Ten Years of Halo: What Bungie Did Right and What Bungie Did Wrong (1up)

Same guy who wrote that Quarter to three review? Fail.Stevo_the_gamer

Wait.... it's THAT GUY? Man, that dude's Halo 4 review was a joke.

[QUOTE="Stevo_the_gamer"]Same guy who wrote that Quarter to three review? Fail.NeonNinja

Wait.... it's THAT GUY? Man, that dude's Halo 4 review was a joke.

[QUOTE="balfe1990"]

Disagree with all the "bad" characters they mentioned. How the hell was Guilty Spark derivative? None of the characters were bad, they just wern't given enough screentime, as is customary with any Halo game.

Though I'm having mixed feelings with how they've handled MC's "expanded character" in Halo 4. One one side I like hearing him speak (because Steve Downes has an awesome voice), but on the other, he didn't really say much of anything. Although he does utter the word "Cortana!" about seven dozen times. When he did speak, he never said anything particularly remarkable. I'm not expecting him to be a poet, but write a few decent one liners for him, at least.

Actually, I just had a look at the whole article and I have to say, I don't agree with any of it. :lol: Bungie didn't "do DLC wrong". The SP campaigns always wrapped up, it would have been stupid to duct tape a missing chapter or something to that. So what's the next avenue for DLC? Map packs, naturally. Not sure what his problem is.

NeonNinja

The author did a poor job with a lot of it.

I will say though that the DLC was done wrong in terms of pricing. $10 for three maps or whatever it came out to was a ripoff.

And storytelling could have been handled better on the whole, but yeah, this is a pretty poor article.

Agreed, but to be fair, that was probably MS breathing down their necks.

They had no problem giving away the numerous Halo 2 map packs for free. Different times, I know, they had originally slapped a price on them, but then removed them after the first month(?).

yeah I disagree with anything where they say they didn't tell the story right...I loved halo's story it was good enough that it made me go out and buy the halo books which expand the universe and story even more.

Oh yeah, and also, I like the Chief as a silent character. Dammit he is so annoying in Halo 4 when he constantly yaps to Cortana. Inane dialogue is not character development.FrozenLiquid

I've enjoyed his banter so far from the little I've played. It sounds natural now. Before Chiefs lack of concern to anything seemed overly Rambo

yeah I disagree with anything where they say they didn't tell the story right...I loved halo's story it was good enough that it made me go out and buy the halo books which expand the universe and story even more.

WilliamRLBaker

You probablyloved the potential the story had. Just stepping out of the crashed lifeboat on the second level inspired awe. ungie never really got across the narrative well in a traditional sense. It was told visually a lot of the time.

I remember not having a f*cking notion what was goign on in Halo:CE.

You're a big green robot, aliens don't like you, you crash on a ring world, drive around in a jeep with your little blue friend, blow up some stuff, walk in grey rooms, find more aliens that don't like you and want to eat you, run away from them and then blow up the ship that you were originally on. Fly away somewhere.

I had to play it a couple more times to clinch what the actual premise was. Didn't stop me loving the story anyway, simply because of how brutally strong it was/could have been. Stroytelling has always been Nungie's weakpopint. They improved a little with time, but the lore kept getting more and more convoluted. Which isn't their fault really. Halo CE was meant to end the "series". Then Halo 2 was. 7 years later and we have like 7 Halo games.

[QUOTE="FrozenLiquid"][QUOTE="catfishmoon23"]

To be fair, the second book in the "Kilo-five" trilogy seems to have garnered a much better reputation.

I can't vouch for it because I'm still reading Glasslands, which definitely does have flaws, but is still enjoyable enough to read. Really though, I'm trudging throught so I can start on the Thursday War.

DarkLink77

[QUOTE="WilliamRLBaker"]

yeah I disagree with anything where they say they didn't tell the story right...I loved halo's story it was good enough that it made me go out and buy the halo books which expand the universe and story even more.

balfe1990

You probablyloved the potential the story had. Just stepping out of the crashed lifeboat on the second level inspired awe. ungie never really got across the narrative well in a traditional sense. It was told visually a lot of the time.

I remember not having a f*cking notion what was goign on in Halo:CE.

You're a big green robot, aliens don't like you, you crash on a ring world, drive around in a jeep with your little blue friend, blow up some stuff, walk in grey rooms, find more aliens that don't like you and want to eat you, run away from them and then blow up the ship that you were originally on. Fly away somewhere.

I had to play it a couple more times to clinch what the actual premise was. Didn't stop me loving the story anyway, simply because of how brutally strong it was/could have been. Stroytelling has always been Nungie's weakpopint. They improved a little with time, but the lore kept getting more and more convoluted. Which isn't their fault really. Halo CE was meant to end the "series". Then Halo 2 was. 7 years later and we have like 7 Halo games.

You can level a lot of criticism against Bungie in terms of storytelling (most of which I think is unjustified because you don't need all of the series backstory to enjoy the story in the games, and it's really not that complicated or poorly portrayed), but poor storytelling in Combat Evolved is not one of them. It's arguably one of the best games in that regard.

I think they always wanted to make Halo 2, though. I think CE's ending made that pretty obvious. Halo 3 and beyond? Not so much. Though they were noticably more excited when freed from the constraints of the Chief in ODST and Reach, and I think the stories in those games improved significantly because of that.

Bungie did a hell of a job making Halo games.

343 just came along and perfected what Bungie had started.

I disagree with his hate for MC's character. I think the silence suits him well. It make him seem like a disturbed veteran who's seen alot of things and has a troubled past, and has a heart of iron. Although in Halo 4 he talks too much. He was the best in 2 and 3.

Agree with the arbiter. The elites are the coolest fictional characters ever. They sound epic, they are super intelligent and wise, they talk like medieval knights, and have zealot-like views. I was psyched when I could play as the arbiter in halo 2.

Reach's story sucked. ODST was the most interesting on that side of the game because of how they decided to tell it.jg4xchamp

I'm curious to hear what Mac users from back then think of Bungie now. There's bound to be some bad blood still.

Some good points. When I think of what I love about Halo it's the music and the giant, epic levels. The weapons are awesome as well, and the gameplay has that awesome floaty feel to it. Like everything is effortless for Chief.

Bungie was always industry leading at their feature set. Vehicles, online, splitscreen, co-op sp, forge, theater, firefight, bungie.net. Come on. So much goodness to be had in a Halo game.