Why Halo Sucks (and hopefully t:v won't)

E

elemental

Veteran X
All this might already have been discussed here, I don't follow the threads, so who knows...And yes, this is Tribes related, 'cuz I want to know if other game developers follow the same "30 second" rule, the Halo team uses...notably, do the Tribe developers think this is the way to go.

I hated Halo. I couldn't stand it. I can't believe the fame it got on the PC (I can see why it got it on the XBox though). It is the most boring and repetitive game ever created. It's nice eye candy, but nothing as evolutionary as what we've see in the past. Same goes with the story: average at best. It's a game plagued by mediocrity, surrounded by some of the worst level design and the most repetitive gameplay created.

What I didn't realize until recently however, is that this was by design. The Halo team actually designs with repetition in mind:

In Halo 1 there was maybe 30 seconds of fun that happened over and over and over and over again. So if you can get 30 seconds of fun you can pretty much stretch that out to be an entire game. Having a bunch of guys really attacking one of them before they were aware, throwing a grenade into a group of other guys and picking off the stragglers before they could surround you. And so, you can have all the great graphics and all the good characters and lots of cool amazing effects but if you don’t nail that 30 seconds, you’re not going to have a great game.
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And that's exactly what Halo felt like, 30 seconds over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. How long before you get bored? 5 minutes?

So my question is, is this normal game design practice? Does T:V itself adopt, in one shape or another, this methodology?

Karl
 
I thought it sucked at first because I was forced to play it on a low resolution split screen, with a controller. Then I thought it sucked on PC because it was BORING AS HELL.
 
Got Haggis? said:
i always thought halo had great AI and sound. level design was uninspired for the most part though.
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The AI, sound, and physics were awesome. While the physics weren't realistic (concerning vehicles and some enemies) they were FUN FOR THE GAME!
Yes the levels were repetitive, but I never found myself bored of the game after five minutes. What do Tribes and Halo have in common? They are addictive games. I can easily sit down and beat Halo in one sitting and not get bored of it. Theres only one other game that I can do that with, and that game is Tribes. I could join a server and play and play and play until my fingers were stubs, and I had lost 100 lbs from not eating.

I don't think many people will be disapointed at how T:V comes out. I believe that everybody who hated on the game will be slapped in the face and be told to stfd when T:V comes out. I have faith in a series that survived so long from 1-1/2 games.
 
That "30 second rule" is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. I describe the Tribes genre as the "freedom of movement" or "diversity of opportunity" genre. The two addicting things about tribes are the ability to move so freely and quickly in an enviroment, and the ability to play so many different roles.

This is what keeps tribes pubbing interesting for me. Flag D sucking? Grab LD gear and help out. No one capping? Get your butt moving on some routes. Invs always down? grab a repair pack and then start deploying.

I remember when T2 first came out and my computer sucked, I had to play indoors. I played gen D on Katabatic for TWO WEEKS straight. Testing different turret positions and mine placements offered limitless opportunity, and the diversity of skill in the incoming HO allowed for never ending variations of action.

This is what draws me to Tribes, because you have more than just "run, shoot" as an option.
 
Halos controls did not engender any love either.
The mouses horizontal was not as sensitive as the vertical which, imo, screwed the pooch.
Wide, sweeping arm movements for left & right, then smaller precise up & down. Very hard to combine the two into conhesive aim.
 
I loved Halo...i also loved the fact that you could play co-operative on the xbox version. and i cant wait for number 2.
There were some parts which could have been improved..like the repetativness of the levels and more wepaons and vehicles.
 
seems you are also comparing a single player game to a multiplayer game...yeah, tv will have single player (and yeah, halo had multiplayer) but the single player in tv seems to be molded after the multiplayer. (how controls work, etc etc etc)
 
I enjoyed the single player but I would agree that the multiplayer sucks royally.

I did find it more fun on legendary than the standard difficulty... you actually have to start thinking about your strategy a bit from time to time to succede.
 
here's my 2 cents..
Halo kicks ass..
Halo PC is a port, therefore it sucks..

might have been a different story had microsoft not bought it out when it was first being developed for the pc, but shit happens i guess.
all i know is that i love the game on xbox, mostly because one of my friends and his roomates have 4 boxes networked together at their place, so we have weekly frag sessions.
and if you have two good teams of 8 v 8, that know wtf they're doing, it can be even more fun then tribes imho..
i dont believe in that 30 sec bs.. why do you do the same thing over and over? try new things.. find new ways to infiltrate or defend.
it's like any other team-oriented game, you just gotta know how to play it.
 
He may have meant, that adding 30 seconds of JOY throught the game is what's needed. Not neccessarily the SAME 30 seconds.

Playing through the Xbox version of Halo, I would go through areas of repetition, but I also encountered areas of JOY when something new would happen.

I really enjoyed the Single Player Halo on Xbox, and playing Coop was THAT much more fun.

I do agree the repetition is there, however.

Tribes = Diversity = Win
 
Wow, and I thought I was the only one that noticed all that about Halo.

A-fucking-men. After playing that game I wanted to shoot myself in the head to end the misery, but the plot was just enough to keep driving me through the mind numbing levels.

You also forgot to mention the lack of ingenuity in the weapon department. The fact that through out the whole game I could only use one weapon (because that's all the ammo would drop a lot of).

I was absolutely stoked to play the game because of the reviews and then was completely let down at how poor it came out. Like you said, it was 30 seconds of fun repeated about 40 billion times. Not to mention the game was mind numbling easy as well.

But hopefully halo2 will be better. I got to play it at E3 and it seemed a good 90 degree turn off of halo1 so we'll see.

The actual game design of T:V doesn't lend itself to this problem, but it's a good point to bring up.
 
Reverend Zero said:
I could join a server and play and play and play until my fingers were stubs, and I had lost 100 lbs from not eating.
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Hummm maybe I see a new diet in the future that parents will give to there fat younger kids. Force them to play Tribes !!!!!
 
Halo was like playing in a bowl of Campbell's Chunky New England Clam Chowder.

Cold.

And I thought T2 Base had poor physics... :eek:
 
Data said:
Halo was like playing in a bowl of Campbell's Chunky New England Clam Chowder.

Cold.
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But tasty and potato-y.



Seriously though, I agree that level design was piss-poor. I did like some of the reactions of the AI monsters, but those were only enough to carry me through the first few levels. After that it was the exact same building like ten times, then coming BACK through the same goddamn building ten times. Bah.

The library act had potential to be great, but it was just as repetitive as the part before and after.
 
despite how much halo's single player sucked I had fun playing co-op with a friend, and deathmatch is still fun.

This is on xbox though, PC it sucks.
 
halo2 is obviously should be better just because this time they lack the time constraint of having to finish the game to release it for launch...the bungie team said many times about things that didnt get done due to lack of time, and the library level is the thing they bring up every time, along with a few other weapons, and multiplay modes
 
well halo 2 won't take place on the Halo where every room is identical, as so many of you have pointed out...
this time the fight comes to earth, which means cityscapes, and possibly landscapes as well.
 
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