Im so glad that someone was able to put this feeling into words! I would spend HOURS wandering around these maps thinking i would uncover some secret mystery if i looked hard enough
The ambience is something else in CE/2. It feels, to me, like you're an incomprehensible distance from home, even on the earth maps. If a Limbo exists between planes of existence, it's Hang Em High, I'm sure of it haha Great video!
I didn’t get to grow up playing Halo, or video games in general. All throughout grade school it was the biggest thing ever, but I wouldn’t experience it for myself until I was already a grown adult. Loading into these maps now, it’s like stumbling into a forest that’s already been burned, or the site of a car accident when everything has already been cleared out. Whole childhoods were built in these digital playgrounds, and now they’re barren. As weird as it sounds, I get a hollow yet reverent feeling just roaming these maps on my own. With that said, it’s nice others have picked up on this, and not just me looking too deep into things! Excellent video as always!
That’s wonderful that you’re able to tap into all of that emotion even though you didn’t have the chance to experience it yourself. Excellent analogies, I totally agree. I find that things are often far deeper than they’re given credit. It may be a fictional world but the impact it’s had on all of us is very real.
Bro same, I second this! Didn't get into halo until the pandemic hit and I got mcc on sale. I felt like I was treading a path that was tread long ago by people I know and love, but had already gone on ahead. Like visiting the abandoned elementary school of an old friend who went to a different school than I did as a kid. I recognize it from pictures or descriptions, I can finally place all the stories they used to tell, but now it's empty. A liminal space. Such a cool experience, even if a bit melancholy.
I've said this time and time again, Halo opened up the imagination like nothing else, it's why it is so amazing still to this day... Some questions are never meant to be answered, some questions are better left off never being asked
I used to play multiplayer maps alone as a kid, because i didn't have internet back then, either the friends to play with it may be sound weird but they made feel not alone at all (not in a scary way) and I think these experiences exploring empty maps shaped my taste in games today
People forget that Halo is a horror game. Yeah, it has its humor and bubbly heroic moments, but at its core, Halo is a horror/shooter. The atmosphere, lore, enemies, hell, the whole premise of the Halo is to wipe out the Flood's FOOD. The Flood is so infectious and unwavering it causes such an immense amount of fear within the universe that the forerunners designed the halo structures to eradicate all life because it's worth it to stop the flood. Tell me that's not the ultimate horror backstory for one of the main enemies in the game.
There is a lot of similarities in the older halo games that come from the movie Aliens and I think the creepy ominous vibe most of these maps have can almost mirror the feeling of walking into Hadley's Hope or the hive on LV-426 before the xenos pop out. Going through the old maps alone almost makes you feel like the flood are just waiting to start coming out of the godamn wall man!
When I was a kid, I didn’t have Xbox live or many friends to play halo with, but I absolutely loved the games. Just walking around these empty multiplayer maps for hours, listening to the ambience and imagining what actually being there would feel like. It was absolutely terrifying, but I couldn’t put it down. Thank you for bringing back those memories ❤️
I miss maps like this. This overwhelming feeling of emptiness, like people either were here and left never to return, or might have never been here at all. The descriptions really helped to sell this feeling, giving some backstory/lore about how these USED to be some important location of how it's a training area that.. might never be used agian. Modern maps all feel like high traffic areas, even with no one here. Like they all just went out to lunch and could be back any moment. I want that "last Spartan alive" feeling again. Even with a x4 overshield and infinite ammo rocket launcher, I still don't feel safe.
One time me and my brother were playing on lockout on Halo 2 against each other on split screen. Sometimes I would cheat and look at his screen, it would be a quick glance just to see if he spotted me already. But one time when we were playing he jumped from the higher part of the map on to a lower level. When he did that in between there was middle platform and when he jumped I looked at his screen for a split second and saw an elite on that middle platform. I nearly jumped and told him “that wasn’t me”, nether me or him were playing as elites and it was an offline match there was no way that should’ve been there. Every time I play on lockout I just think about that moment that put chills to me and my brother, I never heard of the lockout ghost until after that experience when I looked it up.
I grew up with Halo! These maps are very comforting to me and remind me of good times playing games with friends. The maps are definitely lonely without anyone else and the maps in Halo 1 are old and blocky by today's standards. But I still really like the maps in the original, they had really great map designs especially the Gulch, how did they manage to make such an amazing map. But you know, let's say you play Halo 1 PC on release day and start a server without anyone joining for a while, either due to bad connection or bad timing, I'd definitely feel like how you feel now and it happened once in a while. Or Halo 1 PC joining a server that only had 1 other player who was AFK would feel gloomy too! So back then I'd always try to line up for the big servers with 32 players, watching the news or doing quick chores in the meantime. A shame custom servers aren't much of a thing anymore, I'd really like to have made my own 32 player server running 24/7.
Halo 3 maps are also so creepy like Ghostown, that map with all the ambience and sounds it’s so creepy to play alone, more when you hear the footsteps inside of some structures than you can’t access
I used to spooked by playing the maps alone as a kid too. Now as an adult I find them oddly comforting but also still slightly ominous. I used to have dreams about real life places being empty like those maps, being the only living person abd potentially living anything while walking on what should a busy city street during the middle of the day. It was unsettling but overall peaceful to me, I never felt super bothered by it. It was interesting to walk around and explore and entirely empty but somehow still functional world. Liminality is an interesting feeling for sure. Edit because I forgot to mention it before: You ARE being watched in some of those maps according to the lore BTW, at least the ones that are based in Forerunner constructs. Not every Forerunner installation is important enough to warrant getting its own full-blown Monitor, but we do know that all of them are designed to be selff-sustaining. There's computer systems running in the background that are watching the whole area and controlling the Sentinels that maintain the facilities, it's why they're still functional and relatively clean despite being 50,000 years old.
Back when i first played Halo 3 back in 2011, when i wasn't blown away by the campaign levels, the multiplayer maps did kinda freak me out as a kid. Sandtrap especially, it's vast dessert, ancient temples, downed ships, and looming towers just blew me away. I never grew up with wifi, xbox live or even friends to play, besides my older sister who wasn't as much into playing video games as i was, so exploring those maps alone, was pretty eerie.
I loved this video. Exploring the maps alone at night is very similar to swimming in a pool at night. You know there’s nothing there but your mind keeps saying there is and you can very easily convince yourself to get out. I’d love to see a video on the game Condemned. I know it isn’t all that popular but there were some serious scary moments in that game.
That was interesting. Too bad it took until Infinite for them to add bots. That should’ve been added a LONG TIME AGO. Bots will insure that multiplayer maps are still usable if you’re the only one there, or if you just have a few people. I like how the old maps have this weird esoteric geometry. Too bad things like the teleporters and various level hazards didn’t make it into the campaign. That would make the levels more interesting.
