Zero Punctuation: Halo: Reach
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
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Heh. I can't argue with the review. (Others I could, but meh.) I played through single player with a friend and it was good. I ruined the ending for him though. It showed his helmet at the beginning but I lasted longer at the end. I created a Time Paradox and made it show my helmet at the end instead of his.
As funny as it was, I feel kinda bad.
Halo: Reach suffers from prequel syndrome. We all went in knowing the noble team was gonna die. So that means many of us (including me and my friend) were counting down to the next Noble Sacrifice. The only death that really wasn't all that noble was the robot armed woman, who just kinda got shot because she was on the radio too long.
*EDIT* Honestly, I did enjoy the story mode/campaign. It's a well written and told story, only hampered by the fact that it came out last instead of first. *End EDIT*
Personally, I give it an 8/10 and recommend it for a weekend with a friend (Co-op is fun) rental.
As funny as it was, I feel kinda bad.
Halo: Reach suffers from prequel syndrome. We all went in knowing the noble team was gonna die. So that means many of us (including me and my friend) were counting down to the next Noble Sacrifice. The only death that really wasn't all that noble was the robot armed woman, who just kinda got shot because she was on the radio too long.
*EDIT* Honestly, I did enjoy the story mode/campaign. It's a well written and told story, only hampered by the fact that it came out last instead of first. *End EDIT*
Personally, I give it an 8/10 and recommend it for a weekend with a friend (Co-op is fun) rental.
I know yahtzee doesn't like multiplayer because, amongst other things, the fact that the online games will be deserted at some point as new games come out. I say chuck the whole random online thing and just play with friends. It's a hell of a lot better than listening to the angry, foul mouthed teens shout in your ear.
Reviews like this about a game like Halo Reach reminds me of the odd paradoxical thinking of haters and fans alike. Apparently being popular is a bad thing on here and people keep saying that Halo Combat Evolved and it's sequels and it's one prequel are generic game with no outstanding features, then how the hell did it get so damn popular? Because MS said, "Hey, this Halo game is really cool, go play and worship it like some mouth-breathing troglodyte."
Apparently they must being doing something right or does noone remember what the great and infallible Yahtzee said about GoW 2: "Sometimes things are popular for a reason: because they're good." I don't like the Halo series because I was told to, I like it because of how the gameplay, the story, and the general local and music mesh into an experience unique to me. This changes between people with all different sorts of games. However those who spout their opinions as gospel true are dead wrong. Saying Halo Reach is a generic shooter and that is a fact, is dead wrong. Why is this so? Because there are plenty of people who think otherwise. You're trying to disguise your opinion as fact to try and get others to accept it.
Oddly enough, I haven't seen anyone on here say Halo Reach is the best game ever and I've read a significant portion of this thread, and yet there are some who are vehemently spewing bile on the game, apparently to teach those who are calling Halo Reach the best game EVAR a lesson. I think they protest a little too much.
I'm a pretty old fan of the Halo series and one could justify calling me a halo fanboy since I do own the novels. Does that mean I think every Halo game is the pinnacle of gaming? Holy Hell, no! The series as a whole has plenty of problems. As a fan aka one who has played the games to the Nth degree, I'll gladly point them out in order of release.
Halo 1: Has the least of the problems, but they do exist. Mainly in the form of the Library level, which is many Halo fans perception of Hell, miles of identical corridors with the Flood appearing from every conceivable angle. It also introduces the annoying ass hell rocket Flood who possess uncanny aiming abilities despite their heads are at an almost 90 degree angle from where they should be. The darkness of this level does not help in the early identification of these bastards. It is also here where we learn that the carrier form's explosion can cause a chain reaction amongst the many frag and plasma grenades littering the floor after a firefight. Also the levels, the Two Betrayals and the Maw are retreads of the Assault on the Control and the Pillar of Autumn levels only now with more Flood and Sentinels, flying bastards with beam weapons. Joy.
