Halo 1, one of the worst AAA FPS ever conceived?

[KrZ]

Having played FPS games on PC almost exclusively, I decided to give Halo a try. I am wondering how this franchise became so popular given the many issues that plague the 1st game. Need to clarify that I am only referring to the solo as I have not tried pvp multiplayer yet.

Problems with this game listed below:

• Weak level design consisting of empty corridors leading to empty rooms, rinse and repeat ad nauseam. Then you have vast but empty exterior levels. Overall it's kind of boring and uninspired.
  
• Library illustrates above point well and this is probably the most tedious level I have played in a video game alongside Code Vein's cathedral .
  
• Master chief is too slow in general. How is the ultimate soldier so slow?
  
• No sprint!? How that's even possible in modern FPS is baffling.
  
• Abysmal coop AI prone to suicide and team kills - see Captain Keyes escort mission in tight corridors
  
• Fall damage from moderate heights - why give the master Chief an additional handicap when he is already so slow. He is supposed to be super soldier but feels way too weak.
  
• The spread on that assault rifle is obscene. Good looking weapon and sound effect but can't shoot a fish in a barrel with that turkey.
  
• 2-weapon carry limit - stupid design decision and what a way to restrict fun in your game.
  
• Shotgun introduced late in the campaign. Why wait this late to introduce FPS weapon staple? Again, feels like another arbitrary decision to frustrate player for no good reason.
  
• Bullet sponge enemies = no fun, especially when you are forced to work with the assault rifle for big chunks of the game.
  
• Looney toons enemy design and behavior. Hard to take them seriously.
  
• Weird vehicle control, especially on the jeep.
  
• Ugly looking starting pistol - other weapons are fine but this one looks like a toy gun. Luckily it packs a decent punch.
  
• Oddly placed checkpoints which make certain sections frustrating.
  
• Something wrong with level geometry in places whereby your shots hit invisible walls when you have clear line of sight with target.

All in all, I don't quite understand how the franchise took off given those glaring issues. Do the sequels bring drastic improvements? I can't see myself playing through another '343 Guilty Spark' or 'The Library' level again

[REIGEKEIGE]

gotta love bait, but for those who may not know a lot about halo

Having played FPS games on PC almost exclusively, I decided to give Halo a try. I am wondering how this franchise became so popular given the many issues that plague the 1st game. "2001 different time"

Problems with this game listed below:

• Weak level design consisting of empty corridors leading to empty rooms, rinse and repeat ad nauseam. Then you have vast but empty exterior levels. Overall it's kind of boring and uninspired. empty bacause it's an abandoned place, the emty tunnels and rooms of the facility tells a story. ornate details in the massive areas telling how they had a culture that places that high.
  
  
• Library illustrates above point well and this is probably the most tedious level I have played in a video game alongside Code Vein's cathedral :gnarled:. "it sucks"
  
  
• Master chief is too slow in general. How is the ultimate soldier so slow? "I dont find this as a problem not too slow for me. movement speed increased in other games feels like to me"
  
  
• No sprint!? How that's even possible in modern FPS is baffling. "this is super dumb to me but in reach and halo 4 and up has it. you dont need sprint with the walking speed. think of it as always running and not being limited to not be able to shoot just because you want to move a little faster"
  
  
• Abysmal coop AI prone to suicide and team kills - see Captain Keyes escort mission in tight corridors :alexangry: "Dont be clumsy with you granades. this is a personal problem not one with the game"
  
  
• Fall damage from moderate heights - why give the master Chief an additional handicap when he is already so slow. He is supposed to be super soldier but feels way too weak. "I mean this is fair and changed in other games"
  
  
• The spread on that assault rifle is obscene. Good looking weapon and sound effect but can't shoot a fish in a barrel with that turkey. "it's pretty good up close"
  
  
• 2-weapon carry limit - stupid design decision and what a way to restrict fun in your game. "really? it makes for a challange think inventory management. if you want more fun guns earn them."
  