It was a long time coming, no doubt. I suppose it happened when it was meant to though. I’m glad that these maps feels this way. It gives them an extra layer of personality and makes them feel timeless in a different kind of way. Not that I’d complain if they added bots to MCC Teleporting in campaign while fighting AIs that can use them too would’ve been cool, for sure.
I’m assuming the reason it’s taken so long for us to get bots and Forge ai is because Halo’s pathfinding has never been the best (just look at how NPCs drive and can get stuck on level geometry. They almost cut the Banshees from CE because they kept getting stuck on trees in the second level, and thankfully got that fixed). Plus, you simply would not be able to have bots/campaign ai properly function in Forge pre-Infinite because you’d have to give players tools to setting up firing positions and other things. There’s a lot of ways it could’ve gone wrong. Ruby’s CE mod incorporates teleporters into the campaign, but they sadly only work for the player. They’re also mostly just used to Easter eggs and getting the player back to the main areas after exploring for hidden weapons. There’s so many cool things that could be done if the ai were designed to interact with extra elements. It would greatly enhance replayability. I also wish that bullet train was encountered in H2’a campaign.
To throw my two cents into the pile of coins, I think the reason empty multiplayer maps are so creepy and unsettling is that they give us a glimpse of what it'd be like to be the last person on earth. It's unsettling because it's a loneliness humans just aren't built for ('no man is an island', after all) so our brains try to fill in the gaps, imagine that there IS someone- or someTHING- else in there with us, as we just can't take being alone to that degree. As for why Halo 1 and 2's maps are creepier than Halo 3 and onwards, it's DEFINITELY the graphical style. CE and 2 have a timeless quality to their graphics, akin to a playable oil painting at times, where there's more than enough detail to get everything across, but juuuuust enough is left up to imagination that, again, our brains naturally fill in the gaps. And obviously, we fill those gaps in with Eldritch horrors. :P
The pit and last resort always gave me these feelings too on halo 3, looking out past the cages at the vacant pelicans and trying to get out too see more
Turf was a big hang out map for me back in the day and i frequently booted it up alone just to soak in the dreary ambience. It really felt like a strange forlorn part of Old Mombasa far away from everything else, reminding me of some of the abandoned neighborhoods in towns near me
Personally I never got so much creeped out as I was more in awe of the maps. There’s a certain lived in feel to them that makes you ponder what on went on there
I'm not sure how to put it into words but stumbling across this video was something I needed right now. Even if for just a moment I felt like a kid again and at peace with everything. Also great video btw!
The eerie feeling is probably that the og maps feels a lot emptier, the newer maps feels more alive since some for example have battles happening in the distance of course with some exceptions. And the rumor of the ghost players did not help at all💀
I remember going through the multiplayer maps back on xbox and they always had a slightly off setting feel to them. Even a few of the net game maps the marathon series are like that too, empty and have an unsettling feeling to them. especially in marathon infinity, with the ambient sounds on the space station themed maps. Bungie was really good at making scifi epics with a bit of unintended? horror to them.
Empty Halo 2 and CE maps share a lot of qualities with liminal spaces. I think what really distinguishes them from the newer games (or remakes for that matter) in terms of the creepy (or what I'll call uncanny) factor is the older games' use of lighting (or lack thereof). Halo 3 and beyond go for more natural lighting, and fairly detailed environments. But Halo 2 and CE offer a lot more dark matte colors to simulate shadows, with sharper contrasts between the light and the dark, and not a ton of detail or objects of note. The light doesn't naturally correlate to its source either, giving the environments an artificial feeling. And due to the limited memory, they creatively employ fog, giant rocks or walls, and tight corridors to imply information beyond the player's view. The environment and/or sound design is also paradoxically "alive" and active, despite having no living things in sight. The effect is that the maps are constantly hinting that someone or something could be there, even when you know no one is there. Hence, there's the constant uncanny or creepy feeling of being watched.
I think part of this feeling is that the early Halo multiplayer maps were very obviously arenas to play in, whereas the later Halo games made a greater attempt in blurring the line that is the confines of the map. It's creepier to be alone in an obviously enclosed area compared to one that appears open.
Something that I was thinking of was “oh it’s because if the times and lack of good hardware is what led to these ominous maps and some devs just trying to create a fun map to run around and fight in until I saw the description “scary, huh” the devs obviously know what they are making is weird and unnerving so I feel that adds an extra layer of confusion to it all
Well for me I think it’s because I didn’t get access to halo online till last year I think it’s the fact I’m walking through a map where people once built their entire childhood that has now become a ghost town
Oh man, been wanting to share my story to why I personally found these maps so creepy. So when I was a kid I didn’t have Xbox live, I didn’t even know you needed it to play multiplayer, so anytime I loaded up a map I was fully ready to see teammates and enemies. When I spawned in and saw no one was with me on the map, it filled me filled me with a serious discomfort. I was so freaked out that I played these maps with the low volume because every time the spartan took a step, breaking the silent whistles of the maps, it genuinely made my skin jump.
The glitch you're referring to is called the Suicide Shot. It was banned at MLG tournaments because a player used it to get out of the bottom blue area on Lockout and force his team to have better spawn points. The phantom feeling you're describing exists because back on OG Xbox and XBL, players could join your open lobby and often would just by looking at their the recent player list. It was common to get shot at in a custom game before you realized another player(s) had joined the lobby. There was no party chat so many people just talked to eachother via the in game proximity chat. Some of this applies to online CE with Xbox Connect and GameSpy Arcade as well. And yes, the Guardians are always watching you, that's the presence you're feeling on those CE/H2 maps, you can feel it a little bit on H3's Guardian map as well. People used to talk about this in old Halo machinimas back in the day like FireTeam Charlie.
What I’m talking about is separate from the suicide shot. The steps to get that to work were completely different than the the weird thing I was referring to. It wasn’t shooting yourself. I distinctly remember just standing there, no input required. The feeling I’m referring to is a little more nebulous than that. I never personally experienced the famous ghost glitch. I also remember feeling this way in lobbies that weren’t joinable at all, on Xboxs that were completely disconnected from the internet
I remember this feeling so strongly as a kid, I was always so unsettled and it felt like I wasn't supposed to be there for whatever reason. Also I don't care what anyone says even if it's not in the coding the ghost of lockout is real and I will die on that hill, I've seen it with my own eyes and no one can tell me otherwise.
@Woodyisasexybeast I mean I was like 11 when I saw it and I'm 29 now but I distinctly remember walking around that sort of lookout area on the left side of the map if you're facing the cliffs and I caught a glimpse of someone walking around and I was alone just kind of vibing in the world
@Woodyisasexybeast I was actually replying to the video before I even finished it and I remember almost all of these awesome little secret things. I used to play on Glitches modes all the time in halo 2 getting out of the map and spending dozens of hours trying to get the golden warthog lol. This was such a great video, it brought back a lot of very fond memories and seeing those old maps again gave me waves of nostalgia.
