H1 vs. H2 vs. H3: My Review of the Halo Trilogy
Submitted by D15AV0W3D on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 11:12am.
Halo has it's own culture. It has been likened to Star Wars for it's cult-like following, and market penetration. Whether you've been playing it since the first installment, or got swept up somewhere along the way w/ Halo 2, you can agree it's one of the greatest games ever made.
But which one? All 3 have similarities, and although they have the same name, they are 3 very different games, each with it's own nuances and nuisances alike.
Pre-H3, everyone seemed divided. H1 or H2. The early adopters of Halo seemed to favor H1 heavily after being subjected to H2's dual-wielding, turned up auto-aim, and the infiltration of cheaters and screaming, pre-pubescent online players who ruined the experience for everyone.
H2 fans enjoyed the ease of multiplayer gaming over Xbox Live, as opposed to local LANs on H1, or the cumbersome (and unsupported) interface of Xbox Connect. Anyone w/ their mom's credit card could connect to XBL, but LANs and XBC required more work, and more knowledge.
When comparing H1 and H2, the campaigns do not even need to be mentioned. If you've never played H1's campaign, then you don't know what you're missing, and you'll be satisfied w/ the campaign on H2. If, however, you have played H1's stellar campaign, well, 'nuff said. Just mark that up as the biggest reason to prefer H1 over H2.
Enter H3, the end of the trilogy, and Bungie's triumphant redemption to the lackluster campaign on H2. Enter more user-customization than ever before. Map Forge, Theatre-mode, and more. It has possibly more bells and whistles than any other console game, ever. But are the multiplayer extras and customization enough to win over the H1 fans? The auto-aim was turned down, but is it enough to make the H1 crowd forget about their beloved scoped pistol?
In my opinion, H3 is better than H2, hands-down. Absolutely no comparison. I think most reading this will agree. The auto-aim was turned down significantly. I played some H2 last night, and after having played H3 for two months, was struck by how strong the auto-aim was. I like this about H3. Less auto-aim requires more skill, and rewards skilled players more than H2.
Games are generally rated for their gameplay, both single-player and multi-player, their graphics, their music, and their replay value. Various other criteria could also be used, depending on it's genre. In this case, some additional elements inherent of an FPS would be used, mainly weapons, maps and balance.
H3 wins in the Graphics category, but you have to factor in the platform (Xbox vs. 360), so it is arguable that H1's graphics were just as good for it's time. [edit]And, as Midnight pointed out, H2's graphics were very advanced for the Xbox platform.[/edit]
Music/sound is a tie, in my opinion. It is very similar in all three games.
Single player, it's hard to tell between H1 and H3. I was just as impressed w/ H3s campaign, but it was more original in H1, so perhaps the first one gets a slight edge here.
Weapons? In my opinion, this is very close between H1 and H3. They toned down H2's auto-aim. The sword is no longer dominant like it was in H2. The noob combo is all but extinct, in my experience. Dual-wielding is not as strong as it was in H2. This seems to have brought life back to the "Golden Tripod" in H3, that we were so familiar with in H1. Guns, grenades, and melees. But again, perhaps a slight edge to H1, when it was still original. H3 has a greater variety of weapons, but again, the absence of H1's scoped pistol comes as a great disappointment to H1 lovers.
Perhaps the only area H2 wins in my book is maps. It has the most maps, and some classics that I love, esp. Lockout.
In the end, I can probably give a slight over-all edge to Halo1. Mainly for it's originality, and replay value. Not for the scoped pistol (I hate that thing, although I finally got decent at it), but for the balance brought by the "Golden Tripod" method.
That being said, H3 is a great game, and a tremendous improvement to the online experience via XBL when compared to H2. I will continue playing it for a long time to come, with the occasional break for games like COD4.
When comparing all three objectively, the only place I can give a category to H2 is in graphics. It is an excellent example of what can be done with a platform near the end of its lifecycle when its architecture is well understood by programmers. In retrospect, I am very disappointed in H2's campaign. It was downright confusing to me, and I read the novels and study the character dialog from each campaign.
