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  • Subject: Halo 2 scares me (the short-essay)
Subject: Halo 2 scares me (the short-essay)
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While I wouldn't label myself as a "gamer," I would consider myself a VG elitist.  For me to truly like a game, it must meet about 90% of my expectations, which are a bit high, and thusly, I don't actually own that many games.  Halo is virtually flawless as a multiplayer and stand alone game (despite what people say about the single player mode), but after hearing things about Halo 2's multiplayer aspects, I fear that Bungie has taken it too far, and while the game seems fun and entertaining at the beginning, the multitude of added features will turn off many veteran Halo players as the Halo formula has been messed around with too much.  However, the solution lies within one area: Options!  Considered by me to be one of the most important things to make or break a game (which means complete diddly to you out there.  1: Control [TOCA Pro Race driver required wayyy too much force for full throttle on your standard controller], 2: Camera [From a breif beta testing stint, I'm one of the reasons why the cameras in Rogue Ops don't clip into many, many objects {too bad I couldn't offer plot tips...}] , 3: Options), giving Halo 2 multiplayer many options I think would ensure it to not disenchant the vets.  
Things I'd like to have options for basically center around weapon availability and modes.  Consider N64's Goldeneye and its considered "sequel" (in gameplay and form), Perfect Dark.  Goldeneye mulitplayer was great, but a lack of full weapon options meant that most people avoided playing with automatics, and many wishing the Phantom would have made it into multiplayer.  Perfect Dark had a fully selectable weapons array, so if players wished they could use default weapon sets, or customize to get rid of the ones they disliked.  Although this creates weapon elitism, it did not prevent me from using (or not using) only 5 weapons, as a considerate player would also create the weapons set with consideration for the other players preferences.  In Halo, and with the normal group of Halo players I play with, the Covenant weapons set was a particular set that was avoided like the Plauge.  The plasma pistol is seldom truly useful (yes, the charge shot does remove seilds....unless your enemy is smart and knows how to dodge), the needler....I don't even have to talk about that one, and aside from the rifle, no other decent weapons.  In Halo 2, we'll have Covenant versions of the sniper rifle and rocket launcher (just going on a hunch), and of course the plasma sword..which is one weapon I have problems with and I haven't even played the game.  If it is indeed a kill-all as many articles describe it to be, for the avid Halo 2 player it will be way too powerfull, and for the novie getting it will make them a target for destruction.  I can predict, for our crew, that on any level of sufficient size, whomever posesses a plasma sword will get taken down quickly by sniper or long-range weapons fire, making the plasma sword a weapon to avoid, due to the opposing side's knowledge of its power.  Why confront a sword-weilder when you can just run and whittle down the sheilds (yes, even with lock-on 15 feet instant kill and sprinting, a good player should be able outrun, outmanuever and outkill a plasma swordist)?  In other situations, say, such as Halo level Longest, the plasmasword would probably be THE weapon to go for.  With narrow hallways and ample corners, a swordist should have no problem cutting down enemies, making the other players think of the sword as being a "cheap" weapon.  But, if we were able to choose weapons, we could remove the plasma sword from play and therefore not have Halo 2's version of the needler (that was a cheap shot).  Or, we could have plasma-sword only bouts (which I think would be very, say, tubular [go early 90's!]).  However, weapon selection does not go without its problems, such as placement on the map.  But if done properly there shouldn't be a problem.  Say that you can only replace weapons of a certain class with others from the same;  so instead of moving sniper rifles to a very available area (like shotguns/rifles in Blood Gulch), you could only replace them with weapons of the same sort (further expanded with basic weapon sets....you could theoretically start with a "Sniper Only" weapon set where sniper rifles do indeed start where shotguns/rifles would spawn, but could then make changes).  This way, in an "everything" weapon set, the plasma sword, being very powerfull, could be replaced by another in its class: the human melee weapon, rocket launcher (of both factions), nothing, or maybe a weapon of a lower class.  On further thought, a simple On/Off setting for individual weapons in a set would be all that is really needed, so you could play with the standard set and just turn off the plasma sword, adding nothing.  I know this is a lot to ask (and a bit far into development), but this kind of weapon selection would be great.

Holy crap, that's a lot of writing.  Anyway, on to more weapon options.