I think it’s a combination of the ambience and sound scapes \ design ; as well as the fact that in some maps you aren’t alone. The Guardians are a real entity in a sense, they’re the devs killing you for breaking the map boundaries. They sorta add to the lived in sense feeling of the map.
That's one of the reasons I dislike newer games, there's to much detail It's like three pieces of chocolate always tastes better then ten And it almost always always makes it look creeper. AC 1 to 4 and Witcher 1&2 also has those bountiful old graphics
I feel like the reason why the maps from Halo 2 and CE were more so “creepy” is because the attention was focused on that 30 second action mindset. In populated lobbies and intense gameplay you rarely have time to walk around and take in the entirety of the map. Your main concern is to complete the objective before the other team. Whether it’s slayer, assault, capture the flag, etc. you’re driven to fulfill that objective as a team and you’re racing against the clock. I guess that’s why RoosterTeeth, opted to use a lot of halo maps as their main stages. There wasn’t much audio having to be removed, and the scenery spoke for itself. I can’t imagine how difficult it must’ve been had the maps featured more sounds effects than it needed. In any case, when I played Halo 2 and CE multiplayer by myself. I was always greeted by empty halls and solitude. Mainly because mostly everyone had moved to Halo 3 or Reach by that time. The older halo maps are battlefields that had been left barren and a graveyard for all the countless of hours spent by people who had fun getting their kill streak medals announced by Jeff Stitzer.
Damn. I am planning a video just like this, only I never have time to work on it and it will likely be much longer. Though I am glad that others are starting to take notice of this phenomenon. Great content, keep it up.
I could’ve gone on and on, analyzing the eeriness of other maps but I think that’s best saved for a more lore focused video that I’d like to do in the future. I’d also like to do a video specifically about the weird ghosts of Halo phenomenon but again, that’s best saved for something else I think. Thank you ❤️
Do you think you’ll make videos on any mods? There’s this cool single one on Steam Workshop called Facility that swaps out a bunch of the assets for ones from Sony’s “Halo Killer” Resistance. It’s a lot of fun. It does a good job of having an eerie atmosphere like you talked about in this video (unfortunately a lot of the areas loot the same and there’s too much fog. It could use a few light sources, a fog reduction, and coloring certain areas so you’re less likely to get lost). Although, you NEED to play the game on easy because it throws WAY TOO MANY enemies at you and I died several times after getting swarmed (so glad I took KYOT’s advice after watching his coverage of the mod. It also lags at a few parts because of the large influx of allied and enemy NPCs). You start out fighting Flood in this facility then you go outside into the snow and start fighting a mix of Slugmen and Drinols (the Slugmen are probably one of my new favorite enemy because they’re basically proto-Skirmishers. Both fill the role of these agile aggressive units that are right below Elites and can double as a sniper/marksman). You’ll need to carry the shotgun with you because in my experience you only get one of them and if you go too far you won’t be able to get it back because the level blocks off old areas after a certain point. Thankfully, it gives you a bunch of ammo at areas. It also could’ve made power weapons like the sniper, flame throwers, and mini guns more common because they’re fun to use (hiding them in out of the way locations would’ve been a good way to reward exploration). The modder also should’ve made the blue Slugman variant armed with the Bullseye 2 more common so you can get more ammo for that gun, increase the amount of Drinols seen (Hunterunt made a mod that ports them into H2, and he made it so they’re immune to being splattered, their armor resists small arms fire, and their “eye” is the weak spot. That’s what all mods going forwards should do with them. They should also make it so the creature ONLY flinches whenever you shoot the weak spot as a visual indication you’re doing more damage). The mod could also use some reskinned Sentinels because in Resistance 2/3 the Chimera have drones and it would add some much needed enemy variety into the mix. Even with these rough edges it’s still really fun and you should DEFINITELY check it out. I hope the modder makes an updated version that addresses these issues, and makes a part 2 electric boogaloo. It’s really too bad that Sony has abandoned so many of their older games. Let’s hope that with the explosive success they’ve seen from porting their games to pc that they’ll start porting a good chunk of their back catalog to Steam/GOG. Seeing cool mods like that Mercury Rising, Crash Site, and various others that use unused/new content make me wish that back in the day we would’ve gotten expansions for CE/2 (that’s basically what ODST is for 3). I think Gearbox would’ve been a good choice since back in the day they made Half-Life’s expansions and Opposing Force is possibly one of the best things of official Half-Life content we’ve gotten. Dumpster fires like Aliens Colonial Marines (there’s a mod made by the same guy who discovered the reason why the ai is so bad is because the worth tether was misspelled, and it makes the game good or at least just not bad. It fixes up the gunplay, so, graphics, and sounds to give a more polished experience. Unfortunately, it doesn’t completely overhaul the game to the point where it matches the blatantly false advertising) and Duke Nukem Forever (that’s one case where Gearbox gets too much flak. Like 90% of the game’s problems were caused by George Broussard. He’s the reason they kept switching engines and cramming in all these mechanics that didn’t belong in Duke Nukem. That being said Gearbox should’ve never released the game in the state it was in) were still a ways off. I know the pc port for CE was pretty scuffed, but it also added a lot of cool multiplayer content like maps and weapons/vehicles.
Honestly, no clue. I play primarily on my Xbox because I prefer the easy access and like that I don’t have to deal with extra bullshit to get games to run. I do a bit of PC gaming if I have no other choice though. I love seeing mod videos and I tried downloading MCC on my PC the other day but the Microsoft store is completely broken and for whatever reason it refuses to install it in my computer. I could get it through steam but I just didn’t feel like buying it again 🤷♂️
That’s too bad that it’s not working for you. I was going to say if you didn’t already have the computer version to get it on Steam since it regularly goes on sale for 75% off. Also, Steam Workshop allows you to browse various mods and clicking subscribe will download the thing without going through a bunch of steps that would be required to make them work like on Nexus or Moddb. I’ve been playing MCC on my Steam Deck lately and it works perfectly there. It’s basically a handheld Linux pc. There’s emulators that let you play a lot of older games (haven’t gotten that figured out yet and probably won’t for a while since I’m not super good with computers and usually need help to make sure I don’t mess something up). You can connect a keyboard and mouse/controller through Bluetooth, or use the wired method through the charging dock. You can also use the dock to hook it up to a monitor or tv. There’s some games like RTSs and old shooters that only really work with keyboard and mouse. For most games I prefer to use a controller since I’ve been doing that since I was a kid, but I’ll go with whatever control method works best for the specific game. It’s pretty crazy what you can do with it. Unfortunately , the battery life SUCKS. From what I’ve heard the OLED has better battery life and is more powerful with extra memory, but I just have the normal version and an SD card for extra storage. There’s also Windows gaming laptops (I’m a weirdo so I prefer laptops over normal computers. Probably because I’m high school they had us use Chromebooks and now laptops are just my preference). One of my cousins got a refurbished one and it’s been serving him really well. Hopefully, you’re able to get that figured out. What other aspects do you think you’ll do videos on?
