First person shooters are escapist fantasies, more than most genres. Doom and Duke Nukem 3D put you in the shoes of an 80s action movie hero. Half-Life is a revenge of the computer nerd fantasy.
Halo is a fantasy for the privileged child. The story of the Master Chief is not the story of the underdog, no matter how many Covenant ships are against you. You are pretty much invincible, and allies and enemies all seem to respect this. No character in this game really doubts your capability in any respect; everyone seems to have full confidence in you, and you don't disappoint them.
I had fun playing this game, or I least I wasn't bored enough to quit. But Halo has definitely lost whatever lustre it had. The characters are cut-out. There aren't enough enemy types to spread through ten levels. Worst is the level design itself - as if the areas weren't bland enough, they have the balls to force you to run through an identical-looking region three or four times in a row, in the same level. On more than one level. (We'll see what people think when the HD remake is released.)
I know this is a landmark shooter, but the repetition kills its fun value, at least in single player. The woefully underrated Timesplitters 2 was just a year later, and it solved this problem admirably.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Executor, we must build additional pylons. Executor!?!
I suck at real-time strategy games. Building my headquarters, training a well-balanced and effective force, with only a guess as to the opponent's strength, strategy, and even location; it all makes me...exceedingly anxious. I get paranoid, and never make the bold move necessary to be a good commander.
When I was 10 or 11, I had a friend, the son of a youth pastor, who was addicted to Command and Conquer: Red Alert. I used to come over, watch him play, and admire his skills. The opening FMV, in which Einstein builds a time machine to go back and kill Hitler, unintentionally causing the rise of a greater Soviet threat, was fascinating to me. My friend's father eventually limited the time he could spend playing "war games," but by that time I owned the first C&C myself (a gift from another friend). I loved the FMVs (I was a child of the 90's), but I could never muster enough enthusiasm for the gameplay itself to finish it.
Last week, I finished my first RTS: the gold standard of the genre, Starcraft. It took me months, but I did it. And I have to say that it was, on the whole, not fun. I can appreciate how the different races, each forcing fundamentally different strategies, remain so delicately balanced. I even enjoyed the simple story of humans and honor-loving aliens joining forces to remove an infestation of large insects. I love that the outworld Terrans all sound like hicks. But it is very likely that, for me, the RTS will forever be a chore.
When I was 10 or 11, I had a friend, the son of a youth pastor, who was addicted to Command and Conquer: Red Alert. I used to come over, watch him play, and admire his skills. The opening FMV, in which Einstein builds a time machine to go back and kill Hitler, unintentionally causing the rise of a greater Soviet threat, was fascinating to me. My friend's father eventually limited the time he could spend playing "war games," but by that time I owned the first C&C myself (a gift from another friend). I loved the FMVs (I was a child of the 90's), but I could never muster enough enthusiasm for the gameplay itself to finish it.
Last week, I finished my first RTS: the gold standard of the genre, Starcraft. It took me months, but I did it. And I have to say that it was, on the whole, not fun. I can appreciate how the different races, each forcing fundamentally different strategies, remain so delicately balanced. I even enjoyed the simple story of humans and honor-loving aliens joining forces to remove an infestation of large insects. I love that the outworld Terrans all sound like hicks. But it is very likely that, for me, the RTS will forever be a chore.
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