Zero Punctuation: Halo: Reach

[Netrigan]

And, for my original post that started the discussion, I was simply saying that Yahtzee--a professional who is getting paid to do this--should have a balanced review.

The problem I see here is that if he doesn't care for the MP action, then his review of the MP action will be pretty much worthless. He's made his feeling clear why he dislikes MP, then ignores it.

Yeah, if this were a major game site doing a review, ignoring the MP would be inexcusable, but he's set himself up as a know-it-all smart-mouth who enjoys shitting all over the things you love. Had he ventured forth into the MP content it would be to complain about all the twats that suck the fun out of it by acting like 12 year old racist homophobes... which he pretty much said in-review. If he's not enjoying a turd sandwich, then there's little point of making eat another, related turd sandwich so he has a proper, balanced review of it.

And I think a critic really only has a responsibility to put forth his opinions in a way that the reader/listener can make an informed decision based on it. If you are interested in the multiplayer content more than the single player content, then Yahtzee's review will not help you at all and you should seek out another review. I enjoy reading reviews for games I have (or will never buy) just because they often articulate something I couldn't quite express... but when I'm actively attempting to find out whether a game is for me or not, that requires quite a bit of searching to find someone whose priorities are reasonably close to my own (although quite often, I find the information I want from people's whose priorities are diametrically opposed to my own... like if I hate something and they spend five paragraphs raving about that being in the game, then I know this isn't a game for me). And I think Yahtzee does a pretty good job of defining what he does and does not like in a game for a listener to make an informed decision about whether to ignore his review or not.

And mostly it's for entertainment purposes. It's fun to watch him take the piss out of a game, even ones that I like. But from time to time, his opinion about what makes a game good or bad will be in opposition to your own.

 

[DarkKnightBob]

If the game is pure multi-player its a different argument

So, by removing the single-player option, you improve the game?

so by removing the multi-player you improve the game?

Think back to when CS: 1.xxxx tried adding a single player element. It sucked because the game was a pure multi-player.

That game didn't have a single player to begin with. You can't remove something that isn't there.

 

[Azaraxzealot]

i honestly thought he was gonna be more harsh on this... i found the campaign to be just as if not MORE frustrating... cant wait for Bulletstorm to bring back the badass

on another note he didn't mention the Firefight mode, which CAN be played single-player and it works just fine.

EDIT:

I am frankly amazed that Yahtzee did this, considering how bleh he was about Halo 3 and Halo Wars.

Also, I LIKED Oni.

they made a reference to Oni in the campaign (Oni Sword Base was a place you could fight)

ONI, as it is spelled, actually stands for Office of Naval Intelligence, and I don't think it's a reference so much as a coincidence since they have mentioned ONI since The Fall of reach novel which released like 8 months after the game Oni.

OT: I'm surprised as hell that he kind of sort of liked this game. I, as a Halo fan, was ready for him to rip it to shreds. Thanks Ben!

well, can't we just pretend it's a reference for the sake of fun?

 

[Azaraxzealot]

Don't want to discuss multiplayer? Fine. Unprofessional to ignore a key component of the game, but fine...
But why not even mention Forge, Firefight, or Theater? Do those suddenly require backup?

You named it...key component.
Why do games have to be based on Multiplayer nowadays?
I remember when Multiplayer was a GIMMICK! A nifty thing to throw in.
Those games usually had far better and far LONGER campaigns too, because not so much money was invested in the Multiplayer.
Now it´s like "so we have the Multiplayer down...we use what is left over and tack on a campaign mode..."
Besides, we all know the Multiplayer experience can be quite the most annoying part EVER since so many moms buy those games for their kids...
You see, a truely good game doesn´t need Multiplayer, and a mediocre game isn´t gonna be saved by a good Multiplayer.
I would have liked if more money flew into the Singleplayer of Halo and Modern Warfare, making them longer and with better Storys or something, introducing more mechanics and stuff like that.

Because atleast I don´t buy games for the Multiplayer...

you have a point there, but as someone who has a lot of friends and siblings, buying games that have multiplayer is kind of required, and i think since MOST people have siblings (and not more than one console) it makes sense to buy games with some sort of multiplayer so that they don't keep bugging me every five seconds with "when do i get to play?!!!"

it WOULD be better if i were an only child instead of all games having multiplayer tacked on

 

[duchaked]

ironically, a game like Halo's single player campaign could very easily be longer lasting than say Half-Life 2 thanks to...ta da, co-op

I like both series, but due to the financial strain I really can't afford to buy a game full price if it doesn't have co-op (not necessarily online mp)

I am currently eyeing CoD and MoH with RENT written over their covers (the co-op in WaW was meh)

 

[Schmittler]

I still think he left out a lot. Considering how much he enjoyed the customization options in Saints Row 2, you would think he would have given credit for the fully customizable player model that was represented in campaign.

Also, although I think some things could have been fleshed out more, I think it's nice that they didn't overdo any of the "excitement" portions of the game. If there was a whole mission dedicated to space-flight, it likely would have gotten boring and pissed a lot of people off. So it's a fair trade off I think. The campaign wasn't perfect, but it was solid.

 

[Calvar Draveir]

I thought the campaign was awesome. I found it more fun than many single-player only games I've played. Game modes like firefight have never been this customizable before, you can spell out exactly what you want to happen enemy spawning wise. I thought this should have been mentioned, but anyways, I don't really use Yahtzee to choose what games I buy. I can tell if a game is terrible by watching gameplay on youtube, or reading some smaller video game review sites. I watch Yahtzee cuz he makes observant jokes about the inherent stupidness present in all games, and I like that!

