Something that always struck me as odd about Halo...

[Squirtle]

On the first level you are taught how to melee attack by twatting open a door. Yet in the entire rest of the game, you never have to use this to open any other doors, or get obstacles out of the way. I thought this was odd.

I really did, and wondered if this kinda feature was dropped from the finished game.

[Crisp_Rapper]

On the first level you are taught how to melee attack by twatting open a door. Yet in the entire rest of the game, you never have to use this to open any other doors, or get obstacles out of the way. I thought this was odd.

I really did, and wondered if this kinda feature was dropped from the finished game.

hmm, good point... however i go walking about twatting everything, trees, rocks etc just to get different sounds. i'm at a certain bit and stuck so i'm beating up the scenery to pass the time until i no longer suck at the game.

[Tom Salter]

I think it's just there to make a player "aware" of the melee attack. I was at a presentation with the designers of Halo at the GDCE last year, showing some of the decisions they made in the first level. Here's a few interesting ones.

1) When you first rise out of the cryogenic pod, there is a cutscene showing the Chief. This was only added in in the last 2 weeks of development. The reason being is that all of the beta testers they used didn't have a clue who his/her player was at the cutscene on the bridge.

2) The inverted controls were being a pain to some people, yet they noticed one thing. Even if a player was playing with the controls that they didn't like, (inverted/normal), then even if they were told that they could change it, 90% of them didn't, they put up with the controls. That's why they added that targetting thing in.

3) When following that bloke out of the training room, players got stuck where to go, as you had to go through that small passageway. That's why they put them explosions in, to warn the player that this isn't the way to go.

This was a really cool presentation, and also touched on a few other things MS have done. Like, in one of their flight sims they had an option saying "AI Level". And they showed a video of all the people playing this game, and they came to the options screen, and were saying "Who's Al?" (as in the name...).

Just goes to show the subliminal messages the designers put in the game, as not everyone is as "game friendly" as we are.

[Squirtle]

1) When you first rise out of the cryogenic pod, there is a cutscene showing the Chief. This was only added in in the last 2 weeks of development. The reason being is that all of the beta testers they used didn't have a clue who his/her player was at the cutscene on the bridge.

That's quite interesting? Just how did the game start then. Was it still in the little training room, just without that cut scene? As for not knowing who you were... Don't people read the manuals any more!?

Anyway, an interesting point, but then think about Half Life. The entire game is FP perspective. It never cuts from it. Yet, how much association do we have with Gordon?

[badgerpie]

I can see what you're saying. But then I guess you have to remember that not everyone is going to be as good or savvy with playing games. I suppose they needed to create a circumstance where players would be forced to use the melee controls to show them what a melee attack is, but they'd also need to incorporate a stationary object to players who aren't very adept at the controls don't have to worry about catching up with the target.

I always viewed it as a training exercise, no more, no less.

[MonkeyWrench]

It's strange how some gamers are blind to subtle hints. I did some level design work on the Quake 2 powered shooter Kingpin and testers were getting lost in one of my multiplayer levels despite there being big arrow signs on the walls showing you exactly where to go. You really do have to point out the obvious to the majority of gamers.

[Popo]

Anyway, an interesting point, but then think about Half Life. The entire game is FP perspective. It never cuts from it. Yet, how much association do we have with Gordon?

Funny you mention that, because it wasn't until a while after I first played HL that I started to actually think about what the hell the main character looked like - I had to actually think about it and consciously put the image of Gordon together with the idea of me being him. I had never instinctively assumed who I was supposed to be.

[JRMacumber]

Anyway, an interesting point, but then think about Half Life. The entire game is FP perspective. It never cuts from it. Yet, how much association do we have with Gordon?

Funny you mention that, because it wasn't until a while after I first played HL that I started to actually think about what the hell the main character looked like - I had to actually think about it and consciously put the image of Gordon together with the idea of me being him. I had never instinctively assumed who I was supposed to be.

And to me that was one of the wwonderful things about Half-Life. YOU became Gordan Freeman. From the very first moment, people looked at you and called you Gordon. All of them. You never got to see yourself, never broke out of your perspective, and so it caused you to not see the game as you playing someone else, but you playing you. For me, that gave the game a greater level of tension and immersion.

As for Halo, I listened to a Bungie developer commentary once, and they mentioned the little jump puzzle during that first level on the Pillar, and he pointed out that after that there were virtually no other jump puzzles. They laughed, and I thought it was funny too.