Halo: Worth my time?

langfor6

I never used to be a big FPS fan, but over the years I've gradually warmed up to them. Dark Forces on my friend's PC was probably the first one I ever played, and since then I've tried out a few here and there.

I'm nearing the end of my first ever run of Half-Life 2, and I'm really enjoying it. I really don't have any desire to play the realistic military FPS games, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, et al. However, I have found that I tend to enjoy the more sci-fi oriented entries in the genre. I took advantage of the free game offer for signing up for a year of Live, and Halo Reach will be arriving in the mail at some unknown time in the future. Having never played any of the entries in the series, I've been wondering if it's worth it to go back and play the older entries.

Which entry should I start with, and which ones are better off being left alone?

Nalouto

nope.

Bursar

Halo 1 hasn't aged well, and the art design's a little goofy at times. (giant anime-face Cortana and her inconsistent British speech). Likewise for 2, although this is the point where, as they say, "the plot thickens."

Halo 3's a good game in its own right, and if you find the Collector's Edition (pretty cheap these days, as they manufactures eleventy billion of them) it comes with some DVDs containing all the cutscenes of H1 and H2, plus fun developer commentary.

ODST uses the H3 engine, but takes place during the events of Halo 2. The game's a little darker in tone than the others, but it's still explody and shooty and drive-y and has all the good stuff, plus it's got the leads from Firefly as the principal VAs.

I wouldn't know about Halo Wars, because I don't pay much attention to RTS games. Someone will be along shortly to fill you in, I'm sure.

darleysam

I'd say yes, but i'm on my phone and can't go into detail right at the moment.

localhjay

halo is good dude
but
shoulda post this in the halo thread. you know, the one on the front page.

PolloDiablo

If you've got Reach I'd say you're pretty much set. The others are mostly good for nostalgia.

Olivaw

I'm not sure if you can play the original Halo on the 360, but it's not a bad game! Worth playing I think, kind of a groundbreaking game at the time

I have never played either sequel so I couldn't tell you anything about them

Reach is pretty self-contained though, so you can play that one and see if you like the style of gameplay Halo presents. It's basically the same across all the games and you can't get it anywhere else!

Olivaw

If you're just looking for quality sci-fi shooters though, you can't go wrong with

Dunxco

While Halo: Combat Evolved certainly isn't a masterpiece in terms of story-telling, and the combat isn't that refined by today's standards (but a decade-ish ago? Fantastic stuff), if you like sci-fi the story's enough to suck you in. Gameplay-wise it's solid, although the last half of the game might piss you off up until the last two levels. Agreeing with Bursar - it hasn't aged well graphically.

Halo 3 I enjoyed with regards to the campaign mode, and the terminals they add in to provide some more backstory really enriched the experience. The combat's frantic and a lot better, too - the transition from Halo 3 to Halo: Reach, barring a few weapon system changes, should feel very organic.

I didn't have the pleasure of trying Halo 2, and I'm not very attracted to ODST or Halo Wars so someone else would have to fill those in, but you can pick up Halo 3 pretty cheap these days and Halo: CE is worth a run-through or two.

/2 pence.

Zxerol

Halo 1 bored me to tears and I couldn't even be assed to complete 2 when I took a go at it. But the other hand, the multiplayer were pretty fun. I would assume that Reach obsoletes all the other games on that front, though.

chiasaur11

At least play the Silent Cartographer from 1.

Library's not worth it, but the Cartographer's a playground level in the best sense.

And ODST darker?

It's great fun, if short, but it's got the most upbeat ending in the whole series. Just this once Rose, everyone lives.

Rehab

Nalouto wrote: »

nope.

What he said.

Dox the PI

The first half of Halo 1 is pretty cool guy

then the level design team seemed to quit so they just copy and paste it

Olivaw

Yeah, I'm still sort of surprised Halo caught on with how half-assed and awful the Library section was

The rest of the game was fine enough but man

darleysam

Dox the PI wrote: »

The first half of Halo 1 is pretty cool guy

then the level design team seemed to quit so they just copy and paste it

One level /= half a game.

Rehab

The design does sound intentional, like they made the areas repetitive and grueling so that intruders would get bored and leave. In fact, the only thing more boring then playing Halo is discussing it, and thus I'm ready to leave this thread now and suggest that you all come with me.

