However, I will agree that some levels are hard to orient yourself into, but that is only because you're not paying attention to rather obvious context clues. I know because I got lost more than once, but also found out why.
I think Halo CE's level design incorporates and unexpected mechanism of exploration that I don't think modern audiences actually respect because of how on-rails the level designs of most shooters are, COD being the particularly worst example.
Halo, as a franchise, has been accused of simply having too slow of a shooter design, but I feel that that criticism is misplaced particularly with the first 4 games because even though Halo is a shooter, it is more importantly a puzzle game using fire fights; especially in the first game. Too many people were hoping Halo could become Quake or COD without understanding why Halo works.
Its been close to 15 years, so I'm not going to have hard details for you, but when I played I consistently felt like I was in the same hallway endless in many levels (mostly in the second half) and could only tell I was progressing at all by the presence of alive enemies. And even if I knew I was going forward, many levels just felt like they went on like 30% too long.
I never felt this way in 2 or 3, so clearly something was changed that solved the issue. Maybe unintentionally.
accused of simply having too slow of a shooter design
I can't see how anyone could think that. When you are in a fight, things are constantly happening and TTK is always low outside of bosses (who are way too spongey but that's a separate issue). Its frantic and constant. Anyone who thinks otherwise must be a Normal Difficulty shitter.
Unless they mean that MC literally moves too slow, which is a valid criticism for people who play other FPS games. But that's also why Halo was a landmark and the rest of them are niche. The super speedy bouncing around FPS games (I think they call them boomer shooters now) are literally just memorization and reflexes, speedrunner autism, than playing an actual game.
But I also stopped playing Halo halfway through Reach (still hate that game) and only played COD for the original MW trilogy, so this isn't my genre to have opinions on. I simply love Halo 2/3's campaign.
hard disagree on samey environments.
However, I will agree that some levels are hard to orient yourself into, but that is only because you're not paying attention to rather obvious context clues. I know because I got lost more than once, but also found out why.
I think Halo CE's level design incorporates and unexpected mechanism of exploration that I don't think modern audiences actually respect because of how on-rails the level designs of most shooters are, COD being the particularly worst example.
Halo, as a franchise, has been accused of simply having too slow of a shooter design, but I feel that that criticism is misplaced particularly with the first 4 games because even though Halo is a shooter, it is more importantly a puzzle game using fire fights; especially in the first game. Too many people were hoping Halo could become Quake or COD without understanding why Halo works.
Its been close to 15 years, so I'm not going to have hard details for you, but when I played I consistently felt like I was in the same hallway endless in many levels (mostly in the second half) and could only tell I was progressing at all by the presence of alive enemies. And even if I knew I was going forward, many levels just felt like they went on like 30% too long.
I never felt this way in 2 or 3, so clearly something was changed that solved the issue. Maybe unintentionally.
I can't see how anyone could think that. When you are in a fight, things are constantly happening and TTK is always low outside of bosses (who are way too spongey but that's a separate issue). Its frantic and constant. Anyone who thinks otherwise must be a Normal Difficulty shitter.
Unless they mean that MC literally moves too slow, which is a valid criticism for people who play other FPS games. But that's also why Halo was a landmark and the rest of them are niche. The super speedy bouncing around FPS games (I think they call them boomer shooters now) are literally just memorization and reflexes, speedrunner autism, than playing an actual game.
But I also stopped playing Halo halfway through Reach (still hate that game) and only played COD for the original MW trilogy, so this isn't my genre to have opinions on. I simply love Halo 2/3's campaign.