Driven by a philosophy of big guns, bigger explosions, and one-liners, it's almost too easy to fall in love with Halo. But Michael isn't convinced. Despite a brief, yet fiery love affair with Master Chief, this Bitmobber simply doesn't see the appeal of Halo any more. Will Halo: Reach rekindle his once-enthusiastic passion for the franchise?
Warning: This article contains minor spoilers for the entire Halo franchise.
I recently wrote a long rant about how much I loved Halo: Combat Evolved and about the dissapointment that Halo 2 -- a dissapointment which ultimiately turned me off of the Halo franchise. The article elaborated on how follow-ups like Halo 3 and ODST only fueled my hatred of huge pre-launch overhype in the video-game industry.
I've since, however, removed the post as I felt it was too ranty; it sounded as though I was airing my dirty laundry a bit too much. In short, the article told the story of my recently purchased Xbox 360, which came complete with Halo 3. I finished the game and happened to enjoy it overall -- enough to purchase Halo: Reach on launch day in fact and see what the hype was all about. In retrospect, my endeavor seems pretty damned open-minded for somebody who's spent the bulk of the last decade despising Halo.
I spent the majority of last night playing Halo: Reach, trying to rekindle that passion I once had for the series way back when. I'm playing it on Heroic difficulty -- "the way it's meant to be played" -- and I've thus far reached the fourth level. I've also invested about an hour and a half in Reach's online component -- just enough time to know that I'm a bit out of my league.
Somehow, after hours of playing, I still don't entirely understand the appeal of Halo. However much I try, I can't see what all the excitement is about. Regardless, I can tell you the franchise does right and what it does wrong:
What Halo does right
Halo games do a few things right. The music, for example, is noteworthy, and it maintains the feeling of a high quality, summer blockbuster score throughout, which I love. The orchestral sounds intensify the action and really get you pumped up during hectic battles.
While the terrain graphics and character models won't win any awards, Halo does really impressive things with explosions and particle effects. The skyboxes, an often overlooked feature, are vivid and pretty to look at. Vehicle driving segments almost always put a huge grin on my face -- particularly driving the tanks and laying waste to anything that moves.
Finally, the A.I. code is among the best in the first-person-shooter genre. On the higher difficulty settings, enemies work in either teams or a hierarchal fashion. They flush you out with flanking maneuvers, grenades, and sneak attacks hat usually end with a plasma grenade stuck to your sorry ass. Halo's friendly A.I., however, is the opposite. Your squad mates are useless meat bags. They do, however, say funny things occasionally, so I guess I'll let them tag along.
What Halo does wrong
I love science fiction, and I love first-person shooters, so I should be in gamer heaven playing Halo. I'm not. I believe Halo is a very average franchise of very average games. The level design and gameplay mechanics aren't anything spectacular: Go here, kill some guys, press a switch, kill some more guys, oops! I'm out of ammo. It's time to pick up a new weapon, back track, and repeat. Now go here and disable yet another anti-aircraft gun. While the odd vehicle piloting segments are fun, they're always over sooner than you want them to be. Can you say "stale"?
The plot and narrative are -- for a universe so fleshed out and with so much potential -- uninteresting and feature shallow, one-dimensional characters. Even Master Chief -- who somewhat of an enigma and by far the most iconic character of the series -- is boring. Does he live or die after Halo 3? Do I care? Absolutely not. To be fair, though, this is true of most shooters.
Is multiplayer where it's at?
On the multiplayer side of things, I can see why people love Halo and play it for months on end. It offers a lot of depth and customization, which keeps things fresh and adds longevitiy to the experience.
However, as somebody who never played Halo 2, 3, and ODST online for hours on end, I wasn't having fun getting my ass handed to me round after round by people who, by viewing their profiles, I've confirmed to be veterans of the series' multiple entries. I'm way behind the learning curve and I don't see myself investing much more time in competitive multiplayer against people who will likely be playing little else for the next year. While I suppose my inexperience is mostly my fault, I feel like it should be a little more accessible to newbies.
So here I am today, one third of the way through Bungie's last Halo title, and while I fully plan on finishing the game in the hopes of finally getting it, I'll likely shelf it a week from now and never play it again. Sorry Halo. I lonce loved you intensly, but now I just don't get you. I've geniunely put my time, effort, and money toward trying to renew my appreciation for you, but it's just not destined to be. I tried. I really tried, damn it.
Why do you love the series so much? What about Halo does it for you? Do you play Halo for the campaign mode or competitive multiplayer? What is your favorite Halo game to date? I'd love to read your responses in the comments.