  
• Shotgun introduced late in the campaign. Why wait this late to introduce FPS weapon staple? Again, feels like another arbitrary decision to frustrate player for no good reason. "it appears mid game you most have missed them"
  
  
• Bullet sponge enemies = no fun, especially when you are forced to work with the assault rifle for big chunks of the game. "I can not think of an enemy other than the hunter that can be bullet spongey other than the hunter and they are easily taken out with a shot in the back
  
  
• Looney toons enemy design and behavior. Hard to take them seriously. "design is as amazing sci-fi as it gets and behavior is outdated but improved in all games to a point"
  
  
• Weird vehicle control, especially on the jeep. "the driving is very intuitive, let me make it simple for you. you look, that way go to.
  
  
• Ugly looking starting pistol - other weapons are fine but this one looks like a toy gun. Luckily it packs a decent punch. "bait or terrible taste.. no one cant have that bad of a taste so bait"
  
  
• Oddly placed checkpoints which make certain sections frustrating. "fair"
  
  
• Something wrong with level geometry in places whereby your shots hit invisible walls when you have clear line of sight with target. "fair"

I can't see myself playing through another '343 Guilty Spark' or 'The Library' level again "♥♥♥♥ the library but 343 is good horror if you immerse yourself, a massive massacre happened and you find what did it and it is not normal"

[KrZ]

Some good feedback here and I'll try to answer all. But let me jump quickly on this particular comment here.

Diposting pertama kali oleh Terms of Enrampagement =HKC=:

Regardless, Halo revolutionized the FPS the same way GoldenEye 007 and Quake had before it, and it started several trends like recharging shields and limited weapon capacity that characterized (some would say "plagued") the genre for years.

How did Halo revolutionise the FPS genre? Aside from fully playable coop campaign and perhaps large maps which allowed for vehicle combat, I can't really see it. If we are talking revolution in FPS genre, then I thinking more of games like Doom, Duke Nukem 3d, Quake, Half Life and Unreal which all came before Halo.

And to further clarify my initial post, I was playing on Legendary and just finished the game (at time of posting I had just finished Library). In the end, I found the whole experience very tedious due to poor level design and restrictions on player movement. Combat suffered greatly from that sluggish pace of Master Chief and bullet sponginess of enemies.

It does have a great soundtrack though.

[ANGRY MALICE]

Emm how dare you? Library is my favorite Halo level.

[Kuriishi]

"Modern FPS"
>Game is literally 2 decades old.

Lmao

[Nathan]

Halo 1 did FEAR style AI before FEAR (sensory based: sight & sound, survival behaviours, fleeing, retreating, dodging, taking cover, flanking, panicking, investigating, berzerking, faction fighting), Halo integrated melee and grenades seamlessly into the core combat loop (before melee & grenades were clunky weapons you had to switch to before you could use them), Halo vehicle combat was integral and added a lot of dimensions, a much more open FPS instead of corridors, mazes, arenas, but battlefields with dozens of AI all at once, and complicated AI at that, which is pretty resource-intensive.
The Halo combat chess was unique in 2001, and to some degree still not often done in the same way: Enter a large valley with Wraiths on cliffs mortaring at you, banshees flying from the flanks, ghosts charging at you, Elites leading a grunt pack from the side, Jackals waiting behind a few trees, a pair of Hunters waiting near the door, and you, rolling in with a scorpion tank with marines by your side as support.
Did Quake do that? Doom? Half-Life?

And on top of that the weapons have good feedback, enemies have good hit feedback with stuns, staggers, falters, pain animations, knockback, lots of blood flying around, sparks and smoke, the vehicles control really well, I hate the usual Ubisoft handling on M&KB where you have to steer with the keyboard, you can't steer in very tiny degrees, it's 45-90 degree angles only.
The artstyle was exotic and vibrant for its time, beautiful, had a lot of shaders and effects that were pretty modern and rare in 2001, and the artstyle complemented gameplay by having distinct silhouettes for different enemies to telegraph their role in the combat chess, and colours to signal their threat level.
Music is timeless, a fun space opera adventure journey and still fun to play.

Library is bad, and repetitive level design, the levels Halo & Silent Cartographer are some of the best, and Truth & Reconciliation and 343 Guilty Spark are good as well, Assault on the Control Room is repetitive with recycled assets but a great showcase for all the different things possible to do in Halo (stealth, cloaking, indoor fights, massive outdoor battlefields with many elements and AI in play at once).

Play it on Heroic or Normal, seems dumb to criticize Halo for Legendary difficulty.
(A lot of games did harder difficulties with bullet sponginess, Half-Life difficulties ONLY control health & damage, nothing else, no behavioural changes, no enemy number changes)

[Fryman]

Diposting pertama kali oleh KrZ:

How did Halo revolutionise the FPS genre?

