Halo: Reach Forum
This topic has moved here: Subject: Small things that severely impact gameplay
  • Subject: Small things that severely impact gameplay
Subject: Small things that severely impact gameplay

I see all of these different threads with people complaining about weapon/gameplay mode/feature 'x' should be in the game over weapon/gameplay mode/feature 'y', but honestly there are a lot more little, yet gamebreaking, things that drastically impact how the Halo games feel than you really notice, and these are the types of things people should be concerned with being changed/fixed for Reach. I've taken some posts I've made in several threads and am just sort of compiling them all together to express some things I think need to see changes.

This post was a response of mine in the topic "What do you NOT want to see in Reach?"
-Classes
-Squad-based gameplay elements like Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, etc.
-Brutes
-Hunched over elites that speak english. C'mon the "wort wort wort" of the elites is such an iconic phrase. making them speak english was such a small subtle travesty. And also having them hunched over makes them much less intimidating and honestly takes away a lot of their character.
Covenant campaign. Just the thought of another one of these makes my stomach want to turn over. After Halo 2 I finally understood how MGS fans felt about Raiden in MGS2. I never want another one of those disastrous moments. The arbiter's missions were terrible, his character was dull and uninteresting especially in Halo 3, and played essentially the same as the chief.
-Halo 2/3/ODST lunging melees and weak melee animations. I love how every weapon in CE had their own unique interesting melee animation, and also the jerky lunging heatseaking melees that have been in place since Halo 2 take the fluidity out of the combat, not to mention the skill of landing a successful blow.
-Halo 2/3/ODST first person weapon animations. Ever noticed how rigidly and stiffly the weapons you hold move? When running around they should be moving and bouncing around as you move. Halo 1 nailed this and even the e3 2003 demo of Halo 2 had great weapon animations, but I don't see why this was changed to make your character looking like a -blam!-ing robot when he holds his weapon.
-Halo 2/3 vehicle camera angles. They are pulled way too obnoxiously close to the vehicles. The wraith, for example, best epitomizes this. All you can see when you're driving it is the top of the mortar cannon and the reticule
-Halo 2/3 grenade arcs. Way too short. give us the Halo 1 and ODST farther throwing arcs, though with the speed of the grenade throws in Halo 1. In ODST, though could be thrown far, they traveled a tad slow in the air which can probably be attributed to the fact that a human is throwing them rather than a spartan.
-Halo 2/3/ODST weapon firing ranges. All of the weapons in Halo 1 shoot much farther than they did in all of the sequels which has helped make the gameplay in the sequels become less mid-range and MUCH more close range which I utterly hate
-Halo 2/3/ODST ammo capacities. the SMG (comparable to the AR from Halo 1) holds a meager 180 round, while the AR held 600. You can go and compare ammo counts for every weapon. You'll find they've all been greatly reduced from what they were in Halo 1. It's pathetic that you can exhaust your entire ammo supply after 2 encounters. You could possibly justify this by saying it encourages you to use other wapons. No it FORCES you to do so. Only carrying two weapons encourages, but creating a mad scarcity in ammo FORCES which is annoying.
-Halo 2/3/ODST nerfed pistol-class weapons. Ever noticed how utterly worthless the Plasma Pistol, Plasma Rifle, etc. are compared to their Halo 1 counterparts. Bungie obviously had to do something to balance out these dual-wieldable weapons once dual-wielding was implemented but my god, I always cringe at the notion of running out of ammo and having to pick up a Plasma Pistol instead. These pistol-class weapons in the Halo sequels just aren't fun to use anymore. I would be very content at running through Halo 1 with a single-handed weapon. They were decently fun and effective to use, though I can't say the same for their successors in future Halo iterations.
-Equipment. I think this broke the pace of the gameplay and honestly the equipment felt like fun little play toys rather than interesting tools to use in gameplay.
-The Halo 3 engine. The Halo 3 engine, which was based off the Halo 2 engine, looked good for it's time, not great though. To see it being used in ODST, although disappointing, somewhat makes sense given bungie wanted to crank the game out in a year. Given how long Reach has been in development, it would be unacceptable if bungie was using the same aging tech they've used since Halo 3. Bungie has always been known to push the systems they develop for on a technical level, so it only makes sense for them to be using new tech to power Reach.


When it comes down to it, it doesn't matter what is in the game, it matters how it functions, and that's something few people around this forum ever seem to take notice of.

  • 09.27.2009 10:51 AM PDT
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  • Senior Mythic Member

Proud frenchie, elite fan, anthro artist not hellbent on yiff convention/pics/whatever, mature and intelligent forum guy, 4chaner, halo 2 lover and halo 3 hater.

covie campaign : yea, how did they dare adding depth to the story!
and the halo 3 engine looked mediocre even for it's time. all the psbots and halo haters had a fun time calling it "halo 2.5" or "halo 2 HD". not even talking of the aliasing, rather low res textures, etc.

I agree with most of the rest though.

  • 09.27.2009 11:11 AM PDT

mendicantVOTARY
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Magyar ODST 19th Shock Troops Battalion

I understand your reasons for saying much of this, but honestly, if one wants to play Halo CE, then one should just go play Halo CE.

  • 09.27.2009 11:12 AM PDT
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  • Intrepid Mythic Member
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Posted by: Achronos
It isn't our shiznit anymore.

I agree somewhat with Zorgy. We need more covenant perspective. I also think classes would make for an innovative experience compared to past Halo games.

  • 09.27.2009 11:27 AM PDT

Regarding the covenant campaign, I honestly wouldn't mind a whole game based around playing as an elite so much as it's done right. I'd go for a covenant spin-off similar to what we got with ODST. But Halo 2 was supposed to be the fight for earth. Focusing on the covenant for more than half the game was COMPLETELY out of context, and like I said in my original post, the arbiter was a bland character, his missions weren't fun for the most part, and he played basically the same as the chief. And regarding Reach, which again was very much a human and spartan centered story, it would be completely out of place and context to give us another covenant campaign.

If they want to expand the backstory of the covenant, write a new novel, make a spin off game like we saw with ODST, or something else. Bungie just chose the complete wrong way to go about expanding their story by in Halo 2.

And regarding the comment made about CE, I DONT want CE. I want a game better than that. I'm stating things that CE did better than its successors. Hell I was stoked when I saw the e3 2003 demo for Halo 2 and was reading the OXM and EGM issues back in 2002 that were talking about all of the new features that were going to be implemented. I'm not going to defend change for the sake of change. Like I stated in the previous paragraph, I'm all for expanding the backstory of the covenant, for example, but i don't want it done in a very poor and out of context manner. If you want another example, I love dual wielding and really like its inclusion in the games, but I DONT like seeing half of the weapons in the game being nerfed to the point where you dread picking up any pistol class weapon because of how ineffective and not fun they are to use on their own. But with the obnoxiously small ammo capacities of weapons that have been in place since Halo 2, it's somewhat inevitable that you'll have to resort to doing so. Hopefully that puts things in a slightly better perspective.

[Edited on 09.27.2009 5:09 PM PDT]

  • 09.27.2009 5:08 PM PDT