X & Violence Part 3: Hell Is Other People

One of the things I wanted to do with this particular series of posts was to talk about specific games, and the thoughts and issues that have arisen through playing them. So far I've not really been able to do this, as I've been discussing things in a broader sense. But one thing that I particularly wanted to talk about going into this was the Halo franchise. Obviously it's a big important IP for the xbox. But more than that it's something that I quite like, but I know quite a lot of people don't. Certainly none in my social group. So I figured it could be fun to explore what it is I like about the franchise, and see if I can answer some of the common criticisms levelled at it.

And the funny thing is that normally the answer is "Yeah, that's very true."

I refuse to not use this picture.

Okay, so first some background. You may have noticed if you've ever heard me expound on the subject of video games for any length of time that I do not normally use the term FPS in anything approaching a positive light. Indeed I do believe that for many years the reason I gave not being particularly interested in buying an xbox was that I'd already got Doom running on my laptop. That and the fact that I was not particularly impressed by all the many wonderful types of shiney brown or shiney grey in which action cat was fighting the terrorists that week. Seriously, if I wanted to look at the digital equivalent of laminated sewage I've got plenty of german fetish sites to choose from. And let's face it, that particular community probably has a healthier attitude towards women than the shooter crowd.

So, having said all that, how did I get interested in Halo in the first place? Well, some years ago Wizkids put out a line of Halo miniatures called Actionclix. And since I have an unnatural attraction to small brightly coloured pieces of plastic I found my interested perked.

"What's that?" "No idea, but I NEED one."

Obviously it wouldn't make any sense to buy merchandise from a franchise I was so unfamiliar with, so I took the only sensible course of action: I downloaded a copy of Halo 1 on pc. And THEN I bought some of the minis.

And I was, it has to be said, fairly impressed with the game. It was, without a doubt, the best game of Aliens I'd ever played. Seriously, Halo wanted to be Aliens SO HARD. To the point that they went beyond having equipment that resembles but is legally distinct from guns and dropships in the film and actually took one of the characters in it's entirety.

Incidentally, this picture is from the actual Halo Wiki.

It's not just the visual references. Once the Flood turn up the Aliens vibe is intensified even further. But none of that is a bad thing per se. I mean, "Aliens like action" is something we've been waiting for since before Alien Trilogy was released. And for a long time after if we're being brutally honest. Another thing I really liked about it was the way it used grenades. Before that I was used to the Thermal Detonators in the various Dark Forces games. Which weren't very good. But with Halo they were something you could use at the same time as other weapons. And not just that you could use them tactically. Before that tactics in a shooter consisted more of charging in with the biggest gun than any other considerations.

So yeah. I played it, I liked it, and then I put it away.

Move up many years later and I find myself with an urge for some old fashioned violence in a video game, contemplating buying an xbox, and hey there's a special edition of Halo 1 available. Damn right I made sure I grabbed a copy of that. And I played it and I enjoyed it. It managed to work well on a console, and was pretty fun. It had some decent achievements which gave me plenty to do and stuff to unlock.  I'm not saying it's perfect by any means. But it was an entertaining, highly polished piece of gaming. Obviously the gameplay is a major factor, but there are a lot of other things to love about the game. Firstly let's address the standard stereotype of the modern FPS. A drab brown game with drab brown environments in which you take your drab brown gun and shoot those evil brown people. Honestly, is there even anyone left to kill in Terrorstan or wherever it is these things are supposed to take place? None of this interests me in the slightest. Not even when you substitute grey as the default colour. But in Halo there actually ARE colours! Several of them. There's like green and purple and blue and orange and all kinds of crazy stuff. Instead of fighting the terrorists AGAIN there's all kinds of awesome space monsters. And you have awesome space guns. I mean, yeah, there's a machinegun and shotgun and all. But you can also get a gun that shoots bright pink needles into an enemy until they explode.This I do find interesting. The music is awesome. And then there's the Grunts.

RUN AWAY!

I fucking love Grunts. They're just so adorably hilarious as they run around in a blind panic. They dialogue they're given as funny. And they're just SO CUTE when they're sleeping.

Plus there's a skull that means when you shoot them in the head there's a burst of confetti and everybody cheers. When you combine this with skull that makes them explode when they die, the one that makes all explosions gigantic and infinite ammo you have what I can only describe as Hilarious Mode. Seriously, this how I spent like 80% of my time on that game.

And since I'd enjoyed that so much there was another Halo game that I'd really liked the look of that I thought I'd give a go: Halo Wars.

I really wish there were more games like Halo Wars. Games that would take an existing, popular IP and make something totally different in terms of gameplay but retaining the atmosphere and charm of the setting. The fact that Halo Wars does all this while actually making that most unlikely of games: A successful console based RTS is no mean feat. Again, it's not perfect, but it IS both good and different. And, seriously, the cut scenes are to die for.

But what of some of the criticisms of the games? Well, some people don't like them because they don't like FPSs. This is fair enough. Some people don't like them because they're not like whatever other FPS franchise. Again, this is fair enough. If someone says they prefer call of battlegears 87 then goody for them. These sort of discussions only break down when you get to the rabid fanboy stage who insists their franchise is better simply BECAUSE. And I don't care which side of the argument you're on, you're doing it wrong. So let's try and answer a few questions like rational adults.

