I’m sure this has been posted before, but after just rewatching the Halo fest footage, I felt the need to post about his.
Though I’m generally happy with the graphics reworking of the levels we’ve seen in CEA, I have to say Im very displeased with the aesthetic design of the outdoor portion of the level 343 Guilty Spark. Yes it is gorgeous and they have improved the navigation of the level, but why does the whole outdoor section just reek of some sort of obnoxious bio luminosity? It’s supposed to be a dark, moody, creepy swamp, but yet we have is the total opposite of that. Even the brief glimpse of the level in the E3 trailer looked, atmosphere-wise, MUCH better than what was shown at Halo Fest.
Saber has done a fine job at making the game look great on a technical level, but in terms of atmosphere and the game’s art style, I feel they’ve missed the mark on this level. Anyone feel me?
The level would have looked bland by today’s standards and a complete waste of the graphical engine’s capability with the fog.
Not to mention that adding fog wouldn’t make it scary in the slightest. Not today, at least.
Navigating was always hard on that mission, I’m personally glad its a bit lighter and I do understand that it takes away the spooky feel but what do you want, style or practicality?
I agree. What they’re relying on there to improve navigation is contrast anyway. If they darkened the lights and then allowed for the rest of the map to go even darker, even near pitch black, that would be fine.
The fog was originally there to hide a lot of thing Bungie wasn’t proud of at the time. 343 wanted to show off the new graphics, and make it look like an alien swamp.
> The fog was originally there to hide a lot of thing Bungie wasn’t proud of at the time. 343 wanted to show off the new graphics, and make it look like an alien swamp.
That’s actually not true. Bungie purposely put the fog there in order to create atmosphere. As for the difficult navigation, the level was designed to be disorienting. You were supposed to get lost.
> That’s actually not true. Bungie purposely put the fog there in order to create atmosphere. As for the difficult navigation, the level was designed to be disorienting. You were supposed to get lost.
No they said that they put the fog in there to hide the things they couldn’t put there because of time restraints on the Bungie Panel.
> That’s actually not true. Bungie purposely put the fog there in order to create atmosphere. As for the difficult navigation, the level was designed to be disorienting. You were supposed to get lost.
Actually it was to cover up an underdetailed terrain. Plus Halo1’s engine didn’t have a very long draw distance for all that (at the time) pretty damn detailed swamp. If there weren’t a fog you’d see the horizon cut into existence as you approached it.
I’m actually not even requesting fog return (though I wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to the idea either). But what I’m trying to say is that even though there are a couple of lightsources scattered throughout the outdoor section, the entire level just looks like up like it’s awkwardly illuminated by some sort of global lightsource.
Trust me, i think it looks beautiful, but atmospheric it is not. And this is a level where atmosphere matters, so I don’t really want to be walking through a florescent bright green and blue swamp that looks like the glowing neon forests from Avatar.
Like I said, in the brief clip of the E3 trailer I thought it was looking good. The level, though despite being brightened up and having a more saturated look, still looked dark and brooding as it should. But based on what we’ve seen from Halo Fest, I just don’t like the artistic direction they’ve been taking at all.