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Posted by: ajw34307
Quantity =/= quality, that's the best way to put it.
The campaign was an abysmal effort to tie in the game to CE, it was not needed at all and was pulled off horribly. Levels were more linear than ever, the characters were sterile archetypes nobody cared about and there was no real story until the last 2 missions (can anyone say "shoehorn"?).
It's not just that, it's the way the story is told. Compare this fecal matter to the masterful campaigns of Halo CE, 2 and ODST. The build up is flawlessly drawn together to the final conclusion, here's Halo 2 as an example:
1) Earth is under attack, you follow the Prophet to another Halo.
2) You have been shamed for failing to save Halo, you earn your reprieve as Arbiter and become an assassin. You are told the Great Journey is a lie.
3) All story points converge on the Library. John and Thel meet the Gravemind and become allies to stop the Ring from firing after Johnson and Miranda are kidnapped.
4) Gravemind uses this as a distraction, he takes High Charity as his own whilst John follows Truth to Earth and the other Halos are put on stand-by. The tone that everything is at stake is set for the final installment as the fight is going to be finished.
We're left with questions like:
- What will happen to Cortana?
- Can Earth be saved?
- How will others respond to this "alliance"?
- Will Truth fire the other rings?
It's the sort of thing that sparked off thousands of fan fictions with each interpretation being wildly different. Reach lacked an substance or mystery to it because all along we knew what would happen. We knew Noble Team would die, we knew Reach would fall - the story is a lot less exciting when every detail is able to be guessed from the start.
Multiplayer is a convoluted mess with armour abilities which changed the "golden triangle" of grenades, weapons and melee into a sort of rusty tin quadrilateral. The rule of 3 was broken by armour abilities which were an awful addition, equipment was fine, I can't see what possessed Bungie to put in armour lock...
Firefight is now awful. In ODST we were made to work together, I have never played a more strategic match than my many attempts to get Endure from 2009-2010. It was frantic, it was fun and encouraged players to learn a lesson in teamwork when facing a group of Chieftains on Alpha Site.
In Reach all people care about is individual stats and credits, games are now an incoherent mess if jetpack + rockets with no consequence of failure when you die because you have infinite lives. Custom options? Yeah that's great, but I have not seen any innovative gametypes from the community. It's all "ZOMG EARN ACIEVEMENTS AND CR!!!".
Forge World is brilliant, well executed and great to use. As an avid Forger I'm very keen on using that map to it's fullest potential... Then I look at every other map and think "oh... I can't do anything cool or innovative here, back to Forge World". Halo 3 had a much more versatile Forge mode because every map had something unique that could be done to it, Bungie went slack with the maps in Reach and delivered poorly crafted campaign sections which play horribly (Boardwalk... *shudders*).
Whenever I look at Reach, I see what could have been and the fact that a lot of others share the same vision has left me feeling very underwhelmed by this "swan song" of Bungie's.
-Campaign
First of all it seems that you are being heavily crucial on Reach simpley because you knew the outcome already. I thought players knew that prequels were intended to follow current stories and not be that surprising? It is a prequel after all.
I can understand why some were dissapointed that it didn't follow the story of the book but i think everyone has to understand that Bungie created Halo, not the book "The Fall Of Reach". When the creator says something or makes something it becomes canon because it is there work of art.
Besides, Halo: Reach doesn't do too much that throws the book off from canon. If you notice they did a pretty swell job of making majority of the book still possible to canon. I see it as, how would you like someone defining the guidelines for you on your next entry into a video game franchise you created? Personally, i'd hate it.
-Multiplayer
I can't see how people wish they had of stuck with the Halo 3 method on this. Equiptment was a complete joke, and Bungie knew it. It didn't work well and no one really cared for it. With Reach, Armour abilities are a completle new mechanic that everyone must understand to suceed. Now, i understand how some wish the original Halo multiplayer was left alone but this brings me back to something else.
With every new Halo there is a New multiplayer experience. This is what keeps Halo fresh and new. It's exactly this reason that keeps Halo's multiplayer alive. With each new entry people are excited to see what is happening next.
Look at Call of Duty, fan or not with each new entry we are playing the exact same game with maybe a few new weapons, it's getting stale but Halo is ever progressing.
Halo CE - Introuduction to the 2 thumbstick rechargeable sheilds, weapon-melee-grenade gameplay.
Halo 2 - Dual Wielding, Car jacking, dealing with other players being elites.
Halo 3 - Equiptment
Halo Reach - Armour abilities.
With each new entry there is new things to be learned and different ways to get a kill or stay alive.
-Firefight
Though i will admit i was more fond of the traditional Firefight that ODST had the new firefight is honestley much more efficient for online play. Bungie saw the millions of players who had to literally drag themselves through a firey pit of lava just too keep there online connection well enough to beat the endure acheivement. They were asking way to much of players to have faith in both 4 players and an internet connection for 3+ hours. Plus, you can play firefight like ODST if you set it that way.
-Forge
Overall you can do alot more with Forge in this addition to the Halo franchise. Being able to do more is really the only right direction for something like forge, since forge is about imagination and adding more just extends the lengths that your minds can travel to without a roadblock.
All in all i think some people are forced to never love what the current project is, they have to stick in the past. I myself least enjoyed Halo 3 of the Halo games and that is the opinion i have stuck too. But some people literally say, Halo 2 sucked, Halo 3 sucked 2 was way better, Halo Reach sucked and Halo 3 was definatley the best. When people change there mind that often you can't take them seriously. Provided i do not think this is the case with you, it is with many.
I love all the Halo's. Combat evolved is my favorite, Reach is my favorite overall if your looking at each section of the game as a whole, and Halo 3 is my least favorite. But they all are an awesome entry into an ever progressing universe.
[Edited on 06.12.2011 5:34 PM PDT]