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| Re: Mothergoat's Second Opinion of Halo 2 | |
| Posted By: FauxHammer <colin@macteens.com> | Date: 12/2/04 12:36 p.m. |
In Response To: Mothergoat's Second Opinion of Halo 2 (mothergoat) i Agree that halo 2 is in many ways subtly different from halo 1. Personally, I like it BETTER, but i am not "hardcore" and the first time i played through halo 1 was when it came out for Mac OS. Playing it on mac convinced me to buy an xbox for halo 2. Anyway, I can see why bungie would change things. From an artistic standpoint, I would much rather tinker with a sucessful formula and try to improve it, rather than simply treading water. It seems like a lot of you would have preffered for halo 2 to simply be a new campaign and new MP levels thrown into the same old game engine. Sorta like an expansion pack for Halo 1. I can see how you might prefer the feel of halo 1 and thus you would want that feel to carry over to halo 2, and i admit that in some ways it does NOT. However, i am still glad that this is not halo 1.5. I'm glad that bungie decided to push ahead, and take risks. Some of their risks paid of great. Some did not. For example, it is nearly impossible to maintain interest in a narrative when you are switching back and forth between two protagonists. On the other hand, i really liked the covenant side of the story. Almost all change in halo 2 is a mixed blessing, like that. I also think that there are a ton of things that are really just changes, neither positive nor particularly negative, that people make a big fuss over. Things like the weapon balance now being very different, and the floatier jump, and the lack of fall damage. I don't really think these things make either game better or worse, it is just a change. A change that some people didn't like, or haven't gotten used to. Basically, my standpoint is that halo 2 is a different game from halo 1. It feels different. The "30 seconds of fun" from halo 1 is still there, and in fact I think it has been improved. However, the context of that 30 seconds is now very different. I don't think it is any "worse" than Halo 1. It's just different. Some people like it, some people dont. But honestly, if it WASNT different, it would kinda suck. You might not like the differences, but imagine if it was the SAME. Yes, halo 1 is a longer game, but that is only because they stretched it out. You play through the same levels twice, you spend a lot of time taking indirect routes. Halo 1's levels aren't BIGGER, they are just longer. For example, in halo 1 you see the control room pyramid, and then you go through a corridor, down an elevator, into another corridor, across a field, and then another 10 minutes zig zagging your way up the pyramid. Here you have a good 20-30 minutes of gameplay that all takes place in a relatively small part of the map. This hardly EVER happens in halo 2. You have shorter, more varied levels with less repetition. I mean, in AotCR, you have the same corridor, over and over and over, like 10 times, and the same hallways 20 times, and the same bridge 2 or 3 times. The halo 1 levels are waaay dragged out. In any other game, this would be a bad thing, but in halo 1 it was good because it gave you more time to do what halo did best, which is fight covenant AIs. Ironically, that "flaw" in halo 1 was what made it so great, because it took the focus off the environments and put it on close quarters combat. Then, when you finally run into a huge open field, it feels awesome and it is a huge change of pace, and it feels like having 2 games in one. Halo 2 doesnt have that. In halo 2, the pace never slows down. There is hardly any repetition at all. You either have consistently varied interiors (ie the gas giant level) or you have consistently varied exteriors (delta halo, quarentine zone). One of the only levels in halo 2 that has the same repetition type level design as halo 1 is the level Gravemind. That level really captures the feel of Halo 1 favorites like Attack on the Control Room and Two Betrayals. I guess i feel the difference between the two is Halo 1 is a mixture of fast paced action, and slow paced corridor crawling. Halo 2 is all fast paced, and it feels less varied because of it. Halo 1's flaws are what made it great, and now that the flaws have been mostly eliminated, it feels... different. Not worse by any means, but different. Different can be bad, but it is also good. Because if halo 2 was BETTER than halo 1, you would never play halo 1 anymore. But since it is different, it is not a replacement, but a suppliment. You play halo 2 for a faster paced story and more close quarters action, you play halo 1 for a more mysterious and intriguing story and more varied action. You also play halo 2 for all but flawless multiplayer. Yeah, i do sorta wish you spawned with the battle rifle instead of the SMG. I think your complaints about single wielding dual wieldable weapons is valid, but really only because you spawn with one. In halo 1 you had weapons like the needler or the plasma pistol which are all but useless. In halo 2 they are still usless alone, but they are powerful when dual wielded. I think that is a great way to "make the weak weapons better" as you suggested, because now you can take your half weapons and dual wield them, which adds a great element of strategy and depth. However, i do agree that you should not spawn with half a weapon. Especially the SMG. Especially in big team games where there are only enough dual wieldable weapons around the base for about half of the team to get one. Anyways, most of the disappointment stems from people who thought that after getting halo 2, they would never need or want to play halo 1 again, because it would be the same thing, only better in some way. Thats not what we got. We got something better, only different in many ways. I know "change is bad", but this is a sequel, not an expansion pack. You don't expect a book or movie sequel to be an improved version of the original... you expect it to be a sequel. This is Halo 2. Not Halo 2.0. Combat Evolved again. Not Combat Revisited. | |
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