- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Firstly no... I didn't read the books, but they doesn't have any relevance here as we're talking about gaming experience aren't we?
Ok. Once more your initial argument seems to have been focused to 2 sections which you failed to mention earlier... they are FPS games and Multiplayer options.
So here comes the deconstruction of things (and I thought I'd had enough of that in English this year).
Halo's story line is not very different to all the other FPS games that you say "suck". You're tough, aliens rock up, kill them. Wow, now thats an indepth story line. Now removing the sarcasm and exageration lets look closer.
You're the human races' ultimate weapon, well thats been done to death. Whats original and good is when you're not. Take Halflife for example, you're some random scientist guy and the only reason you survived is because of your suit. It's far better to play through a game knowing that your guy fully isn't capable of doing some things than playing as the pinnacle of genetic technology, able to flip cars with a single hand only to watch yourself get shot down by little nerdy things with pistols.
Background- Human race attacked by aliens. Also nothing new. About the only new part is that you're on a ship that ran away, but as far as my memory serves it fails to mention that in the game. Marathon had an uncertain past, you found yourself battling through the game in order to discover what was happening... far more interesting.
In Game Story- Fighty fighty fighty, lets save the captain, fighty fighty fighty, now lets gain control of the super weapon, fighty fighty fighty, oh dear we've been betrayed, fighty fighty fighty, oh dear they're taking over, fighty fighty fighty, captain is unable to avoid getting captured, fighty fighty fighty, lets run away now. Once again thats the bare basics, but there is only really one real plot twist in the game... that Halo will wipe out life. Sure there are other little shiny bits like with FoeHammer but they were all so obvious. You play the last level and it says "Wait here for extraction" I said "Oh der she's gonna die" and continued driving... and guess what happened? In Halflife and Marathon you actually spend the game coming to terms with what is happening around you. Scientists did crazy stuff, but it's goverment cover up, you save the day, but then you find out you really haven't, you've just given the opportunity for the feds to take control of another world finally finishing with your death or enlistment. Thats far better than obvious plot twists and finishing the game being sole survivor and floating away from the carnage saying "wow I just destroyed a world sized facility, aren't I tough?"
Now as far as missions go, varied isn't the word I would use. Basically they aer all hunter killer missions aimed at you reaching a certain point. This point can be a captain, an extraction point, the command deck of a ship... whatever, but thers nothing really different in any of the missions. You play Marathon, in most of the missions you go around pushing buttons to reach new places, activating devices etc... still the same idea, but there is a far wider ability to choose things. There are whole areas to explore that you generally needn't go to, where as you play halo and all the facilities just happen to be built so theres only one way through, or you travel along a canyon system so you can only go on the designated path. If you want different kinds of missions, play a seriously tactical game, like Rainbow Six or Ghost Recon, a game where you aren't a one man army and need to think about how to reach your objective, what to do, how to overcome your enemies etc.
Once again this addiction to Multiplayer comes up... The co-op in the aforementioned strategic FPS games is good adn even requires some team tactics, Brute Force co-op is pretty funny, Marathon was probly the first game ever to have co-op and thats fun too.
"All FPS multiplayer isn't good" Well need I recall the names of previously mentioned games, followed by a whole list of non-FPS games. Another good Multiplayer is the Jedi Knight series... they're heaps fun, albeit lacking the ability to slow time with speed, but still fun. Unreal Tournament is also a great multiplayer experience, and the bots in it rock as well... they have a variety of skill levels, you can set them to advance as you do, they also rapidly adapt to new weapons/levels and even game mods (oh the joys of Marathon:Rampancy on UT)
The only other point you came up with that I haven't mentioned is the shinyness of gameplay and some of the elements that are "unique".
Vehicles- whilst only Halo has the warthog (for obvious reasons) Red Faction had vehicles before it did, the newer Unreal games have them, Counterstrike (the original not the erleased version) had them... Hell JeepWars2K was one of the best maps.
Every new game on the market has cutscenes, music, cool sounds, good graphics... but that isn't what makes a good game, that should only add to it. If you just had those it'd be fun but just a gore fest with no purpose and you've already said you like purpose in a game.
The final point I think must be said is based around this quote from you. it's how they present it. How they have the cutscenes set up, the missions, the sound, the music, it just makes you care. You don't feel like, "Okay I'm playing some lame game that's trying to explain some stupid story to me" you feel like your the Master Chief destroying the Covie
That is the EASIEST was of positioning a gamer to accept the storyline, to add showy effects and movie like scenes. I know I sound a bit repetitive here but... Marathon didn't need them to put it's story across and put you in the SO's shoes... it was brilliantly written and put forward in it's own ogirinal and mysterious way. It put you far more in the main characters position than Halo ever did because all the thinking was up to you, you never watched him sit back and play ignorant while other people argued over things (see the cutscene at 2 betrayals... he has no idea whats going on cos he's an idiot... no offense but he is)
Now... that is my take on things... and once more, I do not hate the game, but when you put it across so forcefully I take the part of opposition quite seriously, just as ForceMorph or someone else may do.
I hope I have made sense,
Tristan ;-)