You mean aside from the ways I already mentioned? You have to have been around for that period of time, but it was a cultural phenomenon. Halo was the byword for "best shooter game ever" for an enormous subset of the population, and it was the metric that subsequent shooters were compared to for years. It was the beginning of the shift towards "realistic" shooters and an outsized amount of importance being placed on graphics over substance in AAA games. More to the point, it was one of the first FPS games/series to have more prominent focus on multiplayer than single player. It was (if you'll pardon the expression) a game-changer.

[Cookie Ninja]

For reference we're talking about Halo Combat Evolved a game that came out 20 years ago. Lets go point by point:


Weak level design- I agree with you on this that many levels are reused, but name a game with better level design from 2001... But 343 guilty spark is one of the best experiences the first time playing it through.

Master chief is too slow in general.- This isn't sonic, and unless your doing something really wrong your never really just walking somewhere.

No sprint!? How that's even possible in modern FPS is baffling.- The game is 20 years old... you wouldn't call the first iPhone modern or a two decade old car modern either. A 2001 Honda civic is no Tesla...

Abysmal coop AI prone to suicide and team kills - I don't understand this point, as long as you walk ahead of keys you shouldn't have any issues.

Fall damage from moderate heights - At no point through the campaign do the devs intend the player to jump down anywhere, the only moments you'd jump down is to skip parts of the level so the fall damage is there to tell the player that's not the intended path. I also want to point out your 7 feet tall and weigh like 1 ton, a "moderate height" that you take damage from is like 4x your height. Drop your self in a 1 ton metal can from 28 feet high to see how you make out.

The spread on that assault rifle is obscene.- Halo is built on a balance, the AR is close to mid range, you burst your shots you can shoot further, but you shouldn't be playing the game like COD and taking pot shots from a mile away, and if you do the level gives you a sniper. You highlight your issue later on about not understanding the sandbox.

2-weapon carry limit - This forces the player to make a choice while playing, and to pick the right weapons, I know it was a common thing for older game to have unlimited guns, but how many modern shooters let you pick up more then 2 gun? Cod its primary secondary same as battlefield, titan fall, CSGO, Valorant, PUBG, and destiny its 3, but thats not too different. This point here makes me believe you're just posted this for attention without any thought. Limited weapon pickup is super normal in "modern" shooters. Really other then doom what game that came out in the last 5 years has unlimited weapon pick ups?

Shotgun introduced late in the campaign.- The shotgun is introduced on the first level with the flood or halo's space zombies. Step back for a moment and think about that, the shotgun appears on the first level that the zombies do...

Bullet sponge enemies = no fun, especially when you are forced to work with the assault rifle for big chunks of the game.- what?! it takes 1-2 shots to kill anything in Halo Combat Evolved excluding vehicles. This issue only happens if there's a problem between the chair and the keyboard. Halo in a sandbox based shooter, your not "stuck with the AR" pick up a plasma pistol shoot their shields out and one tap them in the head with the magnum. Plasma is good against shields, ballistics in good against flesh, its really that simple.

Looney toons enemy design and behavior. Hard to take them seriously.- Ok, thats what most people would call character. When you stick a grunt they scream and run to the nearest elite for help even though there's nothing that can be done and it might end up in them both blowing up. When you stick an elite he runs to the player because he knows his time in near and wants to take you down with him. When you kill an elite, the ranking member on the field, all his grunts freak out and panic. I could make countless examples all day about how much character the AI has.

Weird vehicle control, especially on the jeep.- Yes but once again its 2001 how many FPS games back then had vehicles. I'll wait.

Ugly looking starting pistol - other weapons are fine but this one looks like a toy gun. Luckily it packs a decent punch. I have nothing to say on this one, I like it, many other people like it too.

Oddly placed checkpoints which make certain sections frustrating.- I have played through this game on every difficulty and have not experienced this, but its a 20 year old game so by "modern" standard anything can odd.

Something wrong with level geometry in places whereby your shots hit invisible walls when you have clear line of sight with target.- Your probably playing on the remastered graphics, hit tab to go to the classic graphics where the geometry is correct. The company that made the 10 year anniversary messed up.

