1. #1

    Halo Reach: Same old...But is that bad?

    Long post abounds. If reading is not your strong suit, or you have a short attention span, you have been warned.

    So i tried out Halo:Reach a couple of weeks ago, and there's no real thread about it other than "It's coming out, i'm getting it". Let me start off by saying that i never really found what was so interesting in this series from the very beginning. I have played a little of the first game, and finished the second and third game on co-op, as well as participating in a little Multiplayer, and other than an occasional weapon and graphical improvements, i have never found anything that really different that set it apart from the other games dramatically.

    Alright, so from what i understand, this last installment (last, unless they think otherwise that is) is a prequel detailing the fall of Reach, a very, very important strategic point controlled by squishy humans. It was out on a book or something, so anybody that followed the Halo Timeline would know that some bad shit is going to happen in this game.

    Structurally to me, most of the single player is the exact same as the rest of the halo series. You are given several mission objectives in a large environment, sometimes not given a clear waypoint on where to go, with a possibility of backtracking, paired with extremely dumb allies, and fighting against pretty aggressive enemies. As an example of "dumb allies", in the second mission, my Spartan ally, KAT...Aside from usually standing around like an idiot while I'm waiting until she gets inside a vehicle... She got herself stuck during a waypoint, forcing me to take on an army of Covenant (As well as a pair of lumbering Hunter enemies) all by my lonesome.

    The only big difference i saw was taking control of a space superiority fighter halfway through the campaign. Since i have a hard-on for Space fighting games, i have no complaints about this.


    Now, onto the multiplayer, because this is the most important part of an FPS nowadays. What else can i say? It's Halo Multiplayer with improvements. The powerups are a welcome addition to the game, and each are powerful in their own right. Gameplay modes like Fire Fight can be alot of fun, a levelling up system allowing you to make your spartan armor prettier (among other things) ensures the game will have alot of folks playing for a long time.

    I'd also like to mention Forge World, and theater modes briefly...Forge World is essentially a map editor you and your friends can screw around with, and i've seen some nice stuff on there. You can also make/see videos and Take/view pictures in the theater mode, but honestly not very many pictures are worthy of note. It's mostly close-ups of KAT's ass, and some guy getting knifed in the testicles.


    Other than those neat things, it is still just another Halo game to me. But to anyone that has been a fan of the series, that's not really a bad thing.



    PS:There are more annoying, high pitched turds in this game than in Modern Warfare 2, and that is saying a lot. Mute buttons can fix that though.
    Last edited by Caradinist; 2010-09-30 at 06:26 AM.
    Quote Originally Posted by Respen
    I was very disappointed in the screenshots. I usually base my entire gaming experience around ground textures and so far it seems like Cata will be totally unplayable.

  2. #2
    Banned Rageissues's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Corvallis, OR
    Posts
    1,917
    I think it's an awesome game. Better graphics. Great story. Cool new weapons. Awesome XBL experience.

    Yes there are a few bugs regarding your allies, but that should only affect you on legendary. If your playing on normal and you struggle with fighting ten elites alone or two hunters alone, then that person is slightly below average to incredibly average at shooters.

    Firefight is awesome too. Gruntpocalypse ftw

    Oh and here are three steps to become a great video game company:

    1) Create a FPS that is rated M.
    2) Advertise said FPS on Cartoon Network/Nickelodeon/Disney.
    3) Profit.

  3. #3
    It's fun when you don't get stuck with the idiots that choose SWAT every time. Dear lord, I hate that game mode so much.

  4. #4
    Banned Rageissues's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Corvallis, OR
    Posts
    1,917
    Quote Originally Posted by Dakho View Post
    It's fun when you don't get stuck with the idiots that choose SWAT every time. Dear lord, I hate that game mode so much.
    What!?!?! I love SWAT, it's my favorite game type. I'm fairly good at most game types... usually going 2:1, but I tear shit up at SWAT. In a perfect world, SWAT would be in it's own playlist so that I could only play that and never be forced to play classic slayer on The Cage ever again. Nothing pisses me off more in that game than assault rifles.

    I would humbly accept a "Race" playlist as well :P

  5. #5
    The Hedgehog Elementium's Avatar
    15+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    MA, USA.
    Posts
    12,764
    My online experiences are limited.. Also sounds like good news for me that I lost my headset :P but honestly you get the same assholes with every FPS game. I know because I live a room away from my brother and all night, all I hear is him calling people some pretty terrible names and basically making sure no one else has fun playing CoD. Although.. I do enjoy listening to him make up stories about how successful he is to people once they call him out.

    As for the story mode.. Once it was done I felt good but it also felt way too short..

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Rageissues View Post
    Yes there are a few bugs regarding your allies, but that should only affect you on legendary. If your playing on normal and you struggle with fighting ten elites alone or two hunters alone, then that person is slightly below average to incredibly average at shooters.
    Really the only difference is, i haven't played Halo in several years, on top of the fact that i really do not like the Halo series in general. As a result I can recall at least three areas in the entire campaign where i had severe problems getting through somewhere on normal.

