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Marine: "Got a new contact. Unknown Classification!"
Lord Hood: "If it isn't one of ours, take it out."
MC: "This is bus 117, can anyone hear me? Over."
Lord Hood: "Isolate that signal. Master Chief, you mind telling me you're doing at that school?"
MC: "Sir... picking up these kids."
Poll: Bungie can write stories, but can they portray them well enough? [closed]
| Yes, I believe so:
20%
|
|
(9 Votes)
|
| Yes, but agree that it could be better:
45%
|
|
(20 Votes)
|
| No, they're not good at doing so:
34%
|
|
(15 Votes)
|
Total Votes: 44
I understand this may sound sac-religious (sp?) especially given the site I'm posting this on but I'm curious to see what others think.
I hopped on the Bungie wagon when Halo CE came out and like most I was blown away. Since then I've looked into other Bungie games such as O.N.I. and Marathon, as well as having played and beaten every Halo game. I noticed something as I went back and played their older works however, but we'll get to that later.
I'll say up front that I'm a Halo kind of guy. I've read all of the literature, I have a few figures, weapon replicas, posters, etc (Really not that much compared to my other hobbies). I picked up Reach and played it, and then sat back and thought about it for a while, and then that thought led me to other thoughts and as I started analyzing the Halo games, and getting back to what I was saying in the last paragraph I came to a conclusion that people probably won't agree with, and that's fine I don't expect the people who dwell on Bungie.net to agree (I don't expect Redskins fans to agree with a negative opinion I bring forth to them either) but I've come to conclude that:
Bungie's stories are too good for their ability to produce games.
This may come as a strange comment, but let me break it down so I won't confuse people. What I mean to say is:
Bungie is great at making back stories full of depth and universes in which one can get lost in. They're amazing artists as well, conveying the stories in a visually pleasing format (for the time each game was made) and I think most people would agree that the time spent creating this depth is admirable.
My only issues with any of the games however is that the game play does NOT meet the standards for the epic storyline...
This is not to say that the game play is bad in comparison to games like Call of Duty or Gears of War, it's just bad when compared to the story they've produced and are trying to show us.
For the following disregard the following comments for secondary modes like: "Firefight, Matchmaking, etc" This is JUST for story.
Halo's story is epic and amazing, and to me it's better told form the books then the games... and I'm a gamer, I've beaten and cataloged over 330ish games. But the games have flaws in them that, to me, ruin the story. It's hard to take an incredible alien war story seriously when you've got things like:
-A.I. that can't drive (Seriously ruins the feeling of seriousness. The books paint a battle of backs against the wall. Driving off a cliff ruins that. It really does.)
-Marines that say... very silly and out of place things that kill the mood (Ruins the seriousness and feels out of place, like dry jokes from a child's movie that you're heard from any child's movie. A marine would not say "Okay, I've officially pooped my pants". They wouldn't... perhaps in a different scenario, but not in the scenario Bungie has tried to portray for us. It's awkward, out of place, and ruins it.)
-Combat A.I. that's not the brightest (Bungie does a god job of using the lower status of the Unggoy as an excuse for their A.I. in battle, and this could be said about the Jiralhanae as well in Halo 2... sort of, and I say that because I know they're actually pretty bright... but it doesn't justify the marines, nor does it justify the Kig-Yar, I will say that Reach did a pretty decent job with the other species, not on par with the story though)
-Glitchy scenarios (If you attack the Brute holding the Sergeant by the throat in the first level of Halo 3, even if the Marine falls out of the Brute's grasp, his dialogue continues as though he's still struggling. We see this in other parts of the game. Dying from gunshots while driving a Warthog should only blow up the Warthog if the shots hit it. I've played around in 2, possibly 3 though I think they fixed it by then, where If you're killed by projectiles that only hit you, the warthog blows up after you die, which of course doesn't make sense, and games don't have to, but I mean that really DOESN'T make sense... at all. It's a pretty difficult thing to justify. There's plenty more, but the point isn't to bash the series.)
-Weapon damage (I understand balancing issues... I get it... but if you need to balance the damage for the player/Spartan, then please just have the Marine's weaker health. A Marines should not survive 3 plasma pistol shots to the face... it's plasma. This detracts from the story by reminding me that it's a game. They should be dead... in fact their face should be gone, but at the very least dead.)
-Lack of epic battles (This is really a personal thing, so feel free to skip. In Halo 2 the randomly generated blue explosions in the air didn't do it for me. In Halo 3 the crappy A.I. That flew Hornets into each other and Banshees that plummeted into the ground did not count as epic space battles, or epic anything really. In fact that best in my opinion is still in Halo CE, where it's Flood versus Covenant in the level "Two Betrayels" I believe. Halo 2 was supposed to have an epic Covenant charge on the bridge level, which was replaced by the tank portion. Halo 3 had a deleted piece that showed how epic they could have made the games ambient noise and feel of inclusion in a battle, as well as deleted a Warthog portion that would have made the level "The Ark" incredible, with a large desert to drive in, Scarabs, tons of aliens, etc. The most destructive sequences of the games is in ODST, a side game that wasn't given much praise. The Covenant glassing the city was a scene that should have been in 2 and 3. Or at least destruction, the feel of chaos around you. Epic battles... that are epic.)
All of the above very much pull me out of the game and remind me it's a game. They block myself from being immersed, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. How many times have we heard people say the bought the game for multi-player? That's great, but I love the story, or at least the poteintial of the story. The REAL story under all of the flaws that ruin the story.
What I'm trying to say is:
Bungie definatley excels at WRITING stories and making fun Multiplayer games, but as far as the Campaign aspects go I feel they need to allow a different team to work on them, maybe just hire different people, or switch around certain people, maybe have an entirely different company altogether. This wouldn't matter for any other game... but Halo's story is too good for these flaws to exist. It's honestly one of the more glitch filled series I've played.
Bungie has made a beast not even they can handle, and we've got quite a few games and scenarios to prove it.
If you believe that Bungie has made games that accurately portray the story good enough for the epic-ness of the storyline, then you'll want to click yes on the pole. If you're like me and think that their work shows a lack of ability, you'll want to click no. I think the phrasing of the question might also confuse people now that I've re-read it, so this is just to remind people what exactly I'm asking.
With that said, I really hope (Note I'm saying HOPE not THINK) that 343 is better at making a game feel like an experience, rather than making it feel like I'm just another kid with another controller playing another game.
[Edited on 02.03.2011 5:08 PM PST]