Halo Has Kinect, Mixed Results

Dear Reader,

It was recently announced that “Halo: Anniversary” will feature voice-controlled reloading, grenade tossing, and engine-swapping (between the classic engine and the newer one), all through our wayward friend the Kinect. Not so great, if you ask me. The idea of Master Chief shouting at his pistol to reload itself is just ridiculous. Games have a responsibility to design input mechanisms that don’t directly conflict with the actions they’re triggering, and most Kinect titles acknowledge this by focusing on leaning, pushing objects, or telling people to do things. Commanding inanimate objects is just bizarre, it disconnects the game from its self-created reality.

Still, there’s a silver lining. “Anniversary” will also use the Kinect for a “Metroid: Prime” style scanning system, whereby the player can point Master Chief at something, say “scan,” and download a collectible to a personal library. It’s not much more than a glorified easter egg hunt, but given how ridiculously addicting it proved in Retro Studios’ masterpieces, I must applaud its inclusion here. Just like love stories never get old, gamers never tire of “Pokemon”-style obsessive quests for the elusive “caught ’em all.” If it ain’t broke, folks.

_AA

a real human being, and a real hero