First Person all the way.
While a game such as Gears of War uses a tactical cover based mechanic that can really only work in Third (and indeed works very well.) It would be jarring to impose it on the franchise at this stage.
Espechially as Halo's tactical feel is very orientated to be in your face (literally.) I couldn't imagine the flood having as much impact or dual wielding having the same visceral joy in 3rd as they do in the 1st person.
Halo runs on a totally different premise with the presence of personal shields, this allows for a great deal more cinematic heroism as opposed to the dirty gruntwork of Gears, the games are two totally different beasts. Indeed I feel in Gears shares more in common in many respects to a light weight version of GRAW or Rainbow 6.
Though I enjoyed Gears immensly, there is a disconnect between the player and character. Something you don't get in an FPS, even with a strongly developed, vocal central character such as the Chief. (Though admittedly the character in Gears is a cliched *******, along with the rest of the cast, which doesn't help.)
With such a strong character to market a TPS would be the obvious choice. MC has became somewhat more than he originally was, the very generic nature of his title was intended to facilitate player immersion, I've often felt that to this end giving him a real name may have been a mistake.
Still, like a few other characters, rather than a turn off, the strong personage and imagery do the exact opposite. And I think this is mostly down to the FPS nature allowing the player to project themselves into the role of MC.
It's one of a few games (the other being Half Life) where I personally want to play the character. Rather than the majority of games where I try to forget that the main character is a square-jawed dickwad and just get on with the job of killing stuff.
Did I think about this too much?
Am I talking bollocks?
Does it show I did games design classes at uni?
Should I find a friend as into the intellectual side of games as I am so I can do this down the pub instead of on a forum?
Should the script writter for Gears of War try harder with the characters and cut down on the ******* quotient?
Discuss.
