What's so great about Halo?

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I apologise if this has been asked before but like many, I come from a PC gaming background and Halo is an average/competent shooter at best from the graphics, weapons, gameplay etc. I understand that for console gamers Halo might have been their "first". First real FPS anyway as was explained to me by some of the Halo fans I know, but that can't be the only thing is it?
 
You're about 5 years too late...I'm just sayin is all.

Certain games just click with people. With Halo, the multiplayer is what really grabbed people and had them playing for hours upon hours, and having people over for Halo LANs. Not since Goldeneye had people experience a truly great console FPS multiplayer experience. The SP is a bit weak, but not nearly as weak as Halo haters try to make it out to be. I've played through both the Halo 1 and Halo 2 campaigns several times and I've enjoyed my play through each time.

I can see why PC gamers don't see what the fuss is all about, I play on both PC and console, but have recently preferred console because PC gaming has gotten stupid expensive. PC gamers play these games with better graphics, better controls (arguable), better network capabilities, and better communities (in terms of mods, etc) so of course they play Halo and go "What's the big deal" And they're right.

But for console gamers, it's different. Rarely do they get to see a FPS as popular, and as playable as Halo. Think about it. The 3 big console FPS multiplayer games that have been released are Goldeneye, and Halo 1 and Halo 2...3 games over a 10 year span, that's pretty pathetic. I'm not saying that these were the ONLY games people played, but I think everyone can agree when I say that these are the main 3 people play(ed).

I also happen to disagree with alot of people when it comes to the details of Halo. The graphics were great for their time, the gameplay had enough different gameplay scenarios to keep it interesting (save for the last few levels), and though the guns were weak, the big 3 (the AR, pistol and shotgun) were great fun to use, not to mention the frag nades and oh so fun sticky grenades.

And anyone who tells you that Halo is their "first" real FPS should be taken out and shot because they're probably 14 years old and didn't start gaming til the late late 90s. I am a HUGE Halo fan, and while I can see people's problems with it, I simply disagree with them.
 
Co-op mode is loads of fun, and off-line multiplayer is hard to beat.

Yeah, I know you can hook up a gang of PCs to go Deathmatch, but I'd rather just plug in another controller.
 
I personally think that it is so great because of many control features:

1. Slow movement (relative to other FPS)

2. Smooth Viewing Axis (relative to other FPS)

3. Ease of Grenade throws

I guess I could go on for a while but mainly its controls for me, but I also like the story, multiplayer, and thousands of other things.
 
While multiplayer is fun (played some lan games in the dorm, though not much more than that), I enjoyed Halo 1 for its single player campaign. It's one of the few games I've played through several times. It was a fun, if not campy, story. The controls are about as good as you're gonna get for a dual-analog setup (keyboard and mouse is still the real way to play FPS games though). And in the end, there's something very satisfying about tagging an enemy with a plasma grenade and having him take out his whole squad as he runs from you screaming.

Halo 2, in the single player aspect, was a big letdown to me. It didn't have the magic that the first one did. I'm anxiously awaiting Halo 3 however, due almost wholly on Bungie team members recent complaints about how unfinished, unpolished, and rushed Halo 2 was. If they're able to recognize that, and aim to not do that for Halo 3, then maybe we can have a worthy sequel to the original.
 
I loved driving the hogs on the PC version...they drove so smoothly or something....it was awesome to go off a huge jump then spin all over and run someone over, watching them get all mad at you. It's even better when you're actually a GOOD hog driver since all the "pros" just use the pistol, and they get really mad when they have trouble getting you lol. There's something about it that makes it more fun than other shooters....
 
I enjoyed the single player campaign. Not the BEST SH00t34 EVARRRR!!!1! or anything, but enjoyable.

The REAL fun (for me) was/is the multiplayer- someone hit the nail on the head when they compared it to Goldeneye. It was almost like getting another, really great game for free. :) XBL just made it even better- it was great via splitscreen or system link.
 
