Review: Halo: Reach

[cthulhumythos]

Also, I liked the story, primarily not because of its content, but because of the way it was told, for example:

Spoiler

That one part with Kat I applaud wholeheartedly, I did NOT see that coming, but it was done in a way that seemed realistic and horrible, and reminded you that this shit is real, and you are NOT invincible.

I wholehartedly agree, I was like D: for 5 minuites after that.
and

Spoiler

when Jorge died (I'm hoping he was teleported to a hospitable planet and gets a spin off

same here

Spoiler

Emile's death was too awesome for me to feel sad, i was just like " i hope that's how go out"

rip Emile, badass to the end

 

[cking636]

Compared to Halo 3 in terms of story, the game is phenomenal with a few exceptions. There are tons of plot holes ranging from the very small to the very large. The battles in the campaign are really only fun in single player, which is different from H3. Admittedly, Halo 3 didn't even have much of a story, so the improvement is granted.

In multiplayer, however, the game seemed lackluster compared to H3. The maps are few and kind of repetitive. That's a huge problem from a game that basically sells itself as a multiplayer game. For mutliplayer, H3 is WAY better. For the campaign, I have to give Bungie points for at least trying, which is better than H3.

 

[cking636]

If I'm remembering right, Chief was the next batch of Spartans. New and improved and with better tech. However, you bring up a good point.

 

[Flamingpenguin]

I played through it last night. It was impressing in a few ways, but disappointing in more, imho.
I'm glad the elites are actually a bit more scary.
I'm glad the scenery is now more open and landscape-ish.
I'm glad THERE'S A JETPACK.

But none of that can balance out the fact that they shoulda thought of all that stuff by Halo 3 and that it still feels like all the same band halo.

But firefight was fun. I'll give it that.

 

[XMark]

I've tried to play through Halo 1 a few times, but I always got annoyed and gave up somewhere around the first mission where you're on the alien spaceship.

I've only played a bit of the beginning of Halo 2, but what I did play felt pretty much the same as Halo 1.

I did play all the way through Halo 3. It seems like they resolved the issues which turned me off the first two games, and I loved all the jaw-dropping epic stuff that was happening through the campaign. Though on a recent play of it, I did notice that the graphics and the presentation were a little lacking for the 360. Like it was caught somewhere between the last generation and this one.

I just finished the Halo: Reach campaign yesterday, and I would say that the Halo games have just gotten better and better as they go. Gameplay-wise it's on par with Halo 3 but where it excels is in the presentation. The sound design is much better than in Halo 3 - all the sound effects have a real kick to 'em and the music is more emotionally engaging. The aliens are actually talking in an alien language, and the little guys aren't an immersion-breaking comic relief thing any more (well, they still do look a little silly running around with their arms waving, but at least their voices sound suitably alien this time around). And the graphics are all really solid - even the human faces look about as natural as is possible on the 360.

I ended up getting really gripped by the campaign, really feeling like it was a desperate and hopeless battle against an overwhelming enemy force. The overall tone of the game was much different from the other games. Almost like Call of Duty: Future Warfare or something.

 

[DTWolfwood]

Still curious how everything got so much more low tech AFTER this Prequel.

Lowtech? What's missing? the equipment and some of the guns? It's pretty much the same for the most part. Not like the star wars preqeusl. . .

It's too bad the game didn't include any of those quad walkers from Halo Wars, the smaller-scarabs. Would've liked to see some of those in the FPS game.

the Hammer of Dawn wannabe, laser sniper rifle, semi-auto combat rifle, sticky plasma grenade launcher, armor upgrades, well armored Grunts, bigger badder needler... to name a few of the "improvements" that wasn't around AFTER reach. XD

What kind of a future is this that the Military didn't backup any of the advance prototypes they had!

But the game is great from what i hear so at the least the Franchise went out with a bang

 

[De Ronneman]

Great review!

Honestly, respect @ Bungie for stopping their franchise before it get's out of hand. Also, it sounds like a pretty sweet game, especialy since you know the outcome, but still have to get there...

Also, is there ever a game featuring a squad of soldiers where you're NOT the new guy?

[sub]please, no examples, retorical question...[/sub]

Marcus Fenix, from Gears of War, my good man. While you're the new member of Delta Squad, you're actually the biggest veteran on your entire team. In fact, I think Hoffman and Dom are the only guys who can boast Marcus' experience.[\quote]

Please reread my post, especially the last line

please, no examples, retorical question...

To be more on topic: I like the jetpack, but I suck at landing where I want, I always go too far... I prefer the invincibility, since you can just stand there and take ANYHTING the can throw at you. That's my idea of awesome

 

[DTWolfwood]

Well the alien laser rifle and the DMR are both inferior to the following weapons in my opinion. The Covenant don't even use the laser rifle effectively. The big needler is just a Carbine replacement with a lower rate of fire. As for the armour, one can just say that Master Chief's suit was incompatible with them and/or all prototypes were subsequently lost on Reach.

I know what you're saying, but it's not that glaring. There are a lot of new weapons, but I'm not sure that they're all necessarily better.

Don't consider things black and white anyway. You can't really do a straight comparison. Instead, look at the game's inventory as the evolution of the the Covenant forces, not an advancement. In Halo 2 the Brutes used normal guns plus maybe the Brute Launcher. In Halo 3 they got spike pistols instead of Plasma Blasters. I didn't view it so much as "new tech" but instead as an evolution of what the Brute was. They might've thought, "the Brute doesn't fight differently enough from Elites, let's give them their own basic weapon as well". That's how I interpret it anyway.

