An Early Look At Halo: Reach

KatanAlpha writes "Based on all the information coming out about Halo: Reach, it seems that Bungie's basic philosophy has been: 'The sequels to the first Halo sucked. Let's fix that.' We've already seen a little bit of this with Halo: ODST, wherein Bungie returned to some of the core elements of Halo gameplay and ditched many of the changes introduced in Halo 2 and 3. Reach seems to continue this idea while trying to invigorate the franchise by introducing greatly improved graphics and additional gameplay mechanics."

Comments

The original Halo also sucked

[alphabetsoup]

Some parts were fun, I admit, but mostly the levels were extremely repetitive. I especially remember the Library level - where you had to do the same thing over and over - move through hall after hall which looks exactly the same and enemies which behave the same - I have never felt so bored by an FPS.

Re:The original Halo also sucked

[Stormwatch]

Actually, the original Halo was radically different from what was ultimately released -- a third person shooter, set in an open and persistent world, with online multiplayer. But then Microsoft bought Bungie, moved the whole thing to the Xbox, and... rumors back then said the Xbox just lacked the power to handle the ambitious original design.

Re:The original Halo also sucked

[somersault]

Yep. I remember being really excited when I first read about Halo (way back when it was still being made for Macs), but when I eventually tried the real thing, it was crap. Same level of boringness as the original Unreal. IMO the only people who would make such a big deal about games like Halo and Resistance: Fall of Man etc are people who haven't played decent FPSes like Half-Life.

Halo: ODST

[FinchWorld]

No it didn't change anything, it was pretty much a Halo 3 expansion which cost more. It didn't really play much differently (For a non augumented human, an ODST is still strong enough to beat a brute to death with his rifle).
Halo 2 was worse than 3, but they were good games, not great. After the first time round theres not much else to it (unless you hunt easter eggs etc.). The only reason we still play Halo 3 is because its one of the few games that support 4 player spilt screen and LAN at the same time, so with a couple large TVs and 2 consoles we can quickly play 3v3/4v4, or have 2 per screen for co-op. Its odd such games (Im looking at you Call Of Duty) allow 4 player split screen, but as soon as you try a lan game your limited to 1 per console.

Re:The sequels sucked?

[fyrewulff]

Slight bump in graphics? .. have you actually looked at screenshots of Halo 1, 2, 3, and Reach side by side?

Halo 1 didn't even support bump maps on bipeds, only scenery!

3 is leagues ahead of 2, obviously because it's on much better hardware.

Reach has more polygons in the Assault Rifle first person model than an entire Marine had in Halo 3 due to improvements to their engine.

Don't feed the troll.

[jadin]

All my friends who got into the game didn't bother with the halo books... they read what arguably inspired halo. Even an elitist snob might enjoy it.

"Ringworld is a Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award-winning 1970 science fiction novel by Larry Niven, set in his Known Space universe and considered a classic of science fiction literature. It is followed by three sequels, and ties into numerous other books set in Known Space. Ringworld won the Hugo Award in 1970,[1] as well as both the Nebula and Locus Awards in 1971."