- Hylebos
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- Fabled Mythic Member
If anyone knows anything about the design process of videogames, usually you come up with a new mechanic before you begin making a game. A new mechanic which makes the game different enough from it's predecesors.
If you need an example of this, a while back in the early days of the Gamecube Nintendo wanted to make a game that had great water graphics and a main character that used water to clean up grafitti and navigate around an Island paradise. Only later in the design process did they decide that Mario should be that main character, creating the game "Super Mario Sunshine."
The question we need to all ask ourselves is: "What makes Halo Reach so different from Halo 3 that it would need an entirely new beta?"
Some significant mechanic must have been added to make the game unique. Something like the addition of equipment from Halo 2 to Halo 3.
Some of the more obvious possibillities have been killed by Bungie:
>Squad Based Tatical
>MMO (not sure if this also includes the "Lets have a 20 vs. 20 Multiplayer game" catagory or not)
What does this leave?
Could be a class based shooter, but to me, that violates the very core aspect of Halo, by selecting the proper weapons ahead of time for the proper senarios, you get a huge advantage over your opponents who thoughlessly pick the weapons they like best.
One obvious mechanic that I'm sure Bungie will add is a better forge and a better theatre and better custom game options.
If you look at any of their interviews about the forge system, the one thing they universally say is "Wow, look at all that crazy stuff that our community has been making, we are never ceased to be amazed." Forge and Theatre were thrown into Halo 3 as almost an afterthought, if they began making this game shortly after the release of Halo 3, imagine what these game modes could eventually become.
But just a better forge system won't make a new game unique enough. What will it be? New weapons? Vehicles? One aspect of Halo that seems to need balance is the entire Vehicle Infantry relation ship. As it exists in Halo 3 at the moment, if you have vehicles without the proper counter weapons, the vehicles will dominate a match unless the other team is either really good or really coordinated, they often go hand in hand. If you have the counter weapons in the presence of vehicles, then the vehicle people are screwed and have to wait until the ammo is used up or control the anti-vehicle weapons to come out.
Perhaps they are improving the game in that aspect. Another balance that needs to be looked at is the relationship between the medium ranged weapons and the close ranged weapons. The medium ranged weapons (carbine, battlerifle) aren't broken, rather, they are far to adaptable. Many players can scrape by at close quarter combat with these weapons when the close ranged weapons (AR SMG Spiker Plasma Rifle Pistol Plasma Pistol) should have the advantage in these fights. Not to say that a good close quarter combat user can't beat a medium ranged weapon user at close quarter combat, but it isn't immediately apparent that they have an advantage.
The idea of equipment, although interesting, doesn't quite work out like it should. Equipment are supposed to change the battlefield so that it is an even result for both sides locally, but globally hopefully the user of the equipment achieves a better result. That needs a bit of work, given the few types of equipment in the game and the lack of creativity in which they are used. For example, one of my favorite things to do with the grav lift is to trap people against low ceilings, especially on rat's nest, but people hardly ever do this.
Maybe what I am trying to say is: I have no clue what the hell Reach will be and I'm out of ideas, what do you people think? If we can find the key improvements or locate the areas that need possible improvement, it could point towards what Reach will become.