It's an interesting question. On one hand, I feel like the hype that the Halo series receives from video games media now is a result of its extreme popularity, which has built up over the years. Game sites like IGN and GameSpot want to hype those games up, because they know their readers are interested in those games. Halo 3 sold something like 8 million units in 4 months. Those are sales figures even hype can't generate on its own.

Here's a couple areas where I think the Halo games are actually rather innovative:

1. Enemy AI. The enemies in Halo games act rather human, I'd say better than most FPS games. They hide behind objects, react in various ways, attack with strategy, and seem to always be trying to actually figure *you* out.

2. Vehicles. In playing the single-player campaigns of all of the Halo games, one thing I'm always struck by is how well the vehicles work, and how much variety they add to the game. Flying a Ghost, manning a warthog, etc., all of that felt pretty fresh to me in Halo 1, and I think has improved with later iterations of the series.

3. Multiplayer. When the first game came out, it really popularized using Xbox Live to play with friends. Not since GoldenEye on N64 did a game bring friends together quite like Halo 1 did, at least for me. Also the sense of community and creativity that has come out of Halo 3's level editors is pretty amazing, when you think about it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoRL8VFKU1s

However, I think what Halo suffers from (and what you're getting at), is that it does a lot of very basic things exceptionally well, but doesn't necessarily reinvent the wheel. They are very well made games, with great graphics and gameplay, but feel basically like American action films.

So, yes they may be overhyped, but who cares? They're great games that do the fundamentals very well. They're fun, and in the end I think that's all that matters. The media will always do its song and dance to try and cash in, but that's just business.
Source(s):
http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/15391/Latest-Xbox-360-Halo-3-Sales-Figures-Ar...

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