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Re: Kill 'em all speed runs
Posted By: mike miller	Date: 6/21/07 3:12 a.m.
In Response To: Kill 'em all speed runs (Rockslider) : Talking of which, can any helpful person suggest any links to videos of : serious trick-free single-player combat, and without any annoying music : dubbed over the gameplay? I've not had much luck finding stuff like that. : And some of the stuff I have seen has been so gung-ho that I was : repeatedly wincing as the player diced with near-death experiences, shield : bleeping madly. I want to see some sharp serious soldiering, where it : looks like the player actually has an interest in living to see tomorrow! In all fairness, as a past purveyor of gung-ho gameplay complete with annoying music, I'd have to say that what you describe might become redundant very quickly. In Halo 2, for example, the "smart" way to beat pretty much every battle involving elites while maximizing your chances of staying alive is simply to use the plasma pistol/battle rifle (or carbine) combo, find a nice spot of cover at a reasonable distance, and pick them off one by one. Once you are adept enough at this technique to beat the Cairo Station hangar bays, you know everything you need to know in order to beat any other similar battle in the game. How many times is it really necessary to show the exact same concept? In Halo 1, the same could be said about the plasma pistol/human pistol (or sniper rifle) combo. Really, on the basis of pure efficiency, there's rarely a situation where the Covenent are involved when it isn't the smartest approach to carry a plasma pistol, IMO (it's sort of interesting that the most commonly-available weapon in the game is also the most deadly). Hell, try playing AotCR on legendary using only the plasma pistol/human pistol, if you haven't already. I'd always felt almost obligated to pick up the sniper rifle or rocket launcher at some point, but I tried restricting myself to the pistol combo out of curiosity, and was amazed how easy the level felt. It's really all you need. However, I believe that while these tactics are effective, they also become extremely tedious. Moreover, in many situations a more aggressive approach, while riskier at times, can actually make things easier once one has a feel for the levels, though I think this holds true much more in Halo 1, where the difficulty more well-balanced, than in Halo 2. For example, I learned simply from experience that the up-close, plasma pistol/grenade/melee sort of combat that I tried to showcase in the first Legend video legitimately worked much better for me than hanging back tentatively and trying to pick off elites from across the room. Sure, the scenes shown in the videos were practiced and cherry-picked to be as smooth as possible, as their primary purpose was entertainment. However, even if one merely backs down a bit to recharge shields once in a while for the sake of greatly increasing survivability, the fundamental theory remains valid--focus on the elites first and kill them fast while you have the initiative, and then the rest of the group will usually break. That's what's so effective about the plasma pistol/plasma grenade combo: The pistol turns elites into stationary targets, and as soon as you stick one with a plasma grenade, he's out of the game, often taking several of the grunts with him; you usually need nothing more than a plasma pistol to mop up the rest. In general, aside from some obvious tricks just for fun, I felt that the scenes in the videos were grounded in practicality, and tried to rely more on novelty of approach for the impact, as opposed to adding gratuitous flourishes to inflate the difficulty artificially. People's mileage will vary, and I guess it's up to everyone to decide for themselves what sort of style and gameplay goals make things most fun. Personally, I don't make avoiding death, in and of itself, my primary objective, mainly because it's not really so hard to do (in Halo 1, at least, and barring any time constraints) once you know the levels, as long as you choose your weapons for pure efficiency and play in a disciplined, patient, mechanical way. However, even in the case of things like speed runs where additional constraints are present, I wouldn't completely dismiss elements of "gung-ho" gameplay as lacking practical substance. With some practice, there's often much to be gained for less risk than it might seem.

Message Index

Kill 'em all speed runs	Rockslider	6/20/07 12:34 p.m.
Re: Kill 'em all speed runs	Ducain	6/20/07 4:08 p.m.
Re: Kill 'em all speed runs	Rockslider	6/20/07 8:26 p.m.
Re: Kill 'em all speed runs...hmm...	vshields ash	6/20/07 4:46 p.m.
Re: Kill 'em all speed runs...hmm...	Rockslider	6/20/07 8:36 p.m.
Re: Kill 'em all speed runs	Cody Miller	6/20/07 4:56 p.m.
Re: Kill 'em all speed runs	Rockslider	6/20/07 8:16 p.m.
Re: Kill 'em all speed runs	Slith	6/20/07 8:35 p.m.
Re: Kill 'em all speed runs	Rockslider	6/21/07 12:32 p.m.
How many Flood in the Library?	Rockslider	6/21/07 6:23 p.m.
Re: Kill 'em all speed runs	mike miller	6/21/07 3:12 a.m.
Re: Kill 'em all speed runs	Ducain	6/21/07 7:18 a.m.
Some old game	Rockslider	6/21/07 12:25 p.m.
Re: Some old game	scarab	6/22/07 1:35 a.m.
Re: Some old game	ThorsHammer	6/22/07 3:04 a.m.
Hey Mike...	Rockslider	6/22/07 3:50 p.m.
Re: Hey Mike...	Louis Wu	6/22/07 7:05 p.m.
Re: Kill 'em all speed runs	ocean fx	6/22/07 6:34 a.m.
Serious soldiering	Rockslider	6/22/07 3:57 p.m.
Re: Serious soldiering	ocean fx	6/23/07 9:48 a.m.
Movie-making advice requested	Rockslider	6/23/07 5:49 p.m.
Re: Movie-making advice requested	Red_Breast	6/24/07 4:13 p.m.
Re: Movie-making advice requested	Rockslider	6/25/07 4:59 p.m.