Zero Punctuation: Halo: Reach

[Tyrany42]

Loved Halo Reach, though Yahtzee's main complaint is also mine. Seems Bungie only ever makes characters with personality if their death is near. It happened to Johnson and Miranda, while the quiet, emotionless green super soldier gets to live to take a nap in deep space.
Reach made me want to play Mass Effect 2 again, just so I can actually alter the story so that my teammates DON'T die cheap, predictable deaths.

 

[gmanyo]

As surprised that I am that Yahtzee somewhat enjoyed this game, I still think it's complete bullshit that he only reviews the single player, treating the multiplayer like it's something that only 13 year olds do and acting like he's better than everyone else because multiplayer is for douche bags. When a development team spends what was likely half of their time and money on a certain aspect of a game, it isn't exactly good reviewing practice to promptly ignore that part in your review because you are "0mg such a h1gh class gaem3r".

Fortunately for Yahtzee, however, the multiplayer in this particular installment is sort of like the single player: better than average, but still pretty meh. It was great in Halo 2 and 3, but I'm tired of it by now and the maps are quite awful.

Seriously, though, "A full price game has to stand up on single player"? That's a load of crap. I liked Gears of War because the multiplayer was dynamic and creative, but it probably has some of the worst single player I've ever seen in a big budget game. Not to mention the full price games out there that are only multiplayer.

And I know someone out there is going to accuse me of being a Halo fanboy, which I guess is fair enough since it's somewhat true. But I'm pretty much over it now, I swear (Just one more time man! Just one more hit/blunt/game of MTG and I swear I'll never do it again!). I was excited when Reach came out, but then didn't have enough money to buy it for myself. I ended up playing it at my friend's houses, and while it was fun, it wasn't worth the hype. Like I said before, (or half said, at any rate; I implied it. Kind of.) this is just a complaint about the completeness of the review: if Yahtzee had actually played the multiplayer, he'd probably have said the same thing he did about the single player, and he would have been totally spot-on.

*EDIT*
But oh, God, was he right about the terrible plot. The voice acting was almost on par with a Silent Hill game, and the characters might as well have been made of cardboard. Though I guess then they wouldn't really be able to stand up to much gunfire, but whatever.

 

[repeating integers]

Let me make that point more clear. The two films may have been different down to every detail. But I went to see it expecting more of the great story telling and epic battles I got from a new hope.

Mass Effect 1&2 both have great story and epic encounters.

The same can be said for Halo 1-Reach

Wait a second, are you actually saying you played Halo for the story? Really? Because i came in expecting a good story, but i haven't found it. It was simpler than the horrible mishmash that Halo 2 was, but it wasn't good.

A great example of sequel done better is Half-Life 2. New Weapons, new enemies, same enemies in new and refreshing disguise, new gameplay-elements like the gravity-gun, completely different setting and storyline, new characters, more depth, etc.

Halo is missing all that.

Once again, this is all opinion. ALL FUCKING OPINION. And oyu're arguing about it as if it's scientific fact.

Zero Punctuation is brilliant, but it brings out by far the worst in the community here. Refer back to my last post in this thread. You guys are behaving like youtube trolls.

 

[Swifteye]

I'm very surprised that people are surprised that yathzee didn't completely hate halo reach. Seems like a well made game from what everybody says. I mean his halo three review said the game was mediorce and run of the mill. I think he said that here too but not in those exact words.

Apparantly I must learn what this oni game is.

 

[YoungZer0]

Let me make that point more clear. The two films may have been different down to every detail. But I went to see it expecting more of the great story telling and epic battles I got from a new hope.

Mass Effect 1&2 both have great story and epic encounters.

The same can be said for Halo 1-Reach

Wait a second, are you actually saying you played Halo for the story? Really? Because i came in expecting a good story, but i haven't found it. It was simpler than the horrible mishmash that Halo 2 was, but it wasn't good.

A great example of sequel done better is Half-Life 2. New Weapons, new enemies, same enemies in new and refreshing disguise, new gameplay-elements like the gravity-gun, completely different setting and storyline, new characters, more depth, etc.

Halo is missing all that.

Once again, this is all opinion. ALL FUCKING OPINION. And oyu're arguing about it as if it's scientific fact.

Zero Punctuation is brilliant, but it brings out by far the worst in the community here. Refer back to my last post in this thread. You guys are behaving like youtube trolls.

Well it is a fact that the Halo Franchise is missing some "change".

 

[sunpop]

We all would like an Oni 2 but we must accept that much like Episode 3 it just isn't happening.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

HA!

Thank you for the sensible review, I was pleasantly surprised that you didn't disembowel, burn, and piss over the game.

Though I do have one thing that is setting off my fanboy rage:

You neglected to mention Forge, firefight, or player customization, all of which can be done without other players.