Halo 2: Everything is freaking shiny, even the hairy ass brutes which is rather disturbing as these big muscled hairy bear/gorillas thins looks like they were just covered in vaseline. Also the assault rifle from Halo 1 which was an ok jack of all trades weapons with a nice 60 round clip has been replaced with the SMG which sound like a drawn out fart with fired. Weak. Actually most of the sound in Halo 2 were pretty wimpy compared to the first. Also H2 brings us the joy dealing with the Flood much earlier on except with only just Covenant weapons. Early on most Halo fans learned that energy weapons slaughtered the shields of the covenant elites and was pretty good at putting grunts down as well. They're also pretty good against Sentinels, which makes since and is a godsend since those bastards are annoying. Conversely, human weapons being entirely projectile based faired really well against the Flood. guess what happens when you face the Flood with only Covenant energy weapons is like. Yeah, annoying as hell. Now draw that out over two levels. Speaking of weapons, many lamented the lose of the awesome pistol from the first game. Many of us learned just how much the new version sucked when we first fough the Hunter and went in with our pistols expecting the classic one shot kill we'd pulled on Hunters in the first game only to learn A) the pistol is now weak as hell and B) Hunters can now *****-slap you with that giant shield of theirs, often for an instant kill. Many hated the two storylines, I for one liked the fleshing out of the Covenant, though I too was not fond the the now English-speaking Elites. Also there are exceedingly easy to miss Jackal snipers now. Fun.
Halo 3: Bland and boring with some fun parts. The vaunted size of the Ark level works against it when your vehicle has been destroyed by a stray explosive and you're stuck hiking around with only a few enemies to take it out on. However, many enjoyed fighting the monstrous scarabs which is one of the high points of the game. Which is almost completely countered by the dreaded return of the Flood who come back stronger than ever with the new Pure forms which can switch between 3 forms, a Tank form which can lay down a beating with a giant mace like arm and take stupid amount of ammo to down, a spider form only really good for crawling everywhere including the walls and ceilings, which is particularly annoying when coupled with the third form which is stationary, but launches volleys of fairly damaging spines, which means you can clear a room of normal, annoying Flood only to get mowed down by the bastards hanging on the ceiling behind you. Also they can mutated existing marines into more Flood and can resurrect already dead combat forms which hadn't been properly gibbed.
Halo 3 ODST: A short campaign with one new mode sold with pre-existing content that had been DLC as full price. Many were those who were pissed. The characters aside from the never speaking Rookie and the Covenant Engineer known as VRGL (pronounced as Vergil for some reason) are pretty damn annoying, not to mention cliched as hell. After the first 10 seconds after being introduced to Romeo, I loathed him. I also rather hated how the whole romance thing between the Squad's commander and the Naval intelligence officer somehow over shadowed the whole "Earth has been freaking invaded by the Covenant and partially glassed" I also hated the plothole where the NI woman *****-slaps Nathan Fillion (the commander, Mikey and Dutch also being played by Firefly characters) for abandoning the mission that she never told him about in the first place. Nice job checking your story for holes, Bungie.
Halo Reach: I like this game, and as a true fan I'm gonna expose it's weak points to the world. First, the story is rather skimpy on how a 27 kilometer ship managed to get close enough to Reach in the first place to get cloaked by the ground-based spires. Seems like an awfully hard thing to miss. Second, in one scene they have a Frigate come in to destroy a cloaking and teleportation Spire, they mention the ship's main gun is going to be used and talk about how loud it's going to be, even going as far as to have the commander say, "Hold on to your teeth!" And then!....nothing. The ship fires and instead of an awe-inspiring blast of sound, there's kinda of a puny sound recycled from Halo 2's massive MAC platform. Weak, very weak. Also as Yahtzee mentioned, the space battles were in just one short, yet awesome mission. More of those would have been awesome. Actually, Halo Reach is pretty sound all around, the biggest problem is that it could've pushed more a little more content and have been a truly great game for all to play, not just the fans of the series and fans of shooters. There's one mission where you're driving a osprey-analog vehicle around a city and suddenly huge covenant ships fly in pull off the most epic drift ever and then proceed to glass several square miles of the city once in position. The immense heated needed to liquidate several square miles of city as well as the planet's crust should've sent off immense windstorms. It would've have been a neat mechanic to have to move your Falcon (osprey-analog) behind cover to avoid getting horribly mutilated by the winds. It'd also been pretty cool to watch the enemy Banshee's get ripped apart by said winds.
