So, I went back and tried Halo 3. (Long-ish)

Games Other Halo
1

Now, I was never a big fan of Halo 3. I wasn’t as good at first person shooters back when the game was newer, and for the most part the people I played with when I played it were not very encouraging: the term “elitist” comes to mind when trying to politely describe the attitude of the Halo community as I found it. I didn’t like the controls (especially compared to the default layout in Reach and 4, which I love) and while I liked the aesthetic and the setting, the games themselves didn’t appeal to me much because I’ve always been more of an RPG guy, and considered strategy to be more of my strong suit than twitch reflexes and aiming precision.

Well, when I played Reach I fell in love with the game. The same happened when I played Halo 4, and I enjoyed ODST for the characters and because I’ve always loved the ODST aesthetic and the idea of playing someone other than Master Chief. So obviously, when a lot of people complained that Reach and 3 were “killing” Halo and that 3 was so much better I thought it was absurd, and disregarded these opinions as mostly coming from the insane.

Earlier today out of curiosity and a strange incident of luck allowing a copy to come into my possession, I decided to play Halo 3 again. A part of me wanted to just see how different it felt, while another wanted to find whatever it was the people worshipping the game found and experience the same thing.

I’m here to say I didn’t find it. While Halo 3 is not a /bad/ game, I’m in no way convinced to agree with anyone’s idea that it is a /better/ game than the newer titles. I’m not going to complain about graphics: the game is several years older and was definitely fine for a game of its time. However, a number of qualities that really don’t have the same excuse came to me which made the experience, while not entirely unpleasant, inferior to the one I have with Halo 4 now.

First of all, the gameplay itself feels… I don’t want to say “sterile”, but more “stagnant”. One enemy differs little from the next, and even with people of significant skill (those in the 30’s and upward, compared to my relatively meager 7 at the time of writing this) I felt like I was doing the same thing, to the same person, over and over again. Halo 4’s AA’s make a change in this for me, where one person might be able to quickly dash away from me, another might just decide to take to the skies, or another might simply disappear and leave me scratching my head when I turn a corner and can’t figure out where he’s cloaked himself.

Additionally, the weapon selection while playing Halo 3 felt simpler: the smaller selection, while perhaps easier to grasp right away, was fairly boring and most options didn’t feel all that viable or exciting to get ahold of. Additionally, the control on the weapons felt almost TOO clean, as though the game was doing nothing to make the experience any harder for me: targets move slowly with only one movement speed to account for, my guns neither jump nor require me to pace myself depending on range or how spastic my enemy might be, and I generally just felt the same simple, but boring experience the enemies themselves gave me.

While the maps certainly felt better in their design in some ways (many of the smaller maps, while sometimes feeling TOO small, were very well designed), the issue in this scenario was more the fact that the environment felt empty, overly quiet and without any sense of urgency or tension, which is conveyed fairly well in most Halo 4 matches. I felt like I was taking a leisurely stroll in a quiet, lonely place throughout half of the game in some matches, even with a full playlist given my single movement speed and an inconvenient respawn putting me a ways off from the enemy engagements, and many times I felt less like I was in the middle of a firefight and more like one of the Spartans sitting around on duty, waiting in case someone hostile happened by.

Another odd quality about playing in Halo 3 was the difficulty; even against higher-ranked players I found myself frequently feeling like the game was much too easy. Compared to Halo 4, I did much better overall and won more matches with a higher K/D than average for me, and the basic formula behind it, being pretty much the same thing every time, became much easier to grasp, allowing me to do better than I do in the newer games. This wasn’t so much a plus to me however given how when I did lose to other players, it didn’t feel so much like it was the result of me not being aware, not thinking ahead or being outmatched so much as poor luck and people relying on a sniper rifle, shield drain or similar situations.

I dunno. Maybe I’m crazy, but I really just don’t see it.

2

You’ve obviously never played it at a higher level. Games can have an incredibly fast pace, making very intense games. The fact that theirs no randomness (besides BR spread) makes it a cleaner more flowing. You don’t get killed by some random power weapon, because the weapons are set to the map. And like you said, the maps are better, way better.

3

> You’ve obviously never played it at a higher level. Games can have an incredibly fast pace, making very intense games.

I got this game one from Halo 4, and more often than not in both it and Reach. I’m not entirely sure how having to play at higher levels as a requirement for intensity is a good thing.

> The fact that theirs no randomness (besides BR spread) makes it a cleaner more flowing.

I remind youof the stagnant word I used above. It feels all too samey and regular, and since everyone knows after one or two matches in a given level where most of everything is, the match largely becomes the same thing nomatter what. I don’t see how that’s “cleaner”.

> You don’t get killed by some random power weapon, because the weapons are set to the map. And like you said, the maps are better, way better.

I do tend to get killed by some power weapon like the shotty/sniper/rocket far more than anything else, however, and the game seems to centralize more on those than using other weapons. Doesn’t seem like a smart gameplay decision and from the fact that no other game really utilized it to such extent as Halo did, I don’t think my opinion is the minority out there.

The maps are generally better, except for the fact that some were almost smothering in how small they were.

4

I tried the same experiment you did. I actually like both games in different ways. Halo 3 seems more ‘relaxed’ and not so serious to me. Sometimes I’m more in the mood for that - it’s fun and I like the longer engagements with the bouncy, almost cartoony game play. Finding a great weapon on map (i.e., snipe and rockets) leads to some great times and I can understand the appeal of it. I’ve started to play it regularly simply because I find it relaxing. This extends to the campaign, where your enemies have a sense of humor - grunts are hilarious and it breaks up the seriousness of the game. H4 doesn’t seem to have a sense of humor. But when I really want some violence and amazing sound/visuals, I go to H4.

What’s also funny to me after having gone back to H3 for a bit is that people complain that they’ve made Halo 4 more for casual players (rewards for everything, load outs, weapons drops, etc.) To me it feels just the opposite. Halo 4 is much more complex, loud, violent, fast, and deadly than H3. It’s not friendly to new players - I talked several friends into buying it and not one has stuck with multiplayer because it’s so noob unfriendly.

Likewise, many of the other complaints about H4 I don’t really understand having played H3 - take weapons drops for example. OK, so you get rewarded for in-game play and some weapons drop (discourages camping, which is good for K/D but is time consuming and inefficient, and therefore not rewarded as much w/ weapons drops). Well, weapons are laying ALL OVER the place in H3. As a practical matter I don’t see loadouts/drops/etc. making much of a difference in game play, simply because there are SO many weapons laying around everywhere in H3. OK, so now I start w/ a good weapon rather than memorizing where they are on the map and walking over there for them. And I don’t really even have to memorize them because there are so freaking many of them everywhere. And not being able to sprint? Man, it seems ludicrous that a futuristic warrior can’t pick up the pace to get around the corner even when someone w/ a rocket launcher is coming for them. Bungie even had sprinting back in Marathon! The idea that Halo wouldn’t evolve just doesn’t make sense to me. If H3 was your game, play away! But why keep buying the same game over and over again. I hope H5 is different than H4, because I already have H4!

In any case, I “get” why people like H3, it has a great feel/charm to it and I’ll continue to play them both, as they fit different moods, but I don’t need the same game twice (assuming they don’t nuke Live support for it). What would be great is if they continue to update these games graphically and continue Live support, so people can always play them and each can be appreciated for what it was - a monument in the pantheon of gaming.