Halo Halo 2: Follow-Up

[ShockBolt21]

I had recently posted a thread challenging the alleged greatness of Halo 2. The purpose of that thread was to seek the opinions of those more experienced with the game than myself. I figured they could answer my inquiries regarding why the game is held to such a high standard. Through discussion, I was able to facilitate a decent understanding of the competitive elements of Halo 2. That is, until a certain staff member so rudely insulted me and destroyed my thread.

I do now understand what makes Halo 2 so different from Halo 4, and how strategic thinking is present in the older games and where it is lacking in 4. To those of you who put their time into writing the lengthy explanations that helped me arrive at this conclusion, I'd like you to note my appreciation.

I did, however, want to note a few things. Halo 2 is not a perfectly balanced game. The grenades are terribly overpowered. The sniper rifle too, in my opinion, is too potent. I'm also not a big fan of the maps brought into the game. Though I did like Shrine and the turbine map, I found Warlord to be too small. The long and awkwardly arranged corridors of Lockdown did not make for good engagements either.

Note that these are just my opinions. I'm not trying to start another war- hopefully we can all agree on some of these points- but I'd be glad to hear your thoughts or objections.

 

[Psychoduck]

First of all, opening another thread to continue a conversation from one which was locked is not the best idea. However, it shouldn't be a problem as long as anyone who joins in this conversation this time around remains civil. I must state my disappointment in your taking Auburn's post as an insult. Your thread was destroyed by ignorance contained within the original post and immaturity on the part of several members to follow. It was not destroyed by Auburn, it was locked and with good reason. If you find your lack of understanding about the sandboxes and mechanics of Halo games being called what it is to be insulting, then I am sorry.

Regarding your updated assessment of Halo 2, it appears to be based upon a false assumption: that Halo 2 played like halo 2 Anniversary. I arrive at this conclusion by your use of the H2A map names rather than the original names, I could be mistaken of course. H2A fails to mimic H2's gameplay in many situations. Chief among these are the amount of damage dealt to vehicles by weapons like the rocket launcher and plasma grenades, crouch behavior, and damage output across several weapons. So, basing an assessment of Halo 2 upon H2A will result in several fairly major inaccuracies. Still, to say that Halo 2 was not a perfectly balanced game is perfectly accurate. Halo 2 was, however, far more balanced than Halo: Reach or Halo 4. Still, the balance present in Halo 2 and Halo 3 is not what sets their core gameplay above that of Reach and H4. It is the game mechanics. Much of this was explained thoroughly in your previous thread. The core of what made these games work was twofold. First was their foundation on risk vs reward, forcing players to make deliberate choices in a competitive environment, making gameplay revolve around map and weapon control and even starts, etc. Second is player movement. Prior to Reach, every movement option was also a combat option. A player's weapon was always raised while moving, jumping, etc. This allowed all encounters to be mobile ones. This has always been something which has separated Halo from other games. You'll notice this when you watch someone used to playing other modern shooters pick up Halo. The skill of shooting while moving and all of its implications is underdeveloped in most other games. Anyways, much of this has already been covered as I said.

Regarding your assessment on the maps, I am inclined to agree on Warlock. Warlock is too small for 4v4 games and this results in horrific spawning in game. Warlock, and Wizard before it, was intended for chaotic multi team games. While it can function somewhat well in two-team competitive play, I found its inclusion in H2A's map roster to be a rather poorly informed decision. The bridges on Lockout are indeed awkward to fight on, and this is an intended part of its design. The bridges are intended to be very risky to cross, and players caught on them without support from their team controlling key areas on the map are meant to be punished. This is but one example of nuanced design present in halo 2's maps which is so lacking in more recent maps in the series. With that said, Lockout does become rather campy in Slayer games due to the dichotomy between sniper tower and BR tower. In that regard, of course it isn't a perfect map.

 

[ShockBolt21]

First of all, opening another thread to continue a conversation from one which was locked is not the best idea...If you find your lack of understanding about the sandboxes and mechanics of Halo games being called what it is to be insulting, then I am sorry.

Well I certainly didn't find his post very uplifting. Perhaps something like "ignorance" would've done better than "stupidity". I understand that my opinion was misguided- hell, that's why I opened that thread. I was hoping that someone could explain to me why I was wrong, why Halo 2 is what it is. And they did explain it, and we discussed it, and now I understand. As a result, I found that to be very productive and I don't know why he felt the need to lock it (Schnitzel's unnecessary flaming? It damn sure wasn't my fault).

I had made it clear above that I'm not trying to stir up any more heat. I learned my lesson, and I trust the others did as well. I posted this follow-up simply to clear the air. I wasn't satisfied with how the other ended (I didn't exactly earn any of your respect) and I found it necessary to clarify my original purpose and to leave a few final points. I also wanted you guys to know that I did come to an understanding, and therefore it is not even necessary to continue the conversation.

Yes I did assume that 2 Anniversary plays the same as the original, as that 343 dude said it would during the game's unveiling. I wasn't aware that it didn't. That could answer a few questions.

 

[Psychoduck]

I understand that you're not trying to stir anything up, I was speaking generally when I stated that attempting to get around a thread being locked wasn't a good idea. I appreciate your desire to clear the air. Regarding Auburn's post, the comment about the argument being fueled by stupidity was a blanket statement, referring to the general state of the argument. Aub wasn't calling you stupid. He's a nice guy, believe me. As for the original thread being locked, it was clear that it was out of control. The decision to lock was the right one.

H2A certainly does a pretty good job of mimicking Halo 2, but definitely slips up in several instances. I'm not sure which of these instances were intentional and which weren't, but many were quite misinformed. On the whole, I would say that Halo 2 was balanced quite a bit better than H2A, particularly in regards to vehicles. But, as I said above, the balance isn't perfect in Halo 2 either.