I don't know, 4 or 5?
I've had a good time with Bungie's games. Halo 2 was awesome. Halo 3 was fun. Reach was a lot of fun, when I ignored that Armor lock existed. You know for their multiplayer, but as a developer of single player games. You know where pacing, level design, enemy variety, and encounter design can't just be saved by fundamental core mechanics, and a handful of levels done well (Halo 3 and Reach have shit map lists, but each have a handful of fun maps that make up for the shitty ones, that works for mp, not sp): they suck.
They are shit story tellers who have written poor scripts, at no point did they ever respond to the criticism of the flood by actually fixing them or improving them. They stayed equally shitty in Halo 2, and they were made twice as stupid in Halo 3: when you combined their brain dead nature+those shitty bug zappy fuckers+Gravemind's bullshit, asshole, Mt. Pious, golden calf, biblical bullshit with slow mo during Cortana. Their level design as a whole is atrocious, and it dates all the way back to Halo 1. The corridor shooting that aren't that fun in Halo, the senseless backtracking that doesn't fit in a game like that, and taking the same handful of enemies/combat ideas and copy n pasting them through the game with the rare vehicle section to mix it up. The environmental design consists of 90 degree angles of grey and blue that all looks the freakin the same after awhile. The action being turned into blow up 2 of these, or 3 of these, segments. That was Halo 1, and it followed them through Halo 2, through Halo 3, through ODST. Reach was a mild exception. The copy n paste level design had more than grey n blue corridors going for it this time.
Even when they flirted with mixing it up, it was pointless. Equipment didn't mean shit in Halo 3. ODST had ambiance and structure for story telling, but it was still more Halo, and the "stealth" aspect was completely unsastifying, and their more open combat encounters became combat puzzles overtime. Instead of the more open shit like say The Scarab in Halo 3 which you can crush from ATV, or the chaingun, or a jump off the station crane, or snipe from the crane. In contrast to what they created n ODST: which were shooting galleries, and Reach which consisted of essentially step by step combat puzzles. Do this, than do that, than do this. Rinse, repeat. Finish line. The saber stuff was a let down, as it was just a brief throw down with 2 enemy types that were cannon fodder. They didn't bother building it up, or evolving on it. It was a brief glimpse at something exciting, and then...oh, that's it?
And their follow up act after a decade of let downs, is a loot rpg that very much plays like Borderlands. Difference s? I'd argue the guns feel better, and the enemies felt more interesting because they at least did more than just run at you and get shot. The bob n weave, and the actually running back and getting in cover gives the combat a bit more spice. Problem? the flow of the game is only mildly different: it's still very much go here, shoot dudes, collect loot. There is no real depth to this system, or ingenuity, or mastery of an encounter: it's just typical loot rpg compulsive bullshit. More to the point that type of stuff is at least satisfying with MMO's/isometric loot rpgs because the battle systems are built with the idea of tactics/strategy/build. Action combat by its nature is more about instinct, reflex, and depth comes from management of tools or tools that help you on an emergent level (think Crysis, or the use of speed in Vanquish, bullet time in Max Payne/Fear).
So yeah when it comes to the Beta I want to see some major variety from a combat encounter standpoint. Otherwise hooray they made slightly better mmo borderlands. Borderlands aint that good to me. On the flip side I've had a lot of fun with Bungie mp games. And this is mp. So who knows. I got a 50/50 shot of either getting Good Bungie or Shit Bungie. I'll just choose to be less excited this time for a Bungie game though.
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