I think it says something when you review this mod as if it were made by a legitimate developer with their foot in the gaming industry. Don't get me wrong, the SPV3 team is insanely talented, and that's the ticket. They aren't a dev team that's being paid to release something, so I think that's where a lot of the magic comes from. Good video, Ray.
I really enjoy this channel and your videos. Thanks for the time & effort, the amount of care and thought you apply signifies true respect for the games you dissect.
SuperAerie Remember that we have the Halo 3 engine from Halo Online/ElDewrito. In the hands of the right modders we could theoretically get mods bigger, better, and more beautiful than what's possible on Halo CE
Also, Bungie released an official patch to let you play it without a CD. This was awhile back, but they were pretty much telling the world "it's okay to pirate this".
Crazy to see some old maps I made and helped people test back in the height of Custom Edition in the mid 2000's. Awesome stuff to see SPV3 going so strong too, I worked on maps for a much much earlier version of it too.
I recommend downloading the separate Silent Cartographer Evolved level as I think it is much superior to the SPV3 version. It avoids many of redundant sandbox elements that SPV3 adds while keeping some of the good stuff. It looks a bit prettier too.
I've seen videos of this mod before but non that put it so eloquently as you have. This definitely has made me want to check it out, being a Halo fan since the original. I'm glad you didn't shy away from critiquing the mod's shortcomings, as people tend to go a bit soft on mods because of the time it takes to make them with no pay. Another excellent video, man.
If it's any consolation, it is worth noting that in the latest release they removed all the wraiths from Truth and Reconciliation. The vehicles themselves are still there, but they are unmanned and don't seem as if they can be entered, either by you or the covenant.
So much love in the comment section, that is so refreshing to see! Again great video as your videos are some of the only that make me put on both my ear buds at work and get lost in it.
You hit the nail on the head. This mod has the potential to replace Combat Evolved but it won't until they learn how to distribute power ups, weapons and fights across the beautiful levels they have designed. The mod "blows it's load" almost entirely within the first level where you basically have access to almost every weapon (outside of a few) and wade through innumerable enemies. There's no build up because every fight plays like the previous and the next with the player having full choice of the full arsenal at any given moment. If they cut the loadouts, reduced the enemy encounters and were smarter about weapon/powerup availability then the game would truly just replace CE as the go-to way to play Halo 1.
You neglect to mention that the Halo CE mod tools *require* 3D Studio Max. You can only use .max files to import geometry into them, and no other modeling app supports that file type. I bring it up because that detail alone makes Halo CE's mod tools far less accessible than your video may lead people to believe, especially given the time at which game was released.
You're right about the difficulty on legendary. The section in the level Halo where you fight off several waves of covenant around those clusters of rocks is hellishly hard on Legendary unless you cheese it. You simply cannot stay up where the marines are at and hold your ground. You'll be hopelessly overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies. I tried over and over again to beat that part without cheesing but it got to the point where it was just a chore. So I ended up retreating to the entrance to the entire area and slowly picked enemies off. Uneven is definitely the word I would use to describe this mod. One of the things that made the original Halo so great was how you could stand toe to toe with enemies even on legendary without needing to play it like CoD. Many section in this mod make that impossible. Forcing you to stay at a range and pick enemies off. This is also my issue with Halo 4 and especially 5. You simply cannot play Halo 5 on legendary at close range. You'll get shredded. You can barely pop out of cover let alone get up close and personal with any consistency.
I feel having both the DMR and battle rifle is redundant. And as much as I love the DMR, it adds little to halos combat sandbox as it's mostly a combination of other weapons..
The ghost of Sammy classic Sonic fan in the actual mod, the DMR behaves very differently from its Reach, 4 and 5 iterations. It works horribly up close and it actually feels like a mini-sniper rifle when you use it at range. It bares little resemblance, gameplay-wise, to the BR in SPV3.
You clearly haven't even played this mod. The DMR does more damage against shielded enemies and the BR has a faster rate of fire than the DMR. The two are different weapons to be used in different situations. Any true Halo fan would already know that by now. It's about variety and Halo: CE had very little of it with its weapon sandbox in the campaign.
