Uber Halo post incoming. Sorry if I get a bit defensive. It just frustrates me to see so much unjustified Halo hate (not that there isn't anything one could justifiably hate, of course).
The biggest reason why I (Yes, I. I'm speaking for myself) bash Halo is simply because the hype behind it is from gamers who have never played PC FPS games. Features that were in Halo has existed since Doom and moreso since Quake. Hell, it was done best with Half Life/HL2.
It's totally possible to like Halo's gameplay over HL's gameplay. HL1 and HL2 are neat games, but I didn't find them to be that fun or replayable. Very interesting storytelling and all, but I just didn't find them to be that fun.
Halo doing things right is not always the case since the single player is horrible
What? They're the most replayable and enjoyable single player games I've ever played.
while the multiplayer has been plagued with weapon balance issues (Needler/Pistol from Halo 1).
The Needler sucking is a huge balance problem? One gun being useless doesn't horribly skew the gameplay. And lots of Halo fans would disagree on the Pistol argument. It's a great medium-range weapon, and since all players start with it, they all have a fighting chance against other players even if they just spawned. It
might be a bit too powerful, but it actually requires skill to use, and the Sniper Rifle, Shotgun, and Plasma Rifle (and grenades and melee attacks) all have their own strengths over the Pistol in their own realms of combat, so it isn't like everyone is spawning with rockets. I love H1 multiplayer.
And don't give me some "people buy Halo 2/3 and play Halo 2/3 because it's Halo" argument. If Halo 1's gameplay sucked, no one would care about Halo 2/3, so Bungie must have done something right.
Seriously, Halo players, how many of you actually enjoyed any part of the game Flood related?
You can't pick one aspect of Halo's single player anf generalize it to cover the entire experience. Fighting the Covenant is a lot of fun. Besides, the Flood levels are a lot of fun when taken in small doses or when a four-way war between the player, the Covenant, the Flood, and the Sentinels is going on, as in the last three levels of Halo 1. Obviously, a few single player missions are relatively awful (Library in Halo 1, Cortana in Halo 3), but most single player missions are excellent. Anyways, to directly answer the question, the Flood are a lot of fun in certain situations. A few places are awful, but most times the Flood are fun.
Doesn't help that the story of Halo is horrible. The lore is great, don't get me wrong but the game story is so void of decent character development, I felt like hitting my head on the wall. It's pretty sad since Bungie did a great job with Marathon and Myth in terms of story.
I'll grant you that for the most part (since your qualms are with the games' stories only). It's unfortunate that Bungie tries to make the story simple so the masses can follow it (even if they utterly fail in that regard and admit it). I liked Halo 1's story-telling. It was relatively easy to follow and had some good twists and turns, and there was a lot of stuff under the surface to speculate about. Too bad Bungie squandered their development time for Halo 2 and ended up with a convoluted story without an ending, with lots of important sequences cut to make the release date. Bungie did a better job with Halo 3, but I don't think they explained enough about what was going on to make it more sensible. Not to mention that the single player campaign was just too short.
Anything is better with co-op. Personally, I can't see myself playing through the Library in Halo 1 or the Arbiter/Library section in Halo 2 again without a buddy.
Funny, I just now noticed that anything Library related where you have to go into Flood containment sections in a Halo is god awful.
I thought the Sentinel Wall portion of Halo 2 was pretty cool, but Halo 2 Flood were awful, making that level more frustrating than it should be. And regarding the next level, Flood with homing rockets are some of the most aggrivating enemies ever. I think that level with Halo 3 Flood would be a lot of fun.
If you wanted to know the story anyways, I advise you to pick up the infinitely superior graphic novel Marvel comics put out as well as the several novels already out in the market. They provide a better insight to the Halo universe than the game itself (Which is sad).
I would hesitate to pick up the novel
Halo: The Flood (and not just because it involves the Flood
). It's mostly just a retelling of Halo 1's story, but Halo 1's in-game story and storytelling were already very good, so you aren't missing much. The rest are very good. I haven't read the comics yet, but I read the graphic novel and I can't say I liked it. The first story was neat, the next two were irrelevant and inconsequential, and the final had horrible, horrible artwork that heavily detracted from the story.