Ok, random massive review and text wall aside, I find it a fun game. I applaud it for omitting the freaking Flood entirely and for giving me a fun campaign experience as well as a fun multiplayer to play as well.
Oh and to those saying the characters are cardboard cut-outs character wise and yet hold Half-Life 2 up as the best game ever have no room to talk as long as Gordon Speechless Freeman exist. Also kudos to those who've found out it is possible to like more than one game franchise. If half of what has been said here is true, then I too can't exist since I love Halo as well as several other franchises.
Apparently they must being doing something right or does noone remember what the great and infallible Yahtzee said about GoW 2: "Sometimes things are popular for a reason: because they're good." I don't like the Halo series because I was told to, I like it because of how the gameplay, the story, and the general local and music mesh into an experience unique to me. This changes between people with all different sorts of games. However those who spout their opinions as gospel true are dead wrong. Saying Halo Reach is a generic shooter and that is a fact, is dead wrong. Why is this so? Because there are plenty of people who think otherwise. You're trying to disguise your opinion as fact to try and get others to accept it.
Oddly enough, I haven't seen anyone on here say Halo Reach is the best game ever and I've read a significant portion of this thread, and yet there are some who are vehemently spewing bile on the game, apparently to teach those who are calling Halo Reach the best game EVAR a lesson. I think they protest a little too much.
I'm a pretty old fan of the Halo series and one could justify calling me a halo fanboy since I do own the novels. Does that mean I think every Halo game is the pinnacle of gaming? Holy Hell, no! The series as a whole has plenty of problems. As a fan aka one who has played the games to the Nth degree, I'll gladly point them out in order of release.
Halo 1: Has the least of the problems, but they do exist. Mainly in the form of the Library level, which is many Halo fans perception of Hell, miles of identical corridors with the Flood appearing from every conceivable angle. It also introduces the annoying ass hell rocket Flood who possess uncanny aiming abilities despite their heads are at an almost 90 degree angle from where they should be. The darkness of this level does not help in the early identification of these bastards. It is also here where we learn that the carrier form's explosion can cause a chain reaction amongst the many frag and plasma grenades littering the floor after a firefight. Also the levels, the Two Betrayals and the Maw are retreads of the Assault on the Control and the Pillar of Autumn levels only now with more Flood and Sentinels, flying bastards with beam weapons. Joy.
Halo 2: Everything is freaking shiny, even the hairy ass brutes which is rather disturbing as these big muscled hairy bear/gorillas thins looks like they were just covered in vaseline. Also the assault rifle from Halo 1 which was an ok jack of all trades weapons with a nice 60 round clip has been replaced with the SMG which sound like a drawn out fart with fired. Weak. Actually most of the sound in Halo 2 were pretty wimpy compared to the first. Also H2 brings us the joy dealing with the Flood much earlier on except with only just Covenant weapons. Early on most Halo fans learned that energy weapons slaughtered the shields of the covenant elites and was pretty good at putting grunts down as well. They're also pretty good against Sentinels, which makes since and is a godsend since those bastards are annoying. Conversely, human weapons being entirely projectile based faired really well against the Flood. guess what happens when you face the Flood with only Covenant energy weapons is like. Yeah, annoying as hell. Now draw that out over two levels. Speaking of weapons, many lamented the lose of the awesome pistol from the first game. Many of us learned just how much the new version sucked when we first fough the Hunter and went in with our pistols expecting the classic one shot kill we'd pulled on Hunters in the first game only to learn A) the pistol is now weak as hell and B) Hunters can now *****-slap you with that giant shield of theirs, often for an instant kill. Many hated the two storylines, I for one liked the fleshing out of the Covenant, though I too was not fond the the now English-speaking Elites. Also there are exceedingly easy to miss Jackal snipers now. Fun.
Halo 3: Bland and boring with some fun parts. The vaunted size of the Ark level works against it when your vehicle has been destroyed by a stray explosive and you're stuck hiking around with only a few enemies to take it out on. However, many enjoyed fighting the monstrous scarabs which is one of the high points of the game. Which is almost completely countered by the dreaded return of the Flood who come back stronger than ever with the new Pure forms which can switch between 3 forms, a Tank form which can lay down a beating with a giant mace like arm and take stupid amount of ammo to down, a spider form only really good for crawling everywhere including the walls and ceilings, which is particularly annoying when coupled with the third form which is stationary, but launches volleys of fairly damaging spines, which means you can clear a room of normal, annoying Flood only to get mowed down by the bastards hanging on the ceiling behind you. Also they can mutated existing marines into more Flood and can resurrect already dead combat forms which hadn't been properly gibbed.
