If you’re looking for a long form in depth conversation about Halo Combat Evolved and how it stands the test of time look no further. Is Halo Combat Evolved a perfect game?
> 2533274807452874;1:
> If you’re looking for a long form in depth conversation about Halo Combat Evolved and how it stands the test of time look no further. Is Halo Combat Evolved a perfect game?
>
> - YouTube
Halo CE is FAR from perfect. The downsides are very noticeable, and sometimes very annoying. I’ll list some of them here:
- Weapon Balancing is the Worst in the SeriesIn campaign, every weapon will see some use, especially on lower difficulties. When it comes to multiplayer, however, it’s very clear what weapons matter and what weapons don’t. The Pistol, Plasma Pistol, Shotgun, Sniper Rifle and Rocket Launcher outshine every other weapon in the game in terms of utility: Pistol for general purpose fighting; Plasma Pistol for pairing with the Pistol or a melee; Shotgun for close range; Sniper Rifle for long range; Rockets for killing crowds.
The Assault Rifle, Plasma Rifle, Needler and Flamethrower all get left by the wayside in multiplayer, and even in campaign none of them can really match what the aforementioned weapons can do (aside from the Flamethrower, which isn’t in campaign at all). Even the Scorpion isn’t safe from the Pistol.
Grenades are generally fine.
- Vehicle Control is Very Slippery and UnreliableThe Warthog and Ghost both feel like they’re being driven on ice, and are very easy to flip over if a hill is too steep. There’s also the fact that it’s very easy to be thrown out of these vehicles, as it happens if you’re even slightly over a 90 degree angle. This is demonstrated to its fullest during the final Warthog Run on The Maw.
The Scorpion has a terrible camera angle when driving, forcing you into a slightly overhead angle that makes it difficult to judge where your cannon is pointed. In addition, it cannot move side-to-side, and you must be stationary to shoot beside or behind you, something you should never do in any Halo game.
The weapons on the Scorpion and Ghost are also very unreliable. In addition to the Scorpion’s aforementioned camera angle making it hard to aim the main gun, the machine gun is horribly inaccurate, even at close-range, making it only worthwhile against crowds and other vehicles. The weapons on the Ghost are also very inaccurate, mainly due to both guns firing simultaneously, causing greater projectile deviation.
The Ghost cannot easily splatter enemies, especially Grunts and Jackals, because it rides so high in the air. Even players can just crouch and the Ghost will sail right over their heads.
The Banshee itself has few problems, aside from getting out, which leads to the final point: splatter detection. Touching a vehicle that is even slightly in motion with instantly kill anything other than a Hunter, including players. It is this issue that makes it very difficult to dismount a Banshee, or any moving vehicle for that matter.
Most of this is nitpicking, but the main point is that pretty much all of these issues were resolved in later sequels. Because of all of this, Halo CE’s vehicle combat is some of the worst in the franchise, arguably worse than Halo 5.
- Level Quality Takes a Nosedive Halfway Through the GameEven in 2001 this was a major complaint. The first 3 levels are great, arguably some of the best in the franchise, but after level 4, Assault on the Control Room, which itself has problems with repetitive design and bland visuals, level design takes a noticeable downward turn.
343 Guilty Spark features the famous first plot twist, and the build-up to the reveal of the twist is excellent. However, after the twist, it quickly becomes a confusing maze of a level, with very little guiding the player until they get near the end.
The Library is one of the most disliked levels in the franchise because of its length, bland visuals, annoying enemies and how easy it is to get turned around. It serves a purpose in informing the player of the dangers of the Flood through Guilty Spark’s dialogue, however, it remains a very long slog of a level.
Two Betrayals features the equally famous second plot twist, but the level itself is mostly just Assault on the Control Room in reverse with different enemies, and as such inherits much of AotCR’s repetitive design and visuals.
Keyes is perhaps the least-annoying part of the second half of of the game. Despite it reusing several sections from Truth and Reconciliation, there is enough new material so that it’s not a complete retread. That said, however, the canyons at the beginning of the level can be very annoying due the fact that enemies love jumping down from above, and the cramped alleyways makes it difficult to fight through.
