Halo Reach has no story.

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Proverbial Jon

Not evil, just mildly malevolent
Nov 10, 2009
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Cingal said:
Korten12 said:
Really? You needed to post THAT? Just leave please... No one wants to go there.
I don't see what of that was wrong. Console shooters aren't known for there epic storytelling or indepth worlds with deeply fleshed out character, like you find in other genres. It's natural that the storylines aren't going to be as well thought out or even as good as other genres.

And please, let's not be insulting, eh?
Ummm ever heard of Half Life or Bioshock? I don't understand your reasoning here, why should an FPS game have less of a storyline by nature? True, perhaps Halo storylines are a little wobbly at times, but at least they try to engage the player and give you a world you can believe in. Your logic is flawed.
 

Terminate421

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Jul 21, 2010
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Half-Life has no story

No
None.

Before you try to correct me no it doesn't

Who are the combine? what is a head crab?
What is black mesa?




Get my drift?
You seriously can't pay attention to what kind of story it is can you?
 

DazBurger

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May 22, 2009
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zHellas said:
Rusty Bucket said:
Yes it does. It's incredibly simple, bu it's meant to be. What the game focuses on instead is atmosphere, and it accomplishes that very well. Much better than most games, actually.

You can't say it doesn't have a story. That's quite clearly stupid. And wrong.
The story is basically: Here's a bunch of Spartans that fought during the Fall of Reach. They'll all die. But they'll die awesomely.
That and it explains how The Pillar of Autumn found Halo in the first game... And why it was alone...


And it explains why everyone in the Halo games are so upset about Reach.
 

Eri

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Feb 21, 2009
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If only there was a book or something called the fall of reach and it explained the events. That would be cool.
 

JackRyan64

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May 22, 2010
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No story might be a stretch, but your points about it being a prequel that doesn't explain anything are valid. I love the Halo series, so I understood all of those questions you asked and more because I read the books. But I can totally see how a newcomer would be confused.

It was more like fanservice for existing fans truth be told.
 

crunchieman

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Nov 17, 2009
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I have a cousin who bought this game and said it was one of the few STORY'S that he actually liked. So to say Halo Reach has no story is immediately wrong. Maybe it had no story to you but really, your title is all wrong...
 

AppleaDay

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Jul 31, 2009
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Cyan. said:
None.

I decided to play co-op with my girlfriend and this is her first ever Halo game. She doesn?t know ANYTHING about the series and when we finished the game, she turned to me and said "Borderlands had a story that was better told than that" and god dammit if she wasn?t right.
That's easily one of the worst arguements for proving a point I've ever seen. As previous posts said, it was Bungie's farewell to the FANS of the Halo series, not your girlfriend. Even though this is a prequel and intended to tie into the first Halo game, it does rely on you having played the others. I think Bungie did an excellent job painting the picture of what it was like for one SMALL group of Spartans and their attempts to fight off the invading Covenant forces. If they had wanted it to seem on a larger scale, they would have changed the story around. However for what they were trying to do, it was done quite well.
 

DazBurger

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Proverbial Jon said:
Cingal said:
Korten12 said:
Really? You needed to post THAT? Just leave please... No one wants to go there.
I don't see what of that was wrong. Console shooters aren't known for there epic storytelling or indepth worlds with deeply fleshed out character, like you find in other genres. It's natural that the storylines aren't going to be as well thought out or even as good as other genres.

And please, let's not be insulting, eh?
Ummm ever heard of Half Life or Bioshock?
Half Life? Seriously? That game makes even less sense than Halo. Hell... It makes less sense than Borderlands!
 

The Lunatic

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Jun 3, 2010
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Proverbial Jon said:
Ummm ever heard of Half Life or Bioshock?
There's exceptions to every rule.

To put it into context, you've managed to name 2, and likely to be atleast 10 or so shooters released this year alone.

To respond to your edit.

It's simple a case of the market really.

FPSs tend to be made for people who like instant action, running around shooting things and don't want long sequences of conversation or explanation, as such, for some, the storyline will suffer.

It's not that the genre can't do it, it's just simple that it's not as popular or as common.

Oh, Fallout is another exception. Kinda.
 

Airsoftslayer93

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Mar 17, 2010
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A prequel doesnt particularly need to tell the backstory, it was produced under the assumption that player would have played at least halo 3. the 2 examples of good prequals in literature also rely on the reader having read the prior novels, magicians nephew and the silmarilion.

as for story, it follows the tale of the last days of reach, it has characters, a begining whoch explains the threat, a central part where hope is still possible, a crushing end section where you realise all is lost, and finally a twinkling of hope with the last level, its impossible to justify you're saying that the game has no story, it may not have fleshed out characters, it may not have background, but it still has a story.

i cant remember who it was, but someone once said that there are only 2 storys in the world, 'a stranger comes to town, and a man goes on a journey' in reach both of these happen, and they happen with a rush of addrenaline and emotion

Cyan. said:
 

Proverbial Jon

Not evil, just mildly malevolent
Nov 10, 2009
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Terminate421 said:
Half-Life has no story

No
None.