I came from PC FPS' since wolfenstien 3d and was very much into quake 1-3. Halo was the first FPS I found worthy of playing on a console. Many people sing praises to Goldeneye, but I thought that was a piece of shit.

Halo simply got many game design formulas right and added in the much needed Co-op which was devoid in many FPS' in general (not just console). Also the health system/Checkpoint system were done so well that you see it commonly immitated throughout almost every FPS today.... almost.

Any FPS that convinced me that it was worth playing on a console is simply amazing.

And anyone who tells you that Halo is their "first" real FPS should be taken out and shot because they're probably 14 years old and didn't start gaming til the late late 90s.
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And that's an awfuly retarded statement. Just beause somone didn't get into gaming until recently only makes them less of a nerd than you. And in general society, that ain't so bad... so I wouldn't go proclaiming such unwarranted elitism.
 
Single Player is at the very worst, decent. Controls are tight and well mapped. Don't get me wrong, mouse and keyboard are more accurate but the xbx360 controller is just sooooooo much more comfortable and natural feeling. Matchmaking and the great amount of variety in gametypes is unmatched.

Matchmaking would be my top reason. It's the single greatest system to facilitate online play out there.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']1: It was the first really, truly "great" console FPS. Goldeneye was good, yes, but is now antiquated.[/quote]
What the fuck are you smoking. Halo is now antiquated, what's your point?

If not Goldeneye, then how the fuck can you overlook Perfect Dark?
 
[quote name='The Crotch']The below applies only to the first Halo.

1: It was the first really, truly "great" console FPS. Goldeneye was good, yes, but is now antiquated. This was the first game to really rival the PC Half-Life experience.

2: Vehicles. Probably the best addition to Halo - who doesn't love hopping in a Scorpion and cutting through Hunters with the strongest weapons in the game?

3: Multiplayer. Deathmatches weren't really much to shout about - bots should be a requirement for FPS deathmatches - but the Co-Op more than made up for it. Added a ton of replayability right there.[/QUOTE]

Just so you know, GoldenEye had all those features (driving tanks, bot-less death matches) except for the co-op story mode. Your list does not only apply to the first Halo, GoldenEye beat Halo to the punch in all those categories outside the co-op story mode.

I do love the Halo series, but it's not has earth shattering as you think it is. If anything, it was the next gen version of GoldenEye but with a sci-fi setting.
 
the ability to get a bunch of people who didn't care about pc video games (or any video games) together and blast the hell out of each other with one tv, one game, one box and four controllers.
 
goldeneye was a piece of shit compared to PC FPS' during the day and the N64 controller sucked balls for playing FPS'. The Xbox Controller was big but had a firm grip and better control and Halo provided new mechanics unseen in other PC FPS' at the time. During the time of goldeneye the game was stuck in the doom 2 era when we were already at Quake 2.

Halo's achivements aren't suprising considering the original design for the game. Bungie started halo as a massive team-fortress/tribes like concept for the PC/Mac gaming community. Quite simply for FPS' in General, Halo is quite a great game (Hence the franchise's enormous sucess), whereas games like Goldeneye were simply overrated since they were stuck in a different platform for a different audience.

Say what the hell you want about your opinions about halo, but without it.... there might have been no 360.
 
I thought halo was okay and fun...but STUBBS THE FN ZOMBIE was a more enjoyable experience using the same engine...in my opinion.
 
[quote name='RelentlessRolento']multiplayer made it what it is today. I still say though that Timesplitters deserved more limelight and still does.[/QUOTE]
Agreed.

Timesplitters is easily my favorite FPS series. I hope they make one for PS3/360.
 
What I like about Halo is that it isn't a PC FPS being forced into a console design. It set the standard for how console FPS games control and how they are designed. That is, slower moving, more tactical, less twitchy experiences.

Say what you want about halo, but you HAVE to respect the FPS control innovations that the original made, and the console online matchmaking innovations that the second made.

