- leonitusrokz
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- Noble Member
Fear the Flight of the Falcon!
I love both games.
Halo 3 lags a lot more than Reach, which is the simple reason why I play Reach more.
However, I love AAs. The way they were implemented is horrible. Movement speed, jump height, etc. etc. etc. should have been kept the same, rather than nerfed to "compensated" for sprint, jetpack, etc. Sprint should just be slower, Jetpacke not as high, and the movement speed should have remained the same.
People who say that AAs require no skill have no skill; yes, you can use them, and use them effectively, as a first-time player, but a skilled player can always beat the noob. Always. AL is nothing but a delay; an annoying one, yes, but only a delay. CQB was not ruined by it; back up and wait. It's not that hard. And are you really complaining about having been killed while waiting for someone to come out of AL? That's teamwork. Teamwork is good.
Bloom--meh, I don't notice it because I lag so much that I can put a whole clip in someone without effect and then get hit only twice and die (doesn't mean I spam).
Grenades would be fine if the movement speed/jump height were standard Halo.
The maps in Reach...let's just consider this. Halo 3 had (has) a higher movement speed and jump height than Reach, yet all it's maps were not only smaller, but more crammed with vehicles. Why was Sandtrap Heavy so much fun? Because there was always a battle, always a vehicle, always a power weapon; basically always multiple options on what to do, not just "run out of my base and get sniped/DMRd from across the map...5 seconds later repeat. 5 seconds later grab a Ghost that respawned, but don't make it across Hemmorhage because you got DMRd...5 seconds later..." THAT'S NOT HALO!!
AAs are great; they're fun, and I'm gonna use the catchphrase from the game Othelo here: "A minute to learn, a lifetime to master." Maybe not a lifetime, but you know what I mean.
Reach also departed from some great things; the armor in H3, while it looked like clay, looked a lot better (although I'm pretty happy with my Pilot right now...). The detail in Reach is fantastic, the overall look was better in H3.
One giant thing that stands out is the lighting; remember playing through the H3 campaign, turning a corner, and there is a gold brute standing there, the light reflecting off his armor. It was a great effect; why did it leave? I know Bungie wanted to make the game dark, or whatever, but that doesn't mean they needed to make it look bad. Take a look at the difference between the H3 and Reach Phantom--H3's is waaaaay better! Same with the Ghost (although it's horrible to drive after using Reach's). Next time you're just screwing around, take a Carbine and wander around a dark map (Guardian, for example). Find a light source and play around in it, watching the Carbine. It looks fantastic!
That being said, Reach's lighting does some stuff really well. Take a Banshee in Forge World and move it around the hangar; watch how the light and shadows play off the curves; while it doesn't shine, like H3 did and how I prefer it, the reflection is much more accurate to real life; meaning it is where it would be if the Banshee and lights were real.
I mentioned briefly the DMR; it's horrible. I fail to see how armor 500 years in the future is worse than it is today, in that a handheld rifle can blow up a tank. wtf Bungie. Remember when players actually had to work to bring down a vehicle? Not any more!
Halo 3's meleeing system seemed random; I still don't see how it works. I've punched a guy who had full shields and he died, than turned around and got punched by the same weapon, with my shields down, and lived. I have no idea what happens. Reach's fixes that, although somehow it lags and someone packs two punches in one, and double pummels/beat downs are a lot less frequent than they were in H3. However, it was fun in H3 to grab a brute shot simply because it was good at meleeing: what I'm getting at is that not only did you have to take into account the power of the weapon, you had to worry about it's melee value as well.
While on the topic of weapons, Reach has some good ones and some bad ones. The rocket launcher is now effected by gravity (realistic, but since when was Halo realistic? it was way better the other way), the DMR (BR) is a spartan laser in disguise, the spartan laser doesn't shoot through vehicles all the time, has less ammo, and won't even kill a (fully shielded) tank in one shot. The concussion rifle is somehow always stronger for the other guy (meh), the focus rifle is a useless a piece of blam (really, a "sniper" that gives your exact location? Gimme back mah particle rifle!), the grenade launcher is awesome, the plasma pistol has a use (short of duel-wielding), the sword loses too much energy, the hammer is horrible, creates a small shockwave, has little ammo, lags like crap--basically, every good, iconic, and fun weapon got nerfed or isn't even there (FLAMETHROWER!!!!!!), and was replaced with something stupid and crappy.
I mentioned dual-wielding: why isn't it there? There is no reason for it not to be there.
The custom game settings in Reach are horrible; most of the fantastic gametypes from H3 aren't possible, despite the improved Forge that would make them so much better.
Reach is fun to play, but has many problems. Halo 3 lags a lot, and takes too long to find a game. Reach has much better graphics (although the ragdoll in H3 was a lot of fun), and H3 has the same, annoying sound every single time you die. So which is better? Reach is; it screwed up a lot of we know of Halo, but aside from that is a great game. If it was the first of the series, everyone would love it. However, Halo 3 was more, well, Halo, so it is better as a Halo fan. I'm just going to wait for Halo 4 and hope they blend both.