Its fine to not like a 20 year old game, but you don't seem to understand that its older then people going to collage. Its older then smart phones, the first iPhone came out in 2005. This. Game. Is. OLD. Saying "I am wondering how this franchise became so popular" when it revolutionized gaming. The Xbox controller made playing an FPS possible, just look at Golden eye on the N64 trident. Bungie did something never before scene in gaming, and on a console. The AI in Halo CE is still better then most FPS AI. To top everything off the music. If all I posted was "The music." anyone who as heard about halo would agree that having the best soundtrack in gaming helps a lot.

[Fastspectre]

Diposting pertama kali oleh No Fate(GT):very apelike:

imagine comparing a 20 year-old game to modern 2021 fps games

how about comparing it to half life/counter strike/quake/unreal/doom/wolfenstein which are even older and realizing that the only things halo CE has is bordable vehicles and aimbot for controler users so consoleros can play a FPS game, oh and the universe/lore a thing of taste but i personally enjoy that very much

[Fastspectre]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Terms of Enrampagement =HKC=:

Diposting pertama kali oleh KrZ:

How did Halo revolutionise the FPS genre?

You mean aside from the ways I already mentioned? You have to have been around for that period of time, but it was a cultural phenomenon. Halo was the byword for "best shooter game ever" for an enormous subset of the population, and it was the metric that subsequent shooters were compared to for years. It was the beginning of the shift towards "realistic" shooters and an outsized amount of importance being placed on graphics over substance in AAA games. More to the point, it was one of the first FPS games/series to have more prominent focus on multiplayer than single player. It was (if you'll pardon the expression) a game-changer.

wrong..., Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake, Unreal, Half Life <--- those shoters are "the best shoter games ever" from back then
and shortly after halo ce got released battlefield 1942
i'll give you that you probably never heard of them when you only played on console

[Sysgen]

Source[en.wikipedia.org]

In less than a year, Bungie had to turn Halo from a loose collection of ideas into a shipping product on an unproven console.

You can poke holes in everything but Halo and Bungie for this reason alone are Legendary.

[Corporal-Sheppard]

shut up

[P A C E R]

"modern FPS"
"game released in 2001"

pick one.
And literally EVERY enemy can be killed with up to THREE (YES THREE) shots to the head.
despite the wall of text your rant is only subjective and holds little to no evidence persuading the consumer to not play.

git gud.

[Cuchi]

Diposting pertama kali oleh No Fate:

imagine comparing a 20 year-old game to modern 2021 fps games

This.

Also, in 2001, Halo was pretty good, with nice and big maps levels (Except for Library), pretty music, cool weapons and vehicles, and the people doesn't really care about "Balance" in multiplayer games in 2001. Come on, the Halo 3 fanboys still beliving that was the most balanced install of the saga.

But then, games like League of Legends and Overwatch force to make "Balanced games", but in the first decade of 2000? It must be a really broken thing to be required a patch.

The IA was interesting for his time too, and that "Looney toons enemy design" is because the franchise become darker and edgier with the time.


Oh, nevermind, you are a troll:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1196590/discussions/0/3071999401480110562/

[Gunsaremagic]

Nice bait halo 1 multiplayer is the best i like it more than halo 3 well i would like it more than 3 if halo 1 was in the server browser playing halo 1 via matchmaking is taking hours and hours i hate matchmaking its so bad

[KrZ]

Diposting pertama kali oleh F4stw1nd:

Diposting pertama kali oleh No Fate(GT):very apelike:

imagine comparing a 20 year-old game to modern 2021 fps games

how about comparing it to half life/counter strike/quake/unreal/doom/wolfenstein which are even older and realizing that the only things halo CE has is bordable vehicles and aimbot for controler users so consoleros can play a FPS game, oh and the universe/lore a thing of taste but i personally enjoy that very much

That's what I thought - Halo 1 did not really revolutionise the FPS genre (there were vehicles in FPS before Halo); it merely democratised FPS' on consoles. I guess fully playable coop campaign contributed to its success too.

++++++++

Again, for the unattentive people out there, I am talking about solo campaign only as I have not tried multiplayer yet.

Also, quite interesting that some try to misconstrue the argument by claiming that I compare Halo 1 to today's games when I mentioned the likes of Doom, Duke Nukem 3d, Quake, Half Life and Unreal which precede it.