People even now still complain about GoW not having a more Halo 2-like matchmaking system, and who can honestly say that it doesn't feel weird now to not have a Console FPS with a "grenade button" or that doesn't limit your weapon inventory at any given time?

This is a very generic flamebait topic, and I really don't know why I posted in it, but I hope that added something intelligent to the discussion.
 
The game is just really solid. They need to fix the balance badly after Halo 2 but the game engine itself is great.

There are a few things form Halo that I really miss whenever I play any other shooter. Namely the grenades, meleeing someone in the back for a one hit kill, and the online system from Halo 2..
 
Are you serious?...Timesplitters!!!??? Naaa not even close...

Halo had vehicles which I've had more fun driving than any other game, some of the multiplayer maps were just very nicely designed, they had a much cooler lead character than many FPS games while most don't even have one and they left it open to a wide audience...Plus with the vehicles and the maps and stuff...there were a lot of neat things you could do/ramp off or get to a place on a map just by walking that would never look like a good sniper spot or something...
 
The Halo games just did everything right. Perfect control. Weapons with personality. Good story told well in a cool game world. Interesting enemies / AI.

Halo 2 gets criticized alot for the unpolished single player, but even as a long time PC gamer player - I'd rank Halo 2's online play in the top 3 to 5 games of all time. Something like 5 Billion games have been played, so I can't be the only one that thinks that way.
 
I was late on the scene with this Halo business. I, too was a PC FPS player, and I had just finished Half Life 2 when I started to have a slight interest in the Halo series.

As someone who first started to play Halo as a single-player game, I think that the single-player in both titles was great. I really dig the story, so much that I actually read the books (I know, I know). The dual-wielding really added a layer of complexity to Halo 2 that I think a lot of people overlook. Sure, Halo 2's SP may not be as 'inspired' or 'fresh' as Halo CE, but that doesn't make it any less fun. I look at it as an refinement of what was already good in the first place.

Then I started playing multiplayer. See above posts gushing over Halo 2 MP for my overall opinions. Amazing. I own a 360 and the only game I play over live is H2.

That being said, I will be playing all the way through Halo 3's SP before I play one MP game. I just think that because the MP is so great, a lot of people overlook the fun SP.

In the long run, I have played the two Halo games more than all of the PC FPS games combined.... it just gets it right.
 
Personally, I never much cared for the story or SP of the games. The first game's SP is a lot better than the sequel, however. To me, the highlight of the first game is still the first time you meet the Flood. That was a great gaming moment.

Halo also had incredibly fun multiplayer that I think they messed up in the sequel. I know people love it, but I never cared for it as much. The original Halo's multiplayer is one of the best multiplayer games ever made. Not bad games, but overrated to me personally. Though, if MS were to release the original game's multiplayer on XBLA, I would buy it in a minute.
 
Halo's story to Halo 2's story is what Pitch Black was to Chronicles of Riddick. However.. it was the first widely accessible FPS on a console since Goldeneye. Other than Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, there weren't many successful console FPS that were truly fun to play to the masses (hell, even Half Life and Deus Ex.. arguably two of the best the PC had to offer 2 years before their console ports.. didn't sell ALL that well.. plus they were choppy and neutered compared to their PC counterparts, and most of a port's fans had already played the game on PC). Halo was completely original.. something new, with extremely well-planned multiplayer, and extremely simplistic-yet-effective controls. Let's face it.. FPS's that were truly great in that time period were on the PC.. yet their fast run and gun pacing has alienated the slower paced console gamer. Hell.. even now, finding innovation and longetevity in an FPS is extremely difficult to find.

Basically, Halo was the console gamer's Half Life & Counterstrike all at once. Many people (such as myself) have strayed from PC gaming due to the extremely high cost (graphics cards are pretty much the most expensive component of a PC, and fewer developers optimize their games and pull higher performance from hardware).
 
meh. I still prefer mouse and keyboard. I just never got into the Halo series/universe....nor have I terribly enjoyed GoW. I picked it up again after trading it earlier to see if anything has changed for me.
 
