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fatal error

Things that bug me about Halo.

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Sure the Halo series may have a lot of action and snappy comments, but has anyone ever taken a look at the series gameplay? All it is is a map filled to the brim with random enemies and/or vehicles that either sit way far away and watch you, or charge at you shooting. As I play through Halo 3 especially, It becomes even more obvious how boring and repedative the gameplay is. I especially loathe when I'm on one side of the map, and a wraith suddenly pops up on the other end and starts shelling me. Which means in order to beat it I have to either use a rocket launcher (normally not available) or carefully weave through the junk laying about the map trying not to get blown up so I can hijack the damn thing. And another thing (yes there's more) in halo reach the first 3 times I find the energy sword I can't even use it because everytime I pick it up I hit a cutscene and my weapons get reset. Another downside about Reach is the fact that the AI seems to have been re-written for the large sandbox style maps, which means instead of confronting you, enemies would rather run from you and shoot you from a distance. This can be quite problematic if the enemy your facing has a fuelrod gun or other long range explosive weapon.

So in conclusion this rant was positively useless. What are some of your opinions on the Halo franchise?

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Actually, practically everything you mentioned was... positive in terms of enemy AI. Just because it's annoying and forces you to, y'know, think around it, doesn't mean it's inherently -bad-.

Though, you're most likely being facetious, and I will end up putting my foot in my mouth.

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Membrain said:

Actually, practically everything you mentioned was... positive in terms of enemy AI. Just because it's annoying and forces you to, y'know, think around it, doesn't mean it's inherently -bad-.

Though, you're most likely being facetious, and I will end up putting my foot in my mouth.


Well it just bugs me that Bungie puts a couple dozen monsters in the open and on a cliff or two and calls it gameplay. Theres rarely an ambush or any other clever form of gameplay thats makes the enemies do anything intelligent.

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I really enjoyed the Flood section of Halo 2. That's about it. I grew tired of the constant reloading, but that seems to be a plus for "realist" parties. I also didn't care for the health system.

Other then that they are decent games. The story isn't nearly as "epic" as fans claim. I thought Reach was overly glorified and lame. It also took some of the mystery away from the Spartans.

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I played the first Halo and while it was a good game I never got the massive hype around it, it hadn't done anything new except from regenerating health *shudder*.

I tried Halo 2 and it was pretty boring, never bothered with the Halo series after that.

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I really enjoyed Halo 2 despite the god awful ending. What really grabbed my attention was the dual wielding system. I attended a couple of lan parties and I saw quite a few people coming up with rather unique dual wielding combinations. The hilarious part is that this was probably one of the few interesting aspects of Halo I've seen in the series and it was one of the first things they cut out.

I thought Reach was overly glorified and lame.

I played through about 2 or 3 missions before I got fed up with it. On the second mission (I think) I nearly threw my controller down in rage because the AI controlling the female spartan kept jumping on and off a warthog turret nonstop while elites were shoving plasma grenades up my ass. Throughout the entire time I was playing I couldn't help but think that every single fucking spartan on Reach was a god damn retard and completely deserved to die.

Halo pretty much died for me after the second game. The third game was riddled with so many bugs that it made the game virtually unplayable.
For example, there was a section on the map where you go up against a scarab for the first time where you found yourself in some outdoor courtyard area with a wraith blocking a door you needed to go through. You were supposed to take out the wraith with a grenade launcher turret on this one building but thanks to some shitty map design, said turret was usually destroyed when said wraith fired a plasma cannon thingamajig at a squad of marines who just happened to be camping up there. When this happened your only real option was to try to hijack the wraith which either resulted in
A. getting turned into swiss cheese by the wraith's plasma gunner
B. getting run over by the wraith as soon as you came within 10 feet of it.

Also the final level for Halo 3 was fucking terrible. So terrible in fact that I'm just going to go ahead and spoil it:

You win by driving a warthog over the same platform 4 times.

