I made a compare and contrast essay for English, contrasting Halo 3 and CoD: WaW. It's about 1000 words, and I thought I should post it. Why the hell not, someone might get a kick out of it.
Halo and Call of Duty: Worlds Apart
With the release of Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's Playstation 3, many gamers have more or less taken sides. Generally, owning an Xbox means that you do not own a Playstation or are opposed to PS3s, and vice versa. This has been deemed the "console war". Two prime contenders in this war have been the smash hit game series "Halo" and "Call of Duty". Many Call of Duty (CoD) players will refuse to play Halo and make negative remarks about it, and Halo fans usually do the same to CoD. These two games are both first person shooters, but apart from that, have little to no similarities. The most recent games of both series, Halo 3 and Call of Duty: World at War, have such different gameplay, distinguishing characteristics, and arsenals, it's hard to understand why these two games are such bitter rivals.
Both games have distinguishing areas that they specialize in to make then timeless and unforgettable classics. Halo does not excel in the storyline category. It is the year 2552, and humanity has progressed to the stage of intergalactic travel, going into the galaxy and forming colonies. Humanity has also been locked in a war with an alien race for a few decades, and is now on the verge of total annihilation. You play as Master Chief, a biologically and mechanically enhanced super soldier. Although original, the actual events in the game do not help to drive the experience, the storyline is hard to follow at times, and the only scenes that are really immersive are the first and final scenes of the game. CoD has a story everyone has definitely done before. It is World War II, and you have to fight waves of enemy soldiers to eventually triumph and win the war. CoD spices up the usual mix by switching from an American fighting the Japanese to a Russian fighting Germans. The story also has a magnificent atmosphere. Officers frequently yell through gunfire and explosions to command you and your squad on distinct missions throughout the game. The storyline of this game is a great experience and a big plus. After the single player story has been completed, online multiplayer is still available. Halo's ranking system is overly simplified. One experience point is awarded for a win, with ranks based on consecutive wins. CoD's system is much more complicated, but much more accurate. Ten experience points are awarded for a kill or achieved objective, with bonus experience for a won or lost match. Ranks are acquired by earning enough experience to level up. CoD's system reflects skill much more accurately than Halo. Lastly, Halo has an extremely in-depth level editor. Things that have been made with this level-editor, very accurately nicknamed the "forge", include racetracks, obstacle courses, Donkey Kong, Duck Hunt, bumper cars, and Jenga. CoD has no such level editor, but it does have Nazi Zombies. Nazi Zombies is a survival horror gametype where hoards of menacing zombies stagger towards you and you have to stay alive for as long as possible. So far, this has become so popular that three large expansions have been added to it, with neat features like repairable window defenses, weapon boxes, traps, and powerups.
Next, gameplay styles are almost polar opposites. In Halo, your character is a half-a-ton, eight-foot-tall, walking tank with energy shields. These shields recharge after a few seconds anyway, so taking down a dozen targets at once without even pausing for breath is not uncommon. CoD likes to favor a more realistic style of play, where only a few shots are enough to bring you down. This requires more thought and planning to be put into effect. Enemies are very diverse in Halo, ranging from small, timid, weak aliens that take only one or two shots, to large, hulking, armor plated beasts that can withstand multiple rockets. Foes in CoD all look like the same Nazis or Japanese, but employ a wide variety of tactics and weapons. Finally, movement is actually quite important on how the games play out, and are distinct in each. Halo encourages players to outmaneuver their enemies in close combat. Jumping is also a useful skill in Halo, and is needed to literally and figuratively get the jump on some foes, as well as reach hidden locations and cross obstacles. CoD gives players more strategic options in their movement, allowing players to duck and lie down to use the most of their cover and to steady their aim, and a sprint action is available to quickly cross large open areas where you are vulnerable to attack.
Finally, the weapons of war in each game are unique in their own ways. Halo gives a basic rifle to start out with, and additional weapons are strewn across the map, requiring players to memorize weapon lactations and then make a mad dash to be the first to claim them. CoD requires no such weapon hunting. Players pick their weapon setup beforehand, and then play through the match using their weapons of choice. This leads to the next contrast; customization. Halo leaves much to be desired in this matter. Only armor appearance and personal color can be chosen. A wide array of possiblities is presented in CoD. Outfitting includes setting your own personal primary weapons, primary weapon attachments, secondary weapons, primary and secondary grenades, three different special attributes, and a vehicle specialization. There are many weapons, attachments, grenades, and skills, allowing you to fine-tune your character to meet your preferred play style and ability. Vehicles are another matter. Halo features a colorful cast of light vehicles, heavy vehicles, and aircraft to commandeer. Multiple vehicles usually appear in each map and come back quickly after they are destroyed. On the contrary, CoD has only one vehicle. A tank might appear during a match, but will always be quickly destroyed by rockets, grenades, anti-air strikes, and gunfire, making vehicles an unimportant presence in CoD.
Halo 3 and Call of Duty: World at War are both excellent games that show how far video games have really come. Despite this, many gamers argue that one of these games is truly better than the other. These two games have almost nothing in common. Saying that CoD is better than Halo is like saying ice cream is better than pizza. Gamers should not be fighting amongst each other, but put-downs and insults between hard headed individuals are usually not stopped by reason. Call of Duty fans and Halo fans continue to wage war against each other, but the fact remains that the game mechanics, different areas of depth, and weapons of war are too contrasting to be compared. Avid video game players should realize that such trivial matters are not worth such hate, and leave the fighting to the virtual battlefield where it belongs.
Yea. Note that this was written for an ENGLISH TEACHER, so I kind of simplified it for her. Let me know what you think. And I play CoD and Halo, I love them both. Keep flaming to a minimum. Or not. As I said, it is NG.
