- Matty0040
- |
- Exalted Member
Note: The following ideas are all my opinion, based on my experience from playing Halo, Halo 2 and Halo 3. It is also very long so be sure you have time to read the whole thing, because I have (or hope) to have covered many things some Halo players have experienced whilst playing.
Introduction
I should start with Halo= awesometastic. Enough said.
In my experience in playing the Halo Trilogy, I noticed that in each game there are many strong points and few weak points, but made a significant difference. For example, some elements of Halo far exceed some in Halo 2 and 3 and vice versa.
Halo: Reach's storyline has so much potential beyond belief. Those who have read the books, know how melancholic it gets. I hope the writers at Bungie with their ingenious Shakepearean-like creativity can write a story that surpasses the mystery, wonder, intensity and epicness of Halo 1.
Technical Stuff
Halo: Reach should be an amalgamation of the best of the Halo games, fixed mistakes plus new innovative stuff. I know the Halo: Reach team probably heard that innumerable times to the point of nuisance, I'm just voicing and venting some of my thoughts and concerns.
I'll simplify what I'm trying to say
Halo 1: Best Storyline
-It had that mystery and wonder (maybe because it was our first Halo experience)
-Perfectly executed, introduction of the Flood was chilling, intense, frightening, just too well done to put into words
Halo 2: Best Campaign (in terms of level design and replayability
-My favourite (yes, favourite with a "u", I'm Australian) levels included Outskirts, Metropolis, Delta Halo, Regret, Uprising, heck all of them, but maybe besides The Oracle
I'll use Outskirts as an example,
First part of the level involved holding out againsr waves of Covenant
Second part of level had a tight design, but allowed players to test their sniping skills. The various sniper alleys allowed players to fully utilise their weapons (I'll talk more about weapon availability problems later). It was a really innnovative and differed in intensity than the first part of the level.
Third part, DRIVING. Able to use the Ghost or Warthog to fight through. As you can see, Outskirts encompasses most of the gameplay styles including vehicular action, it is truly a marvelous level. It allowed players to use the Sniper Rifle and Rocket Laucher extensively.
The campaign from Halo 2 is by far the most versatile and replayable. Weapon availability was very very very well set. The shotgun could be used in the first level, Cairo Station. In Halo 1 the first shotgun you come across is in 343 Guilty Spark, the 6th level of 10.
Weapon Availability and Effective Utilisation (One of Halo 2's very strong points)
All weapons in Halo 2 were very evenly available and even if not used
(Note: BR remains quite prominent in all levels, so i don't mention it)
-Cairo Station: made good use of plasma rifles, magnums, shotgun
-Outskirts and Metropolis allowed the Sniper, Rocket and Vehicles to shine.
-The Arbiter: the Sword
-The Oracle: Banshees
-Delta Halo: Scorpion/ Wraith/ Ghost/Warthog + Sniper, Magnums (i love those weapons as weak as they were)
-Regret: Sniper, Beam Rifle, Shotgun (for those who chose to use it), Punching Regret (ahh ;), Sword, Carbine
Note: Regret is also another very well made level, much better than Outskirts despite lack of vehicular fun. Versatility of level design, transition of open space to close quarters
-Sacred Icon and Quaruantine Zone: not one of my favourites but allowed use of Sentinel Beam extensively, more than enough
-Gravemind- allowed most if not all of the Covenant weapons to be fully used. Very well designed. i remeber when i played, i couldn't decide whether to have a sword and carbine or brute shot and carbine or sword and beam rifle or carbine and beam rifle...well you get what I'm trying to say.
Uprising- oh man. Made perfect use of invisibility and sword. The Assassin's combination. Combined vehicular brute-slaughter. Spectre. Wraith.
Again, this is another very well-crafted level. Transition from open, to close quarters, to driving made the game much much more replayable.
High Charity: by now all weapons were used, but the shotgun was the most prominent in this level.
The Great Journey: One of the best vehicle levels. Players were able to use the Banshee and Wraith. Using tanky (pun not intended) vehicles makes this level sooo replayable.
My point is, bring the innovative Halo 2 Campaign design into Halo: Reach.
Biggest Halo 2 problem. Assault Rifle, where'd it go man. To its make-over parlour? Well i suppose it was worth it. But still AR, you hurt me bro. And not just me.
