- YodaUnleashed SW
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- Exalted Member
Posted by: j7holdfastjack7
May i first applaud your calm, calculated, contextual criticism of Bungie's development of Reach.
Hear is the situation as i see it.
Halo 3 should have been the final Halo. MC's storyline was finished and locked in. One last offshoot with ODST, then cool.
But Reach really shouldnt exist. It doesnt fit. Bungie really wouldnt have made it in a perfect world. Just contractually obligated to make another triple A Halo title. So since they had too make it. They decided to make it new and itch those creative spots that have been begging to let loose. So it doesnt fit with the other Halo's because its the one that shouldnt be there.
Also Halo 4 has already ruined Halo for me just by the mere fact that it exists. Halo 3 finished it. I understand MS is a company that needs to make money, but its exploitation to stretch this franchise farther. There is just NO WHERE to go with Halo.
Whatever your opinion is on whether Reach was good or not and whether they should have ended it with Halo 3 I think you should reserve your judgment of Halo 4's quality when it actually comes out. Be skeptical yes, maybe even cynical if your so inclined, but don't completely dismiss it. I'm sure Microsoft have people with bigger imaginations and better creative ideas than your obviously giving them credit for, and just because you can't think of anything worthwhile doesn't mean by default that there's nothing worthwhile to make of Halo anymore. Considering you commend the OP as being calm and calculated, I would think you'd take the same approach or at least try to.
As for the original post, as I don't really frequent these forums and so am not really all that privy to the formulated criticisms of other users, other than the generally known complaints, I can't really reply to your, let's call it 'accusation', without knowing on which basis you found said accusation.
However, as far as I'm concerned, Halo Reach is indeed not without its faults, though no Halo game is. I think if you were looking for the manifestation of the 'best halo game' you need look no further than Halo 3. This was really the pinnacle of many of Bungies ideas and technologies (even if it did have a dud level) and Reach was more of a refinement, bringing a more minimal amount of new concepts.
For instance, Halo 3 had saved films, screenshots, forge, 4 player co-op, file shares, a highly improved matchmaking system, armour customisation, skull modifiers, improved stats here on Bungie.net and a very epic and fitting end to the Halo trilogy not to mention much more. Reach, as I said, just refined everything that Halo 3 brought to the table and in addition had some new multiplayer modes, firefight (which obviously manifested first in ODST so wasn't new really) and a brief escapade into space. The campaign was solid though nowhere near as interesting or emotionally investing as the main 'trilogy' storyline and new gameplay elements like the bloom effect and armour abilities helped shake up the formula enough to justify Reach's existence (whether your fan of said additions or not).
So the best halo game, by my definition, is Halo 3 but the ultimate Halo game, as Bungie seem to think, is Halo Reach. Well again it depends entirely on what you would define as 'ultimate', and even then what context you would use it in; it's all very semantic. For me, 'ultimate' really means a culmination; a pinnacle, the highest point in a journey or process that, within the context of Halo, offers the most new material at the highest quality of design and function. Thus personally I would still say Halo 3 takes the cake as again it was the one Halo game that innovated the most; even equipment was a forerunner of what would become armour abilities.
However, it's not surprising to me that Bungie themselves would consider Reach the ultimate Halo, as in a way, it is. Without wanting to sound self-contradictory, I defined 'ultimate' as some sort of culmination and Reach could also adequately fit this bill. As I said earlier, it refined practically everything previously found in all the Halo's and added just enough new elements that one could play Reach and, a few gaming mechanics aside, experience a Halo game conducive with all the others.
Its standalone story, whilst weaker than the trilogies, nonetheless has that element of story accessibility which 2 and 3 obviously don't, also making it, arguably, a good jumping in point for new prospective players to the Halo universe. Then again, the game never explains who the covenant is and why you're fighting them, Bungie simply assumes all fore-knowledge of their universe in its players, which works against it's argument of accessibility. Nevertheless, it has a strong case for being the ultimate halo game, and the very fact it's so modifiable means you can experience it in many different ways and contexts than any other halo game. You can play the story (single or co-operative, with varying difficulties and skull modifiers), you can play firefight (ditto), you can play multiplayer whether competitively or casually in all sorts of modes and on all sorts of maps, both originals and user-created which you create in forge and then you can capture your experience in picture or video form. It's that strength of modification and alteration that gives the Halo games, in general, an edge over other FPS's as far as a breadth of experience goes; I mean, can you play chess in Call of Duty? I think not, and that is one factor as to why Halo has such a large, thriving community (that is the extent of modification not just the chess alone). There's no doubt, with Reach, this level of modification is at its height and that is why, arguably, Reach is by previous definitions, the ultimate Halo game and I think Bungie has every reason to be proud and happy with their creation.
Ultimately (a fortuitous choice of words), Reach is a great game that plays well (mostly) and can be (if previous inhibitions are overcome or accommodated for) enjoyed to the fullest and I too thank them for all their work which has resulted in many long nights of online merriment and memories. So....thank you Bungie.