Reach was marketed towards campaign, and Yahtzee probably would have enjoyed it more if he knew he could have grabbed a jetpack at many different times through the mission. It was about 8 hours for me on heroic, which was shorter than some halo games, but in most halo games with long campaigns like halo 2, It started to get rather tiresome fighting through backtrack levels and waves of flood. It was a more all around fun campaign than any other halo one, I think.

 

[duchaked]

Reach was the least repetitive of all the Halo games in my opinion
but it was also very short...

I'm not particularly excited about any shooters nowadays tho
neither Black Ops or Medal of Honor seem to focus much on the single player campaign (at least not in their ads and stuff), so idk

blah, shooter1235421

judging by the opinions of player responses/reviews, is there any shooter that isn't blah?

Cue the Halo fanboys?

Oh well good review and I agree mostly from what ive played of it at a friends.

LOL he said gay-lo though, that might upset the Halo fanboys but pleases the haters (who IMO are the true metacunts)

Wow. This is the first halo game he's actually liked...

cool, that was a nice surprise. Noblest death goes to Jorge for me however

: ) Love Jorge!

I thought he would say Jorge had the noblest death cuz Jorge is European xD I think...what I thought when I watched the VGA trailer

 

[civver]

Yeah, they really didn't incorporate the Armor Abilities into the campaign in innovative ways. A missed opportunity. It also starts to drag on in the last few missions.

 

[Flunk]

Magnetic boots Yahtzee, magnetic boots. There you go.

 

[Siuki]

I am surprised. I was expecting a much more negative review on the Single Player portion of the game. Though I am disappointed in the fact that that is all the review is based off of. Even if he wanted to discount Multiplayer, the credit system and the intergrated Bungie.net [http://www.bungie.net/stats/reach/online.aspx] for his reason, and he discounted Forge and saved films for similar reasons. Their is still Firefight. That requires only one person and he never mentioned it.

Though the one thing that bothered thoughout the review was the part where he said that Reach takes place at the beginning of the war. No it doesn't, it takes place 27 years after the start of the war. That's why they knew how to use Covenant equipment.

Humanity encountered the Covenant on Harvest first, right?

OT: Still surprised he only looked at the Campaign only. You can play all aspects of the game except for watching films in splitscreen or online multiplayer, so there wasn't an excuse to look past forge and firefight. A game should have a great Campaign, but that doesn't mean everything else can be disregarded.

 

[Siuki]

blah, shooter1235421

judging by the opinions of player responses/reviews, is there any shooter that isn't blah?

Well, the premise of every shooter is to shoot something at something, so you can fill in anything to badmouth a game and make it sound boring.

 

[Sh0ckFyre]

I enjoyed the video. But it seems like Yahtzee has never heard of the term RET-CON.

Anyway, Bungie did the best job on the game story wise. They made the planet itself feel like a character and there's this lingering sense of hopelessness that culminates in the planet making the Covenant glass industry boom. They added some variety to the aging gameplay, but I hated the characters. They tried to get you to get emotionally attached to Noble Team, but they failed so fucking hard on that part. Carter's a stereotypical Marine, Kat's a stereotypical Marine with boobs, Emile's the strong silent type, Jun's a stuck up dickfaggot, and Jorge is the only one with a soul.

Without a doubt, they did an impressive job on the ending. It ends with a loss, but it feels like a victory at the same time.

 

[tikalal]

I disagreed vehemently with the Halo 3 review but I think he's spot on with Reach. However he did say that you might need to go through the books and that to understand the story. Not true. The story is so bad in Halo Reach that it's actually MORE CONFUSING if you have read the books and know what's supposed to be going on.

 

[Niccolo]

And my day is made. I can't quite believe he didn't blast the Mjolnir-plated testicles off of the game, but hey.

But the true entertainment comes from the highly amusing arguments that lie within the comments section...

 

[JJAB91]

Well I'll be damned, he wasn't the only one who noticed it was Halo 3 with Jetpacks XD

Either way well done Yahtzee, you seemed to have said alot what I was thinking about this god awful game ¬_¬

However I will say the ending was a bit gripping, but that's like saying the last 10 mins in superbad make up for the crapfest

How is it awful? It's anything but.

I love how this entire thread is composed of people hating on Halo simply because its Halo. I doubt the majority here has even played a Halo game. Is it milked somewhat? Yeah but everything is nowadays, I mean look at your precious Half Life or Call of Duty or other games. Halo is popular FOR A REASON.

 

[Phototoxin]

Yay! Gay-lo Reach-around !

Seriouly its just another FPS... they all were ... big deal why?

 

[Little Duck]

So how is fun space game the game coming along?

Also I wonder who will develop the next halo.

 

[Madara XIII]

Well I'll be damned, he wasn't the only one who noticed it was Halo 3 with Jetpacks XD

Either way well done Yahtzee, you seemed to have said alot what I was thinking about this god awful game ¬_¬

However I will say the ending was a bit gripping, but that's like saying the last 10 mins in superbad make up for the crapfest

How is it awful? It's anything but.

I love how this entire thread is composed of people hating on Halo simply because its Halo. I doubt the majority here has even played a Halo game. Is it milked somewhat? Yeah but everything is nowadays, I mean look at your precious Half Life or Call of Duty or other games. Halo is popular FOR A REASON.

I played Halo Reach and I'll out right say it, Halo 2 was better than them all.

Yahtzee adressed it best and It can't be expressed enough. Halo Suffers from SOS(Same Old Shit) syndrome. The same Syndrome every Madden game or New Call of Duty suffers. Nothing drastically changes (Or Impressivly for that matter) and what few changes they do add, they take away from an older previous category that alot of people liked (IE using 2 Needlers).

So yeah...Halo:Reach dissapointed ME (Not the majority, just me), and the weapons...The only thing worthy of noting was the Goddamn Golfclub, that provided some entertainment.