I played another 2 hours or so last night.

I tried it on normal thinking maybe the stupid clowny voices on the enemies would go away....Nope.  Or the stupid taunting like when an enemy stands on the top of a hill can goes "nya   nya nya  nya nyaaa nya".  That might fit if this was a bugs bunny game but it's a mismatch in this game.

I got stuck on the levitation pad to get into the "Truth and Reconsiliation".  I can't get over how bad that name is.  I had to do this section about 6 times.  Unlike the claims in some of the reviews, I did NOT find doing it over fun.  I guess the issue is that I assumed the game saved at checkpoints.  It doesn't, it only saves when you tell it to save so the other day I got to the ship and then turned off the machine after it said "checkpoint saved".  Then last night I turned it on and was set back to the last place I manually saved. 

Even then, it only saves at the beginning of levels, not checkpoints.  So while you are playing if you die you get set back to the last checkpoint but if you save and restore you get set back the beginning of the level.  That happened last night because I decided to put it back on easy after died a few times on normal.

The levitation pad also points out problems in the story again.  Why would they let you beam into the ship?  Clearly they could turn off the beam OR close the door OR fly away.  Very poorly written / designed.

On the plus side, the other troops are pretty cool and their comments, in sharp contrast to the enemy's, are actually well done and add to the game.

I only got to play for about an hour last night.

I was in the ship, trying to find the captain.  It was kind of fun although damn it's repeatitive.  The inside of the ship is 3 interesting rooms connected by 1 hallway model, 1 intersection model and 1 corner model repeated about 150 times.  Even DOOM, was not that repetitive in level design.

Of course that reminds me one of the differences I feel between many PC and console games.  It probably is not always true but, most of the console games seem to have very detailed, unrepetitive levels.  Be it Crash, Jak & Daxter, Disruptor, FF7, MGS, etc.  Each level is not made of so many repetitive parts.  Each polygon is hand placed.  PC games on the other hand seem to always be designed to be made cheaply.  That means reusing lots of textures, reusing sections of levels, and building stuff with low poly counts.  For example Quake vs Distruptor.  Quake's levels are around 10K polys each.  Distruptors are hundres of thousands, each hand placed.  Both games came out around the same time.  I have yet to see a PC game that uses truly detailed graphics.

What's my point?  Halo was created by a PC team.  It shows.  The details that you'd find by most major console teams are missing.

I finished Halo last night.  It got better but to be honest I really can't see why this game was so positively reviewed.

The best levels are the outdoor levels in the snow although through the dialog they make up some ridiculous story about them actually being indoors with their own special environment.

The sad thing was the contrast between those levels and the indoor levels they connect.  Each with a twisty entrance hallway for absolutely no reason each followed by a room hard to navigate also for no reason except bad game design.

Then you find out about "The Flood".  The Flood creatures were well done and scary but at one point you follow "the Monitor" around and again we get long boring, repeatative, nonsensical level design.  Around and around and around, back and forth, back and forth for no reason whatsoever.  And there are so many monsters it was just tedious not fun.  I can't imaging how anybody would play that area on ledgenary.  It was hard enough on normal.  Not fun, just hard, boring and tedious.

The level where you blow up the ship.  That level was pretty good.  I enjoyed the *puzzle* if you can call it that and the design of the level was at least interesting.

The final level was also kind of fun but again was detracted from by ridiculous design.  All these twisty roads and jumps and ramps that have no place inside a space ship.

On the plus side the music picked up.  Several of the later tracks were appropriate and well done for the situation.  There are only 2 or 3 tracks that actually detracted more than they added.

I'm not saying Halo is a bad game.  I just don't see why it got so many reviewers so excited.

Which brings up another question: Now that I've played the only game worth playing on X-Box I have a $200 paper weight.  Any recommendations?

I think many people are missing the beauty in Halo: the action.  Sure, the levels might be mazes and a look the same, but the action is what makes the game -- not the interior decorating.  Hurl a gernade at an enemy and he'll leap out of the way shooting at you.  Compare that to most FPS games where the idiot AI will just shoot back standing still.  The action in Halo is never repetitive, the thrill of pistol clocking an alien, or blasting a group with a rocket launcher, is amazing and makes the game.  I have owned Halo since the day it came out, and still play it regularly.

I think the Halo's worst qualities are the Level Design and the Cut Scenes.

However, The Outdoor level design was really good, I thought. It was the indoor areas that lacked believability. They were extreemly repedative and boring. Tho the cut scenes lacked a certain polish, I thought the in-game scenes were good. I mena, the ones where you dont leave the FPS mode, and you cna choose to stick around and watch the NPCs talk, or just run off.

Other than those two things (and only one of them was really a MAJOR problem.. cut scenes dont effect gameplay, really), I didnt find much in Halo to complain about.

I mentioned already how good i thought the Outdoor level design was. It was amazing due part to how it was a series of Battlefields, and due part to the AI and NPCs. Storming the beach of the island was alot of fun, and so was the spot midway through the Snow-level where you find a Warthog, and across the map is a Covenant tank shooting at you from behind a large army of foot soldiers.

The AI for the enemy was really good, as well. Halo only contained 5 or 6 enemies, but the great AI and variation in fighting styles never reminded me of the limitation, and i never got bored of it. The Animations were excellent for the enemies, as well. If you shot a guy in the foot, you got a different animation that if you shot him in the arm, the head, the chest, the other foot. It always looked realistic. Too many FPS games lack this element, and fighting monsters is boring because they never react to your barage of bullets.

Driving the Warthog takes practice, but once you figured it out, it was a whole lot of fun. The trick is that there is a light blue arrow in the middle of the screen. When you hold UP ont he left control stick, the jeep automatically turns its wheels to go in that direction. The hardest thing to get is that you're not controlling the steering wheel, you've just got to point and gas it.

I played about half the game solo, but it did get sort of boring after a while. What made this game really fun was getting a friend, and playing through it Co-op on legendary. The enemies AI is enhanced, and theres more of them. Between to mediocre players, the game isnt that hard, but it still maintains challenge. It was alot of fun to go through levels with another player. It was an added element to set up strategy, pincer attacks, etc. Theres alot of talking between players; something that isnt too common in alot of multiplayer games on consoles (except fighting games, where all you do is cuss and gloat about how much ass you're kicking). Also, the Warthog was alot more nejoyable. Playing Rock Paper Scissors over who gets to drive is one of my more fond memories of playing the game. That, and throwing a grenage into a crowd of bad guys, only to see my friend run in after it not knowing you threw it, causing you to yell "GRENADE!! I THREW A GRENADE GET OUT OF THERE!!!".

 

 

Hopefully, Halo 2 will have much better Level Design. Already from video clips off the internet, the cut scenes look VERY polished and professional.