Halo 3 is a great game, but it's still not H1. Either Bungie blindly stumbled onto H1's multiplayer balance or they deliberately strayed from it for H2 and H3, but they certainly haven't reproduced it since. For me, COD4 comes closest to the H1 balance of any game I've played so far. I like its multiplayer better than H2 and H3 and I plan to stick with it as my main multiplayer FPS for the immediate foreseeable future.
I enjoyed H2's campaign, though it was definitely confusing as crap. I enjoyed H2 online play for the better part of a year. It is what convinced my girlfriend (now wife) to start playing video games, subsequently letting me have more gaming time as well.
As for Halo 3. I'm sorry, but I just don't think anything beats dominating and dictating someone's spawn cycle in CoD4, all the while, controlling 2 bases in ground war while laughing about how each of us collectively have multiple helicopters and airstrikes queued up. CoD4, you are the freaking man. It's too bad you had to come about right after Halo 3.
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"Oculus is just this guy, you know?"
You're right. Nothing beats incessant jokes about our queue of helos (which is sometimes 2-3 deep). There are times (the map Ambush comes to mind) when we can keep the enemy spawning at a single territory, control every avenue of escape, and use the constant kills to have a literally neverending stream of airstrikes and helos called in upon the enemy's spawn area.
H1 was about the campaign.
H2 was about XBOX Live and the expansion of XBL capabilities.
H3 was about user experiences outside of gameplay.
I don't see how anyone can say that H2 is better than H3. Is there anyone out there that is making that suggestion? I haven't seen anyone doing it.
But, there seems to be a lot of comparisons between H1/H2 and H1/H3.
I guess we'll never see XBOX Live features in Halo 1.
digg.com link:
http://www.digg.com/xbox_360/Halo1_vs_Halo2_vs_Halo3_My_Review_of_the_Trilogy
Halo 1 remake is something we will see, but it wont be made by Bungie. I am thinking Gearbox, they did the Halo 1 PC port. MS owns it now so they can do what they want with it, with the main stream appeal of Halo Joe Average gamer would just know it as another Halo game he has to buy. Its a cash cow game and name, re makes are a trend especially with big name franchises.
I think you're getting confused between reticle stickiness and auto-aim. I know this is a little nit-picky. For me though, it is a big reason why I dislike H3 even more so than H2. Which is saying a lot.
Auto-aim is exactly that "auto aim", meaning it moves the reticle for you. Reticle stickiness does not aim for you. It simply just slows down the reticle movement over a target. Launch up H1 and sweep over a opponent, you'll notice the reticle slows down when your over the target and speeds up when you move off the target.
H2 had both auto-aim and stickiness. H1 primarily used reticle stickiness and had no auto-aim, except maybe a slight amount with the rocket launcher.
H3, on the other hand, is almost the exact opposite of H1 here. It uses all auto-aim and really no reticle stickiness. This makes H3 aiming with the sniper and battle rifle feel "loose".
H1>H3>H2>Sony
Nothing beats getting to the end of Mile High Club after about 50 tries... and then shooting the hostage by accident, and then having Midnight announce it to everyone. "OMG, he shot the hostage!" :)
...wait, this is a halo thread, sorry.
H2 was about XBOX Live and the expansion of XBL capabilities.
H3 was about user experiences outside of gameplay.
I don't see how anyone can say that H2 is better than H3. Is there anyone out there that is making that suggestion? I haven't seen anyone doing it.
But, there seems to be a lot of comparisons between H1/H2 and H1/H3.
I guess we'll never see XBOX Live features in Halo 1.
I totally agree. I'll always love my Halo 1 more...but I totally agree with this. QFT.
Thanks jayWHY - I totally agree. It doesn't occur too often in multi, but campaign isn't fun for me at all - I always have 4-5 grunts and a brute that I want to head-shot in a specific order, but the auto-aim messes it all up - I'd prefer the sticky-ness of H2 campaign-wise, if it was a choice between the two.
I must be missing the sarcasm. You are saying all this like it's a good thing? Personally, I find games with flawed respawn points, spawn killing, and out-of-control camping to be extremely boring.
Excellent read.
