Now, to destroy everything that Jst said.
You didn't, but (and, G-d, do I hate to be pedantic ...) let's do this line by line.
In a friendly, but candid and fact-filled way.
Firstly, the plotline in Halo sucked. Okay, it didn't SUCK, but it was very...average.
So, define above average AND show me sales numbers that mean above average plotlines somehow drive sales and "average" plotlines don't. The point is: the plot was fine. Besides plot lines don't sell video games to gamers. Blood, shooting, explosions and difficulty obtain all those things usually do. Speaking of plot and story ...
We're writers here, we should know a good story when we see one, and Halo's story? Not. Awesome.
We should? If we did, we'd all be reaping the benefits of being editors, agents or writing the next great novel. That's a fallacy my friend. By coming to this board, in many ways, you're saying you're LEARNING to be a writer. Greatness is usually foisted by great sales, great marketing and when great people think you're stuff is great. Beyond that, you hope for the best. I disgres ...
That YOU didn't like the story does not a tear down make. I'll again point to the ultimate scoreboard: sales. All those people liked the story enough to pay 49 bucks for the game. Halo also sells oodles of behind-the-scenes art books, novel spin offs and more. To me, that's more than awesome. That's a new car, new house and family vacation filled with royalties awesome. I'm fairly confident Bungee didn't intend to write "Memento" or "Usual Suspects" but Halo's story was good enough that people are buying the collateral products by the thousands.
How specifically is that bad story or plot? That's it's been done before? EVERYTHING has been done before!
Or are you wanting to discuss plot points, story arcs, and so on? I don't *think* you are. My point really: art (and I'm using that term loosely) usually inspires more art, challenges or blah blah blah. You get the idea. There's plenty of fan fiction and fan illustration out there for Halo. So, I'd have to go with the notion that the story and plot are fine.
The set up is a tired one that we've heard a zillion times before: Evil aliens are attacking Earth and we can't stop them except for a few super heroes in awesome power armor. It is competently handled in the first game, but it is not going to light the world on fire.
And yet, with wallets in hand, "we" fall for it. Independence Day (film) - $811 million (imdb); The War of the Worlds (film, Cruise-Speilberg) - $591 million; Transformers (film) - $700 million. And when Peter Jackson directing Halo: The Movie comes out? Puh-leeze. Again, you're providing personal anecdotal examples that fail to support the numbers, the overall reviews and the majority opinion. If you want to dissent, I'm all for it. Just bring more juice than this -- numbers, specific exmaples of artistic suckdom and why, and maybe a review link or two that supports your opinion.
The gameplay? Fairly standard shooter fare. Yeah, the guns are kinda neat, but I had already played a game by this point that had a gun that fired worms that burrowed into people's skulls and ate their BRAINS.
And I agree with you here. But the gameplay is one element of the entire piece. You can pull facets off the Hope Diamond and expect the same sort of beauty. Not that I'm comparing the Hope Diamond to Halo. I'm not. But it's an apt analogy. Again, I agree -- it's a a shooter at it's core. Let's press on.
Sure, the vehicles were neat, but ahem, Tribes 2 anyone? That game had BETTER, more CREATIVE vehicles and it HAD THEM FIRST! Also the power armor in Tribes was cooler. They had jetpacks!
Again, I should just link to something that shows Halo sales figures here and in every example, that shows dollars, number of people who bought the game, number of people constantly online playing and so on. Tribes WAS cool. Tribes 2 tried too hard and failed. But both were niché. And didn't sell well. And couldn't get an audience big enough to sustain it. And Tribes died the same death as many great games that could have been WAY better (I mention Hyperblade as a personal favorite here ...
sigh) Halo is just better than almost any game you're going to mention because it was managed, marketed and nurtured better than your games. Sorry. That's just the way it is. But I do miss Tribes. And Hyperblade.
The first game was entertaining, but I'll never replay it. The second game was just entirely meh. The third game was made of fail. Halo Wars is a dumbed down, bastardized RTS (And consoles already HAVE a good RTS, its called Red Alert 3...and that one is actually GOOD and creative and original!)
This graf says what almost EVERY SINGLE REVIEW I've ever read about Halo says. Congrats. You are of the hive mind.
But, again, scoreboard to Halo. The game is so immensely popular AND good that the company went on to make three sequels and dozens of spinoffs. I'd bet there's Halo cookware and a Play-Doh set somewhere in our future.
Children dying of cancer? Homeless residents of New Orleans who still have nowhere to live? People who cannot feed themselves every night? I'm guessing that's not what you have coming next ...
Halo was originally going to be a tactical shooter, a la Ghost Recon or Rambo Six, set in space.
And Tom Selleck was originally slated to play Indiana Jones. So what? Coulda/Woulda/Shoulda/Didn't. Scoreboard; Halo AGAIN. As Eddie Izzard once said, "Leonardo Da Vinci once made a helicopter that NEVER worked ... and so did I!"
And it was going to be on the PC.
Mmm, no. Originally, it was going to be on Mac. Only Mac. And that what really started the fervor -- the cult of Mac getting the biggest, baddest new game on the block. With the Mac zealots starting the crazy wave, that tsunami barrelled the rest of the way into the marketing effort.
Rather than playing an overdone genetically engineered space marine (scoff) you were a squad leader commanding normal infantry in a futuristic war against the Covenant. But then Microsoft bought out Bungee and I think the gaming community has been the poorer for it.
Really? How many people have been inspired by Halo? How many people will want to emulate that success? There are dozens of AUTHORS and ILLUSTRATORS who have jobs because of the success of Halo. The "gaming community," which is about as organized and loyal as a band of thieves, is about (and I'll just spitball here) 85 percent Halo players. You almost HAVE to have some form of Halo in your collection to be considered a gamer. Otherwise, you get a big WTF from gamer comrades.
Let me footstomp the "number of jobs created by Halo for authors and illustrators" thing. Admittedly, it's not THAT many, but the jobs were created because the game became immensely successful. Never look a gift horse in the mouth when it comes time to enter the creative world or getting OUT of the unemployment line.
To close this point, there seems to be a large, fanatical following of people who like overdone genetically engineered space marines. That's because, as a rule, plenty of people like big, strong, quiet heroes. It's an archetype. The Dark Knight. Maximus from Gladiator. Rambo. Patrick Swayze from Roadhouse. On and on from there.
My dream, though, is that Microsoft will let Bungee take some of the money they made and let them make a revamp of Pathways Into Darkness. Now THAT was an awesome FPS with amazing plot, gameplay, and action!
But who's heard of it? And would it make MS money? Would it make MS
Halo money? If Hollywood has taught video games anything (and Clockwork will tell you that the two industries are VERY similarly connected and run), it's that your ride a horse until it drops dead, the carcass rots and the bones are ground to dust by age (a la Friday the 13th sequels, Rambo sequels, letting M. Night Shamalamadingdong keep making movies). So, I share your enthusiasm about wanting dead titles resurrected and redone (Hyperblade! Several squad mercenary type games and more), expect that that won't happen because a sleeping on a King-sized mattress filled with consumer money is comfortable and difficult to refill.
So, really, I don't hate Halo for sucking. I hate it for doing so well...while being so little.
Aw, you almost came clean with your intentions here.
Nice try. And while I am, too, an idealogue about playing games that are rich with plot, well acted and have all the dimensions to make a great video game experience, Halo has all that. It was also a multiplayer breakthrough in some ways. And I'm not a Halo apologist. I rarely play. Rather, I just offer to you to look at facts + anecdotal and realize that, while sometimes video games can be art, at other times, they can be art and commercial success. It's rare, but it happens.