Halo 3: Best Features
Forge, Theatre, Customisable Armour, Infinite Combination of Gametypes, Grifball, Halo 3 is by far the most packed game ever (unless Halo: Reach can surpass it, which will be a challenge for Bungie because the standard is so HIGH)
Theatre. Bungie you genius. Now I don't have to lie about that awesome kill the other night. Nah jokes, I'd never do that. But there was this set of 10 kills i got in Halo 2 once. I sniped the engine of a moving Ghost, the wreckage splattered another guy, and continued to plow into a fusion coil, exploding and propelling a sniper halfway across the map and splattered another guy, then it went off and it headshotted me. Wait did I say 10 I meant 4, woops slipped out. True story.
-By the way, how come the Ghost doesn't explode when you shoot that fuel barrel engine thing, that was soo cool
Desired Aesthetics, Extra Comparisons, General Pros Cons of Halo Trilogy, the Good the Okay, the Left and the Right
-To Mr O'Donnell and Mr Salvatori, better known as Marty and Michael, respectively, without your music, Halo would not be as epic, intence, intimate, melancholic, FUN, blood-pumping. To me music plays such a major role in the storytelling and even at times, the gameplay mechanics. It thrusts players into the atmosphere of the event and allows players to feel what the characters in the game feel.
Going a bit off track, but this is why in my belief I did not have this intrinsic connection with Call of Duty 4 and the Half Life series, lack of continuous music experience.
I know Halo: Reach will be another musical o*g*s* as musos call it. May I also point out the perfect timing of all music queues.
-(A friend said this to me) The meleeing in Halo 2 was much more powerful and forceful than in Halo 3. In Halo 2 you can hear the satisfying crunch. (Apparently, Left 4 Dead 2 over did it and now its banned in Australia, WHY AUSTRALIA WHY. This is what I mean by the importance of sound, if it weren't for the "over-realistic" crunching noise then Left 4 Dead 2 wouldn't be banned). But if it's that annoying and arrogant Brute then it's ok.
-In Halo 2, watching a Ghost slowly exploding was so satisfying. Where'd it go man?
- In Halo 2, switching between the Master Chief and the Arbiter
was a really clever rhetorical and storytelling move. Allowing players to play as both MC and Arby once the Elites and Humans had join forces was also really clever. Of course Bungie planned it all along, or just very "lucky".
-In Halo: Reach, can you let us kill elites again? Sounds cold-hearted, but you know you want to. I love Elites.
-Please include all Halo weapons in Halo Reach, or at least in multiplayer. Maybe as a little bonus and for fun include the Halo 1 original pistol in multiplayer. Not saying to exclude the other pistol variants. No reason why we can't have all variants. Just for fun.
-Three Small Words (Downstairs Rising): Night Vision Sniper
-Able to use the multiplayer armour (Aus. spelling) in campaign.
Just for fun.
- I read from some pro forgers on the Bungie Blog, ability to turn off gravity to make stuff float.
-Able to choose what weapons, shields, infinite ammo/grenades at the beginning of each campaign level. Maybe have this feature as an unlockable feature. Something along the lines of "Finish Solo Halo: Reach Campaign to unlock crazy fun feature that make people replay campaign more Feature"
Combine this with a well-designed campaign levels and Halo: Reach will be THE game other games contend with.
-the clicking sound of the AR in Halo 3 didn't, well suit the nature of the Assault Rifle. The sound didn't quite match reputation the AR had as the iconic Halo weapon.
-(Another friend told me this) Firefight in all multiplayer map*
-Bots?*
* the above ideas are quite insane, i doubt the actual disc would be able to fit all this stuff
-If the Halo: Reach storyline is based on the novel, the Halo: the Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund, can you make one level where we can nuke that Covenant building thingy? That would be awesometastic.
-In cooperative, do we get to play as a team of Spartan II's? It'd be Halo and Halo 2 co-op all over again.
-I think I'm burned out now. Its hard to improve to a near-perfect game, like trying to grab the last few marks in a test to get that 100%. Speaking of which, my end of high school exams, the HSC Exams are in two weeks and two days, and I'm still here.
So there you have it, my ramble, I hope some of you guys and girls out there can relate to some of the things I talked about. Type any suggestions you have for Halo: Reach below and hopefully, Bungie's Halo: Reach is sent out with a bang or a Halo ring explosion. Kudos to you Sergeant Johnson.
Thanks to those who stayed read up until here and if you didn't then you didn't know I thanked you. (I remember reading something similar to that in a Weekly Update somewhere)
With gratitude from a guy that plays Halo but not much now because of exams but will go blind after HSC,
Matty
P.S. All the best to those who also have exams
For more aethestics go the thread "My Halo: Reach Wishlist!!! What's yours?" in the top forum topics.
[Edited on 10.05.2009 4:17 AM PDT]