Halo 3 ODST: A short campaign with one new mode sold with pre-existing content that had been DLC as full price. Many were those who were pissed. The characters aside from the never speaking Rookie and the Covenant Engineer known as VRGL (pronounced as Vergil for some reason) are pretty damn annoying, not to mention cliched as hell. After the first 10 seconds after being introduced to Romeo, I loathed him. I also rather hated how the whole romance thing between the Squad's commander and the Naval intelligence officer somehow over shadowed the whole "Earth has been freaking invaded by the Covenant and partially glassed" I also hated the plothole where the NI woman *****-slaps Nathan Fillion (the commander, Mikey and Dutch also being played by Firefly characters) for abandoning the mission that she never told him about in the first place. Nice job checking your story for holes, Bungie.
Halo Reach: I like this game, and as a true fan I'm gonna expose it's weak points to the world. First, the story is rather skimpy on how a 27 kilometer ship managed to get close enough to Reach in the first place to get cloaked by the ground-based spires. Seems like an awfully hard thing to miss. Second, in one scene they have a Frigate come in to destroy a cloaking and teleportation Spire, they mention the ship's main gun is going to be used and talk about how loud it's going to be, even going as far as to have the commander say, "Hold on to your teeth!" And then!....nothing. The ship fires and instead of an awe-inspiring blast of sound, there's kinda of a puny sound recycled from Halo 2's massive MAC platform. Weak, very weak. Also as Yahtzee mentioned, the space battles were in just one short, yet awesome mission. More of those would have been awesome. Actually, Halo Reach is pretty sound all around, the biggest problem is that it could've pushed more a little more content and have been a truly great game for all to play, not just the fans of the series and fans of shooters. There's one mission where you're driving a osprey-analog vehicle around a city and suddenly huge covenant ships fly in pull off the most epic drift ever and then proceed to glass several square miles of the city once in position. The immense heated needed to liquidate several square miles of city as well as the planet's crust should've sent off immense windstorms. It would've have been a neat mechanic to have to move your Falcon (osprey-analog) behind cover to avoid getting horribly mutilated by the winds. It'd also been pretty cool to watch the enemy Banshee's get ripped apart by said winds.
Ok, random massive review and text wall aside, I find it a fun game. I applaud it for omitting the freaking Flood entirely and for giving me a fun campaign experience as well as a fun multiplayer to play as well.
Oh and to those saying the characters are cardboard cut-outs character wise and yet hold Half-Life 2 up as the best game ever have no room to talk as long as Gordon Speechless Freeman exist. Also kudos to those who've found out it is possible to like more than one game franchise. If half of what has been said here is true, then I too can't exist since I love Halo as well as several other franchises.
He never said it was original. In fact, it plays just about every 'Last Stand' trope to a t. He said he liked it because it was a nice example of gameplay and story working to together to get a message across.McMarbles said:
On Halo: Reach, and Halo in general, I find it a fascinating series because it's so... average. Like, Joe from Idiocracy average. The story, the gameplay, the characters, set pieces, weapons, vehicle sections, innovations... all remarkably unremarkable. Whether that's a bad thing or not I'll leave for my fellow consumers to decide, but I know for a fact that Bungie is better than this. Oni wasn't half bad.
Freeman exists solely as an avatar with which the player projects them-self into the game. The supporting cast, on the other hand, are some of the best in the history of video games.Brainsaw said:
The Spartan PC I'm willing to forgive because they serve the same function as Freeman(Though I wish Bungie would commit and make them shut the fuck up), but the lack of characterization in the supporting cast is utterly inexcusable. When you have a character driven narrative, the characters that drive it need to be well developed, dammit!
Well, I agree with Yathzee. The first was good when it was what it was, but most of 2 was a rehash and then 3 was a joke, ODST was a piss off of a joke, and Reach is a butcher of the Story that was the first one and the book called "Halo Reach". They butcher it!
