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Subject: Are 343i Our Only Hope?


Posted by: CTN 0452 9
Posted by: OrderedComa
The story of the game was all about defending Reach, hmm, whadda ya know, each mission you're doing something to defend Reach or hinder the Covenant's advance. Yes, they are semi independent, but that isn't bad, that is merely how a story about defending a whole planet will turn out.

The only two Halo games that seem to be as connected as you think the whole series is, are Halo 2 and Halo 3. If you think Reach is disjointed with independent events, then you should think CE and ODST are the same way, as their set-up is very similar to Reach.

Halo CE's story in a nutshell:

You begin on the Pillar of Autumn in orbit around a mysterious ringworld. You must escape.

The next mission is about how you need to round up survivors from the ship you just escaped from. You find out that the captain has been captured.

You rescue the captain. He tells you that there is a weapons cache on the ring.

You look for a map to find the cache.

Map tells you where to go. You go there. Cortana finds out that the cache is not what he thinks.

You go to stop the captain and BAM! flood. 343 tells you to come with him to stop the flood.

You help 343 recover the index needed to stop the flood.

You try to reunite the index with the core, something 343 has told you must be done, but it's a trap. Stop the ring from killing everything. The final step in this is overloading the PoA's reactors.

First you need the captain's neural implants. Get them.

You have the implants, let's blow this thing and go home.

As you can see from this brief description of every level of Halo CE each mission leads into the next mission, forming a story. ODST had a slightly less linear story, but it was basically about one objective. There are several missions that may seem loosely related, but at the end everything ties together.

Halo Reach didn't have either of these things. Here is it's campaign:

The Covenant is on Reach, warn the UNSC.

Defend SWORD base.

Meet Halsey, learn a little about something you found in the first mission.

Scout the Covenant. Find a small purple city that would leterally be visible from space.

CHARGE! Blow up something.

Go to space to destroy super carrier. This one follows nicely and the objective made sense. You end up falling from orbit.

Land, decide to help evacuate city. Leave city.

Just kidding, stay in the city and blow up some more stuff. Don't really know why, but Kat told you to.

Back to SWORD base. Recover Cortana bit that holds something (not Halo's location, you got that somewhere else already...)

Deliver Cortana lite to the PoA (landed on the planet no matter what other sources have said about this) Deliver Cortana to pelican that could have come down from orbit. Save PoA.

Die.

The closest Reach got to continuum was three missions that led into each other.


Ah, gotta love the irrational bias just exuding from this post XD

Reach's story is just as connected as CE's is, just because you don't like the game doesn't mean that it doesn't connect with itself.

Here, let me write a better summary for you. One that who's not even a Halo fan, and thus wouldn't be adoring the game or offended by it.

Communications outpost knocked out, Covenant discovered to be the cause alert the UNSC of Covenant presence.

Covenant Corvette attacks SWORD Base, Noble team dispatched to aid in defending the base and to be debriefed by Halsey.

SWORD Base is saved and UNSC begin preparing to take the fight to the Covenant. Scouting force sent out to explore the area the Covenant have set up shop. Find AA guns and large staging area.

Directly connected to third level, you take the fight to the Covenant the next morning after having scouted out the Covenant positions (huh, wadda ya know, they connect), and have them on the run 'til the Super Carrier is discovered.

Oh gee, this one's connected to the last level too!
Execute Kat's plan for destroying the Super Carrier. Jump back down to Reach and head for New Alexandria.

Link up with forces in New Alexandria and help with civilian evac, and then wait to be picked up to rejoin the rest of Noble Team.

Rejoin Noble Team who're helping hold the city and get tasked with taking out radar jammers and helping in the evac of Olympic Tower.

Hmm, all these levels are still connected, not disjointed in any way yet.

Colonel Holland reestablishes contact with Noble and tasks the surviving members with destroying SWORD Base to be absolutely certain the Covenant can't get any information from it. Go SWORD, oh wow, plot twist, it was all a ploy by Halsey to recruit you into delivering a fragment of Cortana to the Pillar of Autumn. (it never says how Cortana knew how to read the Rock, the information in SWORD's Artifact could easily have held information for translating the Forerunner language, or completed whatever information was on the Rock).

Deliver Cortana Frag to PoA, and shoot down Covenant Cruiser to ensure the PoA's getaway and remain behind. Journey down the cliff-face and make your last stand.

Well hey wadda ya know, looka that, the whole game except for the first two levels are *gasp* connected :O Shocker right?
If you honestly think Reach is as disjointed as you said in your summary, then I'm afraid you must be totally bonkers and madder than a hatter.

