• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Which is the better game - Halo: Combat Evolved or Metroid Prime?

Halo: Combat Evolved or Metroid Prime?

  • Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox)

    Votes: 176 46.3%
  • Metroid Prime (GameCube)

    Votes: 204 53.7%

  • Total voters
    380

Bragr

Banned
I would say Unreal, Half-life, AvP, Counter-Strike and Q3 brought many of the same aspects to the table years before Halo. Battlefield 1942 released before Halo CE on PC, and personally i would say it made Halo look lackluster in terms of vehicular combat and scope when it released one year later.
I don't see the comparison to AVP, CS, or Q3, maybe some Unreal and Half-Life in terms of the more open-world design, but Halo did a lot of new things.

The large open levels where you have to explore to move on, and how it changes from corridor shooter to large open areas with vehicles, it's hard to compare that campaign structure to anything before. Making online shooters work on console was massive. How A.I. engages with the player, and how they work with each other against you was also a big deal.
 

Dr Bass

Member
Man I hate to say it, but I remember having more fun with Halo. After the masterpiece that was Super Metroid, I thought taking it into 3D lost something in the formula. You couldn't do those massive running leaps and spinning through the air, and exploring just ... doesn't feel quite the same in 3D IMO. I know that is almost like gamer blasphemy to say, and I think Metroid Prime is sort of the "better game" but man if I just wasn't feeling it at the time.

I really wanted a true sequel to Super Metroid that was just done amazingly well in 2D.

I still do. :messenger_pensive:
 

nerdface

Banned
They're both in my Top 10..


Nice troll.

These duality based threads are the worst in the sense it stimulates, well.. duality. Both games are sooo good.. such a shame that for a "discussion" to take place we have to chose which one is best. It's not even a rightfull comparison..

yeah, but it’s one of the only ways to get gamers talking about actual game mechanics
 

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
Metroid Prime is a 10/10. Never felt like a Predator more than I did in that game, with the hi-tech weapons & vision modes. If it wasn't for the fact you occasionally had to turn into a rolling ball you could imagine it as a Predator title. Clearing out areas was so comfy. Backtracking has never felt better.

But Halo. Man. That game made every console FPS that came before it look like dogshit, including classics like Goldeneye. Big reason was controls but turns out the music, level design, and combat arenas were well designed too. Every encounter was a mini-sandbox. The enemy variety was great & they were some tough sons of bitches on Heroic/Legendary difficulties. The reuse of levels was bad, but the Flood mixes things up enough for it to not matter.

Vote goes to Halo by a hair. Just a hair. Its so close.
 

Bragr

Banned
Halo's level design is so outdated at this point, making it hard to win against Metroid Prime from a modern perspective, so right now I would lean Metroid Prime.

From a historical perspective though, it's razor-close, personally Metroid Prime did more for me.
 

skit_data

Member
I don't see the comparison to AVP, CS, or Q3, maybe some Unreal and Half-Life in terms of the more open-world design, but Halo did a lot of new things.

The large open levels where you have to explore to move on, and how it changes from corridor shooter to large open areas with vehicles, it's hard to compare that campaign structure to anything before. Making online shooters work on console was massive. How A.I. engages with the player, and how they work with each other against you was also a big deal.
I mostly meant that they were FPS that had quite a big multiplayer community, taking away from the initial ”the first FPS i really loved”-feeling many have towards Halo. It might have been the fact that everything evolved pretty fast at the time and that the later release on PC might have made the transition to more large, open maps seem more gradual rather than the revolution it was a couple of years prior when it initially released. I see your point, and it is a valid one.

Now that you mentioned it, I really was impressed by the enemy AI in Halo CE and it took years before I even came across something similar.
 

Calverz

Member
I mean, what did it influence/impact? The two weapon limitation is the only thing I can think of that has been carried over to other games.

Edit: I guess rechargeable health too, and dudes with helmets.
It normalised the twin twick controls for shooters that are still used now.
It paved the way for big esports tournaments with high cash prizes.
It litetally spawned a flood of copycat games.
It introduced and made vehicles viable in a fps game to the point that the half life then introduced the buggy and unreal tournament 2004 introduced vehicles.
It had big scale battles that allowed the player freedom to choose how to approach these battles in various tactical decisions. Prior most fps were small set pieces or corridors.
But because Its an MS 1st party title and xbox is shit, it dont get the respect it once garnered.

Metroid prime is fantastic. I loved that game. But in terms of impact. Its a no brainer.
 
Halo's level design is so outdated at this point, making it hard to win against Metroid Prime from a modern perspective, so right now I would lean Metroid Prime.

