Halo

2005.11.12 - Saturday

Last weekend I picked up the PC version of Halo on a whim. For the last few years it seems like everyone had been talking about this game, so I figured it would be a good idea to actually play it. I just finished the game last night. The verdict? Pretty good, but nothing special.

Halo is over-rated. In fact it's probably one of the most over-rated games in recent memory. I keep seeing it in "greatest games of all time" lists, where it has no business being. I'm sure one of the main reasons the game is so loved and so popular is because of Microsoft. Halo was all they had for the early days of their Xbox system, and they had to hype it or risk losing out on their entry into the console market. Deep pockets like Microsoft's can get you a lot of positive hype, and the gaming press is easily influenced by publisher hype like no other journalistic group on the planet. Another one of the main reasons for Halo's popularity is that it probably introduced the "first person shooter" genre to an entire generation of people who were either too young to experience them on the PC, or simply couldn't afford to. Halo brings nothing new to the FPS genre, but it is a well polished retread of all of the best FPS gameplay from years past.

Speaking of retreads, the story is cobbled together from almost every science fiction source you can imagine. Interstellar war between Humans and aliens? Oh yeah. Artificial intelligence? Uh huh. Cybernetic soldiers? Bingo. Mysterious, and ancient, alien technology? Yup. Parasitic alien creatures which take over bodies? Yes. Giant artificial ring world? Check. The board is green.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing to compile all of the coolest sci-fi concepts into one story, in fact, Halo does it pretty well. I only wish that some of the story had been thought out a little more carefully. We learn that Halo, the ring world, was built by ancient aliens to study the "Flood", a parasitic creature that multiplies like crazy and consumes all life. However, in the event that the Flood escapes Halo, the ring can emit an enormous energy pulse that destroys all life within a 25,000 light year radius. If that happens, other ring worlds placed throughout the galaxy will follow suit, cleansing the entire galaxy of any life capable of presenting a food supply for the Flood, and therefore starving them to death.

Sounds cool. I'm still not clear as to why Halo needed to be habitable then, since any kind of space lab could serve the same purpose of study and containment. Perhaps the builders planned to live on the ring while the rest of the galaxy's life rebuilt itself? Would the Halo energy waves be responsible for at least one of the massive, unexplained extinctions in Earth's own past? I mean, these are cool possibilities that just aren't elaborated on or explained at all, along with many other things. Maybe we find out more in "Halo 2", but as it is, the story feels a little bit like it was cut-and-pasted together with only a passing thought as to how the pieces fit.

Thankfully, the game is pretty fun. There is a decent selection of cool weapons, and lots of stuff to blow up and kill. As much as everyone seems to like the physics in Halo, the Jeep-like vehicle you drive around has a horrible feel. It seems to have no traction at all, and makes driving around even grassy areas feel like you're driving around a frozen lake. Plus, it flips over incredibly easily, which becomes annoying, especially during the game's final sequence. Level design is the major sticking point with the game's overall feel. There seem to only be six or seven rooms for all of the game's indoor areas. You'll end up walking through what looks like the same exact room over and over, the only clue to their difference being the pattern of dead bodies on the ground. It's easy to get turned around, especially during hectic firefights. Also, the way the story goes, you essentially play over the same areas twice. Whenever you enter a building and make your way to the objective, you then have to leave the building again after achieving the goal. Most games would do this with a quick cut scene, but in Halo, you must fight your way back across every room of every structure after progressing past them once already. Maybe they did it to add gameplay time, and in their minds, value? I don't know, but it's really annoying.

I still had fun with Halo, and hope that "Halo 2" finds its way to the PC. I've heard it's over-rated as well, but it might still be fun.

Doom

2005.11.07 - Monday

A friend and I were searching for something to do on Saturday afternoon so we went and saw "Doom". I've only seen one other movie featuring The Rock, but it was enjoyable so I figured he could carry this one as well. I was sort of right. There's nothing wrong with the job he does, and these days I can't think of anyone who does a better "muscled action hero". The movie still feels flat though, and in fact a couple of the twists and turns in the story are unexpected but ultimately just left me with a confused, "that was weird" kind of feeling.

The story sucks. The story that's told in "Doom 3" the game is much more interesting. In that version, mankind's research on Mars into teleportation technology accidentally opens an inter-dimensional portal to Hell. Eager to exploit the opportunity, the demons of Hell pour through the portal into our world, where the hero space marine blows them, well, back to Hell. Good American boys killing demonic creatures? It sounds like the marketing would almost take care of itself. Unfortunately in the movie, the story involves lame genetic research, aliens who once lived on Mars, and a synthetic 24th chromosome pair that turns people into superhuman monsters. What a waste.

There are some nice effects, and good creature work. The two blend quite well too. The much discussed "first person shooter" sequence, where the camera shows you the point of view of one of the characters, just like the game, was cool. Some of the camera moves were a little jarring, but the sequence works for the most part. If you're looking for an action movie, wait to rent this. Even then, I'm sure there would be better choices.