  • 03.25.2011 8:59 AM PDT


Posted by: SoldierOfAthena
Posted by: Evil Johnny
...You barely see anything in the game...


Are you kidding? You see a 27 KM Covenant Supercarrier, a city being burned after it's residents were evacuated frantically, key locations of ONI strength being wiped out (Did you know that Halsey was offered an office in the Olympic Tower; where Kat was operating from in New Alexandria?) and strong visuals of the planet being jacked up? You see a fragment of the fleet, tons of the invasion parties, and an overwhelming sense that the planet is screwed.


What you witness is nothing truly major, or at least, not on a particularly big scale. But by nothing, I didn't literally meant nothing, it was an exaggeration. I meant you didn't see that much, particularly compared to TFoR. You see an already dead city being glassed, but you barely witnessed anything of the actual destruction and attack on the city. There was the Exodus mission, but most of the time you were fighting troops in and there, you didn't feel like taking part of a huge battle, only in a couple of moments. You feel like taking part of a black ops operation during the battle, rather than taking part of it in a more obvious way. It's not bad by itself, but saying the war feels rushed in the book compared to the game, it feels wrong to me. Kind of asking a war photograph about WWII, and thinking he has more details than the big picture provided by historians. In TFoR, we saw different perspectives, and those perspectives were bigger than in Reach, or at least some of them.

  • 03.25.2011 12:23 PM PDT

Halo reach had the second best campaign of any Halo Game. Gameplay is more important that canon and is the thing that will make you go back and play the campaign over and over again.... I've played far too much Halo CE.

  • 03.25.2011 12:27 PM PDT


Posted by: OrderedComa

Posted by: Evil Johnny
Half-assed? You barely see anything in the game. Only the big events, the fleet showing up, Reach being attack, getting destroyed and few other bits. The vast majority of the time, you feel like taking part of spec ops, which has nothing - or almost - to do with the real deal. It's as if Bungie didn't know how to show the real battle, and decided to show the behind the scenes instead. That's really what Reach feels like, the behind the scenes of the battle of Reach.


Quotes are your friend, Evil Johnny, I don't know who you're addressing your post to. It sounds like it might be me, as I was the one who used half-assed, but I wasn't talking about Halo: Reach, I was talking about the tail end of TFoR.


Unless I'm not specifically talking to someone. It was both directed to you and the guy who agreed with you. I know you were talking about TFoR, but I thought it showed the war in a much more detailed way than the game did. And I don't remember you specifically talking about the very end of the book which I can't remember, I thought you were talking of the depiction of the battle as a whole, saying that the game did it better than the book, which I strongly disagree with.

  • 03.25.2011 12:28 PM PDT

@accordingto343

Your one stop shop for all of 343's fabulous errors and ridiculous notions in the Halo lore.

Posted by: Evil Johnny

Posted by: OrderedComa

Posted by: Evil Johnny
Half-assed? You barely see anything in the game. Only the big events, the fleet showing up, Reach being attack, getting destroyed and few other bits. The vast majority of the time, you feel like taking part of spec ops, which has nothing - or almost - to do with the real deal. It's as if Bungie didn't know how to show the real battle, and decided to show the behind the scenes instead. That's really what Reach feels like, the behind the scenes of the battle of Reach.


Quotes are your friend, Evil Johnny, I don't know who you're addressing your post to. It sounds like it might be me, as I was the one who used half-assed, but I wasn't talking about Halo: Reach, I was talking about the tail end of TFoR.


Unless I'm not specifically talking to someone. It was both directed to you and the guy who agreed with you. I know you were talking about TFoR, but I thought it showed the war in a much more detailed way than the game did. And I don't remember you specifically talking about the very end of the book which I can't remember, I thought you were talking of the depiction of the battle as a whole, saying that the game did it better than the book, which I strongly disagree with.

All TFoR showed was a space battle, Blue Team going to Gamma Station, and Red Team dropping into Reach. Then the PoA goes into Slipspace. Reach shows a much more global affair.

  • 03.25.2011 12:56 PM PDT

Brains beats brawn get used to it

Fear the Red Comet

Variety is the spice of life.
Long live games.
Death to all fanboys.


