Steve Troughton-SmithNov 7, 2024

I know I'm a million years late, but I’m finally trying the Halo Master Chief Collection. I like that you can switch between oldschool and remake graphics, but honestly at this point I think I agree that the remake needs a remake — it looks really dated. Sounds like that's exactly what's in the works though with their fancy new Unreal Engine project, so let's see.

In the meantime, I'm refamiliarizing myself with Halo CE, which I last played through on a Titanium PowerBook in 2003

Show threadSteve Troughton-Smith
While the original Halo might feel mechanically dated in many ways, it's remarkable just how similar its template is to modern games. It's clear the genre as it exists today owes far more to Halo than it does to DOOM, and that's why it's held right up there
Nov 8, 2024 at 6:23pmIvory for Mac
Show threadSteve Troughton-SmithNov 8, 2024
I'd also forgotten just how dramatic a shift Halo takes halfway through, when it turns into a horror game and switches up the enemy types completely. Later games lost that element
Show threadSteve Troughton-SmithNov 9, 2024
Halo CE: complete. Yeah one thing that really doesn't hold up is the vehicle controls. I know it's religious, and people really like Halo-style movement (and on mouse/keyboard, they didn't suck, but on gamepad they're real bad), but driving in games has improved so much in the past 23 years and it really sticks out in the remaster. Also jarring that MCC just boots you back to the main menu instead of having a credit sequence at the end of the game 😐
Show threadTorbNov 9, 2024

@stroughtonsmith AFAIK whooe CE is beloved in the Hako community, there is pretty much consensus that the droving controls are awful.

I tried playing it co-op with my wife and when she drove the warthog she pointed put how awful it was (think she refused to play another level after that 😅)

Show threadDan WinemanNov 8, 2024
@stroughtonsmith I’ve never played Halo but I wonder if that’s where Half-Life 2 got the idea for the Ravenholm sequence.
Show threadDavid CollieNov 8, 2024
@stroughtonsmith I hated the Flood!
Show threadJeff C. 🇺🇦🇬🇱Nov 8, 2024

@rundmcollie @stroughtonsmith I hated them, but I also _feared_ them in a way that was not the case with the Covenant.

Such a masterstroke, IMHO.

Show threadDavid CollieNov 8, 2024
@jeff @stroughtonsmith I think I hated them precisely because they were much harder to fight.
Show threadSteveNov 8, 2024
@stroughtonsmith I played halo 1 and 2 back in the day, when I got my series x I ended up playing halo 5 then infinite from gamepass and they just didn’t feel the same. The switch from fighting the covenant to the flood is part of what made the original such a killer game for me
Show threadJason GabrieleNov 8, 2024
@stroughtonsmith I also thought it did a great job with storytelling and music in a way many other single player games never achieved
Show threadpaulgessingerNov 8, 2024
@stroughtonsmith I’ve never played the game when it came out but am now half way through the MCF. One thing that’s turning out to be a bit of a bore is how repetitive the levels are, with rooms and hallways being reused dozens of times with minimal variations of which enemys it’s throwing at you.
Show threadAndrew SalterNov 8, 2024
@stroughtonsmith I think Destiny 2 still runs on a forked version of the engine used in Reach (which has lineage to Halo:CE)
Show threadTorbNov 8, 2024

@stroughtonsmith My take is that Halo (including modern ones like Infinite) is closer to the OG Doom than most FPS of the last 20 years (including Doom 2016).

As for mechanics, I think Halo CE is just about perfect in it's simplicity. I think Counter Strike 2 shows that 'old' FPS game mechanics still have staying power. Currently Halo Infinite has a callback playlist with similar mechanics.