: But...I must say, even though Halo's graphics were way ahead of other games,
: I found the story a bit unsatisfying. Are Bungie slacking off? (I hope I
: will have to eat those words when I play Halo 2 ;)
If you hunt around for the info, it seems apparent that time constraints (having Halo as a launch title for a new console, meaning there was a fixed deadline) prevented them from fully fleshing out what they wanted to do in Halo. Recent hacking of the xbox has divulged the map names and you can spot alot of gaps in the numbering sequence of the solo level maps.
That's not to say that EVERY previous game was given the luxury of open-ended development. As has been discovered with Myth and Marathon, there was always room for more, but you eventually have to commit to a deadline, and some stuff just never makes it in.
For a game as pressured by a deadline as Halo, I have to give it props for being as squeaky clean as it is. There are no 'glaring' mistakes or bugs, (compared to Myth II which had some real boners) and rabid Halo fans have been pushing the engine to the limits since its release. Which to me means Bungie cut out what they had to in order to make the game as perfect as possible.
Story-wise, that's a very subjective thing, and it's been rattled about here before, but I profess that I find it quite engrossing, and while it may seem 'lite' on the surface, it seems to have alot more going for it when you really start to dig into it. Check out http://halo.bungie.org/story/
