• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

So...what is Halo to you?

jem0208

Member
Halo CE is Halo
Halo 2 is Halo
Halo 3 is Halo

Anything beyond is just gutter trash. I hate how it's adopted so many of CoD mechanics.
Have you played H5?


The only mechanic it shares with CoD would be sprint. However the balancing they've applied to it through the shield system and hopefully now the new radar makes it very different to 4.
 

Outrun

Member
Halo is a series that generally moves from strength to strength.

Although I look fondly with the old games, I sure as hell don't want to play those games in 2017.
 

Kule

Member
Halo was about mystery and adventure in a strange but slightly welcoming environment. It was about being a wrecking force and no matter the odds you had a chance to succeed. The drama and narrative were minimal and the focus was centred around the great gameplay.

Recently I feel the series under Microsoft's control has taken itself way too seriously. At every E3 they talk about the players creating emotional bonds with the characters and it just falls flat and goes completely counter to the main ethos of the series.

One big misstep imo was with Halo 4. In my mind after the Halo 3 legendary ending, Halo 4 should have been even more oppressive and survival based(closer to ODST in difficulty). The master chief would be alone without Cortana and the world would have been much more robotic and dark sci-fi (from what we saw in the H3 ending). Cortana could have come back later in the game but as a rogue A.I adapted by the mechanical planet, etc.

I just feel the route they took was too unbalanced in favour of story and CS's and that's just not what people really bought into the series for.
 

gweemz

Member
Best multiplayer games ever. One afternoon of playing Halo 2 at my friends house made me run out and buy an Xbox that same day. My friends and I would still be playing Halo 2 if the servers were still up. Mcc doesn't count.

Once 343 took over it started to go downhill. Halo 5 is good mechanically, but we don't have staple game types such as 1 flag, Assault, Oddball, and KotH. They cater too much to the "pro community" so in Arena we don't even get all of the maps they have released. It is pretty dumb. I really just want a team objective playlist with the games mentioned above, even if it is not ranked.
 

Majukun

Member
to me?
an extremely overrated series..but i have only played halo 3 and was not a part of the first "boom" with halo 1 and 2...
other people would probably think that ocarina of time is overrated because they weren't there and it is my favorite game of all time.
 
The OG Trilogy was ground breaking for FPS games on console. But now they are ten a penny with some arguably better than Halo. In a crowded market it's not good that your supposed premium 1st party IP does nothing to stand out. H5 is a good game but the IP no longer screams "OMG guys you have to play this!"

They need to find a way to make it ground breaking again, otherwise the decline will continue. Micosofts premium IP is a run of the mill shooter in a sea of many. That's bad.

Edit - same issue with Gears really, though the 3rd person shooter space is less crowded. Should have never bought that IP and made Coalition a Gears factory. 3 year releases aren't too bad for games that still sell in the millions, but it's still too much effort put in where time would be better spent diversifying the lineup.
 

Monocle

Member
to me?
an extremely overrated series..but i have only played halo 3
and was not a part of the first "boom" with halo 1 and 2...
other people would probably think that ocarina of time is overrated because they weren't there and it is my favorite game of all time.
I think I found the problem!

Halo 1 and 2 are unskippable. You might as well judge Star Wars by ROTJ alone.
 
Halo 2 and 3 multiplayer honestly gave me some of my favorite gaming memories in the past 15 years. I've moved past the series now.
 

Ryde3

Member
my favourite FPS franchise.

a game with a great story that is better told through the novels, unfortunately.
 
I played Halo 1-3 (well after release) when I personally was still new to dual analog controls. I played on Normal and it was great for my lack of experience while still being fun and having a decent story. By the time ODST and Reach rolled around, I was good with dual analog controls and still enjoyed them for the story and action. I liked Halo 4 more than I thought I would; they really ramped up the sci fi of the series which was cool to me. I hated Halo 5 and have officially quit the series because of it.
 
It was mainly the unpredictability of enemies in the singleplayer that made halo different from other fps games.

They felt clever and had a life of their own sometimes.

What I always did later in the series was activating extra grenades, grenade happy enemies, made enemies level up a rank big explosions for grenades.
That turned the game into a funhouse, specially in co-op.

The ring and the mystery that surrounded it was magical in Halo CE, the series lost a lot of that in later installments but they often retained the fun gameplay. I never gave a damn about the MP, I've tried it several times but it just didn't really clicked with me.

Sadly, nothing can keep you excited forever, the mystery is gone (for me) and as fun as the gameplay was in the past... I played it a lot, there comes the time when enough is enough I guess.
 

