- Tookurdignity
- |
- Noble Member
"The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit,
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."
-Omar Khayyám-
Posted by: aku
Posted by: Matu Flp Krawfe
I call shenanigans. Dune has a rich universe. Foundation has a rich universe. Ringworld has a rich universe. Warhammer 40,000 has a rich universe. Mechwarrior has a rich universe. Halo has an entirely one-dimensional conflict between them and us with only a pilfered backstory from Forbidden Planet to give it any height at all, though of course without the wit or imagination that made that movie.Comparing the story of a video game to the story of a novel is not all that useful. A novel is story; that's all it is and that's all it can ever be. A video game, meanwhile, has to mix "telling a story" with "being fun". That's much more difficult to do. (See Final Fantasy and the latest Metal Gear for examples of games that leaned way too hard on the story button.)
I haven't seen Forbidden Planet but from reading the plot synopsis it sound like you're referring to the idea of an ancient species that disappeared and left some stuff behind. That very well might have been original in the 50s (which I honestly doubt), but at this point you could practically call it a sub-genre. I don't see any notes in there about invading militant aliens or a hibernating parasitic race, not to mention a cybernetically enhanced supersoldier who's out to save the universe from both of them while trying to save as many of his fellow soldiers as he can.
Calling Halo a story of "Them vs. Us" completely ignores at least one obvious fact: the story was actually "Them vs. Them vs. Us". In Halo 2 it was "Us and Them vs. Them vs. Them".
More importantly though, the characters in Halo were certainly interesting. The relationship between Cortana and the MC was neat, though handled a bit heavy-handedly in the third game. Jacob Keyes, while being absent for much of the first game, still managed to feel like a great video game leader. Then you have Johnson, obviously, who was such a fan favorite that he had to be brought back for the second game and was turned into a main character.
Does the story match the originality of say, Dune? No. But as far as action games go it's right up there. The only shooter I can think of that even bothers competing on the same level is Half Life.
Learned collegues, friends, fellows lend me your ears. It seems we're arguing about some very trivial, yet wasting our energy trying to prove our opinion. Now I am not one to mix words and certainly not one to randomly flame, but we must look at the original post and give our opinion on what had us hooked on the halo universe. For me, personally, what got me was the rich atmosphere the game produced mixed with the novels which were well written. It was a mixture of these which watered the seed that grew into the flower of my love for the Halo Universe.