It would be cool if someone could take all the tech and enemies from Reach and put it into the older games so there was some real continuity.

all you had to mention was that the assault rifle has 32 rounds in Reach and 60 in Halo1.

Ill give you that they may or may not be better. But its very telling when there is MORE variety of weapon systems in a narrative that supposedly comes before Halo:CE. While im all for more weapons in new games, if you want to do a prequel to a story that ppl genuinely care about, it really is that glaring to fans. Its like Star Wars, fans hated epi 1-3 verses 4-6, one reason was that it seemingly made no sense how technology went backwards over time.

But again this is minor to the overall experience of the game

 

[Angryranter101]

Can someone explain to me whats so good about the Halo universe? I'm not being sarcastic or smarmy, I personally don't get it. I found it too bland and one dimensional with no characters I could either admire or connect with. For one Master Chief makes no real moral decisions other than shoot them. Being a super soldier he isnt your average gamer either.

Now, its probably regarded as the best game of all time and I'll freely admit to being a bit odd and finding it "OK". This will probably never change but I would dearly like someone to explain to me why its such a great plot. I know it seems odd but I'd really like someone to try and convince me the plot is as good as everyone says it is.

This won't become an argument, I won't land my own favourite plots on you adn try and show you their better, I would really like someone to PM me and explain what makes it great.

 

[Digikid]

First off I will admit that I am a HUGE Halo fan. I ONLY get the Legendary Editions and have more than a few action figures and wall hangings of Spartans. ( Cause we all know Elites suck )

That said....I am disappointed in Reach. For whatever reason it does NOT have that Halo feel to it whatsoever. No I am not talking about the vehicles or the weapons or whatnot....just the feel of what makes a Halo game a halo game.

It is a DECENT game. Not good....but not bad either. Overall a 6/10 MAX.

Bungies last Halo game eh? Highly doubtful. I know what they said and I know that they have been bought out by Activision.....but knowing Bungies history....HIGHLY DOUBTFUL THIS WILL BE THE LAST ONE BY BUNGIE.

 

[CAW4]

I've been having a lot of fun with it. About a year ago, as well as before that, I didn't really like anything where I had to pay attention to a guy for more than 3 seconds to kill him, but I started playing 3 a while ago, and it got to me (also helped me use assault rifles in BC2), and ended up preordering it.

 

[lizards]

If Halo is such a multiplayer centric franchise, why is there no multiplayer review? Are they going to release one?

because people dont review the multiplayer in games...

 

[lizards]

Can someone explain to me whats so good about the Halo universe? I'm not being sarcastic or smarmy, I personally don't get it. I found it too bland and one dimensional with no characters I could either admire or connect with. For one Master Chief makes no real moral decisions other than shoot them. Being a super soldier he isnt your average gamer either.

Now, its probably regarded as the best game of all time and I'll freely admit to being a bit odd and finding it "OK". This will probably never change but I would dearly like someone to explain to me why its such a great plot. I know it seems odd but I'd really like someone to try and convince me the plot is as good as everyone says it is.

This won't become an argument, I won't land my own favourite plots on you adn try and show you their better, I would really like someone to PM me and explain what makes it great.

Simply put the Halo universe just isn't that good.
Halo: CE however was a revolutionary game that changed FPS up to this very day. It brought in a two weapon system, melee attack, quick use grenades, vehicles that handled well, weapon balance (No best weapon due to ammo limit etc), regen health, wide open missions and so on. That is why Halo was good. However as it was one of the only good games of the entire Xbox catalogue, it brought a lot of fanboys over to it who still carry the flag for it for some unknown reason.
It's just really down to fanboys loving a game for no explainable reason while there are far better FPS' out there.

people like it because its a good online game

it doesnt have the stupid ass unnessacary annoying addons that further unbalance it (modern warfare 2 heartbeat sensors stopping power grenade launcher etc)
the massive host advantage, lag, and difficulty at getting good at (gears of war concidentally i like this game)
the sniper dominance (bad company)

its just overall good fun online see that word? "fun" something that seems to be gone from online games, bad company was good, but it was only good when played as rush where the fighting was centrallized and it led to the big squad based "their is fucking bullets and explosions everywhere" combat that it could have done amazingly, but the open battlefield firefights were ruined by people with scopes on their guns, and snipers because the scopes made it so you didnt have to try and just fight but wait for them to stick their head up and snipers just killed anyone who fired anyway, at emplacements were heavily overpowered, mortar strikes are of plague epic proporations, and crates shouldnt be affected by anything other than planting the c4 which you were suppose to do

 

[The Electro Gypsy]

Saying a Halo title is the finest one doesn't neccasarily mean anything tbh....

 

[Angryranter101]

Thank God someone else agrees with me. I played Halo 1 and I thought I'd be bitter and spiteful and try and bring it and its fan boys off its high horse but I found it was really impressive for the time. As I said on my blog, were the game seen as an underdog I'd back it up, I'd say the plot was ambitious, it was hollowed out for a game but had potential and well done for trying. Now it seems to be regarded as Shakespeare with Aliens.

Then again, the books are probably the only Sci-fi apart form warhammer that has plot twists in-between firefights and isn't a look at human culture or some conspiracy story.