Lets go pound some nails through our dicks.

chiasaur11

Rehab wrote: »

The design does sound intentional, like they made the areas repetitive and grueling so that intruders would get bored and leave. In fact, the only thing more boring then playing Halo is discussing it, and thus I'm ready to leave this thread now and suggest that you all come with me.

Lets go pound some nails through our dicks.

You go do that.

I'll be shooting Grunts in the leg to watch them limp.

Dunxco

Library and the following level, Two Betrayals, man... Just... Eugh.

Good thing the last two are brilliant, and 343 Guilty Spark is a blast.

Dox the PI

darleysam wrote: »

Dox the PI wrote: »

The first half of Halo 1 is pretty cool guy

then the level design team seemed to quit so they just copy and paste it

One level /= half a game.

The Truth and Reconciliation is the exact same level layout as the level Keyes
Two Betrayals is the exact same level as Assault on the Control room but backwards
Library goes without saying

Olivaw

I liked the multiplayer in Halo 1 for the PC!

The shotgun/pistol combo in that game is one of my favorite weapon combos in any FPS

Renegade Wolf

Dox the PI wrote: »

darleysam wrote: »

Dox the PI wrote: »

The first half of Halo 1 is pretty cool guy

then the level design team seemed to quit so they just copy and paste it

One level /= half a game.

The Truth and Reconciliation is the exact same level layout as the level Keyes
Two Betrayals is the exact same level as Assault on the Control room but backwards
Library goes without saying

Despite that I have to say Keyes and Two Betrayals are two of my favorite levels in the game. Library though...ughh.

I'd say give Halo 1 a go. If you enjoy it you'll probably like to play through the campaigns of 2 and 3.

Dhalphir

I really liked Halo 1 (Combat Evolved), personally.

Mr_Grinch

I was in a similar position, only recently warmed back up to FPS. I played through Halo: Reach without playing the other entries and loved it.

Waka Laka

Halo Reach is fantastic, Halo 1 might not be as impressive as it was back in the day, but it's still worth playing to a degree. The A.I is still pretty damn good.

MrVyngaard

Rehab wrote: »

Nalouto wrote: »

nope.

What he said.

Thirded. All of the times I've tried Halo, I've found it to be fairly disappointing compared to the other FPS gaming I've played.

EggPuppet

Halo 1 is worth playing on Legendary, where the AI is at its best and the gameplay is challenging. That's really the only aspect of the game that's still noteworthy, so if you don't want to beat your head against a wall for a while, and are only interested in the plot/graphics, well, those parts aren't so good now.

SilkyNumNuts

I replayed halo 1 through recently, and with the exception of the library, loved it. That said, I spent pretty much a year playing coop with my brother every night. So maybe a little bit biased.

Halo 1 is significant because I don't think any other game has really done big levels as well, including the later entries to the series. Also legendary is awesome in this one, and has less irritating bits you have to cheese than later entries.

2 I dislike because it has bosses and is more restricted, but it's still pretty good in its own right.

3 is a lot of fun, probably one of the best in terms of just pure fun.

ODST hit a lot of things I really liked, although it feels like it's missing something. I like it a lot though.

Reach is just damn good all round. It had a few tons of polish worked into it, and it really shows. Gives a fantastic impression of scale too, though the levels are oddly confined compared to 1.

The_Scarab

Halo: Combat Evolved is still great. I honestly love the atmosphere of the last half which adequately mitigates the repetition.

Halo 2, Halo 3 and all the other crap is throwaway for me. Good first impression, but very watered down. And too high on their own bullshit with regards to story. Dear Bungie, it's not as deep a narrative as you seem to think it is.


So really, if you want to sample the Halo experience, get the first one and ignore everything else. It is genuinely a landmark title in FPS gaming and in video gaming in general, has aged very well, certainly better than 2 and 3.


And it's great to play it and see where all the FPS staples of today came from. From control scheme onward. It's not genesis, not by a long way, but it has had tremendous influence on design going forward.

Steev

I played through all the Halo games (except Halo Wars) last year for the first time.

I got really bored with Halo 1 at some point. It was before the infamous library too. But I persevered and made it through.

I jumped right into Halo 2, which felt like a significant improvement.

Halo 3 was pretty good!

My cousin visited and brought his copy of Reach a few months later. We played through the entire campaign in co-op, which was cool. I had never played any of the Halo games in co-op before.

