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Re: Who cares about Halo's story? Article
Posted By: mr_mcmurder	Date: 12/31/06 2:52 a.m.
In Response To: Re: Who cares about Halo's story? Article (Rockslider) : I have to admit, that oversized triffid in Halo 2 had me a little mystified : as well! But I was pretty fed up with the campaign by then, so I wasn't in : much of a mood for figuring out what the heck was going on. : As for my own position on the story business, I've enjoyed reading plenty of : sci-fi in my time, but I'm just not looking for a complex storyline in an : FPS. It's certainly good to have some sort of story so you know why : you're fighting, but it could be pretty minimal and I'd still be happy if : the combat experience is good. For me an FPS campaign is primarily about : an immersive combat experience, and my appreciation of the campaign would : be almost entirely down to the actual quality of combat. It's not the : storyline that's going to keep me playing. : Occasionally you hear people talking as if it's automatically a good and : intelligent thing for a game to have a deep storyline. But games (and : particularly shooters) are an entirely different medium from novels, so it : doesn't follow at all. It's up to the developer to decide what sort of : audience to go for, but I suspect that the majority of shooter fans are : primarily looking for a great combat experience; a physical experience : rather than a mental one. : As for the Halo storyline specifically, it did start cheesing me off in Halo : 2 with all sorts of factions playing off against each other. That was : getting too involved for me, and the factions were all baddies anyway, : making me even less interested in their squabbling. Being forced to play : a covie for much of the time (apparently in the interests of the story) : only alienated me further, and for me that was the worst aspect; my : identity as a cyborg was fragmented, so I ended up not caring much about : anything. Yes I know some people enjoyed playing a covie, but I suspect : that those folk would tend to be the ones that are keener on the business : of storyline. : If the Halo series had been purely a humans vs Covenant fight (like in the : first five levels of H1), I would've been far happier. Superbly engineered : aliens and fantastic combat - what more did we need? The Flood were always : an unwelcome twist for me. Not that I don't appreciate a bit of : Flood-bashing now that it's there, but the covies are so much more fun. Ok : without the Flood Bungie would've had to figure out another reason for the : existence of Halo, but that wouldn't have been hard, and it could've just : been left as a mysterious artifact knocked up by some long-gone race. : I realize that other folk value shooter storylines higher, which is fine, but : I'm just not one of them. Maybe my attitude is partly Bungie's fault. They : nailed combat so well in H1 that now I'm hooked on it like a drug. Oh : well. Time for another fix... Rockslider, I agree with you. Sure, I like story, who doesn't? But Halo never and never will play like a movie, where there is a smooth transition between what you did and the motivations for what you are going to do. You want a game that's like a movie, I think in terms of getting from beginning, A, to end, B, games like any of the Metal Gear series or Resident Evil are far superior for a cinematic experience. You play those, and you feel like you watched a 10 hour movie that never really got old and was pretty cool. I can't say that about Halo. Halo is just a really fun game to play. I would argue that a lot of what people are considering to be a deep, rich story is just that there are a lot of details. Are there any brilliant plot twists? No! There's just a lot. I could write a really long story, page after page, where it's like, "okay, this happens. But wait! Then, THIS happens!!" On and on. Download some fake Harry Potter leaks actually crappily written by some anonymous 14 year old for amusing proof. There is something there in the plot of Halo. A conflict to be resolved, and some clever stuff that happens along the way. Cool with me. But the vast majority of Halo 2 is just, this happens, and then this happens. Great, but seriously, so what. There is a Gravemind. AGAIN, AS I ALREADY SAID, it is an important part of the plot. It's EXISTENCE, not what it actually DOES, which is stupidly save both characters from death. Why were they both falling to their deaths? I don't know, the story didn't have to be that way, and it simply exposed the weaknesses of the writer. The guy at Bungie making the shit up was not a professional writer, I'm sorry. I guess that's a slam, but I love the games.

Message Index

Who cares about Halo's story? Article	Conman17	12/30/06 2:16 a.m.
GPS.	Peptuck	12/30/06 2:33 a.m.
Re: GPS.	Mr. Mister	12/30/06 4:40 a.m.
details of the story=Cool. Execution in H2=Crap	mr_mcmurder	12/30/06 3:01 p.m.
Re: details of the story=Cool. Execution in H2=Cra	Melkor	12/30/06 3:51 p.m.
Re: details of the story=Cool. Execution in H2=Cra	DarkSim	12/30/06 4:57 p.m.
Re: details of the story=Cool. Execution in H2=Cra	mr_mcmurder	12/30/06 5:41 p.m.
Re: details of the story=Cool. Execution in H2=Cra	Saint	12/30/06 6:04 p.m.
Re: details of the story=Cool. Execution in H2=Cra	mr_mcmurder	12/30/06 7:05 p.m.
Re: details of the story=Cool. Execution in H2=Cra	Melkor	12/30/06 7:15 p.m.
Re: details of the story=Cool. Execution in H2=Cra	Slith	12/31/06 12:54 p.m.
Re: details of the story=Cool. Execution in H2=Cra	Mr. Mister	12/31/06 1:22 a.m.
Re: details of the story=Cool. Execution in H2=Cra	Peptuck	12/31/06 2:04 a.m.
Re: details of the story=Cool. Execution in H2=Cra	Peptuck	12/31/06 8:02 a.m.
Re: details of the story=Cool. Execution in H2=Cra	mr_mcmurder	12/31/06 12:35 p.m.
Re: details of the story=Cool. Execution in H2=Cra	Saint	12/31/06 3:50 p.m.
Re: details of the story=Cool. Execution in H2=Cra	Slith	12/31/06 12:44 p.m.
Re: details of the story=Cool. Execution in H2=Cra	mr_mcmurder	12/31/06 3:18 p.m.
Re: details of the story=Cool. Execution in H2=Cra	Melkor	12/31/06 11:58 p.m.
Meh.	Peptuck	12/31/06 1:52 a.m.
Re: Who cares about Halo's story? Article	Captain Spark	12/30/06 5:42 a.m.
Re: Who cares about Halo's story? Article	mr_mcmurder	12/30/06 3:02 p.m.
Re: Who cares about Halo's story? Article	Captain Spark	12/30/06 5:05 p.m.
Re: Who cares about Halo's story? Article	Mr. Mister	12/31/06 1:30 a.m.
Re: Who cares about Halo's story? Article	Captain Spark	12/31/06 9:30 a.m.
Re: Who cares about Halo's story? Article	Red_Breast	12/30/06 5:47 a.m.
Re: Who cares about Halo's story? Article	DMDyet	12/30/06 8:35 a.m.
Re: Who cares about Halo's story? Article	CHAOS1212	12/30/06 9:33 a.m.
Halo would *blow* w/o a good storyline. Nuff sed *NM*	RVideo	12/30/06 9:36 a.m.
If it wasnt for SP, MP wouldnt exist. *NM*	Dojorkan	12/30/06 9:53 a.m.
ooo, but if not for MP, Halo 2 wouldn't exist. *NM*	mr_mcmurder	12/30/06 3:17 p.m.
Yes it would.	Dojorkan	12/30/06 5:23 p.m.
My thoughts.	[AMS] GreyThor	12/30/06 11:37 a.m.
Re: My thoughts.	Sep7imus [subnova]	12/30/06 11:51 a.m.
I'll be honest.	serpx	12/30/06 12:42 p.m.
Re: I'll be honest.	Reg	12/30/06 2:04 p.m.
Re: I'll be honest.	kr-1426	12/30/06 6:39 p.m.
Re: Who cares about Halo's story? Article	Rockslider	12/30/06 9:13 p.m.
Re: Who cares about Halo's story? Article	yakaman	12/30/06 10:14 p.m.
Re: Who cares about Halo's story? Article	mr_mcmurder	12/31/06 2:52 a.m.
Re: Who cares about Halo's story? Article	scarab	12/31/06 3:56 a.m.
Re: Who cares about Halo's story? Article	Cody Miller	12/31/06 11:32 a.m.
Re: Who cares about Halo's story? Article	scarab	12/31/06 12:07 p.m.
Meh.	SPARTAN-034	12/30/06 10:00 p.m.
Re: Who cares about Halo's story? Article	Cody Miller	12/31/06 11:26 a.m.