Invisible Walls, Kill-Zones, and the Fall of Halo: An Open Letter.

Games Other Halo
1

This is an open letter to the Halo design team. If any players feel the same way, please feel free to echo my sentiments.

I purchased my Xbox for the sole reason of trying out this new, awesome-sounding game called “Halo: Combat Evolved.” Before this, I had been a Nintendo-boy, all the way. I got an NES, SNES, Game Boy, N64… but when I had to choose between the Game Cube and the Xbox, I chose the Xbox simply because of Halo.

And it was glorious.

I played through the campaign several times, I played with friends, and then my friends and I found a new game to play, a game that magnificently improved replay value: We Explored. that’s right, we explored the levels. We tried to climb the highest hills, get on top of the tallest structures, get a warthog way up there where it wasn’t supposed to go, and reach to all those places where players “weren’t supposed to go.”

And it was good.

Then came Halo 2. We played, we conquered , and once again we explored. We cruised the rooftops in New Mombasa, we got on top of Delta Halo and drove out Warthog through the Lake under the Temple, we climbed to the top of the Control Room (there was a skull there, anyways). We had a great time, but we started running into these annoying things called “invisible walls.” However it didn’t stop us from having fun…

…yet.

Come Halo 3 and you’d think that the game developers had a meeting and thought to themselves “Hmm, we keep seeing user vids on YouTube showing players escaping the maps, goofing around, and having fun. We should put a stop to that immediately.” And that fast, the invisible walls exploded up into the air like a flock of seagulls being chased by Sean Connery armed with an umbrella.

It was very sad.

Every time I saw a ledge or a cool place I wanted to explore, I found myself hemmed in by these infernal invisible walls. I didn’t understand why I was forced into the game corridors even though I had defeated the entire game on Legendary difficulty over-and-over; it’s not like I was trying to by-pass the game’s intended level design because I had already beaten the levels countless times they way they were intended to be played.

And Now Halo Reach takes the “Insult” one step further - to “Injury.” Now instead of just hemming you in with countless invisible walls, the game designers outright kill you for trying to explore. They kill you for treading “out of bounds” even though no soldier in their right mind would ever actually use most of the footpaths they’re forcing you to use. And, this really makes me angry, they claim to “reward players who explore” by putting secret switches in the out-of-bounds areas at the same time they’re telling to not explore!!! How rude is that? They honestly expect us to spend hours treading carefully around the out-of-bounds areas, zipping back and forth waiting for the death-timer to reset, hoping to find something that may not even exist.

IF YOU WANT US TO EXPLORE, LET US EXPLORE WITHOUT DEATH-ZONES!

IF YOU DON’T WANT US TO EXPLORE, THEN STOP PLACING SECRETS IN THE DEATH-ZONES!

Now, all this leads me to just one conclusion: Halo 4 will be a game comprised of just one long corridor with 2 invisible walls on the left and right, and they’ll kill your character if you stand still to look at the scenery for more than 10 seconds.

Seriously, The Halo games have become so restrictive that I’m not even looking forward to exploring the levels of Halo 4 anymore. I bought Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo: ODST, and Halo Wars right away when they hit the market; for the first time I’ll be renting Halo 4 before buying. If the invisible walls and kill zones are as-bad-as, or worse-than, Halo 3 or Reach, then I won’t purchase it. The only way, and I mean ONLY WAY, that I’ll purchase Halo 4 is if it’s possible to explore the levels without punishment or deterrence. Empower veteran players who have beaten the game to disable the kill-zones and invisible walls… or leave them out entirely!

Otherwise you’ve lost a customer.

Signed with the utmost grief

2

So your upset because you want to exploit flaws in game developers level-design in which they they used up most of their time making?

3

> So your upset because you want to exploit flaws in game developers level-design in which they they used up most of their time making?

I say invisible walls are an indication of failed level-design, and kill-zones are the sign of a control-freak.

Just let me play how I want to play after I’m done playing the way you want me to play; I have more firearms handling and hunting experience that the entire Halo design team put together, so let me hunt the enemy like a soldier would, not like how an arcade game character would.

4

You can still explore in Halo 3, it just takes a little extra effort. I agree that kill zones need to have no future in Halo, however, Bungie really went nuts with those.

5

Just because unintended flaws or exploits let you journey outside the play areas in previous games, it doesn’t necessarily mean they will exist in future games. Nor does it really entitle people to expect such features to appear in future games.