Neptonic

Member
High school LAN parties.
Yep. They're still happening too. Nothing is better than shot gunning a dude then hearing one of my classmates scream on the other side of the room.

Halo to me is Halo 1. I hope one day I'll play the rest of them.
 
A cool sci-fi FPS that should have ended on the third game I never played.

But more importantly, the foundation for Red vs. Blue.
 
Irrelevant after part 2

I'm sure there's been so much to so many, but I haven't cared for a long long time.

To be fair though I considered catching up with the collection but never pulled the trigger.
 
Have you played H5?


The only mechanic it shares with CoD would be sprint. However the balancing they've applied to it through the shield system and hopefully now the new radar makes it very different to 4.

ADS, which increases accuracy, clamber, thruster crap that looks like directly out of Advanced Warfare, very ugly looking characters, very ugly and goofy weapon skins...

If you wanna know whats wrong with current Halo just watch the Crowbcat Video.
 

opricnik

Banned
ADS, which increases accuracy, clamber, thruster crap that looks like directly out of Advanced Warfare, very ugly looking characters, very ugly and goofy weapon skins...

If you wanna know whats wrong with current Halo just watch the Crowbcat Video.
Beware brother halo fans are gonna attack with but it is not ADS ,yes it is
 
ADS, which increases accuracy, clamber, thruster crap that looks like directly out of Advanced Warfare, very ugly looking characters, very ugly and goofy weapon skins...

If you wanna know whats wrong with current Halo just watch the Crowbcat Video.
Yeah, and another 500 things but 343 only caters to those who like what they do imo

Halo will always be good in the realm of 1 to 3. The hype was always massive and it may never be the same.

If it was announced tomorrow that 343 was out it would be earth shattering news.

I actually believe gear box copied a lot of halo in borderlands. But obviously made thier own. Pre sequel even more. At this point I wonder with actually trying to make Halo if they could do a better job and I think it's likely.

I feel with time and budget, an emphasis on getting back to the core of Halo that insomniac can do it too.

It's clear that resistance was heavily inspired into that game and that campaign is quite competent compared to 343 Halo.

Microsoft has options that can work... They just don't see them.
 

Outrun

Member
ADS, which increases accuracy, clamber, thruster crap that looks like directly out of Advanced Warfare, very ugly looking characters, very ugly and goofy weapon skins...

If you wanna know whats wrong with current Halo just watch the Crowbcat Video.

I love Halo 5 MP, I don't want to go back to H1-3.

Crowbcat's videos are not gospel, just an opinion like mine.
 

xrnzaaas

Member
I don't care about multiplayer so I remember it mostly for silly looking weapons and aliens. Lost interest in its singleplayer campaigns years ago after playing Halo 2.
 
Intense combat with crafty adversaries within an interesting tactical sandbox that forces you to consider your options. It's definitely not the lore or the characters or the plot, but if used sparingly, I can deal with some quick bookending of main missions and the liberal use of flavor in audio. Just give me harsh-feeling odds against large numbers of fun-to-fight yet dangerous enemy mixes, co-op, and a choice of useful tools set inside of an alien landscape while dramatic music plays and stop pretending that most people play it for the damned story, 343. That's what the books and filmed stuff are for.
 
ADS, which increases accuracy, clamber, thruster crap that looks like directly out of Advanced Warfare, very ugly looking characters, very ugly and goofy weapon skins...

If you wanna know whats wrong with current Halo just watch the Crowbcat Video.

I would suggest to you to actually play the game... it's absolutely nothing like CoD.
 
Best custom game multiplayer on consoles. The amount of hours I spent playing custom games in Halo 3 is insane. Well near almost 500 hours.
 

jem0208

Member
ADS, which increases accuracy, clamber, thruster crap that looks like directly out of Advanced Warfare, very ugly looking characters, very ugly and goofy weapon skins...

If you wanna know whats wrong with current Halo just watch the Crowbcat Video.
This myth that ADS in H5 is the same as in CoD is an excellent example of the ignorance which seems to surround the game. People see the visual change and assume that it works the same. It doesn't. This isn't an opinion, you're just wrong.

Let's have a quick discussion of how aiming and shooting works in CoD and Halo.

In CoD you have two modes of shooting:

Hip fire - highly inaccurate shooting, sensitive aiming and a fairly quick movement speed. Hip fire isn't intended to be really be used other than at extreme close range, it's designed as the default state you look and move around the map.

ADS - accurate shooting, reduced sensitivity in aiming, massively reduced movement speed, snap to when aiming, no descope.

The reason CoD's aiming wouldn't work in Halo comes from two factors: inaccurate hip fire and reduced movement speed in ADS. This has a ton of cascading consequences on how the game is played.

