Posted by: IonicPaul
Posted by: squeak52
Hi, my name is <censored> and I haven't played Halo in 7 days.
Hi, <censored>.
Marathon is worth many play-throughs. It's, overall, tied for my favorite game series (with Halo, obviously). I may not play it as much anymore, but Marathon was my first game. It got me associated with all the basic necessities of shooters, especially the need for lack of clutter and fluff.
This is why, even though the two series have very similar styles (having as many weapons as you can find, fast fights, enemies with not that amazing AI but definite styles, scripted events, a large focus on story, puzzles), I cannot stand Half-Life. It has what I said above, but having fewer limits on development actually hinders the game. Puzzles become annoying to solve because you miss some trivial element that should be easy, and you have overlong missions of nothingness. That's why Marathon is so much better: You have the good core elements, but the limitations on map-making force the game to be concise, so you're not on a damn waterboat for two hours of face-melting boringness.
A bit of a tangent, but I find it sort of relevant. I'll keep this post on topic by saying the above is why I love Bungie games so much. Very rarely while I'm playing do I feel like I want to stop. In many games, a mission or whatever will drag on so much that I just have to stop. Bungie games have wonderful flow.
Damn, that almost wants me to just go out and buy Marathon now.