The Maw, much like 343 Guilty Spark, can be confusing to navigate and does not offer much in the way of visual variety. Being caught in a 3-way fight between Covenant, Flood and Sentinels is very interesting, but things go downhill once you reach the engine room. Not only is this area annoying to fight through, with infinitely respawning Flood and swarms of Sentinels, but destroying the reactors can be very finicky unless the players brings a rocket launcher, which must first be obtained from an out-of-the-way armoury.
The final Warthog Run is the perfect demonstration of everything wrong Halo CE’s vehicle controls and physics. The vehicle rolls over very easily, its acceleration is very poor and the steering, again, feels like your driving over ice.
- The Game, in General, Has Not Aged WellMany games are considered masterpieces, but relatively few of these masterpieces have withstood the test of time. Halo: Combat Evolved has not withstood the test of time. Much of it feels outdated, especially with sequels to compare it to. These sequels have not only added more, but they’ve refined and improved a lot on what CE established. These include: better weapon balancing; improved level design for campaign and multiplayer; improved physics and controls; better graphics and overall presentation; better AI; new abilities such as hijacking and stunning vehicles, as well as destructible vehicles.
A good comparison would be the Legend of Zelda franchise. The original Legend of Zelda is regarded as a masterpiece, but it has aged very poorly, with some pretty archaic design choices (you can’t even beat the game until you find an easily-missed item) and a lack of actual direction for the player, which can easily lead to players getting stuck. Meanwhile, later games in the franchise, particularly A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds, have taken what the original game did and improved upon it massively, with revamped combat, exploration and visuals. The Halo franchise has followed a similar path, with each game building upon what Halo CE set up, with various leaps forward and sideways, but very few leaps backward…
In conclusion, Halo: Combat Evolved is not perfect, and it never has been. It has aged very poorly, probably the worst of all the Halo games, and even at launch had some real criticisms directed at it.
Despite all of this thrashing, though, Halo CE is still an excellent game, and remains of the most popular and influential games of all time; without Halo CE we likely wouldn’t have the Shoot/Grenade/Melee combat system that has become standard for pretty much every shooter released afterward. Anybody that likes shooters should play Halo CE, if only to see where modern shooting mechanics got their start.
Pretty much what ^ he said, with the below exceptions.
I don’t agree on level quality necessarily taking a nosedive, just being inconsistent. Pillar of Autumn is boring as hell in my opinion, and Silent Cartographer is the best mission in the game. Guilty Spark has some fantastic elements, but The Library, Two Betrayals, Keyes, and Assault on the Control Room are mostly boring slogs where sometimes you stop yourself to ask “what exactly is my purpose in this mission?”
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> > 2533274807452874;1:
> >
>
> Halo CE is FAR from perfect. The downsides are very noticeable, and sometimes very annoying. I’ll list some of them here:
>
> 1. Weapon Balancing is the Worst in the SeriesIn campaign, every weapon will see some use, especially on lower difficulties. When it comes to multiplayer, however, it’s very clear what weapons matter and what weapons don’t. The Pistol, Plasma Pistol, Shotgun, Sniper Rifle and Rocket Launcher outshine every other weapon in the game in terms of utility: Pistol for general purpose fighting; Plasma Pistol for pairing with the Pistol or a melee; Shotgun for close range; Sniper Rifle for long range; Rockets for killing crowds.
>
> The Assault Rifle, Plasma Rifle, Needler and Flamethrower all get left by the wayside in multiplayer, and even in campaign none of them can really match what the aforementioned weapons can do (aside from the Flamethrower, which isn’t in campaign at all). Even the Scorpion isn’t safe from the Pistol.
>
> Grenades are generally fine.
>
> 2. Vehicle Control is Very Slippery and UnreliableThe Warthog and Ghost both feel like they’re being driven on ice, and are very easy to flip over if a hill is too steep. There’s also the fact that it’s very easy to be thrown out of these vehicles, as it happens if you’re even slightly over a 90 degree angle. This is demonstrated to its fullest during the final Warthog Run on The Maw.
