SlappyMcGee wrote:I don't follow, smartalco. We're showing elements of similarities between RPG's and TF2. Halo does not meet many of these criteria.
Counter:
Damage Type, armor
Examples:
Have you tried shooting someone in the head with the BR vs body, and then the same with the AR? The BR does insane damage to the head, while comparatively nothing to the body. The AR does a little extra damage to the head over body IIRC, but it isn't nearly as drastic. Other weapons have no difference between head and body. (You can take this as armor difference or damage type, I don't really care).
Turn on the Tilt skull. Bullets do nothing to shielded armor. Alien weapons still do full damage. [X] Damage Types, [X] Armor
Plasma pistol rapes shields, hardly does anything to health. [X] Damage Types
Brutes in the campaign have various ranks, and therefore, armor. [X] Armor
Needler. Does almost nothing unless you get 10 (or so, don't remember exact number) needles in someone, then they pretty much just die. [X] Damage Types
The overshield doesn't do anything but give you more armor for a life. [X] Armor
Fire. [X] Damage Types
There is a series of objective modes where the VIP/flag/ball carrier has additional health/armor (the most popular of which is Grifball, but as another example there is a CTF mode where the flag carrier has double HP but moves at half speed). [X] Armor
random item drops
There are multiplayer modes that spawn you with a random weapon (not particularly popular modes, but they do exist). [X]
This isn't exactly random, but everyone you kill drops all their items (which seems to be a very RPG-like construct, kill a guy, get his stuff). Similarly, weapons respawn in multiplayer.
ability to buy/sell items
I specifically said in my post that Halo doesn't have this, but I just thought of a similar mechanic (since I also said 'trading' in my post). You can only carry two weapons. This leads to choices about what weapons you are going to carry with you depending on what you are good with and knowledge of what you are going to be fighting, sounds vaguely RPG like, no?
quests
So now TF2 achievements count as quests but Halo achievements don't?
unlockable weapons?
In the storyline you don't have access to some weapons/vehicles/items until you have sufficiently progressed through the game. There isn't that much of a difference between that and killing a lot of dudes to unlock weapons.
Obviously some of those were a stretch, but trying to deny that Halo has damage types and armor is ridiculous, as is counting TF2 achievements as quests and not Halo's (Halo's are just 'kill 5 dudes with a sniper rifle in a match' where TF2's are 'kill 100 dudes with a sniper rifle', about the only difference is persistent vs. per-match)
If you want another example, look at MAG. Theres character leveling, weapon/item unlocks, armor, achievements, healing (something TF2 has, but not Halo), and even the ability to
re-spec your skill tree. Does that make it an RPG? Fuck no.