IMO.all H3 has goin for it,is xbl,graphics,acompanied by a bandwagon..and as for H1.i'm seriously considering buying a xbox so i can play H1 without the 360 weirdness..BYOS much?
][-][ //-\\ ][_ {()} ][
Auto-aim vs. sticky-ness...
I have noticed the difference between the two, but JayWhy puts it very well. In my review, I categorized it all as auto-aim, since either way it is being done for you.
I can deal w/ reticule sticky-ness, and it wasn't bad in H1, but having both stickyness and auto-aim at the same time, as in H2, just makes for a miserable experience. If H3 had gone the way of H1, w/ ONLY sticky-ness, and toned down auto-aim, that would have been fine, too.
I guess it all comes down to personal preference. H2 was more difficult for me, b/c in multiplayer, the sticky-ness (and auto-aim paired w/ it) made strafing very ineffective. In H3, even when someone shoots me first, I have more options. I can take cover, but if it's 1v1, I can turn, and more times than not, get a kill, b/c their reticule doesn't stay on me.
The grenades also feel better in H3 to me, much more so than H2.
BTW, I've been playing all 3 lately, to make comparisons. H1 on my PC (w/ an xbox controller, though, not mouse and keyboard), H2 and H3 on my 360. Playing H2 makes me suck at H1 and H3. But not the other way around. I can play H1 and H3 interchangeably and only notice negligible effects on aiming proficiency.
I too had never discerned the difference between stickiness and autoaim, but JY does put it well.
BTW, in COD4 a few days ago I was still taking a sip of my drink when I respawned. An enemy ran by in the distance and just happened to have his head level with my red dot. The red dot stuck to him and drug left on my screen for several inches before he went behind cover and it released. This all happened with no hands on the controller. Was strange.
Yeah, what I remember of the beta was that COD4 is loaded down with auto-aim.
Like every other CoD game, if I recall.
I agree with the assessment posted here, and the first couple replies. Halo 1 FTW. Halo 3 has a lot going for it... but it just didn't take it up a notch. The weapons are only tuned down H2 weapons, with yet another garbage pistol, an extra grenade to cycle through, and melee that is dysfunctional. And yes, there's 3 big team maps... gimme a break, this took 3 years to make? I grant technically it's better than H2 but seriously, it's not a finished product and there's no excuse for that. I have gone back to Halo 2 on XBL for a few reasons... games start much faster... with the recent surge of PC players on XBL it's fairly competitive yet without all the ranked cheating (H3 has tons of skill-less ranked-up generals and colonels). And lag... Halo3 lags like a mofo... hold down the score button to see everyone has solid green connections and every 5 minutes you see it drop to red... it's s jimmied up indicator, not too cool. H1>H2>H3
First off I consider Halo 2's campaign as an interlude and a pre-run to what halo 3 would be, it is the filler gap that they couldn't fit onto halo 3 itself. I think they knew after Halo 1 they would release up to a 3rd game (excluding Halo wars) and Halo 2's campaign was merely the run up, and I expected that so I could not be dissapointed (though the excitement lacked a bit). Halo 3 campaign was nothing but amazing but due to Halo 1 being considered as the FPS from now and for a long time it simply cannot be beaten.
As for Halo1 multiplayer vs halo 3 multiplayer ( excluding auto-aim, a.k.a Halo2, which hate.) In my oponion Halo1 Was a much much higher based accuracy game, a 3sk in Halo1 required a lot of skill no matter how easy it sounds and the sniper headshots, long range handgun duels could last minutes easy with no interference and where heart racing.
Halo3 multiplayer looks a hell of a lot better and requires just as much skill but in different areas ( the auto aim is barely noticable) and beat downs are basically quick draws.
I played Halo1 was 4years + and won a fare few klanwar tournements. In my personal opinion Halo 1 will always be my favourite online fps multiplayer bar none, but all biasism aside Halo3 takes the biscuit, I won't say it's more fast paced because I don't think it is, but it looks a hell of a lot better where as Halo1 will soon be considered like pacman/sonic is now. Halo3 looks great, feels great and much more balanced ( weopon wise) than Halo1, most importantly no latency, which after 4 Years of halo pc is a huge change and improvement, trust me.
