Well, I played a bunch of classic FPS games from that era, starting with the original Half Life. The gunplay of Halo felt like a step back from Half Life.
I didn’t just play one Halo game either; I bought the Master Chief Collection, played Reach, CE, and by the time I was most of the way through Halo 2 I realised this whole time I was treating Halo like a chore and waiting till I get to the part where the game gets good… When it clicks and I see what people were talking about.
I enjoyed the Half Life games significantly more, despite having technically less story.
Ah, there’s the problem. You’re comparing Halo to shooters on PC, which were much more developed when it came out. Console shooters were in such a bad state that Halo 1 was still competing with Golden Eye. Just having fluid motion and an aiming scheme that emulated mouselook was a massive step up in the console space.
Personally, I enjoy the wide variety of enemies and quirky weapon behaviors. The only other shooter released since then that’s scratched that itch for me is Doom 2016. Doom Eternal probably would if it didn’t hurt to play. Most other shooters I’ve tried just used human enemies with no variation in behavior and guns that all felt very samey.
I know a lot of people don’t like the long time to kill, though, and the high points for narrative and gameplay are completely divorced from each other.
… and the high points for narrative and gameplay are completely divorced from each other.
Yeah, this is the other issue I have with Halo; I’ve been told repeatedly that the story of Halo is incredibly deep and next level. Gave me the impression I’d get story and lore comparable to Mass Effect.
The one thing I was impressed by in Halo was enemy AI. That was really well done. Somehow, despite it being so old, most games don’t bother making AI like that today.
Well, I played a bunch of classic FPS games from that era, starting with the original Half Life. The gunplay of Halo felt like a step back from Half Life.
I didn’t just play one Halo game either; I bought the Master Chief Collection, played Reach, CE, and by the time I was most of the way through Halo 2 I realised this whole time I was treating Halo like a chore and waiting till I get to the part where the game gets good… When it clicks and I see what people were talking about.
I enjoyed the Half Life games significantly more, despite having technically less story.
Ah, there’s the problem. You’re comparing Halo to shooters on PC, which were much more developed when it came out. Console shooters were in such a bad state that Halo 1 was still competing with Golden Eye. Just having fluid motion and an aiming scheme that emulated mouselook was a massive step up in the console space.
Personally, I enjoy the wide variety of enemies and quirky weapon behaviors. The only other shooter released since then that’s scratched that itch for me is Doom 2016. Doom Eternal probably would if it didn’t hurt to play. Most other shooters I’ve tried just used human enemies with no variation in behavior and guns that all felt very samey.
I know a lot of people don’t like the long time to kill, though, and the high points for narrative and gameplay are completely divorced from each other.
Yeah, this is the other issue I have with Halo; I’ve been told repeatedly that the story of Halo is incredibly deep and next level. Gave me the impression I’d get story and lore comparable to Mass Effect.
The one thing I was impressed by in Halo was enemy AI. That was really well done. Somehow, despite it being so old, most games don’t bother making AI like that today.
Half-life is such a joy to play even today