It has been pointed out to me by a friend that, if he were in the Halo universe he would invent a gun that shoots rifle butts. After all, it's quicker to kill something with a melee attack than fill them full of bullets. And, yeah, from a realism standpoint that's a perfectly valid criticism. It IS weird how that works. But this doesn't bother me. Because, to put it bluntly, Halo isn't real. It's a game. And as such it needs to behave in an ENTERTAINING fashion rather than realistic. A melee attack needs to be deadly for reasons of game balance. You as player want to be able to deal with something when you're low on ammo or it gets to close while you're reloading. At the same time you want the enemies to be deadly in melee because it makes the game exciting. The sudden rush of panic when you see an Elite with an Energy Sword is actually a big part of the fun. The desperate struggle to keep them away and not die adds tension and excitement while giving variety to the action. From a realism standpoint, yeah, it's kinda silly. But from a design standpoint it's spot on.

Another criticism offered by people I actually talk to is that the multiplayer sucks. It's a shitty exercise in frustration and being insta-ganked by people so far out of your skill range you can't even see them with the sniper rifle on maximum zoom. And, having made an effort to try the multiplayer aspect of Halo, I can only agree. Yes, you will almost invariably spend the entire match being shot in the head. It's not impossible to have a fun match. But is it worth all the not fun?

To be clear the problem here isn't dying a whole bunch. That's not an issue. We know we're not all l33t and hardcore, and we know that we will die a lot. We've accepted that. The problem is when that's ALL you get to do. The key ingredient to any game is that of Doing Stuff. If you don't get to do stuff because you spend more time waiting to respawn than actually playing then you're simply not going to be having a good time. I know that the matchmaking system is supposed to be able to give you games closer to your skill level, but it takes a number of games in order to even get a rating. And if all of those games are spent lying on the floor waiting to respawn.... Well, why bother?

So don't. Mutiplayer on pretty much anything is not really something that I have any interest in. Hell, the only reason I tried it was because I figured I might as well do SOMETHING with the gold membership that came with the console. Everything bad you have to say about multiplayer I probably agree with. Which is why I don't play these games for the multiplayer. I'm there for the campaign. Wading my way through a thousand homicidal alien warriors in pursuit of a loosely defined Mcguffin necessary to advance the plot and thus kill even more aliens? Fun times. Confusedly wandering around a map with no clue what the hell is going on before suddenly dying the instant you find a weapon you actually like because some guy on the other side of the map happens to be really good with the pistol? Less so.

Having said all that though I will say that the Firefight mode is actually really good. Since it's cooperative the whole being shot in the head by foul mouthed homophobic teenagers thing isn't an issue. There's just 4 players and millions of badguys to kill. I can totally see how doing that with a few friends would be totally worthwhile.

Then there's the story. It isn't fucking Shakespeare or anything, but it serves the game quite well. A leads to B leads to C in a fairly logical and consistent fashion, and in between you get to shoot thousands of aliens in the face. What more do you want? The O.D.S.T. game which I picked up recently in fact does a FANTASTIC job of storytelling within the medium. Again, it's not fucking Shakespeare. But the way the gameplay and the storyline work together is really great. In any video game the story and gameplay need to be complimentary. And Halo does seem to do quite well at telling it's story in game, not just via cutscene.

But if theres one particular criticism I feel compelled to address it's one levelled at the franchise by Moviebob. I started watching his videos after they were recommended by Extra Credits. And I agree with alot of what he says. But in a few episodes he's given the opinion that Master Chief, the main character of the Halo franchise, is a dull and boring character. And this kinda bugged me. I mean, here's this guy who's saying a lot of sensible things, who's clearly put a lot of though into what he's saying and whom I'm agreeing with a fair bit, belittling a franchise that I really like. There's an odd dissonance there. Something's gotta be wrong somewhere, right?

So I went away and I though about it and you what? Yeah, he's right. As a character in the games Master Chief ISN'T a massively interesting character. He exists to say the occasional badass line and let the player shoot hundreds of aliens. Now, I COULD try to point out how in the canon the background of the Spartans is actually like a harsher version of Gunslinger Girl. And I'm sure there's books out there that give him all kind of development, probably. I don't know because I haven't looked. But probably. This would however be rather like arguing that Boba Fett is actually cool. And we all know how I feel about Boba Fett.

So no, Master Chief is not particularly interesting in and of himself. Going by this logic neither is Samus Aran, although I admit that at least her abilities went a bit beyond "Shoot lots of guns".

Shockingly there's a lot of this sort of thing online.

But, like any blank slate hero in a game Master Chief gives us a window into an (at least moderately) interesting world. That's where the real interest lies. Indeed, as Halo Wars and O.D.S.T. prove, things don't get any less interesting when he isn't around. We enjoy the awe in which the character is held because, in those games, that character is US. It's nice to feel special. But really, Master Chief could be anybody. If you're a Halo fan and you don't believe me on this take a minute to think about a Halo game in which Sgt Johnson is the main character.

He knows what the ladies like.

So, yeah. I like Halo. Quite a bit as it turns out. But I can see how some people might not. But then it's not like they have to. There's plenty of room for all of us, as long as we can stand to be at least moderately adult about it.