And you know what? Here's another fucking spoiler: You win Halo ODST by going down the same staircase like 20 times, then going up that same exact stair case 20 more times, and then driving across one particular overpass (in case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm making fun of the fact that Bungee's level designers are so fucking incompetent and lazy that they copy and past the exact same area up to 10 or 15 times) about 8 times.

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Technician said:

I also thought the head Flood guy being a fly trap was lame.


The whole "flood level" in halo sucked balls. felt like some metroid crap and they were spawning everywhere with ugly concrete with some detail textures thrown on them. what the fuck was that shit?

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Csonicgo said:

The whole "flood level" in halo sucked balls. felt like some metroid crap and they were spawning everywhere with ugly concrete with some detail textures thrown on them. what the fuck was that shit?


Need I mention the library from Halo 1?

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Craigs said:

I played through about 2 or 3 missions before I got fed up with it. On the second mission (I think) I nearly threw my controller down in rage because the AI controlling the female spartan kept jumping on and off a warthog turret nonstop while elites were shoving plasma grenades up my ass. Throughout the entire time I was playing I couldn't help but think that every single fucking spartan on Reach was a god damn retard and completely deserved to die.


Halo 3's AI isn't much better, especially the arbiter. If the arbiter takes to much damage he dies, drops his energy sword that conveiniently has 1 energy left in it, and then at random (normally when all of the enemies are dead) will do a backflip off the ground and start fighting again. I found this rather stupid and cheesy. Why can't the arbiter be an invinsible AI like the spartans in Reach?

While I'm at it, the arbiter should also learn how to aim to.

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I never understood why Halo was rated "M". It was never that violent, or vulgar, and didn't even have any sex or drug references. Honestly it's got to be the cleanest "M" Rated game ever. I've seen and played games infinitely more vulgar and violent by comparison (Gears of War *eye twitch*, God of War, The Darkness, GTA, FEAR, Condemned, etc). I've played every halo game minus ODST and the worse word I have heard so far is "Bitch".

I mean, you're already a "Mature" rated game, may as well make it worth it. Saying "Fuck" isn't going to change the rating now.


Anyway, I like the games, but the fan base really wears on you after a while.

As far as my favorite, I would say either Halo 2 or 3. Halo 2 had some pretty awesome glitches and mods that were fun. Halo 3 had the forge mode and, while it was nothing compared to the Far Cry map editor, it was still fun to dick around in. Even though it was clumsy and completely unbearable when trying to do anything more than put a crate on top of another crate.

Halo Reach was alright and I really like the firefight mode and the improved forge editor. However, I think it should have been delayed and have the more annoying bugs fixed rather than try to fart out another halo game as fast as they possibly could.

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I loved the Halo games. The one thing that surprised me about reach was it was revealed that the Spartans were just an elite group of soldiers. I always thought Master Chief was a cyborg.

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fatal error said:

So in conclusion this rant was positively useless. What are some of your opinions on the Halo franchise?


Yup, it was.

I played Halo 1 single player and thought it was fun, had great atmosphere and environments to explore, and the action was sometimes repetitive but did have some sweet battles. Of course, I quit before I got through the library because that part was just a pathetic excuse for a game.

I played a little bit of halo 2 multiplayer on my friend's xbox. Enjoyable, but not great. I thought CoD multiplayer was more exciting

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I liked Halo 1 and Halo 3 multiplayer modes (Especially Stealth Juggernaut), but that's about it. Halo 1 though has horrendous Multiplayer which was over hyped, and the story wasn't to enthralling. Warthogs were fun, but I've noticed that in H3 they seemed dumbed down a bit and not as manueverable and the traction declined too. H3 Warthogs were shit.

Halo 1 is yes indeed, the cleanest M-Game I have ever played. They hardly swear, and the blood is Red, Blue, Purple, and Orange. And there isn't really a whole lot of it unless you shoot at a dead guy for ten minutes straight. Even then its just a colored splotch on the ground. Halo 3 has less blood and gore even. Some Flood enemies can explode, but other wise the blood consists of a real bad looking blood puff which appears when you shoot someone.

