There are two games which converted me to a true believer in the shooter--Halo and GoldenEye. Of the shooters i've played, Halo and GoldenEye are clearly the best. (Perfect Dark was perfect until aliens begin appearing after the AirForceOne mission) I'm going to go through the pros and cons of each, and then you can make the decision. It's just too hard for me to decide which is better.
First of all, comparing graphics is not fair. Halo and GoldenEye both showed superior graphics for their respective consoles.
ENEMIES/CHARACTERS
Right after killing your first two Russians, you get a sniper rifle to pick off more. To me, using the sniper rifle was much more fun in GoldenEye. You could wait until the soldier starts swatting at flies. SNIPE. And then watch as he fell lifelessly to the ground. Killing humans is more thrilling than slaughtering aliens, you just cant relate to them.
However, the AI in GoldenEye was sad at times, as circling around enemies and firing often proved very effective. The enemies in Halo, although less amusing to kill (with the exception of chasing down a screaming Grunt), were far more terrifying and intelligent. Just how did it feel to see those massive Hunters prowling about. And as for AI of your teammates, the marines in Halo proved much effective and humorous than Natalya and her lame a** comments.
As for the characters, GoldenEye shines with the sexy Natalya, the sexier Xenia, 006, Boris, and the rest of the gang; while, in Halo, the characters like Captain Keyes and Cortana are easily forgettable and better forgotten.
WEAPONS
Halo's weapons concentrated highly on detail, i.e. as the assualt rifle counts the number of rounds remaining in your clip. Also the plasma rifle overheating is a nice touch. This made using a particular weapon more enjoyable in Halo. But GoldenEye was quite generous with their weapons. Even though Halo had a nice variety, GoldenEye overwhelmed us with selection. Can you remember half the weapons, Couger Magnum, PP7, Dostovei, RCP-90, laser, kf7, tazer, knives, proximity mines, golden-gun, klobb,...it's ridiculous, the list doesnt end. And having two Dostovei's that was sweet.
Having only two guns added a bit of strategy in Halo which was great, but it was fun choosing 20 different ways to finish each poor Russian in GoldenEye.
For the grenades and explosives, I dont know which one was more enjoyable--throwing a plasma grenade onto a grunt and hearing him scream "get it off, get it off" or watching all the scientists fly and flasks shatter after throwing in a remote mine.
LEVELS
The scope of each level is much greater in Halo. Take the 'raiding the beach' level and you'll understand what I mean. The levels are extraordinary in Halo especially in the beginning, but soon you're spendind forever in the same damn ships and going across the same bridge thrice. In GoldenEye, you do have to repeat the Surface and the Bunker, but the variety and number of great level designs (The dam, the facility, the bunker, silo, frigate, statue park, train, archives, jungle, cradle, aztec, and egyptian) more than makes up for it and humiliates Halo's repetition.
VEHICLES
In GoldenEye, the tank was a revolution in gaming for me. Vehicles in a FPS. WOW. What could be better than James Bond driving a tank and trashing apart a town. Nothing. That was until I took a wild ride in the Warthog. Flying off mountains, blasting it into the air, and even flipping it over and flipping it back. Halo is one of the best vehicle games, and its a FPS. I didnt even mention the Ghost, Scorpion, or Banshee yet.
GAMEPLAY
Halo's gameplay starts off with a bang as covenant tear your pillar of autumn apart. But the gameplay slowly slips away as repetition sinks in, and becomes nearly dreadful with the Flood encounter (God, I hope Halo 2 has no Flood) GoldenEye continually remains fresh as you have to protect Natalya, save hostages, escape from a train with your watch, blow up gas tanks, set bugs, take out cameras, kill Jaws!, and on and on. But as great as these moments are, they just dont compare to the greatness of moments in Halo like when the first dropship sends its first batch of Covenant after you. Halo keeps suprising you in amazement but its just not consistent or as relentless as GoldenEye.
Finally, how cool were the 007 mode and all the incredible creative cheats in GoldenEye. How much time did I spend on the Facility time-cheat? I got 1:24 and that still wasnt fast enough for me. How cool would that have been to have the tiny cheat in Halo; To be a tiny master chief and fight and even larger, even more terrifying Hunter. Or imagine all the enemy with rocket launcher cheat in Halo? I dont think the Grunts would run away anymore if they all had rocket launchers.
All this talk makes me want to leave work and turn on my xbox and hook up my N64 and figure it out thoroughly. But I'm stuck at "work" if I can call this working, so I need ya'll to decide for me.
fowlowl
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