DogWizard said:
Let's start by acknowledging that I am an atypical gamer. I am easily 2-3 times older than most of the illiterate ranting little kiddies who seem to be monopolizing the Bungie forums. I have ZERO interest in MLG or "competitive" play or the "Great DMR vs. BR debate of 2010". I don't spend 4-5 hours a day playing or memorizing every weapon spawn and map glitch on every single map so I can boost my way to greatness. I don't suck, but I'm definately not on the way to the top. I play for fun and that's it - winning the occasional match is gravy. If you are a hard-core player - great - more power to you. That's just not where I'm coming from.
That being said - Halo 3 was a system seller for me. I had H2 and while I played it, I wasn't "hooked". Halo 3 changed everything - I became a Halo junkie. Replayed ALL the games over and over, joined the 405th, armored up, made props, purchased the fiction and reference books, RvB, the whole deal. Love the games - still play all 3 (4 if you count ODST) campaigns over and over.
ODST was an anomaly and frankly one that I really enjoy. There are clear-cut reasons why the gameplay was different. It's a brand new experience - your first foray as a regular (albeit badass) human. The weapons, while different, are variants of existing weapons. Your abilities and tech make sense in context. While there are certainly things I would tweak on ODST, overall I think it did pretty much what it was supposed to do.
Along comes the Reach BETA and the best I can come up with is an apathetic "meh"...
It just doesn't feel like "Halo" anymore. I'm not opposed to change when required, but I am opposed to change just for change's sake. It just feels like Bungie grabbed a bunch of miscellaneous bits and pieces from a drunken brainstorming session (and other successful franchises), threw them into a bag with Halo 3, shook it up, and stuck a "Halo" label on it. These are not minor changes or tweaks to take advantage of an upgraded engine, what they have done is change up essentially every aspect of game play and everything that made the Spartans the ultimate badass hero over the last 3 games. They have simultaneously diluted and overcomplicated everything to the point that it just feels forced and clumsy now. Simplicity and intuitive gameplay made the earlier games true classics. Don't fix things that aren't broken - gameplay and mechanics aren't things that need to be "reimagined" just because...
YES - Reach takes place before the rest of the series but in this case "before" is measured in days/weeks, not years and decades. There is very little continuity in weapons, abilities, equipment - anything! Are we really supposed to believe that these two completely different worlds exist concurrently in the Haloverse? Bungie may come up with a way to stuff the storyline into "canon" somehow (I can think of a few options off the top of my head) but the rest of this mess? It just feels like we moved out of the Haloverse and the gameplay we all knew and loved and directly into some vaguely-related generic next-gen FPS.
I UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS A BETA and things can and will change. But the people who keep shouting "IT'S A BETA - RELAX" need to understand that the changes made from this point forward will be minor. They are NOT going to go back and re-think the whole deal - what we are playing now is probably 90-95% complete. If it weren't, it wouldn't have been released and we wouldn't be playing it. I would LOVE to be wrong (PLEASE let me be wrong) but as it stands now, I'm not sold on these "improvements"...
I'm sure that it will be a commercial success and I still love me some Bungie, I just feel they have turned this from what should have been the ultimate Halo sendoff to some contractually-obligated installment designed to appeal to the COD/MW crowd.
Sorry Bungie - you guys still rule but in my opinion, you missed the mark on this one...
The continuity makes perfect sense. You're in the Army this time. The army in Halo would rather use old stuff that works than new stuff that could malfunction. That's why you run around with an MA37 and a DMR and not an MA5b and a BR. This is still f***ing Halo. One slight step to the left or right doesn't change the fact you're moving forward. And you DARE call it "just because"?
"Just for the hell of it"?
That's what you think their motivation is? THAT's what you think they did with three f***ING YEARS of development time? That's bull$#!T. Complete and utter bull$#!T.
How the f*** is this Not Halo? Sure the loadouts change the game up, but they don't change the feel at ALL. There's nothing they did to make this game feel less like Halo. The only people who think this are people who've never played another FPS for an extended time before. They don't understand that the ramp of speed in movement and aim from slow to fast is a big factor in a game's feel. Halo's has NEVER changed. The weapons work the same way. They still have the classic balance system of mag size, ROF, damage, and reload speed.
Jesus christ. You people want to know why I'm mad?
Are you sure?
It's because none of you know what the hell any of you are talking about.
First of all, It's not "Bungie the company" It's a team of a bit over 100 developers all with specific jobs. If you're mad about the weapon balance, say "I'm dissapointed in SAGE" Not bungie.
Second, stop being so damn naive. I swear that none of the people I've seen who hate this beta has ever played ANOTHER damn shooter in their life since the 90's. If you've spent time playing boarderlands, COD, Killzone, Crysis, l4d, or ANYTHING ELSE, you'd know what Halo feels like. None of you who complain that this isn't halo knows what Halo feels like, because none of you know what anything else feels like.
Third, complaints like "it's made for noobs" "It's catering to the COD crowd" and other bull$#!T like that are all insults to those who enjoy the beta.
Fourth, They can't miss the mark that THEY PUT THERE THEMSELVES. All the problems you have with their game is because they HIT the mark. They know EXACTLY what the f*** they're doing, and they know EXACTLY why the f*** they're doing it. Don't you dare feel that you're entitled to tell them otherwise. They knew what they were doing when they put in AAs, loadouts, and the like. If they didn't they wouldn't be here would they?
Stop trying to work agains the change. Use all the new features. An most of all, SPAM NOTHING. THat's probably why you're all pissed. Halo 1-3 was a spam-everything fest. Spam the jump. Spray the AR. Spray the br. Spam the sniper and shotty. Spam nades. There's no skill in that. There hasn't been skill in Halo since 1. And even then you ha to have some self controll. Halo reach is built aainst these. The reticul bloom (that's always been there) is now visible, as a deterrent for just slapping the finger back and forth on the trigger. The grenades fly in a straighter curve and bounce less. They have a longer det time and are more powerful. You have a higher chance of killing yourself with them. Also- My god there's a giant octapus attacking the international space station.