Just recently I read another blurb out dual weapons, particuarly the needler-smg combo, and how it's incredibly dangerous.  While yes, I do want dual weapons, and yes, it will be very fun to use random combinations, it's another thing that will give veterans a huge advantage over newbs.  The argument could also be reversed, that newbs would finally have a change against a veteran, but it's usually not just weapon selection that makes a player good, it's the aim.  Being able to toggle this off is I think a little more important than the aforementioned weapon selection, mainly to alter the speed of the game.  While Halo can be both a fast and slow game, dual weapons will greatly increase the speed.  In Halo, you could empty a pistol clip and then switch to rifle to finish the job, but just the switching time of the weapons leaves an opening for the enemy to make a move.  With dual weapons, a good player can weaken to near death with one gun and then seamlessly finish with the other.  Or, if you are pinned down, instead of knowing that you still have a fighting chance with your pistol, if you only have one weapon and the enemy runs around the corner full blow with 2 smgs blazing you're probably not going to survive.  True, tactics also make the game, but I think that dual weilding will remove the sometimes long stand-off type battles (shoot, cover, reload, repeat) that occur in Halo.

That one was shorter...

Rocket tracking.  Ok, can be good.  But also can be bad.  For those that haven't played rocket-only in Blood Gulch, do so.  It can be quite frustrating when you and your opponent both emply the same practice of the madly hopping jump-shoot which can sometimes completely exhaust your ammo without making a kill; but when you do, it's oh so gratifying.  While I haven't played Halo 2, and that most of the articles are rather vague on to how long it takes to lock on ("Keep the cursor on the target for awhile..." How long is awhile?), if one player was implementing the hop-shoot, and the other just waited for a lock-on, the one using the new feature would probably win.  Sure, efficeint kills are good, but a lot of the time it's the thrill of the hunt...or rather, the thrill of the ground-blasting.  And locking on to warthogs....too cheap.  In Halo, if they've got your flag and you're the only thing keeping them from scoring and you miss.....it's a great dissappointment.  If you hit, it's usually called luck.  But in Halo 2...."They've got our flag!" "Don't worry, I'll just not fire my rocket launcher for another second and....ok, now they don't."  Sometimes it takes almost an entire hour for a single point to be scored on Blood Gulch, this is just going to slow us down even more.  Why even bother taking a vehicle if it can stopped that easily? Oh, on that respect.....

Vehicles exploding is AWESOME.  Not all the time though.  If I had the ability to detonate vehicles in Halo, some games would be near impossible to end.  Sidewinder, Assualt CTF.  One of the standard offense moves is to take in a Ghost to the flag (jumping off within about 10 feet to avoid rockets, but going fast enough to use the inertia of the exit to score easily), common defense moves is to clog the entrance to the flag with vehicles and blast intruders or the vehicles to smack into them for kills.  But if we also had a destructable Ghost, if the enemy got too close you could just blow up the vehicle and wipe everything out.  I'd be doing that all the time.  Even if someone had to be in it to get it to detonate, the Ghost/fodder guy could attempt to run over the flaggist, but if it's too late then he's just going to take one for the team.  While we'd need to experiment with exploding vehicles to find out if they're a benefit or a bane, once we found out the ability to toggle their destruction would be appreciated.


Aside from that, Halo 2 is THE game that i am living for.  All the things I've heard and screens I've seen, the speculation, the weapon, the script, the levels, the multiple types of 'hogs, the thes, I could just go on and on.
 
Well, I had origionally planned on continuing, but apparently, it would go over the 10,000 character limit, so I think I will follow in the next post, as it's the same-ish subject of requests.

  • 05.22.2004 12:44 AM PDT
Subject: Part 2, Exploration
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On second thought, there is one other thing that would make Halo 2 great.  If it had small bugs or areas where you could attempt to get to the bottom or top of.  Such as touching Halo (PoA), or Silent Cartographer, or the bottom(s) of Silent Cartographer (damn that is fun but rather unfulfilling).  Or passing the loading screen past the chasm in AOTCR, so the marines freeze and you can go back and totally mess them up (nothing like giving them all needler-lightsabers, or the rather juevenile ass-shooting-blue-flames).  Why bother with the very last part of Keyes when you can just jump a few stories down and grab one of the Banshees?  Ooooh....top of Sidewinder, that one is fun to pull on people playing Assault CTF.  Yeah, didn't expect the flag comin' from the ladders, did ya!  Or testing your landing skills by jumping (rather, falling) from the top of the Library down many feet to the next level...  And the favorites, such as getting warthogs through really small doors, banshees at the beginning of AOTCR, and other vehicles other places.  While I'd assume all but one of those was planned, and that you can never remove every bug from a game, it's really good to have this weird crap by not imposing limits such as an invisible ceiling (though, props on the falling-height auto-death thing, though there are some escapes through it).  So here's to hoping, from me and the rest of the Halo explorers out there, that while Halo 2 will undoubtedly deliver, that it will have some fun little secrets or bottomless pits to explore.

