Unpopular opinion: Halo was ahead of it's time

[babo]

Halo Combat Evolved. You are not allowed to pollute your mind or the discussion with post-halo 3 garbage or anything of that sort. I know games like halo series probably catch a lot of flak from butthurt fanboys who don't like having fun but I personally found it incredible. It seemed to have a great variety of enemies, incredible AI for the time, great physics, good maps, the incredibly well executed vehicles and their design, good multiplayer, co-op, and lastly to meet it seemed, at least from my limited knowledge to have significantly better graphics than other FPS games of the time.

Discussion part 2: I never understood whether people liked/dislike halo 2. Halo 3 from a purely fun standpoint, I enjoyed as well. Anything beyond that I really fucking disliked. (If anyone can fill me on on the situation with halo 2 I'd appreciate it)

As for compared to doom's style, it was completely different, differently paced, and like most modern shooters nowhere near as heavily involved in the puzzle/map tricks aspect. Personally I'm fine with that. To me both games were breathtaking when I first played them.

[40oz]

I will say halo was one of the best multiplayer experience I ever had next to goldeneye 007. 4 player split screen creates memories.

[sgtcrispy]

At the time, me and my roommates had plenty'o creamy Halo split-screen action going on. I loved causing a ruckus with those dual needlers in Halo 2. hehe
Never understood the hate for those, they're awesome.

[Technician]

No one here hates Halo. It's every game that tried to be Halo that people hate. Much like Doom clones, they all sucked. If anything, Halo deserved better. The turd third entry sucked for a number of reasons, and all the sequels and offshoots sucked.

[Bucket]

Fuck Halo.
Tell me, what EXACTLY did it do that made it "ahead of it's [sic] time"?

[Doomkid]

Halo 2 deathmatch was pretty fun but always left me with this hollow feeling like I'd rather be having a Doom deathmatch.

It seemed "on time", not ahead of it's time. Just my opinion!

[Belial]

I love the first Halo. It's an excellent singleplayer experience, and Legendary is one of the most satisfying FPS challenges I've encountered, almost on par with Descent 2 on Insane.

[Patrol1985]

I assume you're all talking about console experience?

For some time I've been willing to try Halo myself, but I heard the PC ports suck. Is it still a good game on a PC?

[SuperflyJohnson]

Patrol1985 said:

Is it still a good game on a PC?

Shit yeah. Gearbox ported Halo 1 and it's solid.

I don't know about Halo 2; I haven't seen anything particularly bad written about it.

[Devalaous]

I avoided Halo for a long time, due to its overhype and the litte kids screaming about it, and so forth. Then I actually gave Halo 1 a try on my 360, and found it far FAR better than I ever expected it to be. The series has matured now, with everything from ODST onwards being highly enjoyable, but I wouldnt say its the greatest modern FPS series or whatever. Its just simply "decent"

[Drilbur]

Halo Reach is free on XBL for 360 in case anyone is interested.

[Phml]

I liked Halo 1. It was a solid, fun single playthrough game. That being said to me the only "incredible" thing about it is the amount of copypaste they got away with in their level design, and overall repetition in everything. It felt like 2 hours of content artificially stretched. Imagine if you played Doom E1 and then every other E1 homage out there before even considering starting E2 or trying out Doom 2.

[Jodwin]

Phml said:

I liked Halo 1. It was a solid, fun single playthrough game. That being said to me the only "incredible" thing about it is the amount of copypaste they got away with in their level design, and overall repetition in everything. It felt like 2 hours of content artificially stretched.

This. Also your slow movement made especially Halo's outdoors maps painful to navigate if you didn't have a vehicle to use.

[Belial]

Patrol1985 said:

I assume you're all talking about console experience?

For some time I've been willing to try Halo myself, but I heard the PC ports suck. Is it still a good game on a PC?

PC only. The first one works fine, like any PC FPS should.

Halo 2 I've only played the first map, and unistalled it. The removal of health bars breaks the gameplay IMO.

[geo]

I've never played Halo or Golden Eye.

I have played a ton of Quake 2 64 as I've mentioned on the board several times. My friend's little brother used to have me complete it start to finish every weekend. Like how kids want you to replay and rewind a movie 10 times a day.