Posted by: DecepticonCobra
Posted by: Evil Johnny

Posted by: OrderedComa

Posted by: Evil Johnny
Half-assed? You barely see anything in the game. Only the big events, the fleet showing up, Reach being attack, getting destroyed and few other bits. The vast majority of the time, you feel like taking part of spec ops, which has nothing - or almost - to do with the real deal. It's as if Bungie didn't know how to show the real battle, and decided to show the behind the scenes instead. That's really what Reach feels like, the behind the scenes of the battle of Reach.


Quotes are your friend, Evil Johnny, I don't know who you're addressing your post to. It sounds like it might be me, as I was the one who used half-assed, but I wasn't talking about Halo: Reach, I was talking about the tail end of TFoR.


Unless I'm not specifically talking to someone. It was both directed to you and the guy who agreed with you. I know you were talking about TFoR, but I thought it showed the war in a much more detailed way than the game did. And I don't remember you specifically talking about the very end of the book which I can't remember, I thought you were talking of the depiction of the battle as a whole, saying that the game did it better than the book, which I strongly disagree with.

All TFoR showed was a space battle, Blue Team going to Gamma Station, and Red Team dropping into Reach. Then the PoA goes into Slipspace. Reach shows a much more global affair.



If by global you mean that it shows the planet glowing from a distance sure. But of course the books covered that description of Reach from a far as well.

In terms of what was experienced by Noble Team it was an extremely small and ultimately insignificant fraction of the battle compared to the frontlines depicted in space in The Fall of Reach and at the Orbital Generators in First Strike. The major difference being that the battles in space and for the generators had a far more direct impact on the tide of the battle itself versus the minor side battles in NA and Sword Base and operations conducted by Noble Team in Visegrad and in orbit. The latter of which ultimately becoming a moot point as the main forces started to trickle in after Uppercut. As for the major frontline battle in the plains of Viery, it too only showed but a small fraction of the fighting as that battlefield represented only one tiny speck among several on the satellite map shown in the prior cutscene, and as stated earlier that battle became a moot point in the face of the actual main Covenant forces. The only one operation in the game that had a far reaching effect beyond the battle of Reach was the operation to retrieve and deliver the Cortana fragment to the Autumn.

[Edited on 03.25.2011 1:15 PM PDT]

  • 03.25.2011 1:14 PM PDT

(') (')
(0_o) ROAR!!!
(") (")

reach's campaign = good
multiplayer SUCKS! (if you compare it to halo 2 and 3 ofc)

  • 03.25.2011 1:37 PM PDT


Posted by: Evil Johnny

Posted by: OrderedComa

Posted by: Evil Johnny
Half-assed? You barely see anything in the game. Only the big events, the fleet showing up, Reach being attack, getting destroyed and few other bits. The vast majority of the time, you feel like taking part of spec ops, which has nothing - or almost - to do with the real deal. It's as if Bungie didn't know how to show the real battle, and decided to show the behind the scenes instead. That's really what Reach feels like, the behind the scenes of the battle of Reach.


Quotes are your friend, Evil Johnny, I don't know who you're addressing your post to. It sounds like it might be me, as I was the one who used half-assed, but I wasn't talking about Halo: Reach, I was talking about the tail end of TFoR.


Unless I'm not specifically talking to someone. It was both directed to you and the guy who agreed with you. I know you were talking about TFoR, but I thought it showed the war in a much more detailed way than the game did. And I don't remember you specifically talking about the very end of the book which I can't remember, I thought you were talking of the depiction of the battle as a whole, saying that the game did it better than the book, which I strongly disagree with.


Well the last bit of the book is about the Battle for Reach, so I kinda was talking about the whole battle as TFoR dealt with it. The only reason I feel that Reach does a better job with the battle than TFoR is because the battle is significantly longer in the former and makes much more sense to me. I don't think either one has better events, as both leave you wondering more, however the length of time presented in Reach is better in TFoR.

  • 03.25.2011 2:17 PM PDT

Have you seen my mind anywhere? I seem to have lost it...

0x0 x0x 0x0 000 000 x0x 000
x0x 0x0 0x0 0xx 000 0x0 000
x0x x0x x00 0xx 0x0 x0x 0x0

I have seen you future

Posted by: OrderedComa
What you have described is several groups of linked missions with overall connections that are sketchy at best.

As much as I love you Alice in Wonderland reference, I still think that the connections are weak and lack the cohesion of the previous games where the stories were just... better. (Halo 3 not by much)

  • 03.25.2011 2:43 PM PDT


Posted by: CTN 0452 9
Posted by: OrderedComa
What you have described is several groups of linked missions with overall connections that are sketchy at best.

