The Decline of Halo

     I still remember the first time I played Halo. Very reluctantly, I took the controller from my friend’s hand. “I don’t know how to play these type of games,” I said. I remember looking around the cryro chamber and getting out, then running around and exploring until my friend grew impatient with me. I hurried on through the training, when all of a sudden, there was an attack. The covenant had breached our ship, and they were destroying everything. (why they didn’t just shoot the ship down I don’t know) I ran to get away, with no gun or defense. As soon as I reach the door, it explodes and kills my companion; leaving me alone to fend for myself.

     I was now on my own. I looked around for another way out. “Here take the controller,” I told my friend. “I don’t know how to get out of here.” He told me to figure it out for myself, and I’m glad he did. I looked around and finally saw a way out. That’s when I learned how to jump. I ran to my destination. Everyone was in battle, grenades and shots everywhere. I ran through the frantic battleground until I got to a soldier who had me follow him to captain keys. Keys then filled me in on the story and gave me my first gun, the pistol.

     I was so immersed, I actually forgot I was playing a game. For a minute, I actually thought I was Master Chief. The rest of the story was so captivating and the worlds so unique. Better than anything I had ever played before. The levels all stood out so much and all had their own feature that stood out about them. The guns were all different, and recognizable. The soldiers by my side kept me from feeling too lonely in battle. I drove warthogs, banshees, ghosts and even tanks. I was amazed by how much content this game had.

     I finished the game. Part of me felt accomplished, and part of me felt sad. I would not get to enjoy halo that much for a long time, I thought. I thought I would never play anything that fun ever again, until I played co-op. A friend and I played the game for 9 hours straight, and it was just as fun as the first time. Somehow seeing him play and enjoy the game, made me enjoy the game just as much. “Awww man this level is sick!” I told him as we got to the tank part of the game.

     When I had completed the game again about ten more times, with about 5 different friends. I finally grew tired of campaign. So we decided to play against each other. Once again I was amazed by how much fun I was having. The weapons all seemed to be in appropriate places. The maps,for the most part, all seemed so well made. We had so much fun, we had to buy two extra controllers so we could get 4 players. Which almost magically doubled the fun. Every day after school, for years, we would play Halo. We waited eagerly for its predecessor.

     It had finally arrived, we couldn’t believe it was actually Halo 2 in our hands. We put it in and started it. The graphics had improved, but they popped in so suddenly. I ignored it since I was such a halo fanatic. Changes were made to it that had changed to game play. There was no longer any fall damage. Which made the game slightly more “mindless.” You no longer had to find a way down, instead you could just jump. I once again ignored the flaw. Also, your shields now recharged much faster and didn’t need any more health packs. Almost as if they were purposely trying to dumb the game down. I guess they were trying to make it playable for everyone. The core game play was still there, so I ignored it all.

     We then finished the game, and I can remember being slightly disappointed. “It can’t be over yet,” I said. The game had ended with Master Chief jumping on a ship and saying “Im gonna finish this fight!” It turned out we would all had to wait. I wasn’t so pleased with the game play itself either. It had its memorable parts, but for the most part was much of the same. No where near as immersing as the first, but fun nonetheless.

     The multi-player on Halo 2 was lacking something. Maybe it was the lack of fall damage. Maybe it was that the game had devolved because of dual wielding, or maybe it was just because it was more of the same. Offline multi-player had died for me. The only thing that kept me playing, was the online multi-player. Which was as addictive as ever. In part because It ran so smoothly. Matchmaking allowed me to find a game in less than a minute. Not only that, but the players were matched according to my skill. It was all so ahead of its time. It had one of the best online communities. Even to this day it would be a good online game.

     Halo 2 was a great game. It had good changes to it. The graphics were dramatically improved. Master Chief now looked more detailed and badass. The online ranking system and matchmaking kept me coming for more. I was still very much a Halo fan. Halo 2 was great for many reasons, but it just didn’t match up to Halo: CE. The story, which had me captivated the first time, had me only curious the second. The actual multi-player game play had been dumbed down so much, at times it was too easy. With auto-aiming snipers, no fall damage, no health packs and shields regenerating twice as fast.

