The guy does have a point. Being that this is a prequel, things should be explained and not taken for granted. On the other hand, consider this: the last Halo is a prequel. This is quite a double-edged knife.
But in all sincerity, you cannot jump at the last title of a series and expect to grasp everything.
It is kind of awkward that a prequel assumes the player knows a good deal about the subject material, but then again I suppose that's what a developer might expect when setting a target audience for the...5th? game in the series.
I for one had no prior knowledge to what halo was besides the fact that there was some sort of super-parasite that wanted to kill everyone. After seeing a full playthrough of the game, I still don't really feel like I've been informed of anything important, although I inferred that Reach was apparently the last line of defense between Earth and the Covenant.
Dr. Halsey is the person behind the Spartan program.
Jorge is beefier than the rest because he's a Spartan II while the rest are IIIs. IIs were better, whereas IIIs were the mass production Captain America.
Also the II treatment had a very high mortality rate.
The IIs were children who had shown signs of physical and mental superiority who were kidnapped by the government and trained and altered.
It takes a long time to make a II and more than half of them die in the process.
98% of the population is generally average, and like .2% are really spectacular. You have a very small pool to work from, most of them die, and it takes a long time to do.
You can't just "Make more".
Most of the Spartans died on Reach, and the rest of the Halo games take place within a fairly short time of eachother I think.
A lot of your questions are answered in the other Halo games, books, and in news released before the game came out. Just because you didn't take the time to do your homework doesn't mean you should rag on a game that has a serviceabal story.
Reach-Important because it is essentially the last line of defense before Earth. As to why the covenant attacked it, That's IN THE DAMN GAME. The third act explains this quite clearly.
Halsey-Started to Spartan Program. (books)
Jorge- He is a Spartan II like Master Chief. The other spartans are Spartan IIIs. They were let into the Spartan program with fewer criteria and less training. (Bungie told us before the game came out)
Banshees are the big purple space ships that hadn't been in the game until that level. You basically had to play a "spot the difference game" for about 3 seconds to figure that out.
How could you not see you were fighting a losing battle. Human battle ships, transports, and people were constantly being destroyed, killed, and evacuated.
A Spartan is the guy in the big armor. Uhh. yeah.
It's your girlfriend's own fault for jumping into the last game of a series and expecting to understand everything. Would you read the last book of a series and automatically know what was going on? No, you wouldn't.
Then you obviously never played the other Halo games, or at the very least never paid any sort of attention to them. The fall of Reach is discussed by Cortana and Keyes in the beginning of the original Halo. As explained multiple times throughout the series, SPARTANs are genetically-enhanced super-soldiers, like Master Chief and all of Noble Team.
And...what's a Banshee? Despite the obvious trolling, I'll bite. Those purple flying things? The ones that, when approached, bring up a message that says "Hold X to ride in Banshee"? Those are Banshees.
My point is that you can't blame the developers for not explaining the rest of a series to you. Reach is meant to be played after the other Halo games, which you obviously either didn't play or didn't pay attention to.
3)
Cyan. said:
It didn?t feel like we were fighting a losing battle. At no point did the shit hit the fan. At no point was there presented to me a massive invading army or ships raining planet glassing death lasers upon the surface. Wasn?t there ment to be some kind of space battle in orbit of thousands of ships?
This is the part that tells me you're either trolling or you didn't actually play the game. Do you remember
the end of New Alexandria (7th mission)? When they launched a giant nuke on the entire city? When Kat asks you if this is your "first glassing"? (Yes, they even use the exact word you used.) What about the end of the 4th mission, where a Covenant ship launches a giant "death laser" on the UNSC frigate that takes out the pylon? The 5th mission, after which the multiple slipspace ruptures bring in thousands upon thousands of Covenant cruisers, and everyone on the human frequencies is on the verge of insanity? And then when the entirety of the next mission consists of evacuating civilians because the humans are obviously losing?
Like I said, I do highly doubt that you actually played this game if you missed all that.
Guess this means all those Nintendo games don't have a story either (why is Bowser the king of Koopas? What really are the creatures of the Mushroom Kingdom? Where is the Mushroom Kingdom? Why am I going from grassy plain to sky level? What flavor was the cake Peach promised me? What species is Link? Why am I in a Water Temple? Why is Mother Brain bad?), nor does Transformers WfC since it's a prequel that doesn't spell everything out. Hey, The Hobbit is a prequel that doesn't tell me everything either, guess there's no story.
Allow me to say something: prequels are almost always made for fans. They come before what was already released, so it's assumed you know a bit about the series beforehand. As for the story, it's not ground breaking, but it's there. And complaining about your favorite character dying? Welcome the the world of entertainment.
And Borderlands has a story that's better told? Really? It brings up its story every now and again to remind both you and it that the story still exists (Don't get me wrong, I love Borderlands, but its plot takes the backseat in a streched bus).
The rest of this thread seems to have pointed out what you seemed to have missed in terms of story, so I think I'll give it a rest here.