@shreksnow1918 I have a small steam library that I play whenever I have no other choice. It’s a great platform I just prefer console gaming as that’s what I grew up with/it’s easier. Not sure. Narrative is my bread and butter but I really enjoyed making the few glitch/challenge videos I’ve done. Maybe some more collectible stuff? I was thinking about making a video about one of the old, really terrible halo mega bloks sets.
@Woodyisasexybeast Makes sense. I don’t have a platform preference since I’d switch between Nintendo, Xbox, and pc (mostly Flash games and a few Steam games) growing up. I like how pc has a lot of older games on storefronts like GOG, and I’ll usually buy used games for console. There’s some games that just feel better with a certain control scheme. RTS games only truly work on pc since the keyboard and mouse allow for a far greater level of precision and control. Halo Wars was fun for the most part, but it’s VERY bare bones since the game is shackled to a controller. There’s also some Wii games that would feel better without the motion controls, while others work best with them. It’s a case by case basis. That would be entertaining. It’s funny when a Lego or Megablocks set is really bad. It’s really interesting seeing how those change overtime. It reminds me of the nonexistent “content drought” (there was still PLENTY of older things to cover like books, comics, fan content, and other things. They just wanted to make their bad clickbait to get views) when the big Halo TH-camrs were making HORRIBLE Infinite clickbait where they’d make all these COMPLETELY nonsensical theories about how the game would be based on blurry images of Megablocks sets and action figures (Halo Follower is the WORST of these). Too bad that Megablocks game got scrapped. They should’ve released that and made 4 be a launch title for the Xbox 720 (remember those “leaks”? It’s funny just how bad the fake controller looked. One of my favorites was the Wii Phone😂). I’m sure the game would’ve been better if it wasn’t constrained by the 360, and they would’ve had more time to fix various issues. If you look at the older builds of the game the levels were more open and had more ai running around. The Forerunner architecture also looked more like something Bungie would’ve made. The game should’ve had 2-3 more levels to do a better job of explaining the different factions. There’s a lot of things I liked about 4, but the execution wasn’t that good and I now realize it changed a lot of the lore (how Rampancy worked and with the exception of the few things Frank O’Conner had direct control over humans and Forerunners were one in the same. In fact, what’s what the Human Covenant War was started to cover up and why we could naturally interface with technology that was unresponsive to other species). There’s various aspects from Bungie and 343’s versions of Halo I really do and don’t like. The good stuff from both should be praised, and the bad stuff from both should be criticized. I tend to lean more towards the Bungie side, but I’m not going to act like their stuff was flawless and the second anyone says “we want Bungie back” I’m out because modern Bungie is a complete dumpster fire. Sony MASSIVELY overpaid for a studio that’s long past its prime (plus, a lot of Bungie’s IPs like Myth, Oni, and Halo are owned by other studios. Marathon is really cool, but it hasn’t been relevant since Mac gaming was a thing. Plus, the rest of their games are on par with your average Flash game. Fun for a while, but you cannot make a major franchise out of them). Good luck on that Megablocks video. I’m sure it will be funny.
Seen a few videos revisiting empty Halo maps. Did the servers for halo 1-3 close down on PC and Xbox live? Or ppl just moved on nobody online? Hard to believe nobody at all plays these online anymore, they still hold up
Also apparently the banging on the door in the map ivory tower actually has some lore behind it, some say it’s the ghost of lance O’Donnell who previously owned the building ivory tower was set in I’ve always found this theory to be very creepy especially when I heard the banging for myself
Oh weird, I’ve never heard that theory before. I like it. I was standing there hoping to hear the secret music cue, siege of madrigal but the banging happened instead lol
Bungie is good at what they do, when they're given the freedom to do it. They're still on this track. Even if you don't care for the game, you should watch the Destiny 2 Final Shape reveal trailer. I bet you'll get some of those vibes you're talking about
Yeah, the OG team were masters at making things spooky. 343 has made some spooky maps too but something about the old stuff just hits different. I’m not fan of Bungie these days. Destiny was always just ok to me but I’ll give it a watch at some point.
THIS WAS BEFORE XBOX LIVE DAYS! WHEN YOU HAD TO GET YOUR COUSINS XBOX AND LINK UP AND GO IN SEPARATE ROOMS SO THEY WOULDN’T LOOK AT YOUR SCREEN… Ahh good old days man
It was a real part of the game but it was fabricated by me for the video. Just to set the mood a bit. I did some clever cuts. Nothing added in post, just a player there in one lobby and absent in another.
You’re absolutely right. I don’t think Halo 3 lacks it entirely. I just don’t think ALL of the maps are spooky like they are in CE and 2. I tried to be careful with my wording there because I do think there are moments in the later games that invoke the same feeling. It’s just less prevalent
Some of the ambience sound effects are used in other movies and games. The sidewinder breathing/wind effect is used in other media. Hang em highs effects are very similarly used in other games from the 2000's such as Metal Arms:Glitch in the system.
Im so glad that someone was able to put this feeling into words! I would spend HOURS wandering around these maps thinking i would uncover some secret mystery if i looked hard enough
The ambience in these games were perfect
The ambience is something else in CE/2. It feels, to me, like you're an incomprehensible distance from home, even on the earth maps. If a Limbo exists between planes of existence, it's Hang Em High, I'm sure of it haha
Great video!
Ah yes, calling it limbo is a great comparison.
Thanks!
Hard agree
I didn’t get to grow up playing Halo, or video games in general. All throughout grade school it was the biggest thing ever, but I wouldn’t experience it for myself until I was already a grown adult. Loading into these maps now, it’s like stumbling into a forest that’s already been burned, or the site of a car accident when everything has already been cleared out. Whole childhoods were built in these digital playgrounds, and now they’re barren. As weird as it sounds, I get a hollow yet reverent feeling just roaming these maps on my own. With that said, it’s nice others have picked up on this, and not just me looking too deep into things! Excellent video as always!
That’s wonderful that you’re able to tap into all of that emotion even though you didn’t have the chance to experience it yourself. Excellent analogies, I totally agree.
I find that things are often far deeper than they’re given credit. It may be a fictional world but the impact it’s had on all of us is very real.
This is deep
Bro same, I second this! Didn't get into halo until the pandemic hit and I got mcc on sale.
I felt like I was treading a path that was tread long ago by people I know and love, but had already gone on ahead. Like visiting the abandoned elementary school of an old friend who went to a different school than I did as a kid.
I recognize it from pictures or descriptions, I can finally place all the stories they used to tell, but now it's empty. A liminal space.
Such a cool experience, even if a bit melancholy.
I think its because of how big the older maps are and the simple textures leaving your mind to wonder?
I think that’s definitely a factor.
I've said this time and time again, Halo opened up the imagination like nothing else, it's why it is so amazing still to this day... Some questions are never meant to be answered, some questions are better left off never being asked
The ghost of Lockout glitch happened to me before. Happened on Turf too. Every map has its own vibe and eerie vacancy.