     Then came Halo 3. After years of hearing hype. I thought this game would be the best game ever. I had trusted Bungie and thought they would come up with something to re-freshen the game play. That they would make up for halo 2’s story and then some. The game would be the greatest thing to ever happen to the world of gaming. The online would be a lag-less, tireless, and addicting with vastly detailed and even better designed maps. Maybe my hopes were up too high.

     What I got disappointed me once again. The campaign was so repetitive and forgettable, literally I forgot most of it. There was new weapons, but nothing unique or fun (with the exception of the flamethrower). In my opinion there was actually now too many guns. Bubble shields helped, but were rarely necessary. The game was still easy, partly because I was so good at it. The only new thing added to the core game play was the ability to use equipment. It began to feel less and less like that game I remembered playing with my friend. Maybe I was jaded, or maybe this game seriously lacked something. It was more of the same, Halo 2.5.

     The online multi-player was also almost exactly the same, but prettier. The weapon balance had changed almost to where power weapons like rockets and snipers were barely power weapons. Easily countered by a battle rifle. Shotguns were rarely used for the same reason. These weapons were now only useful in certain maps, and situations. Which is good for some reasons, but bad for others. The game was still shoot, shoot then smack game play. Especially with smaller maps. The maps were designed very poorly and were no where near as fun. Down hill levels, where one team had the clear advantage over the other. Layered levels, where you could easily get to the top or bottom but top always won. They just weren’t as much fun, unless you were winning.

     Forge had been added, but was lame. Editing levels is nowhere near as fun as creating them. Downloadable content was promised, but there was only more boring maps. Symetrical maps with boxes in them. Huge maps filled with vehicles, where you could be killed the easiest by a laser or rocket. Why have a map filled with vehicles, if the weapons on the map make them impractical to use? That and having your vehicle stolen was easier than ever. Even old Halo 2 maps weren’t as fun in Halo 3. To an experienced Halo player like myself, there wasn’t enough new and different content in this game for me to be impressed with it. Halo had devolved in many ways. It was still a good game, just no longer great.

     There were so many other games that had caught up to halo. Gears of War was fun and had new ideas and game play style. Call of Duty had more strategy to it and also felt on par with Halo. Shooters like Left 4 Dead, Rainbow 6, Mass Effect, Bioshock and even Battlefield were doing things as good and better than Halo. Left 4 dead and Call of Duty had addicting multi-player. Bioshock had amazing story. Battlefield had new ideas and was packed with content. All the things I used to remember Halo having. Halo had now become, in my mind, another tired franchise afraid to move.

     Then came ODST, where my hopes were down and yet I was still disappointed. “A new gameplay style,” they promised. They brought back fall damage sure, but it didn’t matter. There were few parts in the campaign where it made any difference at all. They brought back health packs, but who cares. There were so many health packs everywhere that it hardly mattered. Even having played this game on legendary I found I could easily avoid enemies but chose not to. The campaign was so poorly designed that I could have gone through many situations with out even pulling a trigger. Not only was game play repetitive, so were the levels, the situations and the enemies. Halo ODST is the lowest the series has ever gone. You can call it “just an expansion,” but if you charge full price for it, then you should be treated like a full game.

     The multi-player is below par. In fact, it’s a sorry excuse for multi-player. It’s basically recycled campaign maps with no objective other than survive the never ending same enemies. After an hour or so you begin to hope everyone on your team dies. Fun, for ten minutes, then becomes excessively boring! No but it’s okay to charge 60, hard earned, dollars. They through in Halo 3 multi-player…no not new multi-player, same old tired Halo 3 multi-player. That’s worth $60.00 isn’t it? No? How about tacked on survival mode? Not satisfied yet? How about a really short uninteresting campaign that’s barely relevant to the halo world? If that isn’t worth $60.00 dollars, then I don’t know what is. (SARCASM)

     When did the game I used to love so much, turn into such mediocre crap? Yet, it gets rated in the 9’s. What happened to the game that sucked you in and kept you in? To the Bungie that created new and innovative content with fresh new ideas. To a Halo where you played the campaign to get the story, not just achievements. Why couldn’t they have added things people actually want. Like to play as covenant, unique new multi-player modes, create a map features or even different environments? Halo used to be such a great game, now it’s just mediocre and repetetive. Halo: Reach arrives in 2010, just don’t get your hopes up to high. They might brake when they fall.