I' m sure I' m going to get bashed for this but here it goes.
First, let me start out by saying that I LOVE Halo. It' s probably my favorite game of all time. The reason why I say that is becuase I have never had a game that I have played regularly for over 3 years now (or so). ' Til this day, my friends and I play against other people online virtually every single day. Even if it' s just a quick game before going out. We even got our girl-friends hooked on it. One of them went as far as buying an Xbox and Halo after a few weeks of playing. Needless to say, we think it' s one of the best games ever!
Now, on to Halo 2... I' m not even sure where I should begin. I guess I can start by saying what was it that I liked so much about Halo 1.
I liked the fact that the game wasn' t over-the-top. Yeah, he is a super-futuristic Marine that in reality, may never happen but what drew me into the game was:
the gameplay... the fact that you are assisted on the aiming since it' s very hard to get mouse-like accuracy with a controller
i liked the fact that the character can' t run very fast... just as normal human speed and not sprinting
he could shoot like a true soldier and not like a Terminator... meaning with only one gun at a time
i liked that he has limited jumping abilities... he can' t easily clear over ones head
These are the things that drew me deeply into the game and made all the other FPS kid-like games. Quake and Unreal lack these qualities and made me not like the FPS genre until Halo came out.
But now, Halo 2 seems to have changed all these values and it seems to be that it' s starting to be like every other FPS out there. Now he can run a little fast, jump twice as high, shoot 2 small arms at the same time. Slower and more realistic gameplay makes a person utilize skills and intelligence in order to win games like CTF since you can' t rely on a fast flee or massive fire power. I can honestly say that I am slowly starting to NOT look forward to Halo 2. Yeah, I still want it and I am still going to play the hell out of it, but I don' t think it' s going to be better than Halo 1. It takes more than just new levels and a few enhanced features to make a sequel great especially with a game getting enormous amount of publicity.
Even Bungie said this once in an EGM interview. " If it isn' t broken, why fix it" ... They also said that they are going to stick to what made Halo 1 so successful and I think part of that success was the human-like abilities of the character.
Let the bashing begin.
< Message edited by Dutch Devious -- 7/2/2004 2:40:25 PM >