In Halo the only mechanical change introduced by the addition of smartscope/ADS is the ability to scope with automatic weapons with an associated decrease in spread. The gameplay change of this is a slight increase in the effective range of autos. However, the existence of desope means autos are pretty much relegated to close range encounters even with this addition. Effectively, it changed fuck all.

Tl;dr: The only reason smart scope gets linked to CoD is because of the visual changes associated with it. Mechanically H5's ads is completely different to CoD.




Clamber has been in games forever. Also in CoD it's more of a mantle. You can only clamber after already jumping in H5.

Thrust was in Halo 4, way before AW was probably even being made. The rest of the features (ie: ground pound, Spartan charge etc.) were shown in an H5 trailer before CoD: AW was even properly revealed.

Both opinions, neither of which I agree with. Also nothing to do with the mechanics of the game.



This seems like a classic case of you don't know what you're talking about. Also I really don't give a shit what Crowbcat thinks.
 

kosmologi

Member
Halo 1-3 are, to me, the best games ever. The ones that came after are more or less not needed, although I enjoyed ODST and Reach a lot.

To go a bit deeper though, Halo is about the atmosphere. The art, sound, and gameplay sandbox created something that's still unique.

And I agree with OP that the skybox, trees, and the grassy hills of the second level of the first game are some of the most memorable things and if one would ask me to describe Halo then that's what I would tell them about.

I also often remember this great description about the beginning of Halo 1: https://youtu.be/T0_jiB2hqeQ?t=36s

fgaWOwE.jpg
´

Nowadays Halo doesn't interest me much. I think reviving it would require a pure single player game with elements from DOOM 2016 (gunplay, no bullshit approach to story and gameplay) and Far Cry Blood Dragon (open levels, movement speed), for example.
 

RootCause

Member
To me, it's reason I got the original Xbox. I ended up hating Halo though, but I did like Fable, and Jade Empire. Two of my favorite Xbox games.
 
This myth that ADS in H5 is the same as in CoD is an excellent example of the ignorance which seems to surround the game. People see the visual change and assume that it works the same. It doesn't. This isn't an opinion, you're just wrong.

Let's have a quick discussion of how aiming and shooting works in CoD and Halo.

In CoD you have two modes of shooting:

Hip fire - highly inaccurate shooting, sensitive aiming and a fairly quick movement speed. Hip fire isn't intended to be really be used other than at extreme close range, it's designed as the default state you look and move around the map.

ADS - accurate shooting, reduced sensitivity in aiming, massively reduced movement speed, snap to when aiming, no descope.

The reason CoD's aiming wouldn't work in Halo comes from two factors: inaccurate hip fire and reduced movement speed in ADS. This has a ton of cascading consequences on how the game is played.

In Halo the only mechanical change introduced by the addition of smartscope/ADS is the ability to scope with automatic weapons with an associated decrease in spread. The gameplay change of this is a slight increase in the effective range of autos. However, the existence of desope means autos are pretty much relegated to close range encounters even with this addition. Effectively, it changed fuck all.

Tl;dr: The only reason smart scope gets linked to CoD is because of the visual changes associated with it. Mechanically H5's ads is completely different to CoD.




Clamber has been in games forever. Also in CoD it's more of a mantle. You can only clamber after already jumping in H5.

Thrust was in Halo 4, way before AW was probably even being made. The rest of the features (ie: ground pound, Spartan charge etc.) were shown in an H5 trailer before CoD: AW was even properly revealed.

Both opinions, neither of which I agree with. Also nothing to do with the mechanics of the game.



This seems like a classic case of you don't know what you're talking about. Also I really don't give a shit what Crowbcat thinks.
Don't agree.

It's bad in halo no matter how it's implemented

Sights and movement are affected and clamber same.

Clamber is pure trash.
Call of duty has its affects no matter how it's twisted.
 
A series that I've tried to get into many times over the years but have realized I don't really care for it. Not for me, I guess.
 

Seventy70

Member
1, 2, 3, and ODST were masterpieces. A unique series full of soul and passion from its developers with an active community. Everything we got after ODST is just a shell of what was left.

I would honestly love to read a book about Bungie sort of like Masters of Doom. Something seemed to drastically change between 3 and Reach.
 
Halo is a game that desperately needs an overhaul in order for it to hold weight and ring bells again. (On consoles)

In its current state it's just a game on Xbox consoles and no longer a "must have" title.

Considering its play style is something that would go over better on PC than consoles and H6 will probably release on PC as well I don't think that dated game play feeling (at least on consoles) is going anywhere anytime soon.
 
Top Bottom