>
> The Scorpion has a terrible camera angle when driving, forcing you into a slightly overhead angle that makes it difficult to judge where your cannon is pointed. In addition, it cannot move side-to-side, and you must be stationary to shoot beside or behind you, something you should never do in any Halo game.
>
> The weapons on the Scorpion and Ghost are also very unreliable. In addition to the Scorpion’s aforementioned camera angle making it hard to aim the main gun, the machine gun is horribly inaccurate, even at close-range, making it only worthwhile against crowds and other vehicles. The weapons on the Ghost are also very inaccurate, mainly due to both guns firing simultaneously, causing greater projectile deviation.
>
> The Ghost cannot easily splatter enemies, especially Grunts and Jackals, because it rides so high in the air. Even players can just crouch and the Ghost will sail right over their heads.
>
> The Banshee itself has few problems, aside from getting out, which leads to the final point: splatter detection. Touching a vehicle that is even slightly in motion with instantly kill anything other than a Hunter, including players. It is this issue that makes it very difficult to dismount a Banshee, or any moving vehicle for that matter.
>
> Most of this is nitpicking, but the main point is that pretty much all of these issues were resolved in later sequels. Because of all of this, Halo CE’s vehicle combat is some of the worst in the franchise, arguably worse than Halo 5.
>
> 3. Level Quality Takes a Nosedive Halfway Through the GameEven in 2001 this was a major complaint. The first 3 levels are great, arguably some of the best in the franchise, but after level 4, Assault on the Control Room, which itself has problems with repetitive design and bland visuals, level design takes a noticeable downward turn.
>
> 343 Guilty Spark features the famous first plot twist, and the build-up to the reveal of the twist is excellent. However, after the twist, it quickly becomes a confusing maze of a level, with very little guiding the player until they get near the end.
>
> The Library is one of the most disliked levels in the franchise because of its length, bland visuals, annoying enemies and how easy it is to get turned around. It serves a purpose in informing the player of the dangers of the Flood through Guilty Spark’s dialogue, however, it remains a very long slog of a level.
>
> Two Betrayals features the equally famous second plot twist, but the level itself is mostly just Assault on the Control Room in reverse with different enemies, and as such inherits much of AotCR’s repetitive design and visuals.
>
> Keyes is perhaps the least-annoying part of the second half of of the game. Despite it reusing several sections from Truth and Reconciliation, there is enough new material so that it’s not a complete retread. That said, however, the canyons at the beginning of the level can be very annoying due the fact that enemies love jumping down from above, and the cramped alleyways makes it difficult to fight through.
>
> The Maw, much like 343 Guilty Spark, can be confusing to navigate and does not offer much in the way of visual variety. Being caught in a 3-way fight between Covenant, Flood and Sentinels is very interesting, but things go downhill once you reach the engine room. Not only is this area annoying to fight through, with infinitely respawning Flood and swarms of Sentinels, but destroying the reactors can be very finicky unless the players brings a rocket launcher, which must first be obtained from an out-of-the-way armoury.
>
> The final Warthog Run is the perfect demonstration of everything wrong Halo CE’s vehicle controls and physics. The vehicle rolls over very easily, its acceleration is very poor and the steering, again, feels like your driving over ice.
>
> 4. The Game, in General, Has Not Aged WellMany games are considered masterpieces, but relatively few of these masterpieces have withstood the test of time. Halo: Combat Evolved has not withstood the test of time. Much of it feels outdated, especially with sequels to compare it to. These sequels have not only added more, but they’ve refined and improved a lot on what CE established. These include: better weapon balancing; improved level design for campaign and multiplayer; improved physics and controls; better graphics and overall presentation; better AI; new abilities such as hijacking and stunning vehicles, as well as destructible vehicles.
>
> A good comparison would be the Legend of Zelda franchise. The original Legend of Zelda is regarded as a masterpiece, but it has aged very poorly, with some pretty archaic design choices (you can’t even beat the game until you find an easily-missed item) and a lack of actual direction for the player, which can easily lead to players getting stuck. Meanwhile, later games in the franchise, particularly A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds, have taken what the original game did and improved upon it massively, with revamped combat, exploration and visuals. The Halo franchise has followed a similar path, with each game building upon what Halo CE set up, with various leaps forward and sideways, but very few leaps backward…
>
> In conclusion, Halo: Combat Evolved is not perfect, and it never has been. It has aged very poorly, probably the worst of all the Halo games, and even at launch had some real criticisms directed at it.