Ultimate Troll, thou doth live up to thy name. "Any true Halo fan would already know that by now." So one cannot be a "true Halo fan" without liking the use of both DMR and BR? Really? Can one not have a bloody opinion? And on the note of Halo: CE having little variety: so bloody what? One does not need twenty different weapons to have a good game. I recall talking about spicing up the promethean sand box for Halo 6 recently, and I had over ten different enemy ideas. The main critique I got was about clogging up the gameplay with an ocean of enemies that churned and didn't work together. Raycevick made a great point that adding a bunch of cool stuff is meaningless if it does not run like a well oiled machine. Another thing to note is that they seemed to make the gameplay lore based (to an extent) and I love lore based gameplay, but it should be an option: one should be able to choose great gameplay over great lore experience if they want to.
Geez louise how do you have such a fluent way of presenting a video, you really have an amazing conception of how to speak to keep people interested, not once did I get bored or annoyed, bravo man.. bravo...
With these sorts of mods that add a ton of new stuff to a game, I find a lot of additions are added for the sake of adding and don't add to the gameplay at all or at worst detract from it with features that are in conflict with how the game is designed.
After a day of revising for finals, this video was the perfect coffee break. You're amazing my dude, and your videos are some of the best of their kind
Absolutely amazing well organized video. I loved having all my thoughts be said aloud to me haha. I love the mod overall, but my least favorite part is being constantly resupplied at every point of interest. I think I was able to run around with a Carbine and DMR for the entirety of every mission.
So glad someone is covering spv3 - CE community is so incredible considering the age of the game - so happy for the modders to get the attention they deserve!
SomeGuyXD65 if i had a penny for everytime i saw this comment on one of his videos, i would finally be able to pay that hanar the permit to promote airlock tossing assholes's greatest hits
While not a hardcore Halo fan, your videos on the series (and other games) are very, insightful. You do go into depth about what does and dosen't work far as you can tell, and you explain in detail why. In spite of how I may feel about any of these videos, they show effort that I don't always see in any medium. I feel in some vein torn about these videos since I wonder if even those behind such games you're analytical about, would even take a look, but then again for big budget games, a lot seem to try and be 'risk averse' which, in a paradox may be more risky than trying to do something that is beyond an expectation. Which is a poorly worded way of saying, that while I am greatful these videos exist, part of me wonders if only those who are aspiring to be game makers, or some independents, or even those excpetions within big budget gaming would be able to take your input on the nose, and try to address what issues you've brought up. That being said, if I were to ever be a game maker (which I doubt, I'd be surprised if I could take some legit time to even make a mod worth a shit), your videos would probably be one of my Go--to videos among others as to how to try and do things right, and what to attempt to avoid, or failing that, finding avenues to improve upon. I do wonder though if those behind the Halo mod will be able to take a watch of your video, and maybe attempt to address some of the issues you've brought up, to hopefully make an overall better game. I'd offer my input but having a shit computer, and my focus elsewhere (namely on being a not-so-shitty artist and writer), I doub't I'd be able to be of much anyway. None the less...I see these videos both as useful, and also a bit of frustration. If only in the vein of how those involved in some of the games analyzed, are aware of what probelms were had, but are unable to do much due to what reasons there may be, all we can hope is that those not so confined, are able to learn and make games that are more of something of legit passion, and not a product to adhere to a demographic. More something akin to art than just a product and nothing else. That's my two cents anyway, for what it's worth.
Stuff like Custom Edition is why I dearly hope Doom gets proper modding tools really soon - I adore the snapmap but I want to see what people can make with ids modding tools :D
Halo Custom Edition was the first game I ever played online. I'm glad to see people still making something out of it, the SPV2 Multiplayer map Snow Grove was a favorite of mine because it allowed you to use the Halo 3 weaponry before Halo 3 arrived.
Love your content! SPV3 has been a blast, and I'm very excited to see what they do for part two. I hope you will review it, or maybe all of SPV3, since they did say things you do in earlier levels can affect later ones (that is if they manage to add that in).
Silent Cartographer Evolved alone is quantity over quality. Play it on the highest difficulty and you'll see what I mean. SPV3 is better because it's on multiple levels, the levels are extended, new music was added in, and there are many more things you can do in the entire campaign that you couldn't do on that one level of SC: Evolved.
I've not heard about Custom Edition for years. Never expected you to cover that too, CE never even crossed my mind. Custom Edition was fantastic, played it continuously back in the day. The MP levels and SP overhaul modifications were grand. Making available the new weapons, vehicles, locations and such that weren't accesible in the base game, felt like Christmas. Nice you're covering this relatively unknown part of Halo. Also noticed a well-deserved jab at the lackings of the current 'official' Halo instalments, or perhaps that's me. Welcome surprise, keep them coming mate!