As much as I love you Alice in Wonderland reference, I still think that the connections are weak and lack the cohesion of the previous games where the stories were just... better. (Halo 3 not by much)


They're just as connected as CE's missions were. All right, I've spoken my piece, and you've spoken yours, I doubt either of us will convince the other, so I'm just going to agree to disagree with you, good day to you sir :P

  • 03.25.2011 2:59 PM PDT


Posted by: Xalrons4410
Halo reach had the second best campaign of any Halo Game. Gameplay is more important that canon and is the thing that will make you go back and play the campaign over and over again.... I've played far too much Halo CE.


I more than half-disagree. Sure gameplay is important, but I find there's plenty of other little things that weights as much, if not more. Probably why I play the KOTOR games or Mass Effect, for example, I wouldn't at all for the gameplay only; if the other elements were "ok", I wouldn't touch them. Visuals (not the same thing as quality of the graphics), music, pacing, writing (in terms of how the story is told), the story itself, the style of the cinematics and other elements all contribute to the atmosphere and feel of a game or segment, that coupled with a good story is what makes a good game great to me. I would also play a game with these elements being solid even if the gameplay was "ok" and thoroughly enjoy it. And then, level design is as important to me as the actual gameplay; what gives having the best gameplay in the world if the level design sucks?

Reach does a couple of these elements very well (visuals, music, mood, cool type of cinematics). But the pacing being all over the place, the writing being not particularly good, lack of variety in the environments and average level design (with one or two surprising segment) makes for a lukewarm campaign experience to me. Reach's gameplay isn't that better than other Halo games, it's only more polished. In terms of balance, I'd say it only really beats Halo 2.

Halo CE has the best pacing, very solid gameplay, the best overall level design, the best atmosphere, music, cinematic style, writing. To me, a more fun campaign doesn't make it better. I have most fun with Halo 3, but it is Halo CE and 2 which gives me much more satisfying experiences overall. Playing Splinter Cell doesn't give you "adrenaline fun", but one that is much more subtle than Halo, which is what I'm trying to explain. Story is a component among others that really help make experiences better. Gameplay alone is just a small part, and good, coherent and satisfying story (Reach left me very lukewarm on that part) helps a great deal to make the overal experience better.

  • 03.25.2011 3:12 PM PDT
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Posted by: AngrydoG
343i has 5 exbungie employees working for them. I would not expect anything at this point.


Two actually.

  • 03.25.2011 3:30 PM PDT
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Do not waste your tears, I was not born to watch the world grow dim. Life is not measured in years, but by the deeds of men.

Posted by: goldhawk
We should know better, because we are better.


Posted by: Evil Johnny

Halo CE has the best pacing, very solid gameplay, the best overall level design, the best atmosphere, music, cinematic style, writing. To me, a more fun campaign doesn't make it better. I have most fun with Halo 3, but it is Halo CE and 2 which gives me much more satisfying experiences overall. Playing Splinter Cell doesn't give you "adrenaline fun", but one that is much more subtle than Halo, which is what I'm trying to explain. Story is a component among others that really help make experiences better. Gameplay alone is just a small part, and good, coherent and satisfying story (Reach left me very lukewarm on that part) helps a great deal to make the overal experience better.
While I agree that CE had some great levels some where utterly atrocious. Library is a perfect example and the fact that some areas get repetitive at times was also a downer.

While Reach does not have the best campaign story-wise it at least doesn't have a level like Library or Coryana to drag it down.

  • 03.25.2011 3:40 PM PDT


Posted by: Xd00999

Posted by: Evil Johnny

Halo CE has the best pacing, very solid gameplay, the best overall level design, the best atmosphere, music, cinematic style, writing. To me, a more fun campaign doesn't make it better. I have most fun with Halo 3, but it is Halo CE and 2 which gives me much more satisfying experiences overall. Playing Splinter Cell doesn't give you "adrenaline fun", but one that is much more subtle than Halo, which is what I'm trying to explain. Story is a component among others that really help make experiences better. Gameplay alone is just a small part, and good, coherent and satisfying story (Reach left me very lukewarm on that part) helps a great deal to make the overal experience better.
While I agree that CE had some great levels some where utterly atrocious. Library is a perfect example and the fact that some areas get repetitive at times was also a downer.

While Reach does not have the best campaign story-wise it at least doesn't have a level like Library or Coryana to drag it down.