>
> Despite all of this thrashing, though, Halo CE is still an excellent game, and remains of the most popular and influential games of all time; without Halo CE we likely wouldn’t have the Shoot/Grenade/Melee combat system that has become standard for pretty much every shooter released afterward. Anybody that likes shooters should play Halo CE, if only to see where modern shooting mechanics got their start.
One of the fairest criticisms I have seen.
I think the game is excellent despite all its flaws because the pros end up outweighing the cons. Main issue for me is vehicle physics. Would be great if we got a CE remake that used the Havok engine.
It was a great game for it’s time but has aged poorly imo.
Close to, if you ask me. Hands down more than any of the other ones. It revolutionized the genre and brought it to console in the first place. None of the others were even close to making this impact, except maybe halo 2 with xbox live. When remembering or homaging halo, the original 3 are always going to come out first.
Halo CE does an insane amout of things that were completely scrapped afterwards. Ie the idea of semi-open environments with vehicles that contrasted with the previous concept of FPS. It was barely touched afterwards and the one single thing I find interesting from infinite. The repeated environments may recycle the layout, but not the enemies or weapons, which are really the essential pieces of the game, like chess and checkers. Same board, works differently. It also reminds me of older games, “level 2 is like level 1 but harder”. Two Betrayals may seem like assault on the control room backwards, but it plays ENTIRELY different. Heck, even the damn library. A lot of people just keep salivating out loud about flood firefight. Wake up. It was there since 2001. Isn’t the idea of firefight being in a same space, fighting hordes and hordes of enemies that get harder?
This leads me into the next point, which is how CE uses every single element to it’s full potential. It takes everything to the very end. Everything has multiple purposes, unlike more and more nowadays where there exists a multitude of elements with a single or no function at all. Every single weapon is good at something, with a particular specific role, even the flamethrower and rod fuel gun only in the MP. Yet it has the smallest roster in the series. There are only 2 types of grenades, but they can be used to prevent movement, do melee combos or blow stuff to yourself. And I didn’t even mention their actual combat mechanics, which is their only function in the rest of the games. Attacking. Crouching is not just to aim more precisely, but also to avoid enemy melees or fall damage. Enemies are more unique and distinct than each other by comparison. The list goes on and on. It’s not about having 50 buttons each doing something different, it’s about how you can combine those 5, making it 5^5. Simplicity and repurposing are art, and halo 1 absolutely conquered it. It’s really all you need or will realistically interact with, but you can always think outside of the box with the sandbox. Almost all of it is again redundant after CE.
The combat and skill ceiling are far deeper, faster, more precise and skillful than any in the franchise. Easiest to learn and hardest to master. Melees won’t correct or lunge, each weapon works differently with them, next to no magnetism, leading and spread (although not as ridiculous as H3), not being able to air burst grenades, the spawn system, the health, the power ups, the maps, the list goes on. Each difficulty in the campaign feels exactly like it should, and not just changes the damage or health multiplayers, once again it revamps almost all the elements in the map.
The presentation is legendary. The art style holds up even today, even outclassing the remaster at times. Everything depicts what it’s supposed to. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, with entire situations, dialogue or an entire weapon (the needler) only to make you laugh. It’s sort of addorable how easily you can see the influence of half life, aliens, anime or especially the ringworld novel, put together like a dream or a child’s toys in motion. Yet it’s convincing and has this aura of mystery, awe, vastness and eeriness that I never could feel to the same extent in the sequels. Everything, from the menu to animations, has a personality, which could at times fall flat in the rest of the franchise. I have no complaints about it. Even though later games would take individual aspects and better them, they always have a tradeoff. A bad spot, which I don’t find with CE’s. Be it the human architecture, the covenant’s anatomy, the forernner weapons, etc. It submerges you in the world flawlessly. The story may be cliche or bland, but it’s the immersion, the idea that you drive the camera, what makes it so effective and memorable. It doesn’t really need that much of a plot. Similar to how, let’s say, the shining book needs changes for the movie adaptation to work, or you end with the 1997 miniseries. You know the hero wins at the end in most stories. Can you be sure you’ll simply complete the game without dying or getting stuck? I don’t think so if it’s well made. In games, the focus has to be on how the player himself interacts with the environment. And I don’t even need to introduce the indisputable masterpiece from Michael and Marty in terms of sound and music. You can get lost in it’s superior worldbuilding glory, both figuratively and literally.