I have been waiting to reply to this thread because I wanted to see where it went. I am an extremely huge Halo fanboy. Statements like the OP can sometimes make me angry because they feel like blatant attacks with no actual argument or discussion to be had.


/begin rant

To the OP, what are the great and inspired PC FPS's that blow Halo out of the water?

I'm personally more of a console gamer than a PC gamer, but I have played a number PC FPS such as: Half-Life 2 (including ep. 1), Doom 3, Quake 3, Quake 2, Doom II, Unreal (original), Marathon, Marathon 2, and Marathon Infinity.

Of all of these, the ones that I feel compete with Halo are the Marathon Series (also done by Bungie) and Half-Life. Personally I feel that Half-Life 2 needs two serious refinements to make it absolutely great in every way: better vehicle control and better narrative. I feel that Halo conveys its story better than Half-Life thus far in the series. Vehicle control is an obvious no brainer to anyone who has played both. (Sidenote: I would gladly trade some accuracy in aiming (mouse vs. analog stick) for greater control in movement (keyboard vs. analog stick).) Marathon has a spectacular story, but it obviously lacks the killer visuals and realistic physics that today's current games can bring to the table. The other PC FPS's that I have mentioned bring out the "twitch" style of gameplay which isn't suited to Halo.

I see Halo as bringing together many of the strengths of other FPS's and refining them to a very high level. Halo is not revolutionary, but it is evolutionary. Halo polishes and tries to perfect every aspect of its gameplay and story. If you add on an extremely robust multiplayer aspect that captures the spirit of the single player game, you have the highly beloved product you see today. I think Halo gets hated on a lot because it is so popular. It's easy for one person to write off the series, but looking at the number of people who still play Halo 2 today, it shows how well put together the game is. Part of this success is obviously tied to Xbox Live though it could probably be argued that Halo 2 solidified Xbox Live as an online service. Gamers today clamor for other games to use a matchmaking system that has been heavily criticized by PC gamers.

In short Halo is great because it refined already existing concepts and put everything together into a nice complete package for any gamer of any level to enjoy.

/end rant
 
Halo took a group of past ideas and melded them together. It took established gamplay concepts and made them better. Halo 2 added online play that remains un-rivaled today.
 
One thing that I think people overlook when trying to articulate the Halo games' success and wild popularity is how cohesive and streamlined the 'universe' and aesthetic of the games is, how it utilizes character archetypes very well, how it seamlessly draws you in. The fact that Master Chief is literally faceless greatly helps the immersion for the player, even if ironically you rarely see your own 'head' in an FPS.

It was also the right game being released at the right time for the right console. It's a great game that also benefitted from circumstance. And besides the last Harry Potter book, there's no storyline in 2007 I'm more eagerly anticipating the conclusion/continuation of.
 
[quote name='whoknows']Agreed.

Timesplitters is easily my favorite FPS series. I hope they make one for PS3/360.[/QUOTE]


It may be a while since Free Radical is working on a new FPS for the PS3/360 called Haze.
 
[quote name='Spades22']Are you serious?...Timesplitters!!!??? Naaa not even close...

Halo had vehicles which I've had more fun driving than any other game, some of the multiplayer maps were just very nicely designed, they had a much cooler lead character than many FPS games while most don't even have one and they left it open to a wide audience...Plus with the vehicles and the maps and stuff...there were a lot of neat things you could do/ramp off or get to a place on a map just by walking that would never look like a good sniper spot or something...[/QUOTE]

Timesplitters 2>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Halo & Halo 2 combined
 
