HALO Developer Diary Part 4

HALO Developer Diary Part 4

Jaime Griesemer describes a couple of the many, many things that put HALO in a class of its own when compared to other FPS out on the market, and coming. Calling HALO "just another FPS" is just silly.

Halo Developer Diary Vol. 4
So close we can almost taste the goodness...
by: Jaime Griesemer | October 4, 2001
 

In the fourth installment of the Halo Developer Diary, Bungie level designer Jaime Griesemer describes some of the bug testing going on within Halo. As the game nears completion a lot of the unique aspects of Halo are becoming more apparent. Step inside and listen to Mr. Griesemer as he tells us more about how Halo is different from other action games and how all that hard work is paying off.

Two days ago some crazy (but diligent) tester stacked enough Warthogs to jump on top of an ‘unclimbable’ cliff on one of my levels. Yesterday I saw two Banshees chasing each other in an extremely tight circle two feet above the ground, apparently each pilot trying to report to the other that he couldn\'t find me, but unable to get close enough for the other to hear him shouting. A team assignment error had two characters who should have been on the same side rolling around on the ground trying to bite each other to death. It looked like they were…uh…wrestling. Taking an unexpected path through another one of my levels ended with you being chased all over by an invincible sword-carrying Elite Commander. These are just a few of the bizarre bugs we are finding and fixing during this last polishing stage in Halo’s development.

 
As the game nears completion, it has become easier to see the unique aspects of Halo, the things that make it different from other action games. It’s great to see all the plans we made finally coming together. For example, one of the things that we planned for and worked very hard to capture is the fluidity of Halo’s action. At any time you can fire your primary weapon, throw a grenade, or melee attack. Taken separately, none of these options is particularly special, but the fact that you can do all of them at any time without switching weapons or using modifier keys meant we could make each an important part of the gameplay and gives Halo a unique flavor.

 
You can throw a grenade to drive an elite out of cover, pin him down with your assault rifle and then finish him off with a rifle butt to the face in one seamless action sequence. Alternatively, you can use the plasma pistol overcharge blast or a quick jab to the face to stun a grunt, take the opportunity to stick a plasma grenade to him and watch him panic and run screaming back around the corner to where his friends are hiding, blowing them all up. Or you can use a melee attack to instantly kill a sentry who is looking the wrong way, lob a grenade into the group he was supposed to warn about you and then finish them off with a few bursts from your assault rifle. Halo gives you multiple tools to approach each encounter and all of those tools are tightly focused on tactical combat.

When you add in the vehicles, tactics can become even more complex. The guy riding shotgun in your warthog during a multiplayer game can toss a grenade into the enemy base from his seat, then leap out of the warthog, grab the flag, use the flag to smack another defender and jump back in without you even letting up on the accelerator. Since all of your tools are focused on combat, and since they can be used together seamlessly, Halo’s action is both faster and more tactical, than in most action games.

 
Another thing that makes Halo very unique is its cooperative mode, where two people can play through the solo campaign together. Halo’s cooperative mode allows a player to automatically respawn after he dies, but only if the living player is safely out of combat. The enemies are just as lethal in cooperative as they are in solo play, so you can’t just roll over them with twice as much firepower and twice as much health, you have to make coordinated assaults. For instance, one player can go toe to toe with a Hunter long enough for the other to snipe it in its weak spot. Or one player can distract a large group of Covenant while the other stealthily sneaks around the back, using the silent melee attack on any grunts he finds sleeping or looking the wrong direction, to access the control panel they were guarding. Double-teaming an enemy pilot banshee in an aerial dogfight is definitely one of the coolest cooperative moments in Halo. Although other games have done cooperative play, Halo’s freedom of movement and lifelike AI gives cooperative players numerous options and requires more precise coordination.

 
The main thing that I think makes Halo unique, however, is that the gameplay is inherently dramatic. Carefully scripted music, constant chatter from friends and enemies, and the epic nature of the combat all work together to make each encounter feel like a carefully orchestrated action sequence. I’m not talking about canned cut-scenes that you can only watch but not interact with. The AI, the music, the encounters, the physics and the tactical combat combine to create an unlimited variety of dramatic situations. I’ve seen someone nail a Banshee that was dive-bombing him, watch the flaming wreckage crash into the wall he was taking cover next to and then barely dive out from under it as it nearly fell on top of him. I’ve seen a warthog drive out of a second story window, do a complete back flip and land right in the middle of a squad of Covenant just as one of them said “Does anybody see him?” I’ve seen an energy sword wielding Elite leap down off a ledge right behind two players and cut them down while they were distracted by other Covenant forces, then laugh over their corpses. These things don’t happen rarely in Halo, either, all those examples were from a single coop game.

