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Posted by: JayHawk III
For some reason Bungie has tried to destroy there creation so they can go be in the Activision club.*cough*Secret initiation rite*cough*
In reality, fans wanted Reach to be like CE and Bungie did that, while also trying to do what 343 are doing and making a new experience. Of course, this turned out to be a disaster (while 343 are doing great!).
They corrupted CE purity with the false difficulty of H2 and H3.
They failed to restore some of the more important things about H1, such as plasma rifle flesh damage, plasma pistol bullet drop, overcharge that homed in from a considerable distance. All I saw was plasma pistol damage and small jump height.
They did things that were completely unnecessary (nerfing friendly AI, making vehicles vulnerable in exchange for power, making players have to wait between each shot, removing shield bleedthrough for precision weapons).
Also, we got treated to gimmicks (Credits) to encourage replayability.
The easter eggs were a huge step and assassinations do look neat but besides those, everything else is just there to encourage replayability.
They also disregarded the age old tradition of special dialogue Grunt (but ODST did that as well so it's not that much of a big deal). Still, it is a shame that IWHBYD doesn't make enemy AI speak English (I wouldn't know since I don't have Reach).
But the #1 reason for my dislike of Reach stems from great trauma I suffered some time ago. It was from the Reach demo which featured that son of a -blam!- level LNoS. I wasn't able to do much with the level, other than assassinating waves of Covies without being detected and setting up blockades (extremely difficult on higher difficulties) to stop the troopers from dying or to stop the Covies from charging so I could kick their ass by myself.
I may dislike H3 but I still play it because I have real motivating factors:
-fun
-breaking limits
-and especially emerging victorious over Bugie's scripting
My successes:
-dominating Sierra 117
-Sierra 117 dam fun
-turned grenade spamming Floodgate Elites into Flood choppers and Tank Form slayers
The Ark
-immobilized the Ark Scarab
-got Johnson in the Ark cartographer cutscene
-stopped Arbiter from leaving and got him to fight all the jump pack brutes, brute stalkers, and jackals
The Covenant
-Hornet army
-flying Hunters
-assassinating multiple Brutes without being detected
-CE style cutscene manipulation: Arbiter vs. Hunter
-Flood armies
-Half Flood
-The Covenant mega AI collection: up to 16 marines, 7 Elites, 20 Brutes, 4 Grunts, 1 Arbiter (2 might be possible but I can't stop him from teleporting after I get him out of the Phantom), a heck lot of vehicles and fuel rod guns
-flying Tank Form
-flying Brute Chieftain
-4 Arbiters vs. Brutes, 4 Arbiters vs. Flood
-deleting Arbiter by teabagging him
My fails:
-couldn't stop missile Pelican on Sierra 117 from destroying Phantoms because the Phantoms are scripted to explode after some time and because the Pelican pilot can't be killed...
-getting more marines for the Covenant mega AI collection
-collecting all the Brutes and Grunts for the Covenant mega AI collection. One of the many reasons why I hate the post CE checkpoint system
-stopping them from being deleted by Bungie's scripting
-bypassed Guilty Spark at the "boss fight" but couldn't stop Bungie's scripting
I don't need credits to have fun.
I don't need Elite enemies to have a challenge.
But that doesn't mean H3 is worthy. Personally, all I need is a good sandbox (which H3 was lacking imo), balanced enemies (a la CE), my own working space (where was this in Reach? Stupid 10 second countdowns), and checkpoints when I need them (only 2 locations in H3 yielded infinite checkpoints). H1 had all of this and is therefore my #1 Halo game.
Reach is a pathetic attempt to restore the CE purity and it is abomination, a great insult to CE and an insult to any other game that it tried to be like. 90% of the things that AI could do could have been done in CE but weren't. And why is that? Because that's when Bungie was smaller, when they had a clear understanding of balance and difficulty. Plasma pistol overcharging Jackals and Grunts? Elites throwing plasma grenades? Elites being exactly like the player (while it is good that they throw grenades and melee as fast as the player, it is also bad because they already have advantages and we are playing as Spartan IIIs, not a Spartan II)?
That's not what made them distinct.
Grunts and Jackals are supposed to go down easily, not be even more formidable to friendly AI and even the player. They have numerical superiority. They just don't have the brains to utilize that advantage. Instead of making them all overcharging freaks, they should have changed tactics. In CE, they were often the ones compromising your position.
As for Elites, they should be fast but not so fast that we can't even keep up with them. Zealots are a good example of decent speed. They could catch up to the player but they could also be slowed down. Also, why do they need crutches:
-bottomless clip (a la concussion rifle spam)
-one hit kill melee (a la H2)
-"semi-omniscience"
-fast shield recharge rate (a la H2)
-deal a lot of damage
They already got fast projectile speed granted on higher difficulties, strafing, better guns, numerical superiority, etc.
Of course, this is all irrelevant isn't it? The fact that the Elites never tried to compromise your position and that the player was never forced into cqc encounters (a la T&R)... oh the linear gameplay.
[Edited on 03.05.2012 6:35 PM PST]