When I was in 7th grade, I received Halo. It was my first FPS (first person shooter). Going through the story for the first time was frustrating. I wasn’t as skilled and it took me forever to get through the game. I beat the campaign a month before Halo 2 came out. Halo 2 had a disappointing story but the multiplayer options were amazing. I remember that it came out on a day off from school in sophomore year of high school.
When Halo 3 came out in my freshman year of college (September 2007), I spent a summer saving money for it. I bought Halo themed controllers, an Xbox Live subscription, a wireless receiver, and the Legendary edition of the game. I blew a lot of time and money on the game, so even with the nearly 400 dollar cost of all of the things I bought, it was worth it. By the time Halo 3 came out, Halo had online competitive multiplayer and co-operative multiplayer. Playing with up to 4 your friends and against up to 15 of your friends creates lots of options for how to play. Also, thanks to Bungie, the original creator of the game, you can see your character’s stats online with a large amount of detail. How many kills do you have? How many deaths? What’s the ratio of kills to to deaths? How many time were you killed with a shotgun on a particular map? Where on the map do you die the most? It created a feedback loop which makes the game better. Also, when the developer created updates and other fixes to maps, weapons and characters, all either low cost or free, it also helps.
Now, it’s 2012, so right before the world ends, another edition of Halo has been released. There’s a new enemy type now, along with the Covenant, the enemy type from the first 3 major editions of the game. But mostly it’s more of the same. You still play as the same character, and you’re still shooting enemies until they’re down. However, the sameness is comforting. I haven’t bought a new IP in a long time, mostly because I don’t have the time to learn a new game. I already know how to play Halo as soon as I unwrap the game. That reduces the time it takes to get into the game and enjoy it. The difficulty will come in the way of the way the enemies interact with you and how you respond to them, rather than trying to figure out what button does what action. I’ll be busy tonight with it, though.
P.S. Sgt. Johnson, Intergalactic Repairman
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