One of the reasons that Gearbox was able to release a Source Development Kit for the original Halo is that it was a dead engine. It was used at the launch of the Xbox in 2001, once again from a Bungie splinter studio called Wideload Interactive in Stubbs the Zombie, and then in the Halo PC port. A large reason is because of the netcode which was made with LAN in mind, and took Gearbox years to refine and make more efficient. Most of us remember the tremendous host advantage when using a P2P tunneling service like XBConnect to play online back in the day. You can still see it in the Master Chief Collection, in which that Halo 1 version is a port of a port, where you have to aim juust a little in front of a moving enemy to hit them online. The thing that this mod doesn't have, which it never will because Halo PC never ported the architecture, would be co-op play. The most fun times I've ever played the Halo campaign were on the couch next to my brother or a friend. Sadly, the mod community learned early with map rebuilding (before the Dev Kit was released) that the AI's behavior responds differently based on who's screen you're looking at, while the host was the only true/responsive AI. Where an elite may be going at one player on the off-host screen, he could just be sitting there on the host screen until he triggers him. Ahh, all this talk brings me back to when I used to mod before the SDK. On a side note, the best way to play multiplayer is the Halo 1.5 for the modded original Xbox. Unfortunately it doesn't have online, so you'd still have to use a laggy tunneling service. The only other option is being at the mercy of 343i in the Master Chief Collection to choose a gametype you want, because you'll get banned for quitting from the ones you don't want to play for lack of map vote or join-in-progress. At least it's in 4K now, so win some, lose some...
I miss the old days of Halo. I remember playing it on the Xbox, then getting it on PC. My dad picked up a copy for himself too. We would play games online with one another. Around 2004, I remember getting into Custom Edition. To this day, it still blows my mind when I think about what people were able to accomplish with it. I spent much of my youth in all the fun maps of Custom Edition. Maps like Coldsnap and Hugeass are forever ingrained into my memory. I really don't think I'll ever forget them. Every once in awhile I go to halomaps.org, just to look at some of the maps and see if I can still remember my favorites. Sometimes I've been tempted to get back into it and just see if it's still active.
Should really do another video on this mod, as alot has chnaged and spv3.3 comes out soon. it adds skulls back and a firefight mode! also a couple changes to the weapons
The same thing happened with ID and DOOM in 1993. I mean ID released the tools for DOOM and we got a lot of cool mods for it that expanded its life with games like Brutal Doom.
Also I'd like to add that from what I remember, the vehicles in T&R have been removed. But the lift firefight sequence is still a tough nut to crack :p
I think that if anything, this mod showcases inherent value of modding to the industry. In your words - a game has certain expectations, while a mod can do whatever. Mods allow the community and designers to simply throw ideas at a wall and see what sticks (i.e. what's fun) because they don't have an obligation to sell, which allows modders to explore possible new or changed mechanics, which later developers can decide to draw from if they want. It's no mystery that many of Doom 2016 mechanics were largely inspired by the Doom modding community - same with slow refining of TES formula since Morrowind until Skyrim.
+James Davis I haven't played Halo 4 or 5. Lost interest around Halo 3. From what i've seen though, you're complete incorrect. It looks like rainbow vomit.
exactly and i dont understand why people are comparing it to Halo 5 and 4 a good chunk of the actual Halo community dont feel like they are part of the series or at least stopped caring after Halo Reach
Good review. I never finished SPV3 when it was released finished last year, but I got through half of it on the evolved parts. I have to agree while some additional parts of missions are better, I found many(like the Alpha base section of Halo) to be extremely redundant and not add to the story. The weapons and sounds were really hit and miss. Several youtubers have reviewed it against anniversary, I find so many strange complaints about Anniversary(Such as price) and can't really take them seriously because of the amount of bias for SPV3. I'm not going to deny the amount of work they did and several good ideas that they had, but it still has more than its share of flaws that always seem to get overlooked in most reviews.
Honestly, it would be cool to have a mod where you fight through New Mombasa as a marine. With the urban setting you can have a nice combination of long range combat against elites and snipers and short range combat against brutes, grunts and skirmishers, even a fair bit of vertical fighting, such as having the player forced to retreat from a duo of Hunters on a series of ascending ramps until they reach an arena on the top which then leads to the next level.