It isn't like the other Halo games' stories, that's for damned sure. First time I played Halo 1 it was breathtaking seeing the Flood. I wanted to know every single bit about them.
Mainly the big "Wait, what?"
Reach doesn't really do ANYTHING like this, which is what I think bogs it down. No mystery.
Since I know most of the back story to the halo games I never actually noticed this but you're absolutly right. If I had never played a halo game I wouldn't even know what to shoot at. Although it was kinda cool to watch it play out as I sit there knowing exactly what's going on, to a person who was oblivious to the story of halo it would almost seem like trying to figure out an inside joke
When a game hits 4 and a half games, it should have some kind of story. That's not to say that 1-3 doesn't have a story. They did a pretty good job of making us pay attention and follow a few choice characters. With this one, they drop all new characters on us (which isn't totally unexpected, since it's a prequel) and try to give them a level of humanity by occasionally having them remove their helmets while talking. They worked the gameplay very well, but they were really lazy on making a beginning story to the whole thing.
I agree with Bungie being somewhat lazy with the story. I also think that Bungie could of done a lot better with the characters. They were good but I really never get to fully know them like the Spartan Emile. They did a good job with Jorge in the beginning, but then they just stop suddenly.
I like my doom style plots
"You are good. They are bad. Stop moralising, don't question orders... go shoot shit."
which is what reach has. Yes its been wallpapered over the Halo framework but not bothering to explain that framework pretty major failing story wise.
Really though, why bother to engage brain when your being told to unload your rifle at something? It works for real squaddies that have no idea why they are shooting johnny foreigner in his own country and never bother to question; just assume your character is this sort of gun toting 'tard. (I've been a soldier for a decade so don't bother 'correcting' me)
This is the merest shell of a story and only beats the doom games in that the situation makes sense in of itself and it has a bit of dialogue strapped to it's utterly boring characters.
Yes it's a story and no it's really not what the fans deserve and alienates new customers, dull badly explained and dreadfully told.
Is it a good enough flimsy excuse to enjoy shooting some aliens? yes, yes it is and it's pretty good as the shooting goes.
Enjoy what's there; it's strong enough to compensate.
It does have a story, a quite amazing one at that0. So does all of them. It's just that it's slightly hard to figure out if you haven't played the games and read at least one of the books- The Fall of Reach.
Sarcasm aside, your right. It doesn't explain much. But Bungie basically made the game for those that actually followed the story and lore and dug deep into them. Despite the inconstancies with The Fall of Reach I found it to be really well told and well done. Most likely since I already knew everything I needed to know.
Now to answer your questions:
"Where is Reach": Reach is the UNSC(human army/navy headquarters in the galaxy). I'm not sure exactly where it is on the galactic map, but its close to Earth.
"What is a Spartan": An augmented super-soldier first build to help quell the insurrection(or rebels, more on that later). They were eventually re-assigned to deal with the Covenant.
"What the hell is a banshee and how do I take one out": A Covenant flying vehicle. You take it out as you would any vehicle, with rockets or any other form of explosives.
"Who are all these people": Which "people"? The Spartans are Noble Team, a team of Spartan 3's. Spartan 3's are basically "cheap" Spartan 2's and were "mass produced" since they were easier and cheaper to make than Spartan 2's(Master Chief and Jorge are Spartan 2's).
"What are Spartans for": At first they were to deal with the rebels. Now they're dealing with the aliens.
"Who are these rebels and what do they rebel against": The Rebels or insurrectionists are just that, rebels. Not much is mentioned about them from the games though. They're rebelling against the UNSC since they believe the outer-most planets should be independent from them.
"WHO THE HELL ARE THE COVENANT AND WHY DOES IT MATTER THAT THEY ARE ON REACH": They are a conglomeration of various alien species hellbent on activating the Halo rings, finding Forerunner artifacts, and killing any alien that gets in their way. Its important that they're on Reach because Reach is Humanities biggest military instillation. It houses most of the UNSC's military might(outside of Earth), is the training ground for the Spartans, and is basically Humanities last very important planet not destroyed by the Covenant. Basically if they take Reach, the next stop is Earth.
Who is Dr Halsey?: Creator of the Spartan program which produced Master Chief.
Why should I care?: This is humanities last stand before Earth. If they fail at Reach, the Covenant will go to Earth next, and finish humanity off.
Who is that commander dude and what happened to him in the end?:
The Spartan Commander? Your leader? He ran the pelican into the Scarab on the last mission so you can get Cortana to Keyes.
Why is Jorge the only Spartan who is mega tall like the Chief?:He's a Spartan 2, as is the Chief. You and your other squadmates are Spartan 3's. Spartan 2's are taller, stronger, faster, and overall better than Spartan 3's.
Bungie made this game as a good-bye to their series. As a big thank you to the fans who stuck by the series for 10 years. For the fans that read the books, dug deep into the lore, for those who really love the series. Others can enjoy it as well though.
