- chickenlittle
- |
- Fabled Mythic Member
Posted by: Mark V guy
Dont get me wrong, its great, but its no where near as good as people say.If you're listening to fanbois, obviously not. If you hear the veterans, like myself or nestegg, we'll paint it with praise but we'll also offer our reasons for that praise.
The main thing i have a problem with is the level and mission design. I always get lost in every mission because things are never clear. Sections of levels are copied and pasted, the place you're supposed to go to is not always that obvious, sometimes a small door hiding away from you, and a lack of instructions in game. This is because current generation games are literally holding your hand. Every shooter on the market right now gives you point to point waypoints so you won't get lost, and has invisible walls or killzones so you don't leave the "mission area" and explore(which often is rewarded by finding easter eggs or hidden weapon caches or power-ups).
Another thing i strongly dislike is the large amount on backtracking (going somewhere and then coming back the exact same way)The copypasta is easily explainable. Take a small studio start-up, just a few people, and try and pump out a quality shooter in just a few years. It is remarkably hard to do, especially when you consider that originally Halo: CE was going to be an RTS for the Mac. The copypasta is simply due to time constraints, not laziness.
Of course, i take into account that this was the first Halo game and the franchise was still finding its footing, but still, i dont know why people call it perfect even after playing later Halo games.It's because it is still the pinnacle of the Halo franchise. Gameplay is consistent. Enemies on hard difficulties are challenging, not simply -blam!- impossible to attack with more than one overpowered strategy(example - you can beat Heroic and Legendary using only the Assault Rifle). Increasing the difficulty in Halo: CE means increasing enemy count, aggressiveness, and fire rate, but only marginally increasing damage. Whereas from Halo 2 and onwards, it's simply more enemies and way more damage per shot. Weapons all have a purpose. when you die, it isn't because of something cheap and unavoidable - it's because you made several mistakes and missed your opportunities to escape or kill everything. I can go on if you need me to.
I strongly dislike the level 'Assault on the Control Room'. The canyon part is really tedious and boring, and i dont think its been designed very well.Admittedly, the rooms are all copies of each other, but the canyon is the best part! You get a Warthog and a Scorpion tank to blow the -blam!- out of everything! Not only that, but you get both the Sniper Rifle and Rocket Launcher in generous quantities, and can even traverse the whole level on foot if you wanted to. Hell, there's infinite approaches to every encounter, including multiple paths that allow you to get the drop on enemies, who unlike in following games, don't instantly know where you are.
But im not giving up on it. I cant wait to see the FloodGood on you! In that level you really will get lost. We all did. It's to build up the atmosphere of you trying to get out.
So thats just my thoughts so far on CE. Its way better than Halo 2, but at the moment i think Halo 3 is just a bit better.The only thing Halo 3 really had going for it is the online multiplayer and extra features. The campaign wasn't really that good, and multiplayer relies almost completely on whoring power weapons and vehicles. Individual skill doesn't matter when the enemy team has the sniper, sword, and rockets and headshots are as easy and shooting the wall.