Also; Halo Wars. I've only layed the Demo, but it was actually kinda fun. Of course, I just like these RTS games.

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imp1979 said:

revealed that the Spartans were just an elite group of soldiers. I always thought Master Chief was a cyborg.

I know, eh.

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If we're going to talk about single player, Halo is pretty awesome. The AI is top notch, and it's great to go through on co-op. The quality of the levels has been pretty off-and-on since CE, though, I'll admit that.

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I played the first Halo on the PC - would have probably gone quite far in it, were it not for how undriveable the Warthog is - trying to steer with a mouse is incredibly difficult.

Played some of Halo 3 on the XBox360 - single player didn't really interest me, but multiplayer is alright if you fancy fiddling with the settings to have some odd games. I preferred CoD for four player console FPS deathmatching though.

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I played Halo 1 and 2. Both of which were rather boring, couldn't get into them. Story didn't draw me in, gameplay didn't draw me in, not even the visuals could draw me in. I'm not even gonna bother with any other Halo game.

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Marnetmar said:

The halo series itself isn't the best, but it's not bad either. The halo fanbase on the other hand...


The halo fanbase is the reason I haven't joined the halo fanbase.

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Marnetmar said:

The halo series itself isn't the best, but it's not bad either. The halo fanbase on the other hand...


I took a look at a Halo forum once and one of the most popular thread was about Teabagging. I'm not kidding.

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imp1979 said:

I always thought Master Chief was a cyborg.


No shit, that would've at least made the game kinda cool. Nope just stupid people in suits. Fine.

Clonehunter said:

I liked Halo 1 and Halo 3 multiplayer modes (Especially Stealth Juggernaut), but that's about it.


Yeah, the multiplayer. If you ever wondered what a FPS would be like if your character weighed 2 tons and fought underwater, Halo is it.

Coopersville said:

If we're going to talk about single player, Halo is pretty awesome.


Really? Even the Saturday-morning cartoon character monster designs? Those things were about as threatening as muppets.

"wub wub wub..eeeek! he's over there! bpbpbpbpblah!!..."

Get real.

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Grunts are stupid yes... Also Master Cheif I thouht was just a blatant rip of the Doom marine with a different colored Helemt and some blue talking computer chick.

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imp1979 said:

I loved the Halo games. The one thing that surprised me about reach was it was revealed that the Spartans were just an elite group of soldiers. I always thought Master Chief was a cyborg.


I may have to re-read Fall of Reach, but I'm pretty sure that Master Chief was a cyborg. He just wasn't part of the same group as the Spartans in Reach. If I remember correctly the Spartans on Reach were part of the Spartan I project, Chief was Spartan II which I think started using the cybernetic enhancements.

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Shadow Dweller said:

I may have to re-read Fall of Reach, but I'm pretty sure that Master Chief was a cyborg. He just wasn't part of the same group as the Spartans in Reach. If I remember correctly the Spartans on Reach were part of the Spartan I project, Chief was Spartan II which I think started using the cybernetic enhancements.

I fucking hate when we need to rely on outside media to detail elements not even told in the main game.

It's like fucking Star Wars.

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Technician said:

I fucking hate when we need to rely on outside media to detail elements not even told in the main game.

It's like fucking Star Wars.


Tell me about it. I didn't even read all the books. There's too damn many of them. I stopped after finishing Ghosts of Onix, but I think there's three or four more after that.

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The fact that it's not a generic brown shooter makes it a great series in my books. The enemies are all different shapes, serve different roles and have different critical hits spots. Almost all of them have great AI, except when they are intentionally being stupid (grunts). The level design, especially in Reach, is absolutely beautiful. The weapons are, for the most part, unique. The most weapons you will find filling one niche is two. Two brands of battle rifles, two types of rocket launchers, two snipers, two plasmas, two close range, etc. The level design in Reach was beautiful.

Complaining about the generic health system is laughable since Halo's popularity is the reason the regen system is so overused now.