A lot of the more oddball SPV3 mechanics are taken from interviews and old gameplay footage. The Battle Rifle, for instance, was shown to be entirely semi-automatic in the original Halo 2 E3 footage. But then in later articles and interviews, it was mentioned that it was switched to a three round burst with semi-automatic fire when scoped. For whatever reason, Bungie switched that to a three round burst at all times. My only guess is because they were struggling to keep it consistent in multiplayer, and switching damage values per-bullet to compensate for fewer rounds per trigger pull would ruin that consistency. But of course, this doesn't matter in a mod that's entirely single player.
O SHIT I love it when channels I'm subbed to not for CE stuff releases CE stuff For those with Halo PC that want to play SPV3 check out the SPV3 subreddit /r/halospv3
I had nothing but a terrible time with multiplayer in custom edition. so much lag and just bugs. idk if it was just me but I was very disappointed. Just tried it out yesterday. Not a single lobby seemed stable unfortunately. Hopefully it's something on my end which means it will be fixable. I really appreciate all the campaign content like this because it works perfectly
I think it would be cool if you did a video on the parallels between Halo Reach and Rogue One. They're both prequels that aren't the earliest stories set in their respective universes, they both have a small team of characters who are (mostly) sacrificed to achieve the goal, they're both criticised for lacking character arcs and warmth/romance, they both feature a McGuffin that will tell the good guys how to defeat a superweapon (Cortana literally tells Master Chief how to destroy Halo) and they both involve worlds being destroyed/glassed.
SPV3 isn't a replacement for the original but i feel that it is a huge step in the right direction. Its open level design, weapon variety, enemy variety and gameplay have set the bar for future halo campaigns. In my opinion it's the best halo campaign experience thus far....343 are you paying attention?
What i like about Raychevick is that unlike other reviewers ive seen he treats the games he reviews with full respect and maturity and wheter its a game he likes or hates he talks about the pros and cons of the game fairly without blindly praising them or bashing them senslessy
I definitely found the TSC:E [The Silent Cartographer: Evolved] a much quicker experience to jump into and when I had that moment I played something new for Halo but it still felt Halo. After all, there was mostly just exploring the new level and more familiar introductions alongside the newer ones like Shredder, AR-GL & Heal-Crew-in-Vehicle feature, but SPV3 remains an absolute treat nonetheless! Hopefully, the "Part One" update intended to accompany the arrival of "Part Two" will address some of the issues as stated in the video & general feedback, and I for one look forward to driving a Grizzly whose accuracy is not completely shrived San'Shyuum arse, as well as the handheld & deployable Halo 2 GPMG!
If you haven't played the mod yet you wouldn't be able to tell hes playing on normal for all of these clips and there is a good reason. This game is fucking HARD. On Legendary, Grunts and especially Jackals are EXTREMELY powerful- a Jackal can literally take you down in 2 seconds. The flood sections contain Elites, both flood and normal, that are literally unkillable without using explosives (and I do mean literally). I can't even imagine playing through the game on Reach difficulty, I initially tried it on Reach but couldn't even get past the first section on the Pillar of Autumn in the mess hall. I'm not bad at shooters by any stretch either(not that I should have to quantify that), but on Reach the enemies better at everything, dealing an INSANE amount of damage, being super accurate, having massively increased hp and on top of that you get less marines to help you out. I'm not going to test it right now but grunts can kill you with a plasma pistol in about 4 or 5 shots. That's not to say the game is bad, all the levels are increased in length with new sections added, making the game at least 3 times as long. The new mechanics and weapons are fun as well but I think the difficulty is just to extreme personally. (Still play it though)
I think it would be pretty cool if you could do review videos on older games to point out how newer games can improve. For example, a game l used to play on Original Xbox, Metal Arms, it was a great game, unfortunately heavily underrated. It was a simple Third Person Shooter but it had many weapons, enemy types, numerous environments, and hidden weapons and secrets to unlock multiplayer maps. It also had a currency system where you earn money from taking down enemies and you can use that currency to purchase new weapons, ammunition, health and weapon upgrades. Though these purchasing stores are limited, making the player have to put in a little effort into finding it. Also there are hidden weapns, that if you can find a secret, you wont have to use your currency to purchase it. I feel like this game from like 2002 can be a good example for games today or in the future
I'm telling you...soon making games will be a piece of cake. One day one will come up with a "Perfect" engine that allowes people to easily create stuff. Take source engine for example, you can not count how many mods and stand alone games were built on that engine. Imagine source but a thousand times more polished and simple to comprehend and work on. The era of creativity is coming. A wave to blow us off the solid ground.
Love the video as always. Quick question as someone whose played Halo 5. When you say the Hunters were changed in Halo 5 and not for the better. What exactly do you mean out of interest?
