Bit of a delay between posts as my Grandfather passed away and I travelled interstate to attend the funeral, I've had plenty of time to allow things to broil about in my head and there is a particular franchise I've been trying to wrestle with in my mind.
I've had an uneasy relationship with the Halo series. I try and love it for it's gameplay qualities and great design but then the things that I like to think as integral to my enjoyment of a game; namely things like story, characterisation and so on, rear their heads and bring it crashing back down from a lofty height.
Why is this? Why do I have such a hard time swallowing the whole, shiny package that Bungie offer up to hordes of delirious gamers? What other straight up action FPS games even offer a skerick of what Halo offers?
It's taken a bit of brain churning to really find the things that snare in my brain-net and spoil the heady broth that is Halo. I'm not at all saying that Halo as a series, or as individual games, are particularly bad. In fact, they've been pretty crucial to the developing strength of console FPSs in general. But then it also highlights the trends with the casualisation and mainstreaming of the gaming scene which as a collective sit kinds of uncomfortably in my stomach. Like a beautifully braised duck without all the fat trimmed.
My main problem with the series as a whole is it's attempt at hard sci-fi that comes off as cliche riddled and much more like a comic book ripoff to a bunch of sci-fi staples rather than any kind of true homage.
It also borrows pretty heavily from Aliens, I noticed that in some parts but the link belows shows in greater detail just how much of an influencing factor it actually was.
http://blog.ascendantjustice.com/old-familiar-feeling-aliens-part-one/
The relationship between the three factions (and the Forerunner)of the Halo Universe is probably the greatest thing about the overall Arc, but the flood themselves? Yuck. ODST felt like a better game for not having them zombifying the place up.
But when I look at the dynamic between the races in Halo compared to the dynamic of cultures and races in say, Mass Effect, Halo gets blown away like a paper mache parade in a hurricane.
Despite all this I am really looking forward to Halo:Reach. Not particularly for the story or anything like that, but for the gameplay and multiplayer.
