- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
What I'd like to see in Halo: Reach is the grittiness of real warfare, not CoD or GoW. What do I mean about that? Here is some description.
I'd like to see bigger, more brutal explosions. For example, have you start a mission in a trench network awaiting a Covenant assault. You're being bombarded by dozens of long range plasma artillery, which is blasting the dirt all around you, leaving the air covered in a blue / brown haze. Then, the covenant begin their combined air and ground assault. You see Seraphs strafe the lines, kicking up blue flashes and dust. Then, SAMs kick in. They destroy Seraphs and Phantoms in huge numbers. You'll see missiles shoot out from behind the line, then detonate dozens of vehicles.
This will create an atmosphere of violence, explosion, and danger. You'll feel part of a big battle, not a lone person. I'd make it even tougher, if the player chooses to leave the trench network, make it possible for them to be instant killed by an artillery round. Make it difficult.
Other possibilities, give the player a more powerful AT weapon, one that destroys Wraiths in one hit. Give buildings more damage, so that plasma mortar shells punch holes in the wall, and leave you coverless.
Bungie can deliver the brutality of war without blood or dismemberment, they need to up the amount of atmospheric combat, make the player more vulnerable, deliver more and larger explosions (make frags like Halo:CE frags, those were dangerous, now they're just annoying), and kick up the amount of dust and haze.
Halo: Reach can be made and should be made more brutal. Its about the fall of a massive planet, there is not a happy ending to the game, so don't make the game happy. Bungie can make that happen, and they don't need more blood or limbs.