July 7th is Bungie Day in case you didn't know. It's something about Bungie's interest in the number 7 and probably due to the once in a hundred years date of 7-7-7 that happened to inspire the first Bungie Day. So I thought I'd reminisce a bit on my own history with Bungie games to celebrate.
In the 90's,before there was Halo, there was Marathon, Myth and even Oni on the Apple Macintosh computer. I didn't play any of these back then because I was a PC guy playing such FPS's as Heretic. Doom and Duke Nukem and strategy games such as WarCraft I and II. Marathon and Myth were completely unknown to me at the time. Only when Marathon: Durandal came to XBLA did I try it. I found it hard to play after all those years. The bland and confusingly similar environments repelled me. If I had known about these games back then though, I would've hunted down a Mac to play them on.
Then came Halo: Combat Evolved in 2001 on Microsoft's first console, The Xbox. It didn't take long for me to get totally hooked on it. Playing co-op through Silent Cartographer and Assault on the Control Room was a weekly ritual for my buddy and I. We did this run every weekend for three straight years until the release of Halo 2 in 2004! I got to know about Bungie, Marty O'Donnel's music and Red Vs. Blue. It was probably the first time I really thought about game development and the people behind the game. I knew about ID from Doom and 3DRealms from Duke Nukem, but a lot of games I never thought to learn who developed them. For instance, I played lots of games developed by Raven in the 90's but only learned about them a few years ago. Halo was like a Star Wars moment for me in the 21st century (and I don't mean Episode I-III).
Halo 2 brought true online multiplayer gaming to Xbox in a big way, but I stayed out of it. I was more of a co-op guy and didn't like the crazy fast gameplay of multiplayer. When Bungie unveiled the first gameplay for Halo 2, I screamed a little nerdy scream for the ability to dual weild. I still laugh about that to this day. I loved Halo 2 but my buddy didn't and co-op runs never became a regular thing like with Halo: CE.
Halo 3 saw my fandom for Bungie reach its height as I got the Halo 3 Edition Xbox 360 and bought an action figure and a T-shirt of the game's staring villains, The Brutes. I also continued collecting 711 Slurpee cups (the left one is one of the Halo 2 series but the right one is one of the Halo 3 series). I played the game solo but did very little co-op. My friend just didn't get into it. I thought the AI showed a significant jump from previous Halo games. The Brutes were terrifying and incredibly smart. Overall I found the game very challenging at higher difficulty levels.
My fandom must've wanned after this because I barely noticed the release of Halo 3: ODST, but I got into it a year or so later and really loved it. The atmosphere of the game was so great (I think about it from time to time and want to experience getting surprised in the dark by a pack of grunts again). It also introduced Firefight mode and that really excited me. Co-op but in a multiplayer setting. I loved it!
Halo: Reach also took me a while to get into, but when I did, it was lots and lots of Firefight mode in multiplayer for months on end with my gaming bud. This did become a regular game every weekend for most of a year. I loved all the adjustments you could do to the basic gameplay of the main game. Removing the hud, making grunts explode with confetti, and making explosions even bigger, were just a few of the changes you could make. The story wasn't so great, but the environments and action were amazing. The people at Bungie had perfected the quick action first person shooter and the online matchmaking required for friends to find and start matches quickly. The whole package was such a well oiled machine of gaming engineering.
And then there's the upcomming Destiny. The trailer reminded me of the importance of Marty O'Donnel's music and sent chills up and down my spine. I'm not fully on board yet as I haven't seen much gameplay footage, but it could be a next gen system seller for me. We'll see.
Bungie has been the beginning and the end of my gaming interests in this first two console generations of the 21st century. It's got me to look at not just games, but the people behind them, the music, and all the technical stuff. When Bungie left Halo, I kinda went with them, Now they have to prove themselves to me all over again with Destiny. Will this be my Halo: CE for the next generation? I hope so.
Comments