Halo1 will always be my favourite for Campaign and multiplayer, but my oppinion aside I believe Halo3 beats Halo1 on on multiplayer (not campaign), not taking into account the "fan-boys".
Try both in my oppinion.
-Bring Bloodgulch to Halo3
-Bring back the Halo movie.
Enjoy.
I really, truly wanted to appreciate your post with all it's opinions, concepts, and notions, but I simply can't understand why you capitalized the "W" in "Was" in the middle of your sentence. I can understand your other grammatical fallacies, but I just can't figure this one out! You couldn't have accidentally hit the shift key, because W isn't placed close enough to the shift key to make it an accident. That excuse could work for the letter A or Z, but it was W. That means you had to push shift and capitalize it on purpose. What would possess a man to capitalize a word that is not a proper noun in the middle of a sentence? Why??
h1 is hands down the greatest halo game of the trilogy...
we still lan all the time, and none of us enjoy h3
i was hoping h2 would be like h1 just maybe a few diff things, like diff maps...boy did it kill the halo series for me..although i played it a ton and went to h2 tournies for many years i never appreciated it like i did h1
i wont ever play h3 tho, bungie destroyed my hope and i wish they would have just stuck with their dumb luck of creating the GREATEST FPS EVER in h1 instead leaving it alone and never truly making sequel
H1 WILL NEVER DIE!!!! i wish bungie would just sell their friggin rights to the game so some1 will actually do something with teh GREATEST fps of allllll
/end of plea
I was only introduced to halo on halo 3. I thought it was great but not the greatest fps ever. Then i got halo wars wich is addictive, but then i just got halo 1 to see what it was like. It truly is the greatest fps ever. I dont know why but its so much fun, especially jumping into a group of grunts and elite and killing them all with an assault rifle. This just isnt as fun in halo 3, dunno y. When ive finished halo 1 ill try halo 2 just to see what everyones complaining about.
Halo 3 is still a brilliant game, it certainly wins in graphics and features but i still prefer halo combat evolved.
Why does everyone think Halo 1 is so great? I've played it, and it has been a truly tedious experience. There are these round grey rooms, endless round grey rooms. Cross over a bridge, go through a hallway, and another grey room. That is all there is to Halo. Just round grey rooms, with underpowered cowardly short guys, and overpowered brutes. And there were these really big guys who were a challenge, until they gave you a rocket launcher, and made sure you had one whenever you'd encounter them. Then they just made it easy. The wired thing is, the story is really good, and doesn't deserve such a dull, repetitive game. The only things saving this game are the vehicles, which were realistic and fun to drive. There was nothing about this game that was really revolutionary, just Microsoft generated hype and graphics.
"Just round grey rooms, with underpowered cowardly short guys, and overpowered brutes. And there were these really big guys who were a challenge, until they gave you a rocket launcher, and made sure you had one whenever you'd encounter them"
Sounds like someone who doesn't play on Legendary ever.
As someone who started out on 1, there's simply no comparison. Multiplayer was actually better one 1. Though you had to get big Lan parties together, if 1 had online multiplayer, it would be better than the other period.
The removal of the zoom pistol and original style sniper rifle were 2 of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen done in an FPS genre. Both weapons made multiplayer much harder and truly rewarded good players who could correctly utilize weapons in various circumstances. 2 and 3 basically all you had to do was load up and go out and you could be successful regardless of what you wielding.
The story lines are also no comparison, 2 and 3 were not nearly as good as 1. They completely messed 2 up by removing it to out space after 1 level. The first level was pure brilliance going around the city defending against invaders, the rest of the whole game frankly sucked balls. It's indefensible.
I just can't compare falling thru the air switching from pistol to sniper rifle killing 2 people with head shots in "Prisoner" to the BS they called muliplayer in 2 and 3.
Halo 1 has serious contention for 1 of the best FPS ever. The other 2 simply do not. Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare is the best FPS of all time.
Basically, my opinion is all the fanboys on H2 and H3 get killed in the H1 universe by experienced players and simply cannot compete. In H2 and H3 there's largely no distinction between excellent, good, average, bad players. In H1, it is obvious if a really good player is in the LAN party.
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