Bungie: Halo Has 'A Lot to Learn' from Call of Duty 4

24
Developer Bungie has "a lot to learn" from Infinity Ward's use of scripted events in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Bungie programmer Damian Isla has admitted.

"[Infinity Ward] did a hell of a job with their set pieces, of scripting certain moments that they were really sure the player was going to actually see and experience first hand," the lead API programmer told GamesIndustry.biz. "Halo has a lot to learn from."

Left, Bungie's Halo 3. Right, Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Though both shooters have many scripted moments, Isla lamented that Halo players often miss them or "don't experience it in quite the same way that we expected them to."

He further noted that Call of Duty 4 "did some very innovative things to keep people going and their experience-rewards system was something that we paid a lot of attention to."

Bungie currently has three projects in the works, one of which is a new Halo game.

"I think Halo has always been an extremely simulation driven game," Isla concluded. "Simulation, I think, adds replayability--it adds depth to the game--but it also makes scripting much more difficult and it means designers have a much harder time."

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    August 6, 2008 9:43 AM

    "I think Halo has always been an extremely simulation driven game," ....Umm..sure.

    • reply
      August 6, 2008 9:50 AM

      I fully agree with his point. Halo is based around a number of simulated systems. Physics, Intelligence, etc. COD4 relies a lot less on random events and scripts things (almost to a fault, but not quite).

      • reply
        August 6, 2008 9:54 AM

        Yeah what Isla said made perfect sense to me.

      • reply
        August 6, 2008 9:58 AM

        Yup. However I think COD4 has one major flaw perhaps due to their amazing scripted events.. their AI is just plain dumb and ridiculous. If it's not a scripted event, or perhaps an especially long scripted event (the end of the sniper mission), the AI is only challenging because of the amount of AI that is poured on you.

        • reply
          August 6, 2008 10:09 AM

          Agreed, IMO dynamic physics, ai etc are better than scripted events. Sure you can't get that same cinematic feel, but it creates more possibilities of different outcomes when you are playing. In COD4 there are several parts where the exact same thing happens no matter what, in Halo you can get some variations based on your actions and the AI's actions.

          For the first play through the scripted events might seem more impressive, but after you memorize them you are not going to appreciate them on your 3rd play though looking for exploits or alternate strategies.

          • reply
            August 6, 2008 12:02 PM

            Speaking of which, I've basically memorized my way through "No fighting in the War Room" on Veteran because of the stupid difficulty of it.

            It also doesn't help that for some reason the Checkpoint system is basically busted and only seems to save after I've done an encounter 20+ times.

          • reply
            August 6, 2008 12:25 PM

            Well it depends I guess. Games like Serious Sam throw lots of very simple patterned enemies at the player and it is a fun challenge to dodge, weave, and train enemies everywhere as the waves come in. Unfortunately that type of gameplay doesn't work well on console in fps games (although it's great in overhead/2d arena shooters)

            The main issue I have with CoD 4 is that the shooting gallery areas didn't allow much variety as the player is constantly shot at and/or grenaded by respawning enemies. The player should be able to get cover, not be visible to enemies, and take advantage of different levels of "awareness" in enemy AI (as the enemy should in return). Otherwise the enemy seems like a boring facade blocking progress.

Hello, Meet Lola