Halo:Reach - Campaign concerns and fears
By gnosisispower 41 Comments
Just watching some other sites footage of Halo Reach's campaign and two elements shown have struck a cold fear deep inside my gaming bowels. My concern (based on the two factors detailed below) is that the campaign will not be the reinvention of the Halo series I (and many, many others) have been hoping for - it will simply be a further refinement to the formula. Nothing wrong with that per se (Halo is brilliant), but after 4 releases built around this philosophy I am hoping for an experience as ground-breaking and unique as the first Halo was when it was released. Obviously, it is too early to tell, but I want to share my concerns and see what you guys think.
1) Abilities. Bungie have stated that the ability to switch between abilities is going to be limited. Often, certain abilities will be forced upon you by the designers. That's fine, as it will create some unique and interesting moments. But, outside of this, the only way to switch abilities is by picking them up within the environment. You will not get free-reign Crysis style. You can only hold one abiltiy at a time. This is disappointing, as I had hoped to approach the more sand-box set-pieces is any fashion I wished - stealth, all guns a-blazing etc - and change strategies on the fly. This is now evidently not a possibility. Therefore, outside of some carefully scripted, designer-led events, the abilites are not going to be the major enhancement to the combat I had hoped for. Sure, having a sprint ability or invisibility ability always mapped will be useful (and bring Halo in line with more recent FPS') but for a series always based around player-created approaches to combat, the limiting of ability switching seems a bit...limiting.
2) A lot of the campaign footage shown took place in the exact same environments as some of the multiplayer maps - I'm not talking thematic similarities here but straight up cut and paste jobs. This is worrisome. As far as I am concerned, the thrill of playing the campaign through a first time will be greatly diminished if I am playing my way through areas already experienced in a different mode. I could hold out on the multiplayer until I've completed the campaign but... that's not going to happen. It strikes me as Bungie cutting corners. Halo's multiplayer maps (outside of ODST's FireFight) have always been bespoke built and brilliant. But surely some compromise must arise when areas are being shared between two different modes, and surely to the detriment of one of them. It gives the impression that the campaign isn't going to be the bees knees everyone is hoping it will be. The only justification would be if Bungie have so many mutliplayer maps out of the box (and so many unique ones) that a bit of recycling to buff up the numbers can be excused. Equally, it can also be excused if the campaign levels are so varied and intricate that the small section lifted for multiplayer is of no consequence. If neither of these variables apply, then my concerns stand.
Obviously, I have other concerns too (can Bungie successfully mix Halo's free-form combat with the more cinematic approach to the genre so beloved of current FPS' for example) but the above are the two most prevalent concerns I have based on what I've seen so far.
41 Comments