Beat it a couple of days ago. Loved it. But I have always liked the Halo games, so I figured I would. It is more of the same old, but the few new things they throw in there makes this the best Halo experience to date. Something about the movement and everything seems to be subtly changed, making me feel more like an agile fast Spartan. The cutscenes and stuff also shows more what the SPARTANS are capable of. I'm glad they did that, because if you have only played the first ones you don't really see how the Spartans can be called super soldiers. Sure, they survive a lot of beating, but you seemed clunky, slow and fumbling. While in this game they are much more fluid, fast and even graceful. I'd say that the feel from the books got translated a bit to the game, which made it all the better when it comes to the Spartans.
I am not a good Halo player however, so I will never beat it on Legendary. I don't have any friends who plays it, so I won't even be able to do so in Co-op. Which is fine really. I have barely played the other Halo's online as well, but this I tried a bit. And it is super fun. Having stuff to unlock also makes it more tempting to play just one more round, which then turns into such a fun game that unlocking things doesn't matter anymore. They did good with this. Now I only need more friends I can play funny game modes with.
Let me recap what I liked about Halo: Reach, and what I didn't like. This is from me having played plenty of SP Halo 1, 2 and 3 and Halo Wars, not played ODST. I have read the five first books in the series as well. This recap serves as a kind of TL;DR as well I guess.
The Good
- The feel of the Spartans. They, and you, seemed stronger, heavier, faster and more super soldier like.
- The weapons where great.
- All the active abilities was fun to play with. Sending out a hologram to confuse your enemies worked great.
- The story, and the fact that we got a bit more of it this time around. But you being just another soldier means you are on a need to know basis. Thus it makes sense that you are just told to go there and blow up that thing. This goes for the other Halo games as well really.
- How the cutscenes worked. I like the whole theme of this being security footage from your helmet, cameras, satellites etc. That theme carried over to the limited Black Box edition as well.
- Graphics where great, the skyboxes are breathtaking as always.
- Music and sounds overall.
- The ending.
- Slowdown in FPS during some cut scenes. Not that big a deal, but it was very noticeable.
- Some checkpoints where placed oddly, making some sections extremely finicky to do even on normal. Especially towards the end.
- Driving vehicles with wheels are still as dangerous as useful due to the driving controls.
- Not enough squad mechanics. I wanted to really feel like a squad, not just having a few other Spartans running around trying to kill stuff. Which they usually didn't do anyway.
- Jumping still feels kinda floaty, which doesn't make sense on Reach since its gravity is a bit higher than on Earth. The Spartans weight is about a ton in the Mjolnir armor, so while they can jump high due to strength, they should not float down slowly.
- The Elites. What is wrong with your face? (Stupid Plinkett quote there, which I have had stuck in my head for days. Maybe this can drive it out)
So all in all I loved it, the few rough edges doesn't matter that much, because this is the ultimate Halo game. If another Halo game is made I hope they focus more on how the Spartans are in the books. That way we'll get a lot more tactical game.
I also got a few questions someone might have an answer for.
- Do you earn money playing Campaign missions?
- Do you earn more if you put on scoring?
- Do you earn money when playing local MP?
- What about when playing custom matches with friends online?
- Who would win, Duke Nukem or John-117 aka Master Chief?
Log in to comment