  • 05.22.2004 12:45 AM PDT
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short essay huh?

  • 05.22.2004 12:48 AM PDT
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Bungie did it once, just trust them to do it again.


  • 05.22.2004 12:53 AM PDT
Subject: Halo 2 scares me (the short-essay)

It sounds to me like you want Halo 2's multiplayer to be EXACTLY the same as Halo's. I think that all these new features should be embraced rather than feared.

  • 05.22.2004 4:06 AM PDT
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If it's true were worrying about duel wielding being a think to cane noobs even more with, just give youre buddy noobs the advantage (only the nooby guys are allowed to duel wield, fixes the problem, and may level the game out alot more...

Worry about the sword, why? Thhere is so much crap to stay hiden behing, and who says you cant have a Battle Rifle in reserve, so no one knows you have the sword... plus running backwards is alot slower than running forward, so if your shooting a sworder from behind you, your running backwards, slower than your sword-toting opponent, therefroe, hes gonna pummel you good!

Rocket launchers as yet, havent been confirmed to lock on to people... and if the warthog is getting away, can the rocket catch up in time...?

Though its true, the options to change weapon settings can be good, but people can go overboard with it (like i did in perfect dark) even though you try to implement a way not to be able to...... But maybe they can make an option thing to do it, i dont think bungie would fail us there...

  • 05.22.2004 4:26 AM PDT
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No, I DO really like the concepts of the new features, but I just want to be able to turn them off. While I would be perfectly fine if Halo 2 didn't really make any advancements in the multiplayer aspect, I think the new features would be very fun to use, but I'd sill want the ability to turn some of them off. I think it'd be funner to waarthog jump in Zanzibar if the warthog didn't explode (and if there were oversheilds, if you catch my drift). I could see myself spending hours doing that, but if I couldn't turn off vehicle explosions, then I couldn't do that.

Unless you aren't playing teams, I think the instant you pick up the sword you would be a marked man. While it's impossible to keep tabs on everyone at every instant, don't you think that someone would notice somebody going for the sword? And if they notice it, they'd probably tell their teammates. And if the SMG is anything like the reports have said, you should be able to cut down a swordist faster than they can kill you if you have a short lead running from them. I would just run the other direction to get a rocket launcher or something, turn and blast him, or call out to other teammates to offer some assistance. Or just stick a grenade on him. (Is it possible to stick grendaes to charging swordists? Sure, they kill you in one hit, but then, BOOM!)

I think options are the only way to go. Besides, it's not like most people are going to turn off the new features, it would mostly be to slow the game down a bit.

  • 05.22.2004 1:21 PM PDT
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"Holy crap, that's a lot of writing. Anyway..."
Was the only thing I was bothered to read. Lazy!

  • 05.23.2004 12:54 PM PDT
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The SMG isn't that powerul. In the demonstration with the opponent standing still and dual weilding, the player exausted over half of their SMG clip. Since the player was also dual weilding a needler this also means they were doing even more damage than a normal SMG can produce. Additionally if the other player is moving its going to be a lot harder to kill them. A full clip will likely have to be used.

As for your worry about dual weiding. First of all its not going to be all so common that its happening all the time. Most pro players attack from range with sniping (will likely use the BR a lot). If you choose to dual weild you can't store those two weapons. Meaning the second you switch weapons (say from 2 smgs to a BR) you drop your second SMG. This means that dual weidling will only be done at selective times, but it is just one more thing that adds strategy to the game.

Additionally on the topic of dual weidling I don't understand your fear of newbs not standing a chance against Pro players. You actually want a newb to stand a chance against a pro? No way that would make the game pointless. The greatness of halo is that it really has a high skill level. Players are still today getting better and better. You don't want a game where regardless of how much practice you've had you're still on the same playing field. Anything that makes the potential maximum skill level higher is a VERY good thing. Newbs shouldn't be playing pros anyway unless they choose to (when I'm a newb in anything I choose that because it lets me get better faster). If newbs get to frustrated there should be way more than enough halo players to find other players that are not so good that they can play with.

As for the plasma sword. I don't understand you're fear of it. It sounds very very balanced to me. Its really powerful up close, but from mid range up its absolutely 100% worthless. Once again this means more strategy. Its would make a great secondary weapon, but its not a weapon you get and suddenly you're unstoppable. Even in a map like longest it wouldn't be that uber. You could still kill people from outside its range.

Anyway, options never hurt, I just don't understand really what you're scared of.

  • 05.23.2004 1:23 PM PDT