Why do so many gamers dislike Halo?

Along with a strong foundation of loyal gamers at Halo’s hands, the series has a wide variety of haters. Some of whom are Playstation fans who don’t like Xbox (for what ever reason, brand loyalty perhaps or just ignorance), and so with Halo being the face of Xbox 360 inevitably hate Halo as well. Other haters are "true", hardcore PC gamers who frown and look down from their high horse saddles of PC shooters and see Halo as an inferior breed. Then we have people who just hate Halo for the rebellious status. Now, I won’t be too naive, these aren’t all the haters of the Halo brand and that’s not all of their reasons no doubt, yet they make up a good portion of them. There are people who started off by enjoying the original Halo, which in itself was a great and very different fantasy propelled shooter of its time as it offered an involving story, interesting characters, a solid campaign and a varied multiplayer for console owners. On top of all that it offered a whole world, or should I say universe, of possibilities and expansion, but that’s where some felt it should have stopped. We are now onto the third title in the Master Chief series, we’ve had three or so books in between that, and by the looks of things Halo doesn’t look like a trilogy. We have expansion in the form of Halo Wars, Halo Chronicles and maybe even something else from Bungie. You have to ask, has it become a little too much?

I’m a Halo fan, I enjoyed the first game very much when introduced to it a good few years ago now, and I then bought an Xbox because of it. Halo 2, the next game which was obviously highly anticipated, came in 2004 which didn’t soak my appetite as much as Halo did, and I’m sure many others will agree. We now have Halo 3 that is very much a commercial success, I personally feel although it’s of high standard and probably as good as Halo, it hasn’t grabbed me or surpassed a single completion, unlike Halo which I played many times. I have now gotten to the point where I’m hoping there isn’t another one, at least not another one with Master Chief, and I can start to understand the people who don’t necessarily hate Halo but feel there should now be a breather and maybe Bungie should even move onto another type of project.

Expressive hatred for Master Chief

There’s definitely a misunderstanding on both sides; the long term Halo fans who think many hate Halo because they’re not skilled (I think we’ve heard the word "noob" a few times) or they’re just jealous. Or the other system fans that tend to see Halo as nothing unique or special. Now the misconception is that a lot of people don’t hate Halo, they just see it as a trilogy or a one off type of game, these people then get a little edgy because of the Halo fanatic attitude and then go one up and say "I hate the game!" when they know that’s not true. But of course, I’m not representing everyone here, it’s just from the attitudes I have experienced. So about the people who actually "hate" Halo? Well, they tend to just like shooters which stem from a different style. They say Halo isn’t innovative or anything we haven’t seen before, it’s just they’re looking in the wrong places. The reason why a lot of people stay true to the brand is because they know Bungie is going to bring them what they want, which is a continuation of the Master Chief tale upon a simple yet plentiful campaign experience, plentiful in the terms of weapons, enemies and vehicles, and plentiful in the ways to play the game itself. Two player splitscreen campaign, up to four player co-op and of course the almost limitless amount of options when playing the multiplayer. These features just don’t excite some shooter lovers, and look at the game for what it offers differently in a singular experience as just an FPS. I think many see Halo as a bit brain dumb, no skill or sophistication and bringing nothing new to the table. It’s not like Half-life where you can use the physics engine to complete minor puzzles, or like Crysis where you can experience the power of a super soldier by applying different enhancement abilities. It is scope, but in a different direction.

Now, what if the hate has nothing to do with gaming but for the underline reason for being a rebel? Think about it, Halo is a big franchise, makes lots of money, seen as watering out the brand, making the most of its name the cheaper and easy way out for a developer. Halo is on Xbox, Microsoft technology; Microsoft is a huge corporation making large amounts of profit every year, and a serious threat to its competitors. Without getting too political and seeming absurd, it’s seen as cool to be against capitalism, the government and control. Many people will disagree with that, and think I’m entirely idiotic for making such a point, but maybe it’s true without realisation. It’s seen as a trend to love the product, band or whatever no one has ever heard of, a form of independence breaking away from the everyday implication of being just another human being, the thought that you’re enjoying something not many people have experienced. I think it all links in, but we won’t go too much into social behaviour either, the point I’m trying to make is that we can look at something in a lot of ways and love and hate a game for many different reasons, yet we can also understand why someone else might enjoy something. Putting it into context Halo is liked because it is a good title, undoubtedly so. The amount of hype that is put into the title from Microsoft & Bungie may bring it out of proportion, but this is marketing from Microsoft who is known for such strategy, we hear the same type for Windows don’t we? Again, mainly for the popularity and presence it has, or maybe we’re just growing tired of it, like some of us are growing tired of Halo.

But let’s not make the matter any more confusing than it already is, human nature and just general opinion shows that some people enjoy the hype leading up to the next Halo game and know it’s going to be a game for them, others hate the fact a leading title is going on for so long and are wondering why people are making such a big fuss about it. Then you have people, like myself, who enjoy Halo for what it is but know there is only so much more you can do in a series which seems to only follow one character. But I think everyone can be happy about one thing, at least we’re now starting to see Halo outside of Master Chief and hopefully experiencing it from a different genre, and maybe even a different person. All eyes are now on Bungie to see what happens next, as rumors indicate that a new game in the series is on the cards that might opt for the new direction the game could perhaps do with. However as the old adage goes, you can’t always please everyone.