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Shadow Dweller said:

I may have to re-read Fall of Reach, but I'm pretty sure that Master Chief was a cyborg. He just wasn't part of the same group as the Spartans in Reach. If I remember correctly the Spartans on Reach were part of the Spartan I project, Chief was Spartan II which I think started using the cybernetic enhancements.


As far as I'm aware theres only spartan II's and spartan III's, I've never heard of who or what the spartan I's were. For all we know the spartan I's could be the midevil guys.

And yes the cheif is a cyborg, the word cyborg frequently appears throughout the first halo games, and is commonly directed at the cheif.

I've read all teh books, I know a thing or two about this or that.

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****TL;DR WARNING!****
Chances are, you aren't interested in this much Halo information or opinion. If you've been known to experience nausea, vomiting, or seizures by exposure to Halo, please ignore this post.
*****END WARNING*****


The Chief (and all Spartan II's and III's) had improvments of some kind. Most involved mechanical or biological upgrades (adding some kind of extremely strong material to bones, or using hormones to boost muscle mass). They also had cybernetic implants, but the Spartans weren't the only "cyborgs" by that standard then. It was standard procedure to give USMC troops some kind of neural cybernetics. It's how you can always see their locations within range of your motion detector. Commanders get different implants, and so do Spartans. Obviously Spartans get the highest level of cyberisation (making up words, whatever) here, since Spartan II's (and possibly III's) can connect data storage devices.

The Spartan I project was also called Project Orion. The selection was different (they took the best soldiers rather than choosing genetically superior children). The augmentation was far less drastic too. Mostly using medicines and hormones to improve the soldiers, rather than special, and very risky implants. No MJOLNIR armor either, as it hadn't been developed far enough to be combat-ready. They weren't brought up much, because they were used more during the USMC-Insurrectionist civil war.

On-topic segment:
So, obviously I like the Halo games. The appreciation for them goes down for every sequel in the main series, not in spin-offs. I hated Halo 3, worst game IMO. Maybe it was the lack of relation to the original that bothered me, or the style, I dunno. The gameplay felt so much slower than Halo 1 or 2. That, and I hate fighting Brutes with a passion. I don't feel like I'm doing anything to them until they finally die. Making them the primary enemy was just annoying.

Halo 3: ODST wasn't as bad gameplay wise, but it wasn't perfect. The story was horrendous, especially with the romance between Buck and the lady who looks like a skeleton. Finding all the audio logs never happened for me, since I couldn't stand wandering around the city for hours on end. A few of them could help out in the harder difficulties, but getting them all is unnecessary. The best new thing added was probably Firefight, which almost makes it worth the price of a full game. Had more fun on Firefight than I had through Halo 3 and ODST combined.

Halo Reach gets my junk in a knot story-wise. If they had made a game based on Fall of Reach (the book) it would have made so much more sense. Instead, they make up a whole new set of Spartans, rather than go with the existing Blue Team, who was present on Reach. Even worse, the battles involving Blue Team were far more intense than anything Noble Team ever saw, since it was during the peak of the invasion. Storyline atrocities out of the way, it wasn't as bad as Halo 3 or ODST, but not as good as Halo 2. They screwed up with the abilities though. It severely unbalances multiplayer. People could get up high and camp with the Jetpack before you could even reach them,, or could completely negate all damage you did to them with Armor Lock, with the bonus of potentially damaging you. It did have it's fun moments though, when people weren't using said tactics.

I think the biggest issue I have with the series as a whole, is the lack of connection between the games and the books. In the game, the Covenant are simply bugs for you to squash, rather than the extremely powerful alien terror they are supposed to be. The weapons act far too differently. While in the games, the plasma seems to disperse when it impacts something, in the books it horrendously burns human flesh, to the point of losing entire limbs. It's even more noticable between space battles, when the large plasma projectiles are supposed to melt large portions of the human's ship's hull. That, and they can control the projectile's trajectory. The worst part though, actually impacting the gameplay, is that an average Spartan II's or III's can run at about 35 MPH. I don't even need to tell you how different that is from the games. Hopefully whoever picks up the series decides the books were actually going somewhere with this.

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