Like it or not, it’s the reason the franchise was succesful. When I was a kid it was everywere, and I’m amazed by how to this day it’s still LAN’ed in the original console, played like a classic a la mario bros, the first one.
The only actual mistakes I can think of are:
- It was going to be better. There’s this version of it called 1749 marauding in youtube, where a lot of stuff like using the wraith, rocket warthog or flamethrower, even better art style, bigger FOV or starting matches alone appeared but was scrapped in the final version.
- It aged like milk. But I don’t mean the game itself - every port feels like a cheap parody and sadly is what everyone has access to. It can easily appear in those “worst art restorations” video. This is especially enfuriating as the remaster fell flat. Quoting Marty himself “I’ve never complained more about anything that what they did to halo 1”.
- The vehicles are too primitive, killing with a silk touch and some leaving a lot to desire with the controls after the perfection of them when you are on foot.
- The hunters and grunts. One for being stupidly easy if you learn how to kill it and the other because I think it gets annoying real quick. At first the jokes are funny (which kinda defeats the purpose of the marines) but then you just want them to shut up and stop force feeding them to you… and why can they speak like humans? I could buy if it if we knew it was translated by the mark V but we don’t get even a hint. Reach made both like they were supposed to.
- The rocket launcher flood.
But that pales in comparison to what I already listed, and personally is my favorite game ever. I can’t see it being suppased in my list.
I’d say the combat holds up very well, at the end of the day, it’s Halo gameplay. But god, you can just tell the campaign was made in 2000, the level design just doesn’t hold up. And I’m not even talking about that one infamous map (you know which one), I mean most of the maps are just bad. Though some of the campaign missions are just iconic, like “The Maw” and “343 Guilty Spark”. But yeah, other than, it’s still a brilliant game, just sort of lacking in total weapon count.
For how old it is I think it was way ahead of its time and still so good but yeah far from perfect. The very first game I ever saw played on an Xbox and it blew my mind.
The question sets the bar way too high, in a way that calls for more criticism than praise, since respondants will focus on why it is not a perfect game instead of whether it was a great game. As for me, I really enjoy its campaign. People say it’s very repetitive, which if you think about it may be true, but I didn’t really take that as a problem when I played the game for the first time (which I did through the Anniversary version). In fact when I feel nostalgia and desire to play its campaign again, I sometimes think of the Covenant-filled bridges in a snowy environment, which is a quite repetitive part of the game. This may be because of me being an individual who isn’t easily bored. I guess that for people who is easily and quickly bored and need continuous “boredom-breakers”, Halo CE feels unbearable, but since that’s not my problem… I enjoy beating the Covenant bridge after bridge with the amazing soundtrack in the background. It can even be said that certain repetitiveness helps build a “game taste”.
Now, there are people who see the game as terribly flawed and as not stood the test of time at all, like the author of this 2020 review:
The author says that the game “has aged poorly” but some of the reasons he gives to support his opinions don’t seem to be related to its aging but to the game itself: it being “repetitious”, little enemy variety, unremarkable story, Forerunner instalations looking uninteresting… don’t seem that related to aging. He even claims to be “bored. Very, very bored” after the FIRST level… so maybe it just has to do with what I said earlier i.e. people who are easily bored vs people who aren’t easily bored like me.
> 2533274807452874;1:
> If you’re looking for a long form in depth conversation about Halo Combat Evolved and how it stands the test of time look no further. Is Halo Combat Evolved a perfect game?
>
> - YouTube
idk cause truth of reconciliation and keys were extremely repetitive and long lvls, besides that yeah its perfect besides graphics (unrelated)