I'm not sure if I like TimeSplitters (the entire franchise) more than Halo, but I do lament how overlooked and underpromoted it has been. I think it's because the "Madden Meatheads" can't get past its cheekiness and cartoony aesthetic. But man, that's some smoothly-running shit right there. With bots. And map editors. And an F-load of characters. Plus other stuff.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']
3: I never said Halo was "earth shattering". Did I? That doesn't sound like me. "Earth shattering"? If I ever actually say that, I'm speaking in code - I really mean "punch me in the face".
[/QUOTE]

No, you didn't say it was "earth shattering." Looking back at my post, I should have used a different word, perhaps such as "original" or "innovative." I was trying to state that almost all your reasons (co-op being the exception) for Halo being superior to GoldenEye were features that GoldenEye had already done years ago.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']There's a reason the dual-analogue control scheme is now the norm, y'know...[/QUOTE]
Yeah, and that would probably be because of the original TimeSplitters, which came out over a year before Halo. Not to mention the PS2 versions of Quake III, Unreal Tournament, and Red Faction, which all used the same control setup.

Actually, I'd imagine that at least one FPS on the PS1, probably one of the Medal of Honor games, used dual-analog controls, though I'm not sure of that.

Either way, Halo did not pioneer that control scheme. Actually, I really wouldn't say that the dual-analog control scheme was really much of an "innovation" at all. Really, it's just an very simple, totally logical evolution/modification of the FPS control methods seen in N64 games, all the way back to Goldeneye. All they did was move from the C-buttons to the right analog stick, and swap a couple axises. There really wasn't any other way to do it, and it really very different at all in concept, so yeah. It was hardly revolutionary.

So, again, there was no major innovation that Halo pioneered in regards to control schemes. Try again.
 
how can you guys say nothing what makes halo amazing is the music and soundtrack with the pumping bullet and the thrill of OMFG i am going to die and the great controls. That was in halo but i didn't feel like that so much in halo 2 because of poor level design hoping for halo 3 to be amazing
 
I honestly don't know why the fuss is so big. I recently played through Halo 1 on the Xbox, and while I enjoyed it (and the story is more interesting than I originally gave it credit), I'm surprised it was a system seller when it came out.

Graphically, it held it's own when it came out, and I won't deny that Halo 2 has very impressive visuals, but I still don't get why it's such a big deal. Shooter-wise, it's definitely one of the best on the system (got nothin' on Half-Life 2 :) ), but the midnight-madness for it's release and whatnot is very strange to me.

It's as if everyone who played Goldeneye back in the day didn't touch a single FSP for the entire 4-5 years til Halo came out, and suddenly it's a massive hit despite being fairly unoriginal. 007 was a big deal because back then, it did things that PC FPS weren't doing for the most part (objective-based levels, emphasis on stealth, these might be arguable) and set new standards. It didn't make sense - since when the fuck does a console game set a new standard for what's normally a PC genre??

But w/ Halo...most of it has been done already. Good games, sure, but system-sellers? It'll always be a mystery to me.
 
Timesplitters doesn't have the balance, controls, or widespread audience Halo has. Try asking your buddies to come over and play timesplitters, it'll be a yawnfest. Now Halo? People will be shouting at each other, getting competitive, and enjoying every min of it.

To whoever said that Halo did no control innovating, get out. Halo's control/gameplay innovations to FPS are on the same scale that Mario 64's control/gameplay innovations are to 3D platformers.

It goes beyond the dual analog setup, to the responsiveness, aiming, sensitivity, Grenade Buttons, Quick (and useful) melee attacks, and also the idea of swapping out weapons rather than carrying around 10 weapons at a time. Add to that concepts like the motion tracker that rewards stealthy movement, rechargeable health, the whole system link/social aspect of FPS gaming.. all innovations by Halo, all things that Console FPS games have used as a template since then. Halo 2's matchmaking and online are a whole different topic that set the standard for console online FPS games that has yet to be matched.

That's even restricting things to the Multiplayer.. In single player, the Vehicles and AI were absolutely remarkable at the time. Try playing the first game on legendary and see how much fun good AI can make a game.

How can you say halo is not innovative without sounding like a complete moron?
 
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