I was talking about the Halo universe from my experience with Combat Evolved and Halo 2. I never played the Halo 3 campaign. So I can't verify or reject what that web site discussed in terms of Halo 3.
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Having to drag in the game universe instead of using what is presented in the games themselves only shows how weak your position and argument is.
I'm not going to deny that there are flaws in the story. But there are flaws in every story, if you look hard enough. How the heck do Vortigaunts know English, if they came from galaxies away? And if by some heavenly chance they knew a language of Earth, why would it be English, instead of Italian, German, or Russian?
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Well obviously between Half-Life 1 and 2 Gordon Freeman has been in Limbo for X amount of years, during that time the course of events have changed Earth drastically. The Vortigaunts? Is it not possible that they learned how to speak human languages during their time on Earth? Furthermore, since the locations you play in have a human populace that speaks (get this it's a real shocker) ENGLISH would it be possible that they learned how to speak ENGLISH during the time that they were living with ENGLISH speaking humans?
Halo's story is successful in diverting your attention from any flaws by immersing you in a world lively and animated.
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"That's right, Halo 3's biggest flaw is that at it never rises to the level of epic storytelling or gameplay that the premise suggests, even demands. Although I was told time and again there was a war for humanity's fate going on, I certainly never saw any evidence of it. Great stakes are discussed, but never established. I'm supposed to be horrified that the Flood overrun a city, or that most of Africa needs to be bombed to prevent their spread, but since no one actually seems to live there, why should I care? No reference to civilian casualties, or even civilian existence, is ever made, so there's no tragedy in the "glassing" of Africa, just the mild satisfaction that comes from having survived it. It's a little ridiculous seeing what should be the game's climactic encounter being waged on such a small scale. When I besieged the Prophet of Truth's final stronghold, the only resistance I found was six vehicles and eight soliders, for a grand total of fourteen opposing troops. Between vehicles and Marines, I had ten on my side. This is supposed to be the deciding battle for the fate of the galaxy, and it involves less than 25 people?
Guess again.
And regardless, what one game critic says about the game is automatically upheld for truth? That's just ridiculous.
Halo 3 got more than twenty scores of 100 from game critics. Universal consensus is far more reliable than the ramblings of one person - although I'd concede that the criticism offered by that person probably has some truth to it.
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Nice to contradict yourself there.
This guy talks about making an agreement with a zombie lifeform whose intelligence has all but disappeared? Why don't you make a cease-fire with a rock, you'd probably get better results. Edit: I see, the gravemind, but such an agreement still conflicts with the interests of the flood, and to a certain extent the original point still remains. runtime211
You clearly don't get it do you?
"This problematic lack of scope extends into the game's plot, which is one of the most simplistic stories I've ever seen referred to as being "deep." It attempts to add resonance by placing the central conflict in a religious context: The villain is called a "Prophet", the Elites, aliens who have abandoned the Covenant to team up with humans, are called "Heretics" by the other Covenant troops. Unfortunately, the story doesn't have any of the depth or grey areas that actual religious schisms manifest. In fact, the main conflict of the game is an entirely secular one. Beyond the simple question of whether the Master Chief can stop the Prophet of Truth from destroying the galaxy (spoiler alert: according to the ad campaign, he can), there's no depth or complexity to this conflict. What the Covenant wants is so outlandishly bad that it can't be seen as anything but madness, and the humans have a completely good solution available to them, which, if successful would result in the complete destruction of all their foes and a completely happy ending. There's no hard decisions to be made here, no possibility of being forced to accept the existence of, or even making an agreement with, the Flood. No, all the bad guys are clearly evil, and all of them can be easily defeated in one fell swoop."
A one dimensional conflict between "Good" and "Evil" or "Black" and "White" which excludes the "Neutral" or the "Gray" does not equal significant depth.
Nonetheless, a story which has had three excellent books written on it as well as a potential movie definitely must have one of the deepest universes ever found in a video game. Not to mention the popular internet series Red vs. Blue.
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Again you go back to mentioning the Universe. I don't care, and neither do a lot of people. You either work with what was presented in the games or don't bother at all.
As I said before, I probably wouldn't have chose Halo for this title, but I'm disgusted by all these haters who can't resist attacking Halo, a franchise whose success has far eclipsed most PC games and has received more media attention than any recent PC game. Just like everyone likes to attack EA, whose sports games are still of top-notch quality. And Crytek, who's essentially saying, albeit exaggerated, that piracy plays a big role in hurting commercial success. And World of Warcraft, whose 10+ million player fanbase are supposedly just stupid because the game sucks and everyone who plays it becomes an addicted brainless nerd. runtime211
Oh gee, could it be possible that haters are disgusted of the rampant accolades that Halo receives, that it gets claimed as being "TEH GRATEST EFF PEE ESS EVAR!!!ONE" and that it "Revolutionized", "Reinvented", "Innovated" the FPS genre. Just exactly what new things DID Halo bring to the table? Everything I've seen people claim that Halo innovated were designs which already existed in previous games. If PC games are the only ones being eclipsed by Halo then why do so few people seem to know Red Faction, Timesplitters, and Escape From Butcher Bay exist? Halo will continue to be hated so long as people keep talking it up as being head over heels above every other game on the market, when it is clear that better games exist and far surpass Halo.
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