6

> You can still explore in Halo 3, it just takes a little extra effort. I agree that kill zones need to have no future in Halo, however, Bungie really went nuts with those.

Kill zones are excessive in Campaign, but they are absolutely required for Multiplayer.

Forge’s limits mean that invisible walls are currently unusable; even if they’re usable in the future, they will be impractical; and a single Soft Safe Boundary is fewer objects than several invisible walls anyway (which is important because there is a global object count limit irrespective of budget and per-category limits). There’s also the fact that a physics glitch can get you through an invisible wall, but never through properly-constructed Safe/Kill volumes, which is very important when it comes to controlling exploits that could imbalance a map.

7

> > You can still explore in Halo 3, it just takes a little extra effort. I agree that kill zones need to have no future in Halo, however, Bungie really went nuts with those.
>
> Kill zones are excessive in Campaign, but they are absolutely required for Multiplayer.
>
> Forge’s limits mean that invisible walls are currently unusable; even if they’re usable in the future, they will be impractical; and a single Soft Safe Boundary is fewer objects than several invisible walls anyway (which is important because there is a global object count limit irrespective of budget and per-category limits). There’s also the fact that a physics glitch can get you through an invisible wall, but never through properly-constructed Safe/Kill volumes, which is very important when it comes to controlling exploits that could imbalance a map.

Right, I was thinking more along the lines of campaign. Obviously having people escape multiplayer maps is going to unbalance things. In that case, of course, it helps to design the maps right in the first place.

8

> Right, I was thinking more along the lines of campaign. Obviously having people escape multiplayer maps is going to unbalance things. In that case, of course, it helps to design the maps right in the first place.

Yeah. But then, you have to consider (for MP) that we can’t design the maps. Not fully, anyway. Even on Forge World there are factors out of our control, and inevitably there will be factors out of our control in Halo 4.

I don’t want to see ridiculous softkills in default MP maps, but we need the functionality for Forge. Even if 343 themselves never end up having to use it.

9

Yeah, that’s true. I’ve seen people do some clever stuff with it in customs, too. Of course if you are making a custom map, then you most likely have already seen what is outside it’s boundaries.

10

I wanted invisible walls in Reach, like death zones, TU includes it? :smiley:

11

I think invisible walls and kill-zones work for multiplayer to prevent camping in unfair locations, but I don’t see any reason for me to deal with invisible walls and kill-zones when I’m goofing around in campaign after thoroughly defeating the game.

And why don’t they let us get to the top of Forge World?!?! Why can’t we go to the top where the Forerunner structure is? I am not a 3 year-old child trying to reach a knife on top the Kitchen counter, I’m an adult who’s just trying to make a good map, so there’s NO REASON to block out whole sections of a map like that. That’s plain rude.

I paid $60 for this game, so let me Forge how I want to Forge.

12

And you know what? Now that I’m here… what’s with disabling the banshee Hijacking? Why is it in some levels a SPARTAN III soldier unit is capable of hijacking a banshee aircraft, but in other levels the SPARTAN III soldier unit is not able to jack a Banshee?

Do you really expect me to believe that a SPARTAN III soldier unit has a tendency of becoming mentally limited at random times throughout their service career and forget how to hijack a vehicle?

Listen up, level designers: If you think the player should not have access to Banshees, then don’t give the player access to Banshees (you tools). It’s stupid to render a SPARTAN III incapable of stealing a vehicle during certain times without any kind of explanation. Therefore, I have to assume that you, the level designers, are actually using the excuse that SPARTANs become mentally handicapped at random times and they forget how to steal a vehicle.

That’s bogus and it violates canon; SPARTANs do not periodically forget how to perform combat operations such as stealing a vehicle. You need to rethink how you cover-up your mistakes.

13

I completely understand where you’re coming, and I totally agree.

Except for one part. You have to understand that invisible walls and soft/insta killzones are put in place for a reason. They’re to prohibit the player from exploiting the game’s boundaries. That kind of technology (for use of a better word) wasn’t introduced into the gaming industry until a later date - much after CE’s and Halo 2’s release, hence why they’re more abundant in Halo 3. Like I said, I completely agree. Breaking map boundaries and exploration is one of the few amazing qualities of the Halo franchise; however I do not like how it is becoming harder and harder to perform. I don’t see it as a challenge per say, it’s more of an annoyance.