I thought the repetition served well the game and had purpose. Reach's greatest flaw to me is how everything is too brief, the moment you get immersed, something pulls you off. It was really obvious to me in the first play through as the moment I was starting to have some fun and enjoy the environment/encounters, the pacing was killed. I thought every repetitive bit had purpose, like in AotCR, you had to go up the stairs or down in order to get to the bridges and all for example. In Reach, Sword Base was basically a couple of corridors, it was a big letdown to me. Well, some corridors in Halo CE felt pretty much alike, but you didn't spend hours in them anyway, just enough to get a feel of scale and place.

I loved The Library personally, it was really moody, mysterious - you were starting to uncover some Halo secrets and begin to wonder what the hell it was all about, what weird things you might learn - and felt like a survival horror level. Things are getting desperate, and you need to get the index in order to exterminate those who've been unleashed and you've been fighting over each corner, swarmed. The level design itself was interesting. Not my favourite level of the game, probably my least favourite, but it was both enjoyable and had purpose, an essential part of the campaign in my eyes.

Repetition can get thing tedious, but it can help give atmosphere among other things, if well done - as I think it is in Halo CE, it can enhance certain elements. I'm not sure how to explain what I want to say, but pacing, repetition and all can be used to various effect. Too much in the video game industry do developers don't understand certain aspects of game fluidity atmosphere and storytelling, I think it wasn't done on purpose in Halo CE. The game wouldn't have been satisfying if the missions were streamlined as much as those in Reach, the whole adventure would've unfolded very differently, would've been a lot less immersive. Reach almost feels more like a movie rather than a game at times.

  • 03.25.2011 4:05 PM PDT
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Posted by: OrderedComa
Here, let me write a better summary for you. One that who's not even a Halo fan, and thus wouldn't be adoring the game or offended by it.


You did a good job connecting them, but honestly every level can be linked and validated in a much simpler manner.

"You are a top-secret and highly skilled ONI Section III strike-team strongly utilized where the UNSC doesn't want high publicity, and are sent where needed on a planet going to hell."


Posted by: Evil Johnny
In TFoR, we saw different perspectives, and those perspectives were bigger than in Reach, or at least some of them.


I would highly suggest re-reading the Fall of Reach. Reach's destruction isn't even mentioned until the last chapter, and even then it's like watching one episode of WWII In HD.

  • 03.25.2011 5:04 PM PDT

Hello, I'm Amy! Any questions? All you need to do is ask me! >:D

Feel free to add me on Facebook if you wanna chat or somthing :)

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Bad grammar is bad...

"Bungie's completely failure to produce"

"Reach has made me loose any hope"

This Post was nearly unreadable, it made me want to stab myself in the eyes with a dull knife.

  • 03.25.2011 5:15 PM PDT

In memory of those fallen in the defense of Earth and her colonies.

March 3, 2553

343i will pull through. They've got some good people.

  • 03.25.2011 5:36 PM PDT

In memory of those fallen in the defense of Earth and her colonies.

March 3, 2553


Posted by: Rhuelette
Bad grammar is bad...

"Bungie's completely failure to produce"

"Reach has made me loose any hope"

This Post was nearly unreadable, it made me want to stab myself in the eyes with a dull knife.


And morons like you can't post anything constructive or related because there were a few grammar mistakes.

I wanted to cut myself with a dull knife when i read your post.

  • 03.25.2011 5:39 PM PDT

Error 404:
-Error not found.

Your escapism is just painful.

Yeah, sure the grapes are sour and the hair on the other side of your mother is shorter.


Also, this is off topic. Don't flame the Bungie Universe.

[Edited on 03.25.2011 6:34 PM PDT]

  • 03.25.2011 6:22 PM PDT


Posted by: SoldierOfAthena
Posted by: OrderedComa
Here, let me write a better summary for you. One that who's not even a Halo fan, and thus wouldn't be adoring the game or offended by it.


You did a good job connecting them, but honestly every level can be linked and validated in a much simpler manner.

"You are a top-secret and highly skilled ONI Section III strike-team strongly utilized where the UNSC doesn't want high publicity, and are sent where needed on a planet going to hell."


Posted by: Evil Johnny
In TFoR, we saw different perspectives, and those perspectives were bigger than in Reach, or at least some of them.


I would highly suggest re-reading the Fall of Reach. Reach's destruction isn't even mentioned until the last chapter, and even then it's like watching one episode of WWII In HD.


Or maybe I'm mixing it with First Strike. But yeah, been some time. If it's just me mixing it with First Strike, well First Strike still adds elements too. Or maybe I was just disappointed in the battle's portrayal, everything felt way too brief, as if you were reminding yourself of the battle rather than witnessing it the moment. That, and other things I wont bother to write paragraphs about. I always found what I read in the books to portray the battle satisfyingly unlike the game.

