Zero Punctuation: Halo: Reach

[Karyudo]

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).

Oddly enough I never thought 2 Needlers were ever worth the pixels on my screen though to be honest I only liked the alien half of Halo 2. I liked Reach much more but maybe partly because unlike 3 it had actual pacing. The gear in how it functions was a bit of a change but I think with a prequel you are somewhat limited in some aspects...like how the starwars prequels replaced the headhunters with the arc fighters. Sure tell me the folding wings get replaced later with solid ones and then folding ones again for no reason.

Either way I fail to see why a game should be able to stand on single-player ONLY when its one out of several options on the menu. If you don't like multi-player then I wouldn't recommend much beyond RPGs these days. Though a games single-player (or 1-4 player experience) should be able to stand on it's own without needing books or movies... at least this one didn't have that issue.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

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.

Now this I don't get.

The story is the most simple and straight forward tale yet seen from the Halo franchise.

The Covenant have found Reach, humanity's largest military hub world, and commence attacking it. The Humans try to repel the invasion but fail. The covenant win. The ending ties into Halo 1, which it is supposed to do, given that it's a prequel. Bob's your uncle. Bungie makes billions.

I've never understood the claim that Halo's plot is impenetrable. If anything, it's too damn simple. If you or anyone else are at all confused, I'd gladly take the 4.5 seconds necessary to explain.

Now, in regards to the lack of a multiplayer review from Yahtzee...duh? He's never bothered with multiplayer on any game where it wasn't the sole purpose for the game's existence, why should he start now?

Halo's multiplayer is, without a doubt, an integral part of the game. It has been since Combat Evolved, in the form of co-op and LAN parties. The single player is, of course, a focal point, but it's not the ONLY focal point. I should think that would be obvious to anyone who's had even a passing daliance with the game.

Apologies if I sound crass, but this is silly.

 

[Mrheadshotheory]

his reviews are alway funny he mostly rip the games and sometime if you think about it he point out good points

 

[Mrheadshotheory]

most people online anyway are dicks and half the time they throw you in confusion

 

[batgod]

Nice to see that Yathzee still [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/6.182953.5453389] has a hard time playing FPS' ^^

Also "Combat Evolved" was added by Microsoft (much to Bungies discontent) because they feared that just having it called "Halo" like Bungie would have wanted would "confuse" the game-buying public because it didn't describe what the game was about.

Or maybe he doesn't enjoy lowly entertaining forms. That's my guess.

Admit it, shootan is for retards.

 

[crimped]

best "review" he's done in a long time. i actualy lol!
'gay-lo reach around' it's funny because it's true

 

[TiefBlau]

The "gameplay-story element" ending that Yahtzee described isn't exactly something that hasn't been explored before. Think just this year. Think another huge game franchise. SC2. It was brilliantly done there, so Reach's ending fell pretty flat in my opinion. Of course, Yahtzee doesn't play SC2, so that really means shit all.

 

[rancidflakes]

I also agree about the annoying slim Jim commercial, does nothing to encourage me to buy slim Jim. not to mention that they are nasty

 

[Sevenfest]

I absolutely hated halo 3 ..downright despised it - Seeing the flood crash in (metaphorically and literally), I don't think I could've shouted 'fuck you' hard enough at the t.v. ...So I had no expectations for Reach. Which is why I enjoyed it a hell of a lot more. In a strange way as well, I like the way you're playing towards impending doom, like you're living out memoirs. It's like Anne Frank: the point and click adventure. Still haven't finished reach yet - F1 and the new Borderlands DLC are taking my time so maybe it'll find a way to kill any good impression it made before the end but.. genuinely was impressed. And that's before I hit Multiplayer.

Review hilarious as always, there's been a good standard recently - hoping Yahtzee doesn't get spread too thin with the games rush!

 

[resi117]

The halo franchise was fucked after the HALO WARS come out, they have shagged the HALO name, while sliding down on razor blades, Halo ODST why? and Reach we already knew the bloody ending, and yet you still play it knowing you am fucked. BUNGIE go home and do it again.

 

[Megido]

I'm gonna assume that the lack of seat belts is due to them having some sorta futuristic, military, magnet technology that anchors everybody in a vehicle in place, but they're all strong enough to pull themselves out if need be. Makes perfect sense.

 

[Regular Guy]

Gotta agree with Yahtzee on the part where the characters suck. Emile made me want to gouge my eyeballs out with his stupid fucking helmet and overall being a douche-bag. I liked Jorge and Carter, but they needed to be fleshed out a LOT more.

Overall, the game completely failed at making me give a shit about most of the characters. That and the campaign was painful after a while, with all the fucking vehicle section repetitive bullshit.

The multiplayer is pretty much the only reason I got it, as it is with all Halo games. And the MP mode is pretty damn good.

 

[teisjm]

Surprisingly Fair. Didnt care too much about this, hope the space combat and jetpack is Bungie Teasing what they are gonna do now they aren't Microsofts Bitches!

Aren't they activision/kotics bitches durring the next project?, i seem to remember reading something bout that.

 

[Kermi]

Overall, the game completely failed at making me give a shit about most of the characters. That and the campaign was painful after a while, with all the fucking vehicle section repetitive bullshit.