I used to play multiplayer maps alone as a kid, because i didn't have internet back then, either the friends to play with
it may be sound weird but they made feel not alone at all (not in a scary way) and I think these experiences exploring empty maps shaped my taste in games today
I think that has happened to me too
People forget that Halo is a horror game. Yeah, it has its humor and bubbly heroic moments, but at its core, Halo is a horror/shooter. The atmosphere, lore, enemies, hell, the whole premise of the Halo is to wipe out the Flood's FOOD. The Flood is so infectious and unwavering it causes such an immense amount of fear within the universe that the forerunners designed the halo structures to eradicate all life because it's worth it to stop the flood. Tell me that's not the ultimate horror backstory for one of the main enemies in the game.
100%. Halo is packed to the brim with horror themes and elements even though it’s not *technically* a horror game
Your considerations make me think of both F.E.A.R. and Dead Space, too.
There is a lot of similarities in the older halo games that come from the movie Aliens and I think the creepy ominous vibe most of these maps have can almost mirror the feeling of walking into Hadley's Hope or the hive on LV-426 before the xenos pop out. Going through the old maps alone almost makes you feel like the flood are just waiting to start coming out of the godamn wall man!
Like the flood is stored somewhere on this ring. I get the sand feeling too. Peak halo. God I miss it being good
When I was a kid, I didn’t have Xbox live or many friends to play halo with, but I absolutely loved the games. Just walking around these empty multiplayer maps for hours, listening to the ambience and imagining what actually being there would feel like. It was absolutely terrifying, but I couldn’t put it down. Thank you for bringing back those memories ❤️
I miss maps like this. This overwhelming feeling of emptiness, like people either were here and left never to return, or might have never been here at all.
The descriptions really helped to sell this feeling, giving some backstory/lore about how these USED to be some important location of how it's a training area that.. might never be used agian. Modern maps all feel like high traffic areas, even with no one here. Like they all just went out to lunch and could be back any moment. I want that "last Spartan alive" feeling again. Even with a x4 overshield and infinite ammo rocket launcher, I still don't feel safe.
One time me and my brother were playing on lockout on Halo 2 against each other on split screen. Sometimes I would cheat and look at his screen, it would be a quick glance just to see if he spotted me already. But one time when we were playing he jumped from the higher part of the map on to a lower level. When he did that in between there was middle platform and when he jumped I looked at his screen for a split second and saw an elite on that middle platform. I nearly jumped and told him “that wasn’t me”, nether me or him were playing as elites and it was an offline match there was no way that should’ve been there. Every time I play on lockout I just think about that moment that put chills to me and my brother, I never heard of the lockout ghost until after that experience when I looked it up.
I find it so fascinating that so many people have anecdotes like this. Can’t wrap my head around what a possible explanation could be
Me who plays Gmod for over 3000 Hours without ever touching Multiplayer:
Saaaaame
Those mp levels, specially halo ce were so so unsettling, I just loved to enter alone and feel the creepyness, awesome video, keep em coming
A creepy belief of mine that I like to indulge in is that those camo players are the ghosts of dead players who never left the game
That’s very tragic. Maybe not the worst afterlife, I suppose. Living on in your favorite game. Suppose it could be worse
The most creepy part about all this, is playing halo CE with low crosshair 💀💀💀
I grew up with Halo! These maps are very comforting to me and remind me of good times playing games with friends. The maps are definitely lonely without anyone else and the maps in Halo 1 are old and blocky by today's standards. But I still really like the maps in the original, they had really great map designs especially the Gulch, how did they manage to make such an amazing map. But you know, let's say you play Halo 1 PC on release day and start a server without anyone joining for a while, either due to bad connection or bad timing, I'd definitely feel like how you feel now and it happened once in a while. Or Halo 1 PC joining a server that only had 1 other player who was AFK would feel gloomy too! So back then I'd always try to line up for the big servers with 32 players, watching the news or doing quick chores in the meantime. A shame custom servers aren't much of a thing anymore, I'd really like to have made my own 32 player server running 24/7.
Bungie did a great job leaving certain things unanswered like these maps and many things in the lore. 343 just gives answers and ruins mystery
It's all because you remember the sounds and feeling of those maps when they were in their full glory. Full teams going at it
I absolutely love Bungies ambiance. I could speep to these sounds. Especially the Halo 1 ambient background sound.
Halo 3 maps are also so creepy like Ghostown, that map with all the ambience and sounds it’s so creepy to play alone, more when you hear the footsteps inside of some structures than you can’t access
Oh yeah. Halo 3 is eerie too but for some reason 2 spooked my a little bit more back in the day. Not sure why
loved Ghost Town, 10/10 Infection map. Terrible Capture the Flag map though lol
I used to spooked by playing the maps alone as a kid too. Now as an adult I find them oddly comforting but also still slightly ominous. I used to have dreams about real life places being empty like those maps, being the only living person abd potentially living anything while walking on what should a busy city street during the middle of the day. It was unsettling but overall peaceful to me, I never felt super bothered by it. It was interesting to walk around and explore and entirely empty but somehow still functional world. Liminality is an interesting feeling for sure.
Edit because I forgot to mention it before: You ARE being watched in some of those maps according to the lore BTW, at least the ones that are based in Forerunner constructs. Not every Forerunner installation is important enough to warrant getting its own full-blown Monitor, but we do know that all of them are designed to be selff-sustaining. There's computer systems running in the background that are watching the whole area and controlling the Sentinels that maintain the facilities, it's why they're still functional and relatively clean despite being 50,000 years old.
Back when i first played Halo 3 back in 2011, when i wasn't blown away by the campaign levels, the multiplayer maps did kinda freak me out as a kid. Sandtrap especially, it's vast dessert, ancient temples, downed ships, and looming towers just blew me away. I never grew up with wifi, xbox live or even friends to play, besides my older sister who wasn't as much into playing video games as i was, so exploring those maps alone, was pretty eerie.
I loved this video. Exploring the maps alone at night is very similar to swimming in a pool at night. You know there’s nothing there but your mind keeps saying there is and you can very easily convince yourself to get out. I’d love to see a video on the game Condemned. I know it isn’t all that popular but there were some serious scary moments in that game.
That was interesting. Too bad it took until Infinite for them to add bots. That should’ve been added a LONG TIME AGO. Bots will insure that multiplayer maps are still usable if you’re the only one there, or if you just have a few people.
I like how the old maps have this weird esoteric geometry. Too bad things like the teleporters and various level hazards didn’t make it into the campaign. That would make the levels more interesting.
It was a long time coming, no doubt. I suppose it happened when it was meant to though. I’m glad that these maps feels this way. It gives them an extra layer of personality and makes them feel timeless in a different kind of way. Not that I’d complain if they added bots to MCC
Teleporting in campaign while fighting AIs that can use them too would’ve been cool, for sure.
