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 | *spoilers* *long* Re: Penny Arcade's | |
| Posted By: Kanen Faud'r | Date: 11/29/01 12:00 a.m. |
| In Response To: Re: Penny Arcade's thoughts on Halo (ferrex) : Not to gripe or point fingers or anything, but I think people are giving up
Disclaimer - I'm voicing a few critcisms here, but I really enjoyed Halo, and I'm not sorry that I bought an XBox merely to play Halo and Munch. I think everybody there did a great job and deserves congratulations. Now on to some complaints about the story... ** Crazy spoilers don't read unless you're done with Halo, I warned you ** There are only 4 characters in the game - You, Cortana, Captain Keyes, and 343 Guilty Spark (the only one worth talking to). No named marines (except maybe the Foehammer pilot), no Covenant commanders, no other Spartans, nobody with whom there is any relationship or conflict. The Flood stuff has logic holes you could drive a Scorpion through. Halo's containment protocols are ludicrous, it makes no sense for them to be there if the Forerunners are gone, they spread far too fast unless they've been released everywhere on Halo simultaneously, there are hundreds of them in the library where there's no door in, they don't leave in the space capable fighter you take. There are a half dozen or so Covenant cruisers that magically disappeared after the first chapter. Neither the Covenant forces nor the Humans seem to actually be doing anything once they land on Halo. It's painfully clear that you're the only game in town action-wise. The most intriguing bits of the story are too reminiscent of MI. You were here before on this mysterious installation in the distant past when the first Flood outbreak occured. And ALL of this background occurs in approximately 10 paragraphs of exposition over 1 level and 1 cutscene. The limited chances to add narrative aren't taken - Cortana could talk to you a lot more, as could 343 Guilty Spark. Maybe it would drive you nuts, but it could be there and let the player turn it off if they didn't care. Fusion reactors don't blow up when they lose containment - that's one of the reason they're so nice (ok, that one's a personal peeve with plenty of sci-fi.) For that matter a ring wouldn't fly to pieces when you blew a hole in it. Cortana's plans seem pathetically unsubtle for an A.I., she has full access to the Covenant BattleNet, Halo's command circuits, and the remaining Human forces but can't come up with any better plans than having you smash some stuff and go rescue Keyes every couple of hours. They can't build a $%&%$^&% flashlight (ok, so that isn't even slightly story related, put it still irks me.) Anyway, I'm sure there some more if I thought about it. But on the other hand, none of that is going to keep me from going back and playing it on Legendary. Bottom line - I'll be damned surprised to see Mark posting "Volunteers:The Silent Cartographer" in 7 years. That doesn't mean Halo isn't a great fps, it's just great in different ways than Marathon was/is great. - eli | |
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