However, if your sole purpose whether or not to buy or not buy Halo 4 rests on the amount of exploration available, you’re doing it for the wrong reasons. Every Halo fan has a different reason why we love Halo, however we can all settle that it’s the storyline, lore, canon, and multiplayer that keeps us coming back. If you’re simply going to purchase Halo 4 because it doesn’t have invisible walls, then don’t buy it at all.

I believe you’re being more hostile than needed. For instance, the developers add Banshees into levels of the campaign for effect. For example, in Rally Point Alpha on Exodus, there’s two Banshees flying around, distracting you and causing havoc. However, look at the area you’re in. Would it be beneficial to hijack one of those Banshees? Where are you going to go? Outside the map? Skip to the very end? It isn’t practical in some areas, it just adds to the environment and effect. It isn’t the dveelopers commenting on how “Spartan II’s are mentally handicapped”.

I understand you’re an adult, and you want to play the game how you want to play it, however you have to abide by the developer’s ramifications. No amount of thread tantrums will change that.

14

> I completely understand where you’re coming, and I totally agree.
>
> Except for one part. You have to understand that invisible walls and soft/insta killzones are put in place for a reason. They’re to prohibit the player from exploiting the game’s boundaries.

This is completely flawed because they have placed hidden switches in the kill zones that only appear under certain, sometimes arbitrary, circumstances and in completely random locations. They obviously want and expect you to explore the killzone boundries methodically and thoroughly - every single square foot, before-and-after every single checkpoint, on Legendary.
This COMPLETELY defeats the purpose of putting up killzones to discourage exploration.

15

> > I completely understand where you’re coming, and I totally agree.
> >
> > Except for one part. You have to understand that invisible walls and soft/insta killzones are put in place for a reason. They’re to prohibit the player from exploiting the game’s boundaries.
>
> This is completely flawed because they have placed hidden switches in the kill zones that only appear under certain, sometimes arbitrary, circumstances and in completely random locations. They obviously want and expect you to explore the killzone boundries methodically and thoroughly - every single square foot, before-and-after every single checkpoint, on Legendary.
> This COMPLETELY defeats the purpose of putting up killzones to discourage exploration.

…I see you didn’t read the remainder of my post.

16

First things first… you didn’t get a Gamecube, Prosperity Park? I hope a friend of yours did, because there was an amazing wealth of high standard and incredibly fun games on it.

Now back to Halo…

So long as invisible walls are used sparingly and when appropriate, they aren’t all that bad. Developers need 'em sometimes.

On to Kill Zones…

I don’t understand what made Bungie go on such an insane kill zone spree when they designed Reach. Not only did they kill Campaign exploration with their incessant addition of kill zones, but that virus spread to Firefight and Multiplayer as well. In defence, quite a lot of these are necessary to maintain fair and competitive map spaces in Matchmaking. However Bungie had a tendency to over-do it, especially considering some of the lame Firefight kill zones.

17

> > > I completely understand where you’re coming, and I totally agree.
> > >
> > > Except for one part. You have to understand that invisible walls and soft/insta killzones are put in place for a reason. They’re to prohibit the player from exploiting the game’s boundaries.
> >
> > This is completely flawed because they have placed hidden switches in the kill zones that only appear under certain, sometimes arbitrary, circumstances and in completely random locations. They obviously want and expect you to explore the killzone boundries methodically and thoroughly - every single square foot, before-and-after every single checkpoint, on Legendary.
> > This COMPLETELY defeats the purpose of putting up killzones to discourage exploration.
>
> …I see you didn’t read the remainder of my post.

I READ IT… Look at the bold. You say they placed them to appear “under certain/circumstances and in completely random locations.” There’s a reason for that and the reason fr it is… because we mush do the task so we fit the circumstance. Also if they ‘obviously’ wanted us to explore them then why the boundaries… ummm maybe because they don’t want us to explore them without doing the task to meet the circumstance.

I hate the boundaries too but your going at the topic quite wrong.

18

Kill zones are terrible. They kill the game for me. I would much rather they have the invisible walls for me, not because I want to get out of maps but because kill zones feel really lazy and out of place in any game.

19

> Kill zones are terrible. They kill the game for me. I would much rather they have the invisible walls for me, not because I want to get out of maps but because kill zones feel really lazy and out of place in any game.

Thing is kill zones are move able by the developer when make various maps on forge world. Invisible walls are not.

20

> Kill zones are terrible. They kill the game for me. I would much rather they have the invisible walls for me, not because I want to get out of maps but because kill zones feel really lazy and out of place in any game.

>implying that invisible walls aren’t equally lazy, “out of place”, and capable of breaking immersion