I’m assuming the reason it’s taken so long for us to get bots and Forge ai is because Halo’s pathfinding has never been the best (just look at how NPCs drive and can get stuck on level geometry. They almost cut the Banshees from CE because they kept getting stuck on trees in the second level, and thankfully got that fixed). Plus, you simply would not be able to have bots/campaign ai properly function in Forge pre-Infinite because you’d have to give players tools to setting up firing positions and other things. There’s a lot of ways it could’ve gone wrong.
Ruby’s CE mod incorporates teleporters into the campaign, but they sadly only work for the player. They’re also mostly just used to Easter eggs and getting the player back to the main areas after exploring for hidden weapons.
There’s so many cool things that could be done if the ai were designed to interact with extra elements. It would greatly enhance replayability.
I also wish that bullet train was encountered in H2’a campaign.
To throw my two cents into the pile of coins, I think the reason empty multiplayer maps are so creepy and unsettling is that they give us a glimpse of what it'd be like to be the last person on earth. It's unsettling because it's a loneliness humans just aren't built for ('no man is an island', after all) so our brains try to fill in the gaps, imagine that there IS someone- or someTHING- else in there with us, as we just can't take being alone to that degree.
As for why Halo 1 and 2's maps are creepier than Halo 3 and onwards, it's DEFINITELY the graphical style. CE and 2 have a timeless quality to their graphics, akin to a playable oil painting at times, where there's more than enough detail to get everything across, but juuuuust enough is left up to imagination that, again, our brains naturally fill in the gaps. And obviously, we fill those gaps in with Eldritch horrors. :P
The pit and last resort always gave me these feelings too on halo 3, looking out past the cages at the vacant pelicans and trying to get out too see more
Turf was a big hang out map for me back in the day and i frequently booted it up alone just to soak in the dreary ambience. It really felt like a strange forlorn part of Old Mombasa far away from everything else, reminding me of some of the abandoned neighborhoods in towns near me
Personally I never got so much creeped out as I was more in awe of the maps. There’s a certain lived in feel to them that makes you ponder what on went on there
I'm not sure how to put it into words but stumbling across this video was something I needed right now. Even if for just a moment I felt like a kid again and at peace with everything. Also great video btw!
The eerie feeling is probably that the og maps feels a lot emptier, the newer maps feels more alive since some for example have battles happening in the distance of course with some exceptions.
And the rumor of the ghost players did not help at all💀
I remember going through the multiplayer maps back on xbox and they always had a slightly off setting feel to them. Even a few of the net game maps the marathon series are like that too, empty and have an unsettling feeling to them. especially in marathon infinity, with the ambient sounds on the space station themed maps. Bungie was really good at making scifi epics with a bit of unintended? horror to them.
Empty Halo 2 and CE maps share a lot of qualities with liminal spaces. I think what really distinguishes them from the newer games (or remakes for that matter) in terms of the creepy (or what I'll call uncanny) factor is the older games' use of lighting (or lack thereof). Halo 3 and beyond go for more natural lighting, and fairly detailed environments. But Halo 2 and CE offer a lot more dark matte colors to simulate shadows, with sharper contrasts between the light and the dark, and not a ton of detail or objects of note. The light doesn't naturally correlate to its source either, giving the environments an artificial feeling. And due to the limited memory, they creatively employ fog, giant rocks or walls, and tight corridors to imply information beyond the player's view. The environment and/or sound design is also paradoxically "alive" and active, despite having no living things in sight. The effect is that the maps are constantly hinting that someone or something could be there, even when you know no one is there. Hence, there's the constant uncanny or creepy feeling of being watched.
I think part of this feeling is that the early Halo multiplayer maps were very obviously arenas to play in, whereas the later Halo games made a greater attempt in blurring the line that is the confines of the map. It's creepier to be alone in an obviously enclosed area compared to one that appears open.
Something that I was thinking of was “oh it’s because if the times and lack of good hardware is what led to these ominous maps and some devs just trying to create a fun map to run around and fight in until I saw the description “scary, huh” the devs obviously know what they are making is weird and unnerving so I feel that adds an extra layer of confusion to it all
Well for me I think it’s because I didn’t get access to halo online till last year I think it’s the fact I’m walking through a map where people once built their entire childhood that has now become a ghost town
Oh man, been wanting to share my story to why I personally found these maps so creepy. So when I was a kid I didn’t have Xbox live, I didn’t even know you needed it to play multiplayer, so anytime I loaded up a map I was fully ready to see teammates and enemies. When I spawned in and saw no one was with me on the map, it filled me filled me with a serious discomfort. I was so freaked out that I played these maps with the low volume because every time the spartan took a step, breaking the silent whistles of the maps, it genuinely made my skin jump.
The glitch you're referring to is called the Suicide Shot. It was banned at MLG tournaments because a player used it to get out of the bottom blue area on Lockout and force his team to have better spawn points.
The phantom feeling you're describing exists because back on OG Xbox and XBL, players could join your open lobby and often would just by looking at their the recent player list. It was common to get shot at in a custom game before you realized another player(s) had joined the lobby. There was no party chat so many people just talked to eachother via the in game proximity chat. Some of this applies to online CE with Xbox Connect and GameSpy Arcade as well.
And yes, the Guardians are always watching you, that's the presence you're feeling on those CE/H2 maps, you can feel it a little bit on H3's Guardian map as well. People used to talk about this in old Halo machinimas back in the day like FireTeam Charlie.
What I’m talking about is separate from the suicide shot. The steps to get that to work were completely different than the the weird thing I was referring to. It wasn’t shooting yourself. I distinctly remember just standing there, no input required.
The feeling I’m referring to is a little more nebulous than that. I never personally experienced the famous ghost glitch. I also remember feeling this way in lobbies that weren’t joinable at all, on Xboxs that were completely disconnected from the internet
I remember this feeling so strongly as a kid, I was always so unsettled and it felt like I wasn't supposed to be there for whatever reason. Also I don't care what anyone says even if it's not in the coding the ghost of lockout is real and I will die on that hill, I've seen it with my own eyes and no one can tell me otherwise.
Please elaborate, I’m fascinated
@Woodyisasexybeast I mean I was like 11 when I saw it and I'm 29 now but I distinctly remember walking around that sort of lookout area on the left side of the map if you're facing the cliffs and I caught a glimpse of someone walking around and I was alone just kind of vibing in the world
There are so many unique accounts of similar phenomenon. Makes me wonder if there really is something to it
@Woodyisasexybeast I was actually replying to the video before I even finished it and I remember almost all of these awesome little secret things. I used to play on Glitches modes all the time in halo 2 getting out of the map and spending dozens of hours trying to get the golden warthog lol. This was such a great video, it brought back a lot of very fond memories and seeing those old maps again gave me waves of nostalgia.
I think it’s a combination of the ambience and sound scapes \ design ; as well as the fact that in some maps you aren’t alone. The Guardians are a real entity in a sense, they’re the devs killing you for breaking the map boundaries. They sorta add to the lived in sense feeling of the map.