The game was made for long-time Halo fans. I'm not at all sorry that they didn't slow it down for first-timers.
From their perspective, this game was a thank-you to everyone who made the series a success. I've played most of the games, and read most of the books. I understood the story perfectly.
Bottom line: You're playing a PREQUEL. If you don't know the rest of the material, why would you expect to understand something that came before it. It has story, it's just telling a different part. Most Halo fans already know who the Covanent is, and what Reach is, and what Spartans are.
I think Reach's story is excellent, but it suffers from one fatal flaw: it requires a reasonable amount of homework to be fully appreciated. To get the full impact of Reach's story, you have have at least a passing familiarity with the novels. You've got to understand the history of the Spartan program, and how Dr. Halsey relates to it. You need to know that the Covenant is a violent, expansionist theocracy, and understand why this is. You need to know who the Forerunners were, and what the technology they left behind means for the Human-Covenant War.
If you go into Reach blind, without any prior knowledge of the Halo universe, the story seems extremely weak. This is a serious problem. A well-told story, prequels in particular, can appeal to anyone who experiences it, regardless of prior knowledge. Knowing the history and lore of the universe should be optional, not compulsory.
Don't get me wrong, I really did enjoy Reach's story, and I think the story behind the Halo universe at large is much more interesting than most gamers are willing to give it credit for (hint; it's not about space marines), but Bungie really dropped the ball with this one. They should have realized that the vast majority of players weren't going to care enough to do the background research before jumping in.
Thing is questions like "who are the covenant?", "why are they on reach", "what the hell is going on" is all questions that humans themselves are trying to find out, so if you think of it like that you are basically on the same level as the humans in a game, aliens have appeared out of nowhere, kill them dead before they extinct you.
What bothered me though is the lack of character interaction, when they had the trailer of colonel holland introducing the spartans I thought these guys sound cool despite their cliches but then most of the time you are by yourself and the only character interaction is during cutscenes that last 1-2 minutes.
Longer cutscenes = more time developing characters = getting attached to characters = players feeling something when the characters die.
Only person I felt for was Noble 6 and Emile because they died epicly and Noble 6 was my character.
I bloody well love Halo, every single game (except Halo 2 but that's another story...) and Reach is no exception. But I agree totally with the OP.
I have read the first 3 books and as such have managed to pick up the basics of the backstory, such as who Dr Halsey is, where and what Reach is, John 117's origins etc... But even things like, why the hell the Covenant are even at war with Humanity still evades me.
Bungie have always assumed that every Halo fan has read every book and knows everything there is to know... Even the original tag line for Reach was: From the beginning, you already know the end... a line which screams out "All our fans are hardcore Halo geeks!"
Sorry Bungie, but not everyone has put that much effort in. I can totally understand why Reach would leave some people still trying to guess exactly what just happened. Yeah it links together with Halo:CE really nicely but it still doesn't really provide an adequate beginning to the Halo universe.
Then again what can you do? Explaining everything about the Covenant and the Halo universe in Bungie's very LAST Halo game seems like a slap round the face for long term fans. I think Reach should just be considered fan service... one huge amazing thrill ride of a game... but fan service all the same.
Well saying it literally doesn't have a story is just asking to get your ass kicked. It does have a story, which has a beginning, middle and end. What it doesnt have is a good one.
Aside from that flame-baiting opening, I actually agree with your point about the game lacking the kind of intensity and stakes that an apocalyptic story should have. Compare this to any other game involved an end-of-the-world story and you'll expect to be much more moved and constantly awed by the melancholy spectacle of it all. Bungie missed a real opportunity to go out with a bang, but I think they were more focussed on perfecting the multiplayer and I can't blame them for that, they know their target market.
Rusty Bucket said:
What the game focuses on instead is atmosphere, and it accomplishes that very well.
Does it, though? I mean, do you really get a sense of the fall of Reach in this game, which is what the game was supposed to convey? The live-action trailer (which is actually back story involving Kat and 6's predecessor, for those who didn't know) was much more intense and apocalyptic than its mirror sequence in the game, which feels cold and disconnected. Too many parts of the game are pure Recon missions, which, while a planet is falling apart at the seams around you, seems to jar with events. The Covenant presence isn't overwhelming enough - the only time you got a sense of impending doom was during a short clip of the rest of the Covenant fleet turning up, and that lasted 3 seconds and then never really paid off (in the next mission what looked like an insurmountable amount of dropships and cruiser has suddenly become a bunch of disoriented banshees flitting about in the fog like flies).
I think Bungie missed an opportunity to really show off in the single-player campaign and show that they are capable of making it engaging. Overall, I was heavily disappointed with the story.
Yes, the story. The story that actually did physically exist, regardless of your opinion on it.
there was most deffinetly a story, the didnt come out and say what a spartan was or blah blah blah all the examples you said, because they correctly assume people have played the other games, and therefore know what about it. You sir a complete dumbass.
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