From a historical perspective though, it's razor-close, personally Metroid Prime did more for me.
People keep talking about Halo's level design as a negative and I'm baffled by it. Most of CE's levels were more open and varied than the linear corridors in Metroid Prime. How is the level design being discussed as a positive for Prime and a negative for CE? CE Provided dozens of ways to progress through a level and the levels were infinitely larger than anything in Prime. Not only that but Halo had drivable vehicles and flying sections. Enemies in CE could be insta killed if you were lucky enough to sneak in from behind. The gameplay was infinitely deeper in CE than in Prime (head shots versus body shots, melee, grenades, automatic gun fire versus precision weapons). In Prime there was only one way through each section - on foot, forced through a barrage of enemies while trying to get to the next door.

Anyway, it's interesting to see the different opinions in this thread. I really enjoyed Metroid Prime back in the day on the cube. One of the few exclusives that I did enjoy actually. But it never ever blew me away in that sense. People are acting like it was another Mario 64 impact to gaming and I strongly disagree. It was a great game and obviously a worthy successor for the Metroid franchise. It's unfair to compare the 2 because their 2 completely different types of games, but in my opinion CE blows Metroid Prime completely out of the water in just about every possible way.

The scale of Halo CE for one is so much larger than Prime. The levels were just bigger. The soundtrack of CE is legendary. Aside from Metroid's iconic music clips, a lot of the music annoyed the crap out of me while playing Prime. Going through a section only to come immediately back and have all the enemies alive again was tedious (and I get that Metroid Prime was staying true to its predecessors). However, I never felt the need to go back and play Prime again. Not once. There wasn't a specific level in Prime to go back and replay since the game is just one giant level split into mini sections. But Halo was a freaking movement. I played through the campaign so many times both solo and with friends. I still play the multiplayer to this day. Halo CE does things and sparks emotions that so many current shooters haven't even come close to recapturing. And then there were the LAN parties and tournaments.

In the end though I agree that it's not fair to compare the two.
 

Bragr

Banned
I mostly meant that they were FPS that had quite a big multiplayer community, taking away from the initial ”the first FPS i really loved”-feeling many have towards Halo. It might have been the fact that everything evolved pretty fast at the time and that the later release on PC might have made the transition to more large, open maps seem more gradual rather than the revolution it was a couple of years prior when it initially released. I see your point, and it is a valid one.

Now that you mentioned it, I really was impressed by the enemy AI in Halo CE and it took years before I even came across something similar.
Yeah, it's hard to figure out what influenced what back then, as development cycles were shorter. But I assume it was like when Mario 64 released, where several developers who currently worked on anything 3D changed their games after they played it. It created a new benchmark that the industry had to follow, and you could see the influence in games that came out the next year.

I assume it was pretty similar with Halo, I would guess that every developer that made a console shooter around that time took notice of it. And PC developers saw the potential in console multiplayer communities and started to take it more seriously.
 

Ailynn

Faith - Hope - Love
I had a lot of fun with Halo in its multiplayer with friends, but I didn't care for the campaign at all. I'm looking forward to Halo: Infinite, though.

Metroid Prime is still one of my favorite games of all time. The Metroid series is my absolute favorite series ever, and Samus Aran is my favorite character.


The choice was easy for me.

tenor.gif
 
People keep talking about Halo's level design as a negative and I'm baffled by it. Most of CE's levels were more open and varied than the linear corridors in Metroid Prime. How is the level design being discussed as a positive for Prime and a negative for CE? CE Provided dozens of ways to progress through a level and the levels were infinitely larger than anything in Prime.
I don't think open level design equates to better. Halo's awesome gameplay and great AI helped cover up the mediocre level design. Everything in Halo 1 looks the same, the game is a pain in the ass to navigate. Metroid Prime is an intricately connected labyrinth where no two rooms look alike.

Both games are incredible, don't get me wrong, but 95 times out of 100 I would rather play Metroid Prime 1 over Halo 1
 

Bragr

Banned
People keep talking about Halo's level design as a negative and I'm baffled by it. Most of CE's levels were more open and varied than the linear corridors in Metroid Prime. How is the level design being discussed as a positive for Prime and a negative for CE? CE Provided dozens of ways to progress through a level and the levels were infinitely larger than anything in Prime. Not only that but Halo had drivable vehicles and flying sections. Enemies in CE could be insta killed if you were lucky enough to sneak in from behind. The gameplay was infinitely deeper in CE than in Prime (head shots versus body shots, melee, grenades, automatic gun fire versus precision weapons). In Prime there was only one way through each section - on foot, forced through a barrage of enemies while trying to get to the next door.
Well, that flood temple area in the original Halo is known as one of the worst FPS levels ever, even the developers hate it, and a lot of the indoor corridors are just the same place over and over. I would say about 20% of the levels in Halo right now are hard to play and outdated.