That's one of the reasons I dislike newer games, there's to much detail
It's like three pieces of chocolate always tastes better then ten
And it almost always always makes it look creeper. AC 1 to 4 and Witcher 1&2 also has those bountiful old graphics
I get that. I’m not even saying I prefer the old games but there’s definitely something there that just doesn’t exist anymore
“Numerous scientific expeditions have failed to reveal what the Forerunners intended with all this damn gas.”
I feel like the reason why the maps from Halo 2 and CE were more so “creepy” is because the attention was focused on that 30 second action mindset.
In populated lobbies and intense gameplay you rarely have time to walk around and take in the entirety of the map. Your main concern is to complete the objective before the other team. Whether it’s slayer, assault, capture the flag, etc. you’re driven to fulfill that objective as a team and you’re racing against the clock.
I guess that’s why RoosterTeeth, opted to use a lot of halo maps as their main stages. There wasn’t much audio having to be removed, and the scenery spoke for itself. I can’t imagine how difficult it must’ve been had the maps featured more sounds effects than it needed.
In any case, when I played Halo 2 and CE multiplayer by myself. I was always greeted by empty halls and solitude. Mainly because mostly everyone had moved to Halo 3 or Reach by that time. The older halo maps are battlefields that had been left barren and a graveyard for all the countless of hours spent by people who had fun getting their kill streak medals announced by Jeff Stitzer.
Such nostalgia 😢
i have a memory of seeing something that looked like a player in active camo in sandtrap (xbox 360 halo 3)
I do remember Halo 3 being a bit spooky as well but not quite at the level Halo 2 was.
Damn. I am planning a video just like this, only I never have time to work on it and it will likely be much longer. Though I am glad that others are starting to take notice of this phenomenon. Great content, keep it up.
I could’ve gone on and on, analyzing the eeriness of other maps but I think that’s best saved for a more lore focused video that I’d like to do in the future. I’d also like to do a video specifically about the weird ghosts of Halo phenomenon but again, that’s best saved for something else I think.
Thank you ❤️
@@Woodyisasexybeast Keep it up. The community needs more unsettling and horror-themed Halo content.
halo three sandtrap has always freaked me out. particularly as a kid growing up.
I remember being spooked by sandtrap and sandbox as well just much less so than Halo 2 for whatever reason
The fucking sound at 0:29 must come back if halo is to succeed. THAT and the occasional breath sound you hear on sidewinder etc
Makes my skin crawl every time. Like wtf is that?
Nice video brother!
Thanks, brother ☝️
I have seen the message "killed by the guardians" a few times in halo 2, but the one I remember clearly is the train in terminal. Who was driving it?
Excellent stuff here Woody
Gotta love abandoned playspaces
Do you think you’ll make videos on any mods? There’s this cool single one on Steam Workshop called Facility that swaps out a bunch of the assets for ones from Sony’s “Halo Killer” Resistance. It’s a lot of fun. It does a good job of having an eerie atmosphere like you talked about in this video (unfortunately a lot of the areas loot the same and there’s too much fog. It could use a few light sources, a fog reduction, and coloring certain areas so you’re less likely to get lost). Although, you NEED to play the game on easy because it throws WAY TOO MANY enemies at you and I died several times after getting swarmed (so glad I took KYOT’s advice after watching his coverage of the mod. It also lags at a few parts because of the large influx of allied and enemy NPCs). You start out fighting Flood in this facility then you go outside into the snow and start fighting a mix of Slugmen and Drinols (the Slugmen are probably one of my new favorite enemy because they’re basically proto-Skirmishers. Both fill the role of these agile aggressive units that are right below Elites and can double as a sniper/marksman). You’ll need to carry the shotgun with you because in my experience you only get one of them and if you go too far you won’t be able to get it back because the level blocks off old areas after a certain point. Thankfully, it gives you a bunch of ammo at areas. It also could’ve made power weapons like the sniper, flame throwers, and mini guns more common because they’re fun to use (hiding them in out of the way locations would’ve been a good way to reward exploration). The modder also should’ve made the blue Slugman variant armed with the Bullseye 2 more common so you can get more ammo for that gun, increase the amount of Drinols seen (Hunterunt made a mod that ports them into H2, and he made it so they’re immune to being splattered, their armor resists small arms fire, and their “eye” is the weak spot. That’s what all mods going forwards should do with them. They should also make it so the creature ONLY flinches whenever you shoot the weak spot as a visual indication you’re doing more damage). The mod could also use some reskinned Sentinels because in Resistance 2/3 the Chimera have drones and it would add some much needed enemy variety into the mix. Even with these rough edges it’s still really fun and you should DEFINITELY check it out. I hope the modder makes an updated version that addresses these issues, and makes a part 2 electric boogaloo.
It’s really too bad that Sony has abandoned so many of their older games. Let’s hope that with the explosive success they’ve seen from porting their games to pc that they’ll start porting a good chunk of their back catalog to Steam/GOG.
Seeing cool mods like that Mercury Rising, Crash Site, and various others that use unused/new content make me wish that back in the day we would’ve gotten expansions for CE/2 (that’s basically what ODST is for 3). I think Gearbox would’ve been a good choice since back in the day they made Half-Life’s expansions and Opposing Force is possibly one of the best things of official Half-Life content we’ve gotten. Dumpster fires like Aliens Colonial Marines (there’s a mod made by the same guy who discovered the reason why the ai is so bad is because the worth tether was misspelled, and it makes the game good or at least just not bad. It fixes up the gunplay, so, graphics, and sounds to give a more polished experience. Unfortunately, it doesn’t completely overhaul the game to the point where it matches the blatantly false advertising) and Duke Nukem Forever (that’s one case where Gearbox gets too much flak. Like 90% of the game’s problems were caused by George Broussard. He’s the reason they kept switching engines and cramming in all these mechanics that didn’t belong in Duke Nukem. That being said Gearbox should’ve never released the game in the state it was in) were still a ways off. I know the pc port for CE was pretty scuffed, but it also added a lot of cool multiplayer content like maps and weapons/vehicles.
Honestly, no clue. I play primarily on my Xbox because I prefer the easy access and like that I don’t have to deal with extra bullshit to get games to run. I do a bit of PC gaming if I have no other choice though. I love seeing mod videos and I tried downloading MCC on my PC the other day but the Microsoft store is completely broken and for whatever reason it refuses to install it in my computer. I could get it through steam but I just didn’t feel like buying it again 🤷♂️
That’s too bad that it’s not working for you. I was going to say if you didn’t already have the computer version to get it on Steam since it regularly goes on sale for 75% off. Also, Steam Workshop allows you to browse various mods and clicking subscribe will download the thing without going through a bunch of steps that would be required to make them work like on Nexus or Moddb. I’ve been playing MCC on my Steam Deck lately and it works perfectly there. It’s basically a handheld Linux pc. There’s emulators that let you play a lot of older games (haven’t gotten that figured out yet and probably won’t for a while since I’m not super good with computers and usually need help to make sure I don’t mess something up). You can connect a keyboard and mouse/controller through Bluetooth, or use the wired method through the charging dock. You can also use the dock to hook it up to a monitor or tv. There’s some games like RTSs and old shooters that only really work with keyboard and mouse. For most games I prefer to use a controller since I’ve been doing that since I was a kid, but I’ll go with whatever control method works best for the specific game. It’s pretty crazy what you can do with it. Unfortunately , the battery life SUCKS. From what I’ve heard the OLED has better battery life and is more powerful with extra memory, but I just have the normal version and an SD card for extra storage. There’s also Windows gaming laptops (I’m a weirdo so I prefer laptops over normal computers. Probably because I’m high school they had us use Chromebooks and now laptops are just my preference). One of my cousins got a refurbished one and it’s been serving him really well.