  • 03.25.2011 8:55 PM PDT

Hanger one I just shredded with the SMGs until ammo was out and I just threw 'nades like a boss while BRing.

My experience playing Cairo Station on Legendary

Bungie creates the gameplay. That is all. I LOVE the fiction written about by others and I am coming to accept that the Campaign was best in Halo 2, and will never get better. Maybe 343 will make an exciting, cliff hanger and awe inducing campaign, but we'll have to wait and see.

  • 03.25.2011 9:32 PM PDT
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Posted by: Evil Johnny
...First Strike still adds elements too...


First Strike told a lot of what happened after Reach's primary defenses fell. This is when the planet was heavily invaded, and massive areas were glassed.

In this respect, I think that Halo: Reach did a good job showing small, isolated, yet still intense battles leading up to Reach's invasion. I would very much like to see some of the absolutely EPIC battles that are told about in First Strike, but I still honestly think that Halo: Reach did a far better job than The Fall of Reach.

In the Fall of Reach, it's quite literally "Oh no! The Covenant are here, and most of our fleet has been destroyed! But we still have the SMAC's--OH NO! There's an invasion team being sent to Reach to shut off the generators. Oh, oh no! The Covenant fleet is back to jack s**t up! Well crew, let's skedaddle to Halo! /flee."

  • 03.25.2011 10:11 PM PDT


Posted by: SoldierOfAthena
Posted by: OrderedComa
Here, let me write a better summary for you. One that who's not even a Halo fan, and thus wouldn't be adoring the game or offended by it.


You did a good job connecting them, but honestly every level can be linked and validated in a much simpler manner.

"You are a top-secret and highly skilled ONI Section III strike-team strongly utilized where the UNSC doesn't want high publicity, and are sent where needed on a planet going to hell."


Haha, true, but that wouldn't have satisfied what the guy I posted the summary too was arguing. I had to make the obvious connections between the levels for him, since he either missed them or just chose to overlook them. But yeah, your summary works quite well too XD

  • 03.26.2011 8:22 AM PDT


Posted by: SoldierOfAthena

Posted by: Evil Johnny
...First Strike still adds elements too...


First Strike told a lot of what happened after Reach's primary defenses fell. This is when the planet was heavily invaded, and massive areas were glassed.

In this respect, I think that Halo: Reach did a good job showing small, isolated, yet still intense battles leading up to Reach's invasion. I would very much like to see some of the absolutely EPIC battles that are told about in First Strike, but I still honestly think that Halo: Reach did a far better job than The Fall of Reach.

In the Fall of Reach, it's quite literally "Oh no! The Covenant are here, and most of our fleet has been destroyed! But we still have the SMAC's--OH NO! There's an invasion team being sent to Reach to shut off the generators. Oh, oh no! The Covenant fleet is back to jack s**t up! Well crew, let's skedaddle to Halo! /flee."


I fail to see what's so bad with this, it's a cascade of events like it happens in wars, and like it happened in a certain extend in the game. The covenant were just much stronger and manage to cut anything the UNSC tried to defend themselves. Plus, the PoA needed to stay intact - as the spartans - for a mission to capture a prophet, so fleeing was just what was to be done. We could say the same thing with the game. Oh no, the Covenant are there! - worst. line. ever. - let's defend Sword Base! There's this big Covenant base, let's attack tomorrow! Oh no, a Covenant super-carrier decloaked in front of us and destroyed our ships! Let's destroy it! Oh no, a whole fleet is coming in! Let's evacuate people, oh no, the city gets glassed.

But something I don't understand is the whole Halo coordinate thing. Why did they need to go there? What did they thought of achieving by going there? Wasn't there another mission they need to do? Was it a choice made at the last second after most spartans fell or couldn't rejoin the PoA?

In a way, Reach was very well done, but I think average characters - it's not their lack of character development that annoys me, it's how unappealing some of them are, Emile anyone? and how there were some cheap lines that sometimes didn't even fit with what was done - with the pacing, level design, lack of variety in environments - I'm tired of walking deserts in Halo games, why can't we have a real forest sometime? - and the overall plot gave me very mixed feelings on the game. It got probably the best cinematic approach it could have for the events, and LOADS better than Halo 3, the visuals were great as the music, but I found it was more style over substance than anything else. Everything felt contrived and lacking to me.

  • 03.26.2011 8:26 AM PDT

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