- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
I think Halo is great fun. However, it has some serious shortcomings -- especially with the multiplayer mode. I would rate the single player game a 4 out of 5. It loses a point for some repetitive play and its short length. I would like to concentrate in this review, however, on the multiplayer game, which I rate a 3 out of 5 -- and that is being quite generous. If you were to list the "glitches" in Halo PC it will add up into the hundreds. Yes, it's fun, but it is VERY buggy.
There are so many problems with Halo PC that it would take pages and pages to outline each one. I will list a few below.
1) The year is 2552. I guess we haven't made much progress on vehicle design and operation. The warthog overturns way too easily. The ghost and banshee get "stuck" on corners. A banshee going full speed is stopped dead by a branch of leaves and it sounds like it hit a rock.
2) In the PC game, we often get the "mystery of the half-flipped vehicle." Shoot a warthog from a distance with a heavy weapon and you will often see the vehicle begin to flip over only to instantly right itself and continue going as if nothing at all happened.
3) Forced Flag pick-up in CTF. If you get too close to the flag, you are FORCED to pick it up, even if you don't want to. This nullifies your weapons. It would be much better to have to press an "action key" to pick up the flag. Many a people have been killed because they accidentally picked up the flag.
4) The "reacquire flag" bug. If you have the flag and want to drop it in order to shoot an opponent, good luck. As soon as you drop it, you will instantly pick it up again. Even if you try to throw it, you will pick it up again. Even if you run forward and throw the flag and then back up, you will pick it up again. Many a people have been killed because they reacquired the flag when they didn't want to.
5) Are rockets propelled by rubberbands? They go so slowly, you'd think so.
6) Want to drive a ghost or warthog in a base. Better be careful. Even though your head height in the vehicles is many feet below the ceiling, you can't see. You get all kinds of vision interference. Hard to steer or shoot if you can't see.
7) So how did you get up there? That's what you might ask when you see people in the sky. Yeah, it's a "sealing glitch" that can be taken advantage of, if you know how.
8) You can usually make a kill with one rocket, or two fuel rod hits. But if you really want a powerful weapon, use your fist. You can follow an opponent up a ladder and hit him in his feet and instantly kill him. A hit in a foot is more powerful than a rocket or fuel rod or sniper rifle. Yeah, that makes sense.
9) What about the dud granades? Yep... sometimes you can throw a nade and it won't blow...this often happens if you die after you throw the nade. Not all nades are the same strength either, it appears. Sometimes a nade will blow right at the feet of an opponent and won't kill. Other times, it blows 20 ft. away and WILL kill. Never really know what you're getting.
10) The "run-over" glitch. Very frustrating glitch that occurs when you head in a vehicle straight for an opponent only to find when you hit him, he will disappear and reappear about 20 feet away unharmed. Sometimes this can happen over and over again as you try to hit him. Another glitch is when you apparently DO hit an opponent and you see him fly in the air about 50 feet -- only to suddenly disappear and reappear on the ground unharmed. Some will say this is a "lag" problem, but I find this happening all the time with my 1.5 mb line at under 75 ping.
11) What is all this Tking! It appears there is no adequate method to deal with it. I'd say at least half of all games have Tkers on them. And if that's not bad enough, there are the spys.
12) The spies change teams for a short period to see what the defenses are or to find where a flag is hidden. Then they change back and let their teammates know what's up.
13) Watch out, you may get the boot. You might be thinking I'm talking about Tking too much. Nope. If you're "too good" the admin of the server may just boot you right off. A lot of games are "stacked" so that the admin's team will always win. They just boot the good players off the opposing team. Happens all the time. On a bad day, I can get booted off five or more times by the admin just because I have "too many kills" or I killed the admin. Okay.
14) Stupid Rules. Sometimes you just have to laugh at some rules people make up. "No driving vehicles," "No using fuel rods or rockets" "No camping." That one is the funniest. You CANNOT play defense...it's not fair.. LOL. "This is only an offensive game. No defense is allowed." LOL. If you ask what "camping" is you will probably get an answer like. "It's standing still." Or "It's staying in a location too long." So you can't stop running or hide behind a rock or a tree... or wait for a ride. It gets so ridiculous that you just have to laugh at the stupidity of the players on your server.
15) The "following behind" glitch. When facing an opponent guns are much more accurate. It is possible to kill an opponent with full health and shield in 3 pistol shots -- even from 50 ft away. But running "behind" an opponent is completely different. I have run behind an opponent as close as only 10 feet away and pumped more than 30 rounds into his head without a kill. Doesn't seem to matter if they're head shots or body shots. No kill.
16) The "stuck in the wall" glitch. Sometimes a tank or warthog or ghost can break the plane of a wall and get "stuck." Once stuck, there is no way to break it loose. The vehicle is lost. One game I played had no less than five vehicles all stuck in walls. Again, poor design.
Since I'm running out of time, I'll stop here. It may sound to you as if I don't like Halo multiplayer. That's not true. In fact, I still play it more than any other online game. However there are so many bugs and issues with it that, even though it is usually fun, I have to knock off a few points for some of the shortcomings. Some might argue that ALL games have some glitches. True... but not to this extent. These bugs are mostly confined to the PC version of Halo, not the Xbox version. Hopefully, Halo 2 for PC with be much less buggy. I rate it a 3 out of 5. I hope to see you on Halo online. My Halo name is FEARX
Regards.