 

[mr_rubino]

I'm happy to see that despite him liking the game, the Halo fanboys still found ways to clog the board with their "Waaah waaaah! He didn't praise it enough!" child-like tantrums. Just another day on ZP.

P.S. I repeat: "MULTIPLAYA YO!" has become the 21st century equivalent to the late 90s's "awsum gr4fx". You can roll out anything, but if you hit that one little box on the checklist, all the 12 year old boys of the world will defend your work to the end.

 

[Woodsey]

Good video, uninteresting game.

Hopefully it'll be Enslaved next week; haven't played it yet (damn you Friday releases!) but that game screams Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time to me.

 

[Cmichaels]

You already made the "Hello, Goodbye" pun on the Halo 3 video... or was that intended...

I am actually surprised that he didn't tear it apart, but I still think that saying "a game has to stand up on single player alone" is a very silly statement. So is the quality of an MMO diminished because there's no mode to grind quests by yourself?

Not sure I've ever played or heard of an MMO where you have to do everything with another person

 

[repeating integers]

Let me make that point more clear. The two films may have been different down to every detail. But I went to see it expecting more of the great story telling and epic battles I got from a new hope.

Mass Effect 1&2 both have great story and epic encounters.

The same can be said for Halo 1-Reach

Wait a second, are you actually saying you played Halo for the story? Really? Because i came in expecting a good story, but i haven't found it. It was simpler than the horrible mishmash that Halo 2 was, but it wasn't good.

A great example of sequel done better is Half-Life 2. New Weapons, new enemies, same enemies in new and refreshing disguise, new gameplay-elements like the gravity-gun, completely different setting and storyline, new characters, more depth, etc.

Halo is missing all that.

Once again, this is all opinion. ALL FUCKING OPINION. And oyu're arguing about it as if it's scientific fact.

Zero Punctuation is brilliant, but it brings out by far the worst in the community here. Refer back to my last post in this thread. You guys are behaving like youtube trolls.

Well it is a fact that the Halo Franchise is missing some "change".

Each game has enough change in it to warrant being called "different". That's good enough for me.

Really, some people (not you or the guy you were arguing with) make me so damn annoyed. They seem to have made it their life's mission to try and destroy any games they don't like (and usually this means "games not made by Valve" on these forums). Do they care that some people don't give a shit about comparing Halo to some old game which supposedly has greater depth and more change, because they've got a positive enough outlook on life to be satisfied with a game which is just fun? No. They will not rest until every person in the world has been utterly convinced that Halo is an abomination and we should all be playing Half-Life, and are convinced that anybody who prefers Halo is a casual dipshit with no taste. It's the very worst kind of fanboyism, and I hate it. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, and I just wish these people would see reason and stop.

This militant, elitist and extreme fanboyism of Half Life 2 is incidentally why I hate the game and franchise despite never having played it.

 

[The Brocken]

Gay-Lo Reach-Around is actually pretty clever.

 

[mr_rubino]

Half Life
Half Life: Opposing Force
Half Life: Blue Shift
Half Life 2
Half Life 2: Episode 1
Half Life 2: Episode 2
Half Life: Deathmatch
Half Life Merchandise

Deathmatch? Seriously? The HL1 xp packs were shite though, I'll give you that.

Just saying there are a more Half Life games than Halo ones. I just find it bizarre that Halo is one of the only series that I have come across that has been accused of "milking" the franchise when it has only just reached the 6 game mark.

Like I said, there are much better examples (Mario, Sonic, Metal Gear Solid) but I chose to go for one that he has suggested he likes a lot.

thankgod. someone who doesnt think that halo reach is the second coming of the bible. HALO REACH IS A MEDIOCRE GAME AT BEST!

AND THAT IS AN ABSOLUTE FACT MAN! NOT AN OPINION OR ANYTHING! ALSO CAPSLOCK FOR EMPHASIS!

...Yeah. You get my point?

Sometimes I would like to shoot Yahtzee for giving the people of this site the words "generic" and "mediocre" to their dictionaries, especially considering "mediocre" is meaningless in the discussion of how good a game is, and "generic" can very rarely be applied to anything other than clothing and food.

Aww thank you. What with the fanboys not being able to cry about his review, I was missing the inevitable child coming in and whining about how we only have the opinions Yahtzee gives us. Yes, words such as "mediocre" are so rare and high-fallutin', it can only have been handed to us without paycheck (for we are all plants) by Yahtzee himself.

My Lord, how do you people even think of these things and not feel embarrassed?

This militant, elitist and extreme fanboyism of Half Life 2 is incidentally why I hate the game and franchise despite never having played it.

*sigh* That is so precious, I wanna pinch your cheek and give you a toffee.