Hopefully, you’re able to get that figured out. What other aspects do you think you’ll do videos on?
@shreksnow1918 I have a small steam library that I play whenever I have no other choice. It’s a great platform I just prefer console gaming as that’s what I grew up with/it’s easier.
Not sure. Narrative is my bread and butter but I really enjoyed making the few glitch/challenge videos I’ve done. Maybe some more collectible stuff? I was thinking about making a video about one of the old, really terrible halo mega bloks sets.
Why tf yall making yo messages so damn long
@Woodyisasexybeast Makes sense. I don’t have a platform preference since I’d switch between Nintendo, Xbox, and pc (mostly Flash games and a few Steam games) growing up. I like how pc has a lot of older games on storefronts like GOG, and I’ll usually buy used games for console. There’s some games that just feel better with a certain control scheme. RTS games only truly work on pc since the keyboard and mouse allow for a far greater level of precision and control. Halo Wars was fun for the most part, but it’s VERY bare bones since the game is shackled to a controller. There’s also some Wii games that would feel better without the motion controls, while others work best with them. It’s a case by case basis.
That would be entertaining. It’s funny when a Lego or Megablocks set is really bad. It’s really interesting seeing how those change overtime. It reminds me of the nonexistent “content drought” (there was still PLENTY of older things to cover like books, comics, fan content, and other things. They just wanted to make their bad clickbait to get views) when the big Halo TH-camrs were making HORRIBLE Infinite clickbait where they’d make all these COMPLETELY nonsensical theories about how the game would be based on blurry images of Megablocks sets and action figures (Halo Follower is the WORST of these). Too bad that Megablocks game got scrapped. They should’ve released that and made 4 be a launch title for the Xbox 720 (remember those “leaks”? It’s funny just how bad the fake controller looked. One of my favorites was the Wii Phone😂). I’m sure the game would’ve been better if it wasn’t constrained by the 360, and they would’ve had more time to fix various issues. If you look at the older builds of the game the levels were more open and had more ai running around. The Forerunner architecture also looked more like something Bungie would’ve made. The game should’ve had 2-3 more levels to do a better job of explaining the different factions. There’s a lot of things I liked about 4, but the execution wasn’t that good and I now realize it changed a lot of the lore (how Rampancy worked and with the exception of the few things Frank O’Conner had direct control over humans and Forerunners were one in the same. In fact, what’s what the Human Covenant War was started to cover up and why we could naturally interface with technology that was unresponsive to other species). There’s various aspects from Bungie and 343’s versions of Halo I really do and don’t like. The good stuff from both should be praised, and the bad stuff from both should be criticized. I tend to lean more towards the Bungie side, but I’m not going to act like their stuff was flawless and the second anyone says “we want Bungie back” I’m out because modern Bungie is a complete dumpster fire. Sony MASSIVELY overpaid for a studio that’s long past its prime (plus, a lot of Bungie’s IPs like Myth, Oni, and Halo are owned by other studios. Marathon is really cool, but it hasn’t been relevant since Mac gaming was a thing. Plus, the rest of their games are on par with your average Flash game. Fun for a while, but you cannot make a major franchise out of them).
Good luck on that Megablocks video. I’m sure it will be funny.
imo they're all ghost towns and apocalyptic areas where there used to be life; dead worlds
Seen a few videos revisiting empty Halo maps. Did the servers for
halo 1-3 close down on PC and Xbox live? Or ppl just moved on nobody online? Hard to believe nobody at all plays these online anymore, they still hold up
Plenty of people playing in MCC.
Liminal spaces
Very similar indeed
I’ve always thought the same Theres something about halo 2 especially that makes me unnerved
Also apparently the banging on the door in the map ivory tower actually has some lore behind it, some say it’s the ghost of lance O’Donnell who previously owned the building ivory tower was set in I’ve always found this theory to be very creepy especially when I heard the banging for myself
Oh weird, I’ve never heard that theory before. I like it. I was standing there hoping to hear the secret music cue, siege of madrigal but the banging happened instead lol
@@Woodyisasexybeast yeh that’s the exact same as me scared the life out of me when I heard it 😂
Bungie is good at what they do, when they're given the freedom to do it. They're still on this track. Even if you don't care for the game, you should watch the Destiny 2 Final Shape reveal trailer. I bet you'll get some of those vibes you're talking about
Yeah, the OG team were masters at making things spooky. 343 has made some spooky maps too but something about the old stuff just hits different.
I’m not fan of Bungie these days. Destiny was always just ok to me but I’ll give it a watch at some point.
Halo CE and Halo 2 are goldmines for liminal spaces
THIS WAS BEFORE XBOX LIVE DAYS! WHEN YOU HAD TO GET YOUR COUSINS XBOX AND LINK UP AND GO IN SEPARATE ROOMS SO THEY WOULDN’T LOOK AT YOUR SCREEN…
Ahh good old days man
Not Halo 2. I played hours and hours of Xbox live in Halo 2. Xbox live launched a few days after it
Was the creature at 1:27 a real part of the game, or did you edit that in?
It was a real part of the game but it was fabricated by me for the video. Just to set the mood a bit. I did some clever cuts. Nothing added in post, just a player there in one lobby and absent in another.
I can't see shit
i never found it creepy.
i enjoyed playing spilt screen with my friends on it or lan.
I disagree on Halo 3 lacking the creepy ambience. Epitaph is one of those maps that is weird to be alone in.
You’re absolutely right. I don’t think Halo 3 lacks it entirely. I just don’t think ALL of the maps are spooky like they are in CE and 2. I tried to be careful with my wording there because I do think there are moments in the later games that invoke the same feeling. It’s just less prevalent
Epitaph is the one with the literal Guardian hologram...
@okankyoto that’s actually offensive bias
Some of the ambience sound effects are used in other movies and games.
The sidewinder breathing/wind effect is used in other media. Hang em highs effects are very similarly used in other games from the 2000's such as Metal Arms:Glitch in the system.
All these need remaster in infinite
Stop smoking weed.
peak username
ya
weeeeee
GLaDos from Portal weeeee.mp4