 
Halo is probably the only game I have ever played where watching someone else play is just as enjoyable as playing yourself, and a good player will often have an entire crowd around his desk as he tackles a particularly tough level. This dramatic quality extends to multiplayer as well. Yesterday we played a giant 16-player LAN game of CTF that ended with our entire team bearing down on the enemy base with two tanks, three ghosts and a warthog, shelling it to force everyone inside, driving a ghost down into the base to swipe the flag, and ended with a high-speed warthog chase back to our base, where we only scored because the pursuing player was sniped out of the driver’s seat mere moments before running over our flag carrier. Any game of Halo has the potential to be as dramatic as any scripted cliffhanger, and it’s even more exciting since it all plays out in real time.

Before I get back to smashing the last handful of bugs on my plate, there’s a couple things I’d like to add. First, thanks for reading, I hope I’ve given you a little insight into how games are developed and how Halo is shaping up. Also, if you are already buying four controllers for Halo, take a look at Fuzion Frenzy, I predict it is going to be a sleeper hit, it has certainly been eating into what little free time I have. And finally, when you are reading reviews and impressions of Halo, watch out for spoilers. We have taken some flack because Halo’s story has been perceived as tired and clichéd. In truth, that’s just because we have gone out of our way to keep most of it secret, so if you really want to savor the story and experience the characters and plot twists as we intended them, please watch out for spoilers.

Comments?

Well, I\'m hesitant because this is the dev talking about his own game.  It\' kind of like asking a mother about her 2 year old kid.

but

IF the game plays out like this, IF all these game elements are intact and useful, IF the vehicles, weapons and melee atacks are correctly balanced, IF Halo is as fun and beautiful as all reports indicate, then this is a killer ap that is going to spread like wild fire in the US.  There is no question.  I can\'t stop thinking about the kick ass commercials they could put together with a game like this after reading this report.

but

if this is sugar coated dev talk, there is going to be a severe back lash that will put the xbox back a couple steps.

Either way, I really want to play this game for myself.

Originally posted by Watchdog
Well, I\'m hesitant because this is the dev talking about his own game.  It\' kind of like asking a mother about her 2 year old kid.

Heh, I see what you\'re sayin\'... But would it make you feel better if I told you what this guy, part of the development team, is only scratching the surface?... Theres a ton of stuff in HALO that I cant even talk about right now. I hate NDAs.

Torture I tell you!... TORTURE!!!

Oh, and about the commercial... Did you see the exclusive footage that TeamXbox posted awhile back? It was like a commercial... All in-game footage. If Bungie shows a commercial like that, HALO will be sellin\' a lot of Xboxes at launch.

... And why has this thread only gotten ONE reply?! This is a kickass article! I expected more!

The reason I didn\'t read this thread before is because I am not getting an Xbox this fall and I knew this would only make me sad.  Halo sounds extremely cool.  All the stuff that you can do in it is amazing.  I wish it was online though, because that is the one thing that\'s holding this game back.

Nu Gundam, I don\'t know if you can say who you work for, but what is your job?  How do you know that what was said is "only scratching the surface?"

Does anyone think this game could be done on the PS2?  I haven\'t seen any in-game footage of this for a long time, so I\'m going to go download some movies before I make my decision.  What do you guys think though?

If I remember correctly, this game was going to be coming to the PS2 too right?  But then it became an Xbox exclusive.  The last footage I saw of it is when it was still coming to the PS2.

Originally posted by IronFist
Nu Gundam, I don\'t know if you can say who you work for, but what is your job?  How do you know that what was said is "only scratching the surface?"

Bungie let a set number of people playtest the game about a month back, I was one of the lucky bastards.

Does anyone think this game could be done on the PS2?

HALO in its current form? I dont think so. Its basically what was said about Rogue Leader being on the PS2 in that thread from a couple of days back, too many hardware specific effects in HALO that would strangle the EE to death. ;o

I haven\'t seen any in-game footage of this for a long time, so I\'m going to go download some movies before I make my decision.

Bah, you didn\'t see the Gamestock 2001 footage? I think that should give you a pretty good idea of what the game looks like(The game does look much better now than it did at Gamestock, though. Much more polished). Then theres that interview movie(Low quality... But good, still), and that exclusive TXB footage I mentioned earlier.

If I remember correctly, this game was going to be coming to the PS2 too right?

I think Bungie was considering it, nothing confirmed... Way back when the Mac version was still being worked on, I believe.

The last footage I saw of it is when it was still coming to the PS2.

... Gasp... Ironfist, go check out some more recent footage, man. The game looks much better than it did when it was on the PC/Mac.

Here\'s the TXB Trailer IronFist, and Watchdog.

This game is going to be amazing, this is the reason i want an Xbox, then after that i looked at all the other cool games coming to it, and i carnt wait.
I really think Xbox is going to be a very very good console, let\'s hope that microsoft is taking the same sort of angle that sony did, when they released the ps1, where they looked after people,and developers and things like that, because that is what made the ps1 such a good console, and from the things i am hearing, that is the same approach microsoft is taking.

Nu, Angelfire doesn\'t allow direct linking.  I\'ve tried to download that movie every way I know how without success.  I did download 2 movies from Gamespot that were from the Xbox expo last February.  I am still not sure what I think about it.  Does anyone know when Xboxes will be on display at stores?  I heard they were coming soon.