    I did try to give my thoughts on it without sounding like someone who blindly hates the game for little reason though.
    Quote Originally Posted by Respen
    I was very disappointed in the screenshots. I usually base my entire gaming experience around ground textures and so far it seems like Cata will be totally unplayable.

  7. #7
    Halo has never really deviated from it's successful formula too much in all its other games, and the reason why is obvious, people still find it fun.

    I have always enjoyed the way halo plays compared to other games like Call of Duty because you will just about always see the person who killed you and know exactly why you died and will always allow you to have a chance vs them. Which is very much unlike say Call of Duty which has you yelling at the screen because the kill cam shows you being Noob-Tubed from across the map and can also have some guy dual wielding Shotguns (broken wrists because of recoil anyone?) doing so well that he can have a AC-130 every 3 minutes.

    Also, Halo 3's Forge Mode made it possible to do just about anything, but it was very limited at times (damn Budget). From what I heard of what they have redone to Forge in Reach, I cannot wait to see what game-types will soon spawn from it.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Rageissues View Post
    What!?!?! I love SWAT, it's my favorite game type. I'm fairly good at most game types... usually going 2:1, but I tear shit up at SWAT. In a perfect world, SWAT would be in it's own playlist so that I could only play that and never be forced to play classic slayer on The Cage ever again. Nothing pisses me off more in that game than assault rifles.

    I would humbly accept a "Race" playlist as well :P
    Swat is actually becoming its own playlist on the 5th. And Rocket Race is being added to Multi-Team. Not a full playlist, but it's something.

  9. #9
    Graphics dont really have thw WOW factor you would think it would have. Overall the campaign was fulfilling.

  10. #10
    SWAT is by far one of my favorite modes......easy head shots ftw.
    Quote Originally Posted by Swizzle View Post
    Frost has been the leveling spec of choice since....forever. The people laughing at you are wrath babies and should be treated the same way David Hasslehoff treats his body: with no respect.

  11. #11
    High Overlord Blaze611's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    127.0.0.1
    Posts
    124
    I think Reach was a good campaign, I can see how you can say that it's the same every single time. Each game brings little new things to play with each installment, with Halo Reach they expanded the game to a very good standing. Loadouts, Much better Forge functionality, fully customizable spartan.

    The only negatives that I dislike are, no flood, dual wielding is gone still (although I can see why they would remove it anyways) and plasma grenades. :P

  12. #12
    The Hedgehog Elementium's Avatar
    15+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    MA, USA.
    Posts
    12,764
    The Flood got alot of crap. I think the majority of players kinda saw them as a cash in as Halos "Zombies".

  13. #13
    Banned Rageissues's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Corvallis, OR
    Posts
    1,917
    Quote Originally Posted by Elementium View Post
    The Flood got alot of crap. I think the majority of players kinda saw them as a cash in as Halos "Zombies".
    I was very relieved to see that there were no flood in this game. I don't read the books or do any real research prior to playing halo, so all I knew going into the game was that everyone is gonna die, which they essentially tell you in the first ten seconds. Halo 3's flood were slightly improved because you could actually melee them and get head shots... unlike the crap that was the earlier versions of the flood.

  14. #14
    The graphics are great, awesome story, but if you read the books you know that everyone's gonna die sooner or later, and H:R's story conflicts with the book Halo:First Strike and Halo:Ghosts of Onyx. Noble team also seems shallower than previous halos' characters, as if Bungie didn't put as much work into fleshing them out. You can tell what their personalities are like, but when they die, you're just like "oh, another one died, oh well," but in the last few games, it really felt like you were losing a part of the team, rather than just an AI-controlled bot. Bungie certainly went out with a bang, but it doesn't feel as deep as it should have been.

    Now to wait and see what 343 Studios will come up with.

  15. #15
    The Hedgehog Elementium's Avatar
    15+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    MA, USA.
    Posts
    12,764
    Yeah.. some of the deaths I expected to be a little more heroic.. like Jorge's and Carters. I don't think that's a spoiler right? if you've ever read about Halo you know Reach is screwed..

    I feel like Cat (Kat?) being the only female character probably should have gone in a slightly more heroic way.

  16. #16
    Campaign was way way waaaaay too short. But it still matched up to Halo 2 to me (and that's saying that, in order of best to worst, the quality of campaign went Halo > Reach > Halo 2 > ODST > Placing my arm in a woodchipper > Halo 3).

    The online play experience is fantastic. First console FPS since Halo 2 that I've touched for anything besides campaign and I love it. If you're an avid fan of FPS on PC, you may like this as I did.

  17. #17
    Blademaster Sanitarium's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Southern California
    Posts
    34
    SWAT mode or gtfo

  18. #18

  19. #19
    The Hedgehog Elementium's Avatar
    15+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    MA, USA.
    Posts
    12,764
    SWAT definitely sucks.. Tried it today and all my team left so I had to sit and get killed 50 times. good news is I got 20+ kills on them before it was over.

    I like the concept of no armor but idk.. could be better.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •