User:Shady Joe
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Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
The original 'Criticisms of Halo 2' article has been saved in my profile in case I may be allowed to post it again myself. Remember I do not hate Halo 2, but I feel that this article deserves to be saved. Also, it would be a waste of the original author's work.
This article was created by User:NLUT.
While Halo 2 has won many awards and raked in colossal profits, debate has risen over the merits of such success, especially when faced with comparisons to the immense impact on the console market that the first Halo had. Many gamers even credit Halo CE with single-handedly propping up the Microsoft Xbox's image and sales through its first generation of games. Below are some of the grievances that some gamers have had with the game.
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[edit] Criticism of Halo 2
Some players dispute whether Halo 2 is a good game at all. A large chunk of this group consists of disgruntled Halo fans who feel that certain changes have made the game unbalanced, mainly in multiplayer gameplay. Several argumentative complaints have been registered by members of this movement:
- The lack of mid-to-long range weapons in the game.
- The Sub-machine gun starting weapon which some claimed was imbalanced and underpowered, leaving the outcome of the game determined by a combination of luck and who can get to more dominating weapons first.
- Increased "autoaim", "stickyaim", and "magnetism", which some claim levelled the playing field between the professional and the casual players. Magnetism guides the aiming reticule towards an enemy character, while the autoaim allows hits to be registered over a wider area around the target.
- Toned down pistol. In Halo, the M6D pistol was an extremely powerful sidearm that, if aimed precisely, killed any shielded enemy with three shots to the head. This made it one of, if not the best multiplayer weapon and the main weapon used by many experienced Halo players. In Halo 2, however, the pistol lost a considerable amount of power, making it a support weapon of dubious functionality.
- Addition of the plasma sword, a one-hit-kill mêlée weapon with a lock-on feature, considered by many players to be overpowered.
- A narrower field of view of 70 degrees.
- Minor gameplay differences when compared with Halo CE which deleted or changed more subtle aspects of skill that originally steepened the learning curve (deletion of fall damage, inclusion of vehicle lock-on feature for rocket launchers, shorter fuse times for grenades, decreased blast radius, massive plasma grenade damage, underpowered melee attacks, reworked network code which leads to massive host advantage, change of weapon respawn system so that the more powerful weapons won't respawn if someone has them, etc.)
- A cliffhanger ending.
It should be noted that many of these gripes all concern intricate game balances regarding competitive gaming, and almost exclusively focus on the interests of competitive gamers.
[edit] Matchmaking
A number of players take issue with Xbox Live Matchmaking. One frequent complaint involves the default weapon settings used in multiplayer gametypes, situations where the player starts off with the relatively underpowered and inaccurate SubMachine Gun. These players feel that a starting weapon such as the Battle Rifle would make much more sense in the competitive environment of matchmaking, allowing for a greater emphasis on aim and strafing techniques. Others feel that the Battle Rifle is an annoying weapon and isn't nearly as much as "fun" as the traditional SMG. Bungie has since responded to these demands by including the Battle Rifle as a default weapon in several playlist scenarios.
Many members of the Major League Gaming league share similar gripes. Fans of the strict policies and gametypes endorsed by MLG routinely posted on the Bungie.net forums arguing for these to be included in matchmaking, often proposing the compromise of an MLG-style playlist. These complaints escalated until Bungie.net moderators eventually banned all talk of MLG related proposals. Now Bungie has added Team Hardcore playlist to enact several of the key MLG ideas into matchmaking.
There are many issues with lag as well. Due to the fact that there are no regional hosts, lag can get very excessive if someone of another country plays in the same game with someone from a different country. Regional hosts are when a host if from a specific country visibly seen in normal online games. This reduces lag times because the players are closer together, less distance for data to travel.
[edit] Technical
Conflicts also arose because of Bungie's Halo 2 game engine. This engine uses an "on the fly" rendering technique in an attempt to create a game without load times. The downside is that the full resolution version of most textures are loaded as needed on-screen, which means that often times when loading new levels or characters, there are a couple of frames with lower resolution textures. Although this side-effect is not common during the single player campaign or the multiplayer scenarios, it is very common in the cutscenes used to separate levels and level segments. A few wish that such implementation was optional and would rather sit through loadscreens in exchange for a more consistent cinematic presentation.
[edit] Offline Multiplayer
Another area that is criticised is the lack of computer controlled enemies (also known as bots) in multiplayer. While Halo 2's main attraction was its online multiplayer component, it's failure to improve over the original Halo in regards to players who do not have Xbox Live is sometimes pointed out as being negligent. The omission of bots is also strange in that the AI in the singleplayer section of the game is fairly intelligent and dynamic, and could possibly have been transferred to multiplayer with a reasonable amount of ease. However, early rumours in Halo 2's development as to the inclusion of bots were firmly rebutted by Bungie.
Many online players of Halo 2 suggest that bots would be a waste of development time for the game, although for the offline community it is another example of them being overlooked in favour of online multiplayer. Halo 2 certainly shines in this area, but for a game aiming to push the limits of the console FPS, the absence of bots is fairly odd, given that they are present in earlier console games such as Timesplitters 2, XIII, Perfect Dark, and even The World Is Not Enough.
[edit] Story
Other disputes concern the creative liberties taken with the story. Several fans felt that the game's plot was too different from what the previews suggested. They felt that the struggle to defend Earth should have been the centerpiece of the story rather than a preface to the reiteration of the first game's storyline. This was most likely due to Bungie's policy against the divulsion of spoilers prior to the game's release, a move reflected in Halo's advertising.
More controversy was generated by the game's abrupt cliffhanger ending. Many players (and some reviewers [1]) were dissatisfied with the apparent lack of climax and some claimed that Microsoft forced Bungie to cut the last level. However, according to the Collector's Edition supplemental DVD, Bungie's decision to resort to a cliffhanger ending was necessitated by "time constraints". After being given almost three years to finish the project, with numerous and competent staff, this was seen as a rather dubious excuse, and the outcome was less than satisfactory for many.
Players also lamented the demystification of the Covenant enemies. In Halo 2 Bungie decided to further humanize the alien enemies; aliens suddenly spoke English, due to the Master Chief's "Covenant translator" built into his new armor (the Covenant actually spoke backwards English in the original Halo). Also included were cutscenes that shed light on their socialization, inevitably compromising the Covenant's menacing appearance. Further, the decision to include a playable Covenant character, The Arbiter, proved a risky move that was not universally supported. Jokingly referred to as an example of the Metal Gear Solid 2 syndrome, it shifted focus away from the franchise's main character, Master Chief.
[edit] Cuts
Due to the E3 2003 Demo supposedly taking 7 months to complete, the team at Bungie had to cut numerous game play and story elements in order to meet the time constraints. The list below isn't 100% confirmed, but many of the elements have been by such things as videos and commentary on the Limited Edition special DVD.
01. Three to four-hit melee combo strings in campaign and multiplayer.
02. The four-wheel ATV, or "Mongoose". Initially weapon-mounted.
03. The human assault hovercraft, or "Kestrel" flying vehicle Banshee equivalent in campaign and multiplayer.
04. Damage to vehicles effecting how they drive/function (boosting, barrel-rolling, wingless Banshee)
05. The reliable and effective versions of the Needlers.
06. The single SMG that could kill without aid of grenades/melee attacks.
07. ODSTs having more advanced AI/behavior/tactics than Marines.
08. Giant, plasma-throwing Covenant artillery installations. .
09. Human bomber jets (Longbows) being seen actively in campaign.
10. The "Juggernaught" flood-giant form, which is bigger than a Hunter.
11. The "Drinol," a giant, ogre-like Covenant alien similar to the Rancor.
12. The Covenant sniper alien.
13. The "Blind wolf," a brute-mounted walking creature.
14. The Covenant "Engineer".
15. Grunts without their masks were actively seen in campaign.
16. The Flamethrower for campaign and multiplayer.
17. Jungle and Arctic variants of the Warthog.
18. Plasma swords that looked more realistic.
19. Black Elites that emerged from fallen drop-pods on Earth level.
20. The great, last battle meant to be all across earth and in space.
21. Covenant AI that knew formations, like Jackals in defensive lining.
22. The original models for the Battle Rifle and SMG.
23. The original effective version of the Plasma Pistol.
24. Balance between the UNSC weapons and Covenant weapons.
25. Balance between the Elite model and Spartan Model.
26. The effective version of the Plasma Rifle, even single-wielded.
27. Fuel Rod Gun being in multiplayer as an effective Rocket equivalent.
28. The reliable version of the Warthog that doesn't explode after one or two frag grenades.
29. Vehicle's that didn't burst into flames just because the pilot was killed.
30. Lighter auto-aim on the Battle-Rifle, reducing the ease at which the player could kill with it.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] Sources
- The Halo 2: Collector's Edition Bonus DVD
