to remember that Bungie didn't have time to create a unique design for every level due to the many reboots the game had, not to mention the time constraints imposed by Microsoft and, as mentioned previously, recycled assets made sense with regards to the story and player movement. Yes, it would have been nice to see different areas but it made the game feel as though it was progressing, going full circle if you will - as you end up back in the Pillar Of Autumn.

Getting lost in Forerunner structures adds to the immersion factor for me.

  • 04.11.2010 10:28 AM PDT

Posted by: SweetTRIX
Considering that there are a ton of games out there that require retreads of already explored ares's, I don't really see this as a strong enough reasons to dislike the game. Considering that you weren't just walking back through killing the same people that were there the first time around, and there was actually purpose to the retread, it didn't bother me.

CE's campaign told the best written and best paced story out of the trilogy. Not to mention the enemy AI was to this day the best, and in terms of legendary gameplay, it is the most enjoyable. But that is just my opinion.
Pretty much this.

  • 04.11.2010 8:03 PM PDT
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Funky is Fun.

I agree.

  • 04.11.2010 8:19 PM PDT

Bungie studio size during Ce development = a lot smaller than the team for halo2, 3 etc.

And whilst half the levels were more or less in the same playspace, the tactical encounters were never really the same (with the exception probably of the library) which when it comes to replayability is what counts more than the appearance of the environment, which one can hardly say were carbon-copies.

  • 04.11.2010 8:37 PM PDT

You don't kick a man when they're down, so don't teabag me when I'm dead!

I was just playing the bit with the six dropships before Reunion Tour. On Heroic it took me like 20 attempts...
Anyway, there's only one thing I don't like. That's when you go to an area like the cartographer or when you have the sentinels turn against you on one of the levels with Guilty Spark and the flood. Sure, the latter is fun and three-way battles are good, but they both employ the back-track-a-whole-level stategy (or at least part of it). I really don't see the point of the backtrack in the former case (although it is relatively short, a cutscene could have had you escape also, which surely would have cost less (money-wise and memory-wise) then designing all the enemy encounters etc. on the return journey).
The whole activate something and then backtrack did get annoying for me, but that was the only thing.

  • 04.12.2010 7:12 AM PDT

It doesn't bother me that Halo 1's levels are repetitive. They may be repetitive, but seriously--I would rather have a good thing several times.

In Halo 2's case, the levels were just unique but also not very interesting.

  • 04.12.2010 2:00 PM PDT

Posted by: LordQuagga
That being said, Halo 2 and Halo 3 have rooms that look similar to others. If we are arguing on that basis, the Halo 2 and 3 are as guilty as Halo.
They do have the same room used twice many times, but there's no repeating on the scale of Halo 1. Halo 2's biggest culprits would be "90 degree corridor", which appears 4 times with combat, "slowly descending room with walls in front of doors" which appears 4 times with enemies, and "chasm-in-middle" which appears 4-5 times. Halo 3 has no room appear more than twice. Meanwhile, Halo 1 has levels like Library where every room is a copy of another, or T&R (ship) which consists of tons of identical corridors and nodes and 5 unique rooms, and AotCR which contains 11 circular rooms, which have some differences between them, but only one changes the combat significantly (#7).

And whilst half the levels were more or less in the same playspace, the tactical encounters were never really the same.Hardly. "Bunch of Elites, Jackals and Grunts" is always the same thing when you have the same weapons in the same kind of room.

[Edited on 04.13.2010 4:27 AM PDT]

  • 04.13.2010 4:21 AM PDT

Thinking with Portals since '07

Battlefield 3 sucks.

so? on AOTCR, it had no flood, and on two betrayals it did, the story is great.

  • 04.13.2010 4:25 AM PDT

If you build it, I can destroy it.

I must agree with SweetTRIX. The levels were slightly repetitive, but they were that way for a reason. Intellegent creatures created the Halo rings, so it would be understandable that they used the same basic design throughout the structure. I think two points are key to this discussion though. First, is the epic largeness (for lack of better terms) of the environment, that I think, really made the game feel "big" and awsome. It made you (or me really) feel like I was actually exploring a massive, created world. Second, even though the levels were the same in design, I never felt like I was having the same battle twice. The first time through, you kind of had the ability to seak and attack from the side of the cov. But the second time through, you have these half animalistic flood forms to deal with. And (especially on the hardest mode) they were rather self destructive. I dont even know how many times I was doing fine killing flood, and then all of a sudden here comes one with a rocket launcher and he kills everything within 50 feet, including himself.

  • 04.13.2010 6:27 AM PDT

Posted by: rgOO6
First, is the epic largeness (for lack of better terms) of the environment, that I think, really made the game feel "big" and awsome. It made you (or me really) feel like I was actually exploring a massive, created world.
I don't really get this. Halo had some size but a few kms is hardly "world exploring", SC was just a 1/4th sqkm island and the rest of the levels were the same canyonpipes as the other games contain.

[Edited on 04.13.2010 7:54 PM PDT]

  • 04.13.2010 7:54 PM PDT

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