Prime and Halo is different games and features different level design, it's not really about what is more open or what is more linear, or how many vehicles you have, it's about what works. I think generally, both feature great map design, but apart from a few caves towards the end of Prime, I don't have as many issues with it as I do with Halo.
 
What kind of comparison is this? These games are pretty different. I chose Halo because I put so much time into it, and the multiplayer was revolutionary for the time. Metroid Prime was fun, but not even my favorite Metroid.
 

GametimeUK

Member
I can see how this argument can go both ways, but I will have to side with Metroid here.

Halo was significant in helping build the foundations of FPS games on console. It's still fantastic to this day and thats a testament to how far ahead of its time it was. With that being said a lot of the gameplay elements that made Halo great back in the day are actually quite primitive today. The open levels for example and the spectacle moments are vastly improved on today. Much more is happening on screen these days so whilst back then it felt like you were in the war, it doesn't quite feel the same today.

Metroid Prime on the other hand for me at least has aged better in this regard as it doesn't really have to rely on these elements. The act of backtracking, exploration, searching for lore, world building doesn't rely as heavily on advancements in technology.

I've always enjoyed Metroid Prime more but both are great and very different.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Halo’s persona was the party FPS, Metroid Prime was the sweet little boy on the cute little cube console.
 
Well you must not have been paying attention then nor ever bothered to look up the initial reveal. MS took something big and unique and made it console friendly and boring.
I was, I remember what they initially had it as - it was an rts then a third person open world - that’s why I said that in the comment - it changed multiple times - the change to FPS actually helped it IMO.

I would say Unreal, Half-life, AvP, Counter-Strike and Q3 brought many of the same aspects to the table years before Halo. Battlefield 1942 released before Halo CE on PC, and personally i would say it made Halo look lackluster in terms of vehicular combat and scope when it released one year later.
As someone who played literally all those games none of them felt as well done or accessible as Halo when it came out - playing through it couch co op was also part of it but yeah I loved AVP and Unreal but they did not feel on the same level at all - and Battlefields Vehicle combat felt a lot like more clunky.
 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
Halo was a good console shooter for its time but not necessarily the best shooter you could play (those were on PC). Metroid Prime was a good and innovative shooter even in the full context of the genre.

I had more fun and spent way more hours on Halo, though, no question about it. No one hauled their CRT tv over to a buddy's to check out the next map of Metroid Prime lol
 

SSfox

Member
Not a big fan of either games, but if i compare those two i liked Metroid more.
 
Last edited:

Azelover

Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.
Halo is fantastic, but... it's not a contest to me.

Metroid Prime.
 
Much prefer Metroid as franchise.

Between these two I might go with Halo. Metroid Prime had super annoying last level. Outside of that, both are equal to me.
 
Well, one is an all-time classic, full of thoughtful depth and subtlety. The other is pew-pew red vs blue for meat heads. (I kid, take it easy.)
 

Kadve

Member
1b5.gif


Case closed.

Seriously though beyond them booth being in first person they are very different types of games and shouldn't really be compared.

(edit). Personally i never got into Prime as i cant stand the control scheme. But i can't really stand using controllers in FPS (played Halo on PC only) in general so not exactly the guy to make a judgement on th matter.
 
Last edited:

Kilau

Gold Member
I was, I remember what they initially had it as - it was an rts then a third person open world - that’s why I said that in the comment - it changed multiple times - the change to FPS actually helped it IMO.
That’s cool, I guess I just wanted that original vision.
 

Lone Wolf

Member
Metroid Prime was boring for me. Halo is in my top 5 games of all time. Playing co-op and having LAN parties were some of the best times of my past. Still the best Halo game to play on Legendary difficulty and the AI is smarter than most games even today.
 

Arachnid

Member
Time for an oldy but goody. My god, I hadn't seen this in more than a decade.



Holy shit that ending took me by surprise. I remember that blowing my mind back then too LMAO

EDIT: Damn. The dude who animated passed. Too bad. He had legit talent and I'd love to see what he could do with todays tech after making that masterpiece back then
 
Last edited:
Easily Metroid Prime for me. I think it's a masterpiece in every way, while Halo is super mediocre. I remember renting an Xbox together with Halo when it was new and played it with a friend.

Our reaction was: "That's it? What's so special about this..?"

But I guess maybe it's just not my genre.
 
Without Halo, Microsoft would have never won a console generation....wait.
It was already game over at the start in 2007, Halo 3 itself and all alone just made the 360 won the generation...

Nothing was more impactfull than H3 at the PS360 era.

You can call whoever you want, Mario, Zelda, Metroid... At that time Halo 3 was a huge monster.
 
Top Bottom