Halo: Reach

[scently]

If they made a real effort to bridge the gap then they deserve more credit than I was giving them, and they're doing what I previously expected them to. So good on Bungie then. But ...



Retcon is still retcon even if you do damage control. Some of the "extra spaces" they created don't fit well, were IMO unnecessary and lead to a rather less dramatic start to Reach's destruction than previously understood to have happened.

The way they played it in the original intro reveal was much, much better ("You picked a hell of a day ..." etc).

Spoiler

I guess they needed to add some more turns to the drama ("We safe planet moustache man!" then "nooooooooo").

You don't say.

Spoiler

Does the limited edition explain how a helmet survives a planetary glassing? Was it in the bit they left?

I want Halo 4 to be about Arby looking for Chef (with Shipmaster as his grumpy sidekick).

The whole planet wasn't glassed as the covenant where digging for the forerunners artifacts.

I would advised you to read Fall of Reach and First Strike if you really want to know more. Actually add Ghost of Onyx if you are interested in the Spartan III program.

 

[warb]

I was expecting serious framerate problems after some of the comments here, but it seems pretty stable throughout. There are occasional dips, strangely with little going on, but it's nothing distracting.

The cinematics are a bit of a mess at times.

 

[czekon]

playing now in coop with my friend on heroic and strangely framerate seems to be much better then yesterday. Also in coop this game is soooo much better then solo.

 

[Pugger]

playing now in coop with my friend on heroic and strangely framerate seems to be much better then yesterday. Also in coop this game is soooo much better then solo.

Opinions hey. I have seen a load of people saying it's so much better Solo. To be honest I have enoyed both.

 

[homerdog]

I had a bout of ridiculously bad framerates in matchmaking last night. Beginning to suspect there's something wrong with my Xbox. Fortunately my roommate has three so I'll try one of those and see if it persists.

 

[Pugger]

After playing sp for about 4-5 hours i have to say reach is overrated. Its another halo but this time with very bad framerate sometimes fps drops to single digits .

I have now completed the game twice, both times on heroic and for the life of me have not seen these frame drops. Yeah the game stutters briefly when buffering from the disc but I haven't seen any significant framerate drops, yeah a few dips but nothing that effetcs the game and certaintly nowhere near single frames.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

95% of the people who buy Reach have never read the books, probably don't even know about them. Bungie's right in concentrating on telling their own story, the way they want to do it, and make sure it stands on its own - no matter what's in the books. I'm sorry if you don't like it but it's the only reasonable approach.

 

[Scott_Arm]

95% of the people who buy Reach have never read the books, probably don't even know about them. Bungie's right in concentrating on telling their own story, the way they want to do it, and make sure it stands on its own - no matter what's in the books. I'm sorry if you don't like it but it's the only reasonable approach.

Agreed. You'd have to pay me to read a Halo novel.

 

[dragonelite]

Agreed. You'd have to pay me to read a Halo novel.

I think i did it all wrong i paid to read the novels.

 

[NRP]

I think the other big problem . . . is that they've made the plasma pistol way more powerful now.

So, use a plasma pistol against those elites! Overcharged plasma pistol + DMR/Magnum/Needle Rifle shot to the head takes them down pretty quickly, even on Legendary. Sounds like you charge in to the fight, which is reckless. Move from cover to cover methodically.

Regarding the "feel" of the game, I guess I agree it feels more like ODST than the other Halo games, which isn't a bad thing, just different. Probably because you have a team and the mood is darker.

The game really gives me a sense that I'm fighting a losing battle. Even though I'm winning the individual encounters, I can see the world around me being destroyed, and it gets progressively worse. As I said, it's a sad game for me personally. There was hope in the other games. None of that here.

 

[scently]

95% of the people who buy Reach have never read the books, probably don't even know about them. Bungie's right in concentrating on telling their own story, the way they want to do it, and make sure it stands on its own - no matter what's in the books. I'm sorry if you don't like it but it's the only reasonable approach.

Ha, its not about liking it or not for me, as they did nothing wrong in the game, it perfectly compliments the novels.

 

[AlNom]

Legendary is all about the headshots. Loving that needle rifle

Spoiler

on the Corvette mission. After the first room after landing on the ship, I had absolute minimum health and had to clear out the hangar with nothing but the needle rifle that's to the right up the ramp.

I hate accidentally restarting level when I'm 5 min from the end. Argh. Did it twice so far. ಠ_ಠ

The game really gives me a sense that I'm fighting a losing battle. Even though I'm winning the individual encounters, I can see the world around me being destroyed, and it gets progressively worse. As I said, it's a sad game for me personally. There was hope in the other games. None of that here.

Wonder what happened to

Spoiler

Jun

.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Firefight is pretty awesome. I'm not a big fan of the lack of drop-in/drop-out for campaign and firefight, but they are very fun. Firefight seems like it'll have great replay value.

 

[dragonelite]

The chief is in, only as a easter egg.
spoiler btw so i would say only look at the video if you finished campaign.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRrv6rcu90Y&feature=player_embedded

 

[function]

The whole planet wasn't glassed as the covenant where digging for the forerunners artifacts.

I would advised you to read Fall of Reach and First Strike if you really want to know more. Actually add Ghost of Onyx if you are interested in the Spartan III program.

I read all three a few years back. Reach (the game) was a big let down story wise, but a great game none the less.

 

[function]

95% of the people who buy Reach have never read the books, probably don't even know about them. Bungie's right in concentrating on telling their own story, the way they want to do it, and make sure it stands on its own - no matter what's in the books. I'm sorry if you don't like it but it's the only reasonable approach.

Apparently Bungie did try to make it fit with the books (scently talked about this), so Bungie do value continuity across the cannon stuff and I really like that they do. I'll be there day 1 for whatever Bungie do next just as I was for Reach. I don't like some of the decisions they made for Reach though (while liking others), and in its own right found the story disappointing - thinking back to the books just magnified this. But hey, it's just my opinion. I was one of the people that thought the flood were great and really liked all the Arbiter stuff.

 

[Florin]

Oo work is still too long, I just can't wait to get home and plug in my first 360 and get going with Reach.

Altho I've been a bit of a Haloholic since the first Xbox, I managed to resist the temptation so far. But no more.

Now I'll be interested to see if Halo 3 will still be engaging after I get done with this prequel.

 

[NRP]

@Florin
Halo 3 has a different feel, like you're going out with the sole purpose of kicking some Covenant ass and taking names. Reach is more about the growing realization that you're fucked. It's hard to say which is better (other than graphically), I enjoy both but for different reasons.

 

[function]

It's early days for Reach, but I'm really liking the way the game handles. Duel wielding was cool but I'm not missing it yet. Armour powers (particularly sprint) open up some fun new ways of playing and charging up behind stuff and assassinating hasn't grown old yet (and probably never will).

 

[NRP]

Wonder what happened to

Spoiler

Jun

.

Spoiler

I guess he and Halsey survived. She's pretty crafty.

It was cool to see how Halsey and Jorge responded to each other in the Oni base. You could tell there was mutual respect. She kind of ragged on Carter and the other Spartan IIIs, but her tone was different with Noble 5. It was clear he was one of her Spartan IIs. And in the Corvette mission, Jorge accessed a computer to check the status of the Oni base demolishion to see if she escaped.

It's cool little story elements like that that tie in well with the background story in the books.