I ended my Halo marathon with ODST, which definitely has a different atmosphere to it. I enjoyed it and really liked the neon-like night vision.

anoffday

Rehab wrote: »

Nalouto wrote: »

nope.

What he said.

Don't listen to the people who are wrong.

Listen to the people who are right.

Is Halo overhyped? Yes.
Do lots of annoying people play Halo? Yes.
Do these things change the fact that they're awesome games? No.

EggPuppet wrote: »

Halo 1 is worth playing on Legendary, where the AI is at its best and the gameplay is challenging. That's really the only aspect of the game that's still noteworthy, so if you don't want to beat your head against a wall for a while, and are only interested in the plot/graphics, well, those parts aren't so good now.

I can understand graphics not being so good now, but plot? Plots get bad as they get older? What?

finnith

If you can, find a friend to play through one of the games with co-op. The games get a lot more fun when you have 1-3 friends playing with you. Except maybe some parts of ODST.

Leonius

I don't get people saying that halo 1 hasn't aged well. The graphics blew away everything but the top pc games of the time. The controls are rock solid, weapons satisfying, and it has a pretty neat sci-fi plot. Of course the 2 or 3 all flood levels are terrible, but I really liked "assault on the control room" and "two betrayels". Having two fights across the same terrain made it feel real.

Oh and forget everything you know about driving when your in a warthog.

Play halo 1 first, if you like it, play 2 and 3 too. If you don't, just play Reach, then maybe Halo 3/odst if you liked reach.

Evangir

Halo 1 is the best of the series in my opinion. Especially if you can find a buddy to local co-op it with. Halo 3 and Reach are also very worth playing, though 3 may be totally incomprehensible if you didn't play 2.

I found ODST a bit dull myself, but the voice acting from the entire male cast of Firefly makes it worth at least one run-through. Just ignore Tricia Helfer... she's terrible.

DekuStick

Leonius wrote: »

Oh and forget everything you know about driving when your in a warthog.

Not quite everything about driving. Look where you want to go.

Snowblindvictim

"I think Halo is a pretty cool guy. eh kills aleins and doesnt afraid of anything"

Halo is pretty awesome though, and worth your time.
You're better off playing the multiplayer with cool people (like TBK on these forums)
to save yourself much frustration from randoms and 12 year olds.

anoffday

Or just don't plug in your headset.

Arrath

Halo 1 has one of the top 5 video game shotguns, so it has that going for it. I'd play the older ones first, as going back from Reach they feel their age. Back when Halo 1 came out? It was incredible.

It does seem to be a very polarizing series though.

Synthesis

I'd say it is. The first game had, surprisingly, a soundtrack that blew 90% of FPS across any platform away, and fun local/system-link multiplayer.

2 and 3 are also quite good. Two's singleplayer is a bit weaker, but the multiplayer builds on that. The third has a fun singleplayer, four player co-op for that (good luck finding that in any game, it's exceedingly rare), and the best multiplayer, I would argue.

All three games, for their merits and weaknesses, have far better vehicle integration than most console or PC FPSs. Every time I get into a vehicle section in Half-Life 2, my eyes roll back into my head as to how bad they control (versus the rest of the high-quality game) by comparison. Very strange.

Story's interesting, though not the most interesting ever by any means--perhaps more memorable characters than most shooters, but that's in large part because they've had a lot of time to work on them. Vastly more interesting than Call of Duty, obviously, but given it's science fiction fantasy setting, they have a lot more to work with than "Angry Evil Russian #1" and "Angry Evil Russian #2".

Mortal Sky

I actually like 3's multiplayer most (fuck the new beatdown system and armor lock), but everyone plays Reach now so whatever.

anoffday

Mortal Sky wrote: »

I actually like 3's multiplayer most (fuck the new beatdown system and armor lock), but everyone plays Reach now so whatever.

2 was my favorite. 3 was actually probably my least favorite. I really like Reach too, though. The new beatdowns can be avoided if you don't want to do them. It's a matter of holding the button down or just hitting it. And the new perks can be annoying, but there's a strategy for and against every one of them.

PMAvers

I'm mostly in them for the single-player, and ODST was the only one that held my attention long enough to actually finish it.

It might have been due to the awesome night-vision mode the helmet had, though. Kept on thinking I was in a TRON game. :winky: