: Did we play the same Halo? I remember the engine dumping tons of Flood on me
: indiscriminately, sometimes immediately after having deactivated my
: shield. Over and over again, repetition apparently being a primary design
: guideline of Halo.
I mean the early parts of Halo. You know, before the Flood appear. I admit that the Flood really changed the gameplay into a repetitive cycle. However, the Covenant were much more interesting; on lower difficulties, the combat between you and them is often a carefully orchestrated battle. On harder difficulties, it's a lot more visceral though, I must admit. In Marathon, I enjoy spouts of ballet with fists. I can almost imagine classical music playing as I run around the Pfhor ranks, punching Fighters as I run. ;)
: By contrast, for most levels Marathon 2's enemies are placed by hand (even
: Begging for Mercy). If I Had a Rocket Launcher is a pretty fun level, but
: you don't just copy and paste it to make a complete game.
Placed by hand, eh? Doesn't that limit the replay ability of levels? I mean, once you've played a level, you know what you're up against at every turn the next time you play. On the other hand, in some of the middle and later levels, Halo often has the same numbers and kinds of enemies spawning and then moving to places so that you don't know if the enemy coming from your left is a Jackal or an Elite until you actually look. Marathon lacks anything like this. The only difference in enemy count and spawning in Marathon is based on difficulty level, and that's not really what I'm talking about.
Cheers,
Perseus