What vehicle part was repetitive? The part where you drive a Warthog, the part where you fly a Sabre, the part where you fly a Falcon, the part where you drive a tank, or the part where you drive a Mongoose?

Because, you know... that just seems like a lot of variety to me. What exactly are you complaining about here? You might as well be saying the combat is repetitive because an assault rifle holds 32 bullets and they all do the same thing.

Surprisingly Fair. Didnt care too much about this, hope the space combat and jetpack is Bungie Teasing what they are gonna do now they aren't Microsofts Bitches!

Aren't they activision/kotics bitches durring the next project?, i seem to remember reading something bout that.

Microsoft used to own Bungie, so Bungie had a lot less say in what they produced. Activision does NOT own Bungie. They are only publishing Bungie's new IP - exclusively - for the next ten years.

I agree with Yahtzee that if you're going to pay full price, you expect a full game. Games need to be able to stand up on single player alone. And as he said, a lot of HD console games have no longevity. Their multiplayer is a ghost town after a few months, so it's hard to recommend them strictly based on multiplayer.

Reach seems like your typical overhyped cash-in sequel. It was a hot item for about a week, and now less than a month later, no one is talking about it.

Yeah, we're all too busy playing it. Even the campaign has a massive amount of replay value.

Anyone who says Reach doesn't stand up without the multiplayer clearly either hasn't played the campaign, or is simply biased against it. Simple as that. The fact is the vast majority of Halo hate comes from the people who haven't played Halo. The people who play Halo and then ***** about how they didn't like the campaign, don't like the multiplayer or just generally poke holes in things? These people comprise about 5% of the Halo-playing population. Seriously. Bungie released some stats this week that owuld amaze you.

People complaining the campaign was too short or too easy? Only 5% of all Halo Reach players have completed it solo on Legendary difficulty. Five. Percent.

People complaining about the current rank cap at Lt. Colonel? Only 1% have reach that rank. And that's across all GRADES of Lt. Colonel - less than that have actually been capped at Lt. Colonel grade 3.

The majority of players are enjoying the game, and still getting their money's worth from the experience.

 

[Regular Guy]

@Kermi.

I was talking about the Falcon part, in particular. You fly the same Falcon around and shoot at shit for almost a bloody HOUR. Most boring part of the game, by far.

At least the combat is varied with different locations and encounters, not just FLY HERE SHOOT BANSHEES. I like Halo, and I love reach (especially Forge), but you have to admit that the campaign was pretty damn boring overall.

 

[Phototoxin]

Yay! Gay-lo Reach-around !

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

Yeah, it's just another FPS game, just like Half-life, TF2, Call of duty, Medal of honour, BFBC2, Bulletstorm, crysis, killzone, duke nukem, borderlands etc...
So we should disregard them all, because they're all the same thing right?

No, that's like saying fallout: new vegas shouldn't get any hype because its 'just another RPG', they're all different games and if everyone had the same attitude as you then there would be about 10 games in existance.

Halo didn't bring anything new unlike many of your other cited games. The shield system was out waaay before gaylo.

 

[Galad]

I don't normally comment on these threads even if I watch every single ZP but this time I want to say thank you very much for mentioning Oni, Yahtzee

 

[kikon9]

I can't really blame him for not liking reach. While I agree, the campaign could have been better, the multi-player is freaking gold.

 

[kikon9]

I agree with Yahtzee that if you're going to pay full price, you expect a full game. Games need to be able to stand up on single player alone. And as he said, a lot of HD console games have no longevity. Their multiplayer is a ghost town after a few months, so it's hard to recommend them strictly based on multiplayer.

Reach seems like your typical overhyped cash-in sequel. It was a hot item for about a week, and now less than a month later, no one is talking about it.

Ghost town after a month? You do realize that halo three had at least 20,000 people online at any given time from it's launch until reach came out. Second of all, a game doesn't need to carry itself on single player alone. Multi-player is a lot of fun, and I guarantee you there will be a crapload of people still playing it a month from now. Plus, if he hates multi-player so much, why did he review team fortress 2 when he did the orange box? I bet the only reason Yahtzee hates multi-player so much is because he has a crap connection.

 

[Netrigan]

Ghost town after a month? You do realize that halo three had at least 20,000 people online at any given time from it's launch until reach came out. Second of all, a game doesn't need to carry itself on single player alone. Multi-player is a lot of fun, and I guarantee you there will be a crapload of people still playing it a month from now. Plus, if he hates multi-player so much, why did he review team fortress 2 when he did the orange box? I bet the only reason Yahtzee hates multi-player so much is because he has a crap connection.

I didn't think that was directed at Halo per se. Multi-player is dependent on having a community that supports it and that won't happen for the vast majority of games.

But we're talking about a game series that sold over 8 million copies. That 20,000 people playing Halo 3 at any given time is one-quarter of one percent of the people who bought it. Obviously that's not the same 20,000 people playing at any given time, but I would doubt seriously that more than half the Halo purchasers have spent significant time on-line with it... which is pretty much Yahtzee's point about being able to ignore it. Most people are ignoring it and playing it solely for the single player campaign.