 

[GrimCW]

A great example of sequel done better is Half-Life 2. New Weapons, new enemies, same enemies in new and refreshing disguise, new gameplay-elements like the gravity-gun, completely different setting and storyline, new characters, more depth, etc.

Halo is missing all that.

not a big halo fanatic like some but i will say this.
HL2 was a terrible excuse for a sequel, it didn't pickup anywhere from the original, had a few cameo/returns, and a half shat out plot to explain things in a nutshell without actually explaining a damned thing.
tbh its like trying link Quake and Quake 2 just because they both have shotguns and portals in the games. tbh the character development in Halo was better than HL2.
HL2 was a tunnel runner with bigger maps, better models, but worse GFX overall than Doom 3 offered.
as for weapons it had the same basic loadout any game has, pistol, MG, SMG, sniper. sure they looked different, but they're the same as any. its only real addition was the gravity gun.


on topic though, Reach was the stand before last, not the first in the war (IIRC, and i probably don't, its actually some 20+ years into the war)
that aside it pretty much runs spot on
Halo's never had a good story, mediocre gameplay with terrible character development.
crap, only characters with any development in ANY of the Halo games would be the Arbitor (in 2 anyways) and Miranda Keyes.
but at least it contributed to its own series, each game actually had meaning to the overall theme and story (for what was there anyway)

and this "OMG THE MP IS SOOO AWETHOME!" bullox makes me laugh, the series has bare bones generic MP, and until recently didn't have jack to shake it up.
its still barely new though, and the few gameplay modes are on the same level as chinky server side mods in some PC games, same game, slight difference in play style. Gets boring FAST.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I agree on most parts except for the mistake concerning how humans knew about their vehicles. Reach was not the first planet attacked in the war, but one of the last. They'd been fighting the covenant for years beforehand and were very familiar with their tech.

 

[SelectivelyEvil13]

Am I the only one who laughed my figurative arse off at the imp crashing in on a ghost saying: "Sup y'all niggas"?

I liked Halo: Reach. Played it over at a pal's house and a 1v1v1 match can get pretty damned fun. The powers make it easier to kill good players (I actually won one game because of the armor lock that Yahtzee thinks is crap for some reason), without making the game too easy.
Liked invasion too. It's like capture the point in TF2. You even get premade classes and crap.

However, I strongly disagree that all games must be able to stand on their single-player content. I would never, ever pay for Modern Warfare 2 if I only had the single-player campaign. The way I see it, the price you pay is for the game. The campaign, multiplayer, customisation screen, theater, dress-up and vibrating cup are just parts that make up the game in its entirety.
If a game's other parts stop working, well then the game just gets worse than it was before. Situations change, after all.

I'm surprised milk didn't come out of my nose because that part really cracked me up!

As far as a game standing on multiplayer alone, I agree to an extent when it comes to games like Modern Warfare where the multiplayer is more of where the game is at. But it also makes me think of the prospect of separating the single player and online portions for different desires.

Sixty for the full package is fair, but for someone like me who doesn't play online, that's a bit steep if there's only "half" single player with the rest being a feature I won't even use. I feel a bit more strongly towards the 360 games specifically because you have to pay for the usage of online multiplayer on top of the game's original cost.

Overall I was surprised by my enjoyment with Reach, short-lived as it was. The new additions and balancing felt the most natural of the Halo games to me.

But now that Yahtzee mentioned it, the "standing on the edge of a ramp mid-air" thing perplexed me throughout the game. I mean, yeah, I guess I'd be more casual about where I decided to hang out hundreds of feet in the air if I knew that I could survive a fall entering a planet's atmosphere.

 

[L4Y Duke]

Uh, I don't think Yahtzee's as well-read on the Halo story as he thinks, as Reach isn't the start of the Human-Covenant war. It's just the Human's most devastating loss. It was their most high-tech facility around, and then the 'covvies' showed up and reduced it to slag.

If they wanted to make a game depicting the beginning of the war, it'd be Halo: Harvest, and would feature Sgt. Johnson.

Although I do have to agree, Armor Lock is near-useless. The best use I can think of for it is to not die from a sticky grenade. Though, Drop Shield and Hologram are quite fun.

 

[veloper]

Alot of appreciation for Oni here. Positively surprising.

 

[kaosboy13]

Thank you, Ben. I have been so tired of the Halo hype after the first 2 games failed to impress me enough. I'm a 360 gamer, but I never really got what made Halo so popular.

 

[mr_rubino]

I've been calling it Gaylo Reacharound for weeks. It's really fun to do to your Halo fanboy friends. They nerdrage hard.

...and by "nerdrage" I assume you mean "lose all respect for anyone stupid enough to find that funny"

It is definitely a "that guy" kind of thing to say.