Then him and his friends would play against me multi-player 3 on 1. I'd still destroy them all. It was fun and they had fun too.

[SuperflyJohnson]

geo said:

I've never played Halo or Golden Eye.

I think for GoldenEye64 especially it's one of those 'you had to be there' things.

[Dragonsbrethren]

SuperflyJohnson said:

I think for GoldenEye64 especially it's one of those 'you had to be there' things.

The single player game design holds up well, some AI quirks aside, and most of the level design is still great. Multiplayer, yeah, that's probably a "had to be there" thing.

[hayabusa479]

Phml said:

The only "incredible" thing about it is the amount of copypaste they got away with in their level design, and overall repetition in everything.

The 8th level was just the 5th level played backwards. That felt really lazy on Bungie's part.

As for the series itself, I've been a fan for a really long time. I got Halo 1 for my 5th birthday (only to have it taken away when my parents saw how violent it was.) I don't play it nearly as much anymore, but it was fun while it lasted.

[geo]

SuperflyJohnson said:

I think for GoldenEye64 especially it's one of those 'you had to be there' things.

That's how I feel about Tropico 1. Tropico 3 is still awesome.

[mrthejoshmon]

I like all Halo the games (except 343's crap).

I think Halo was ahead of its time by being one of the most technically impressive FPS games I have ever played (When I played it on the Xbox, now it looks really primitive) and the fact that it pretty much caused the Xbox to be a huge success proves that it was a great god damn game too I guess.

Halo 2 was my favorite for the single player (unfortunately I never played the actual multiplayer with anybody because no 3rd control and no internet) and it was god damn unbeatable for the amount of weird crap you would find by getting out of the map or by just messing around. It was the little things that made Halo 2 the best (such as the marine who T-Bones if he gets in the Warthog with you or the pelican you can ride out of the map which leads to a land of weirdness and oddities such as turtle textured walls that "bleed" water when shot and some kind of primitive city skybox texture plastered all over the walls).

[Coopersville]

Halo did nothing wrong.

[doomgargoyle]

Bucket said:

Fuck Halo.
Tell me, what EXACTLY did it do that made it "ahead of it's [sic] time"?

I don't get what makes halo that special either. Maybe because it was an entire generation's first contact with an FPS.

[Doomkid]

But then Master Chief was a Doomguy.

[Bucket]

When I think of FPSs from that era that were "ahead of their time", I think of Deus Ex, Rainbow Six, Operation Flashpoint, Red Faction, or WW2 Online. There's no way in hell Halo did anything those games didn't do. Whether it did them better is a moot argument.

[Olroda]

Well, I have the PC version of Combat Evolved, and I think it is a good game. Easily on par with the DooMs, Quakes (I-II), Marathon, and Half-Life. Ahead of its time? Maybe. It definitely has some very nice features and a good atmosphere. I have only played CE and Halo II to any greater extent (and then only single-player), but I have the feeling that it goes downhill from there (please correct me if I'm wrong).

Also, I have another unpopular opinion to bother you with:
Half-Life 2 is nowhere near as good as Half-Life The later Episodes, I-II, is better though.

[Avoozl]

The only thing Halo did that other games didn't around the time was make use of newer graphics effects like bump mapping and specular shading, and maybe also a strong music score if that makes sense.

[Ralphis]

It certainly pioneered in the online matchmaking area and pretty much introduced the concept of regenerating health to online FPS as well. Halo 3 was awesome (to whoever called it a turd)

[Marnetmar]

I wouldn't say Halo was ahead of it's time but it is a much better game than people give it credit for. It'd probably be viewed in a much more positive light if it weren't for the fanbase.

[Fulgrim]

Bucket said:

When I think of FPSs from that era that were "ahead of their time", I think of Deus Ex, Rainbow Six, Operation Flashpoint, Red Faction, or WW2 Online. There's no way in hell Halo did anything those games didn't do. Whether it did them better is a moot argument.

You can add games like System Shock 2 and Theif: The Metal Age to the list as well.

Also, Warhammer 40k Space Marines > Master Chief.

[Waffenak]

On that day when I acquire first xbox I will also buy and try Halo. I could buy enhanced edition for 360 but I want to play the "rough" original game. I dont own any xbox console yet because I have always been sony/nintendo/sega guy.