Continuing with last year's theme of playing through influential games, I have started 2020 off with Halo 2, Bungie's landmark 2004 First Person Shooter.
I'm not sure if I brought this up before, but I don't play a lot of shooters. With my vision, games of this nature can be tough to see and react in time. Doesn't mean I don't like them though, as Doom 2 is one of my favorite games, and Doom 2016, which I played last year, was an incredibly delightful romp. The more precise I have to be in a shooter though, the harder the game becomes. Additionally, if enemies are similarly colored to the background it can be harder to see. I've had some issues in Titanfall, Half Life and Call of Duty games, especially the multiplayer.
Halo, to its credit, plays more like a Doom game than it does modern First Person Shooters. Aiming down sights isn't really a thing in this game, which is great for me. Pair the not needing to enter a precision aim mode for most guns, and the fact that enemies have distinct outlines, and you have a recipe for a good shooter. This isn't a unique thing to Halo. Shooters have aliens, demons and monsters as enemies all the time. How they execute on that recipe is important.
Halo feels good to play. Part of what I like about this game is I can play it a lot like Doom. The Covenant enemies you're fighting don't have hit-scan weapons, like the Marines, so you can see their shots and try to dodge them: Very Doom. You don't need to aim down sites, and you can spend most of the game strafing and firing as you zip between points of cover, or dodge shots: still very Doom Like. Iron Sights in modern shooters don't feel good to me because of how start and stop the games are. Aiming down the barrel of your gun narrows your Field of View, Makes you move slower, and in general, seems to make you more of a target. Sure, that's more realistic or whatever, and it can provide unique gameplay challenges of having to time your aims well to maximize efficiency, but for me, that doesn't feel as good as firing from the hip while moving.
As for the Dual Wielding in the game, it feels a lot better than in Goldeneye, I'll tell you that much. The ability to use different weapons is fun, at the expense of losing the ability to throw grenades, which is also fun to do. Taking a Plasma Pistol in one hand, and an SMG or Plasma Rifle in the other lets you wipe out a shield with a charged Plasma Pistol shot, then try to rack up damage with the other gun. It's fun to do and it adds a nice bit of experimentation that I like.
This game lets me feel like I'm playing a good hybrid of Doom and more modern FPS. It isn't as breakneck as Doom can be, nor does it have the ability to just wipe an emey off the face of the planet with a single shot, but hey, most games don't give you the super shotgun. It does, however, feel great to play and move. While Doom is a frenetic dance of violence, Halo si amore considered waltz through the battlefield. Weaving your way carefully around the enemies, flowing in and out at a steady pace.
Quickly, I want to touch on the other bits of the game. I've liked the music, for the most part. Anything with the driving drums and bass is has been good. Levels have been fine. Enemy encounters are fun. Driving vehicles feels better than Halo 1, but that could be because I'm using a controller now instead of Mouse and Keyboard, but who knows. Plot is serviceable.
I'm really enjoying my time with Halo. It's a fun space romp with good gunplay. I can see why this became the defacto multiplayer experience for a generation.
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