Halo. I’ve been hearing about how cool and just good the games are. How deep and interesting the lore is.
I was visiting old games I heard good things about but never played. I had finished with the Half Life games and enjoyed them.
Then I decided to get the Master Chief Collection.
Started with Reach. Shooting immediately felt bad. The characters started dying off almost immediately after meeting them. Then the game was finished.
That was… Disappointing.
Well alright. Maybe Reach is a black sheep.
Onto Halo CE. Shooting felt even worse. The open areas were pretty cool, but there were a lot of small frustrations with the game. Story wasn’t anything special. Certainly none of that “deep lore”.
Well… Halo 2 then? Felt a lot like Halo 1. More story, yes, but it was as if the game assumed I was already invested in the story. About two thirds in I realised I was still waiting for Halo to finally become cool or good.
Could the people telling you that have possibly been talking about the books? There’s >20 books telling various storylines from the franchise and they go way deeper than the games.
I will agree that the games are pretty sparse for storytelling. They tend to go more “show, don’t tell”. The problem with that is that the lore of Halo needs to be told and can’t really be shown
Yes, often books and movies are brought up when it comes to Halo, but I don’t see the point at all. I have been shown a few “cool” or “epic” clips from the movies by Halo fans but… they looked pretty bad.
When I get interested in getting into the weeds of some lore, it’s because the main-line (be it movies, or games) has made me interested to learn more. Halo never made me interested. Stuff just happened in cool alien environments, and it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve played a shooter with little story in cool alien environments (even from the era Halo is from… probably especially in the era Halo is from).
I think I was able to deep dive into the series’ lore because I started with Halo 3, and because I was a teenager at the time. I eventually went back to play CE and 2 and they… are certainly products of their time
Halo. I’ve been hearing about how cool and just good the games are. How deep and interesting the lore is.
I was visiting old games I heard good things about but never played. I had finished with the Half Life games and enjoyed them.
Then I decided to get the Master Chief Collection.
Started with Reach. Shooting immediately felt bad. The characters started dying off almost immediately after meeting them. Then the game was finished.
That was… Disappointing.
Well alright. Maybe Reach is a black sheep.
Onto Halo CE. Shooting felt even worse. The open areas were pretty cool, but there were a lot of small frustrations with the game. Story wasn’t anything special. Certainly none of that “deep lore”.
Well… Halo 2 then? Felt a lot like Halo 1. More story, yes, but it was as if the game assumed I was already invested in the story. About two thirds in I realised I was still waiting for Halo to finally become cool or good.
I stopped playing.
Decided Halo as a whole is very overrated.
damn, should have started in order of release instead of jumping straight into reach. love halo
I highly doubt that would’ve changed anything.
I had the same experience.
I kept comparing it with the absolute masterpiece that is Half-Life and it felt boring.
The story doesn’t pull you, no characters are memorable, in some areas I felt like I was cleaning the exact same room over and over.
Even compared to something like Doom II, which lacks any real story and is all about playability and fun, it felt lacking.
I guess it’s just not for me.
Could the people telling you that have possibly been talking about the books? There’s >20 books telling various storylines from the franchise and they go way deeper than the games.
I will agree that the games are pretty sparse for storytelling. They tend to go more “show, don’t tell”. The problem with that is that the lore of Halo needs to be told and can’t really be shown
Yes, often books and movies are brought up when it comes to Halo, but I don’t see the point at all. I have been shown a few “cool” or “epic” clips from the movies by Halo fans but… they looked pretty bad.
When I get interested in getting into the weeds of some lore, it’s because the main-line (be it movies, or games) has made me interested to learn more. Halo never made me interested. Stuff just happened in cool alien environments, and it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve played a shooter with little story in cool alien environments (even from the era Halo is from… probably especially in the era Halo is from).
Fair.
I think I was able to deep dive into the series’ lore because I started with Halo 3, and because I was a teenager at the time. I eventually went back to play CE and 2 and they… are certainly products of their time