Before you try to correct me no it doesn't

Who are the combine? what is a head crab?
What is black mesa?




Get my drift?
You seriously can't pay attention to what kind of story it is can you?
I get your meaning... but Half Life is different. All the clues to what is going on are hidden in the game world. On my first playthrough of HL2, I had no bloody idea what was going on. I've played that game (and the episodes) multiple times now and I always pick up something new that I missed before about the backstory.

Half Life typically leaves a lot of questions unanswered agreed, but I think it's all part of Valve's plan. Reach however... has a lot of holes, despite the amount of times you care to play through it. There will always be details you can only find in the books.

DazBurger said:
Proverbial Jon said:
Cingal said:
Korten12 said:
Really? You needed to post THAT? Just leave please... No one wants to go there.
I don't see what of that was wrong. Console shooters aren't known for there epic storytelling or indepth worlds with deeply fleshed out character, like you find in other genres. It's natural that the storylines aren't going to be as well thought out or even as good as other genres.

And please, let's not be insulting, eh?
Ummm ever heard of Half Life or Bioshock?
Half Life? Seriously? That game makes even less sense than Halo. Hell... It makes less sense than Borderlands!
Hey, I didn't say it made sense... just that there was a story present in the game! I agree HL is all kinds of crazy, but I'm hoping HL2:EP3 will tie up a few of the loose ends!
 

Browbeat

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Jul 21, 2009
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I agree with the argument, however, it needs to be structured like this:

Is there a story? YES
Does it tell the story/is there a narrative? NO

The problem is a legacy feature of the series, seeing as the player is the penultimate ground fighting unit, meaning that everything around him/her will get dead quick. The events that take place throughout the quadrilogy (anthology?) form a narrative, but since the perspective is one of a super-soldier constantly locked between duty and the unknown, it is not surprise when anything of note happens off-frame, when another entity is speaking about the Chief/the Rookie/the Noble Team.

As a hopeless troglodyte who eats up fluff, I perused the series' encyclopedia and found that there was a beautifully dark narrative involving multiple layers of corrupt government, shady deals, hope against a unified enemy, cyclical tragedy, abuse of a hegemony, false prophets, revelation and redemption... But I'd be damned to dig any of that out from the game proper...

Having played through about three quarters of Reach, I can say that the game tries really hard to look pretty and move with a purpose -and it mostly succeeds. However, to anyone who isn't thinking about every damn detail in context of a larger narrative ( like me), the game is largely armored dudes shooting uglier armored dudes.

I felt that Halo:Wars was a much greater story vehicle for the series than the principal games. Why? It offered episodic exposition, contextual overview of tied-in missions, and scaled characters and various wargear with each other in a way that made sense! Of course, you couldn't teabag anybody, so the game is largely decried by the fanbase.

So! I support the notion that Reach did not tell its story well: it assumed great familiarity with the series, required one to suspend disbelief and simply score as many party-popping head shots as there were grunts on-screen. Preferably with three other friends, as the difficulty was tweaked towards group play...

But pretty lens flare effects and polarized helmet visors do not a good story make.
 

Terminate421

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Jul 21, 2010
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Proverbial Jon said:
Terminate421 said:
Half-Life has no story

No
None.

Before you try to correct me no it doesn't

Who are the combine? what is a head crab?
What is black mesa?




Get my drift?
You seriously can't pay attention to what kind of story it is can you?
I get your meaning... but Half Life is different. All the clues to what is going on are hidden in the game world. On my first playthrough of HL2, I had no bloody idea what was going on. I've played that game (and the episodes) multiple times now and I always pick up something new that I missed before about the backstory.

Half Life typically leaves a lot of questions unanswered agreed, but I think it's all part of Valve's plan. Reach however... has a lot of holes, despite the amount of times you care to play through it. There will always be details you can only find in the books.
I actually wasn't flat out being douchy towards half-life, I know valves tricks to the story, placing the stuff in the environment

Halo: Reach actually did this too. For starters, on the third mission, you come across a small human encampment, next to one of the rebels was actually a note in blood that said, run. A second later, two REALLY big enemies come charging at you.

Plus I was trying to make him look bad for using.....THAT as an intro, thats like movie bob saying "Theres nothing good about this movie- STOP! no no no, I don't want to hear it from you fanboys!"
 

The_awesome_one

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Sep 21, 2010
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You both seem to lack of common sense.

I'am a Halo buff, yeah. But most of the stuff you both missed is fairly obvious for evryone with a flippin' brain.
 

moosek

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Nov 5, 2009
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That's backstory, asshole. It tells a series of connected events that could require more looking into for a complete explanation.
 

The_awesome_one

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Sep 21, 2010
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Jiraiya72 said:
If only there was a book or something called the fall of reach and it explained the events. That would be cool.
Actually, the ending of the game contradicts on an epic scale the book. Wich 343 industries have to deel with now.