I just wrote a text to Enemy asking what he thought of the Halo: Reach trailer that hit XBL today and that made me think that I should post something on here about it.
We still haven't gotten any gameplay footage, so it's hard to say what it will actually "look" like, but as always, those cut-scenes are very well-crafted and engaging. I don't know about anyone else, but I really enjoy the scenes between missions in the Halo games (namely, the Arbiter entering the Mausoleum of the Arbiter in Halo 2, learning a little bit about it, and putting on that helmet.....and the end of chapter 7 in Halo 3 after the last prophet is dead and you run back down the hall with all the flood to see the new halo rising up out of the Ark).
Anyway, this new trailer finally confirms what many had already speculated about Halo: Reach, in that it will focus on 6 Spartans (other than Master Chief) on the planet as the Covenant are destroying it. It all sounds well and good, but I have concerns about it.
Concern Number 1: Who will we play as? The 'new guy' that's classified as a "lone wolf?" The leader dude (George, I think)? The woman? That could be interesting, I suppose, but sort of unoriginal since they just did that in ODST. They could/should make more of an effort to make it actually feel different this time around though, by giving you different abilities based on which Spartan you're playing as. I've read the original three Halo extended universe books and from what I remember all the Spartans kind of have a specialty (one's a really outstanding sniper, one can run much faster than the others, etc.)
Concern Number 2: Basically an extension of Number 1, but what do you think Bungie can do to make this game feel different from the other games? Will it just be more of the same? Will it be 4-player coop? 6-player coop?
Concern Number 3: Really the biggest concern is the multiplayer. What will IT be like? They're hyping it up and have already given ODST purchasers an invitation to participate in the BETA, which leads me to believe it will be markedly different from the Halo 3 multi. Otherwise, I think they would just tack some more maps on there again. I struggle to see how it CAN be much different, though. Here's hoping it's NOT similar to Halo 3 multi, because I can't really stand that anymore after playing so much L4D and COD, where it doesn't take 3 grenades and 50 bullets to kill a guy.
Thankfully, we have at least 9 months before this is released, which provides a nice break from the Halo world. Also, I was glad to see an Elite at the end of that trailer. I always liked them as enemies more than Brutes, even though they're more difficult to kill.
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Was talking about Reach last night with Skatch and he pointed out a few things to me i didnt catch.
ReplyDelete1st: I was expressing my disappointment in seeing yet another pre-rendered CGI movie that shows us nothing of what to expect. He corrected me as saying they "claimed" the movie was using the full in-game engine. If thats the case then mad props to them for polishing up their engine. They have had three years so hopefully the graphical improvement will be significant.
2nd: the comment about "lone wolf" and being called "6" points toward a squad based game... and possibly a 6 person co-op. If this is so, hopefully the co-op will make sense unlike the previous games.
Again, give Skatch credit for these, but as the campaign is what I'm most interested in the whole aspect of the MP plays second fiddle at this point.
Yea from wat's being claimed that footage was all "in engine" now weather that's the same as "in game" i'm not so sure...they'll of really shot themselves in the foot its just showing a target render type thing and the final game doesnt match up to it...but as Bru stated 3 years in dev you'd think they'd nail it.
ReplyDeletewith regards to the gameplay and creating a fresh experience my shout is definitely going out for a some squad based mechanics going on similar to those of ghost recon advanced warfighter and there to be a strong emphasis on character classes and more open world type environments giving a more all the rage sandbox'y type experience.
i'm not too familiar with the halo universe in terms of backstory etc, but isnt Reach like the humans last planet between the enemy and Earth? (book called Fall of Reach i believe?) Lead you can prob correct me on this. I love storylines in video games so i'm very intrigued to where they take this one as apPrequel to the Halo trilogy.
I believe my response to Lead Salad in the text was, "Yeah. ODST with Spartans is all I could think of."
ReplyDeleteI really do have several problems with this trailer.
1. I'm quite surprised that brjahu thought this was prerendered. I didn't find it that "good looking" at all. I remember hearing someting about ODST where they use the HALO 3 engine, but their next game will be an all new one, but still...it looks good, but not that great. At least the girl spartan (since I've read every HALO book I'll guess Kelly) didn't look like her face was carved out of a potatoe.
2. I think that the trailer SCREAMS odst type gameplay. Absolutely screams it. Different guys and different abilities, but no big surprise. Here's a big guy...he...uhhh....has the big guns! Here's a guy with a cool visor we came up with in the art department...he...is the sniper! I guess I'm tired of the formula overall.
3. More of a furthering of #2 but holy shit am I going to play as the guy that doesn't talk again?! If there's one giant pothole 98% of shooters fall into it's the "we want the player to feel like they're in the game by being lazy with our character development." In the trailer I remember one of them saying something like, "I saw your record. No more of this Lone Wolf stuff." Again that points towards team based stuff and a nod that the original HALO was all solo.
Overall, consider me underwhelmed. I'm sure that I will have a good time with the campaign and if there's a FireFight 2.0 it will be fun until we get all the achievements. As far as MP Bungie lost that battle over 2 years ago to Infinity Ward. Their style is dated and I'm tired of shooting the future's equivalent of a Super Soaker 150.
I just wanted to clarify something about my original post. I say that "really the biggest concern is the multiplayer." I only mean that it's important from Bungie's perspective. They MUST make something VERY different from the Halo 3 multi or else it will just be plain old lazy, stale, and NOT played by me. Like Enemy said, they've lost the MP battle to Infinity Ward and they'll need something special to win me back into their COMPETITIVE multiplayer circle (Firefight is still lots of fun tho).
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'm more concerned about the Single Player, as it seems you fellas are. I really enjoy the Halo stories and I want a really awesome campaign.
If it is going to be like ODST where you play as different characters? If it is, we as the players should actually feel the difference of the characters we're playing as. I think this could be as simple as making the controls different and (like I've already said) giving them different abilities. Bungie could take a page out of Unreal Championship's book here. Make the "Big Guy" slow and unable to jump high, but make it so he can take TONS of damage. Make it so the fast chick CAN'T take much damage. Give the sniper girl a cool visor (similar to the ODST one?) Give them each their own unique gun or something. I think by doing this it would make the game feel different and it would ALSO make me want to play through multiple times as the different characters.
Yeah, I agree with Enemy that we should NOT play as the silent protagonist again. Master Chief is "awesome" and everything but I always enjoyed playing as the Arbiter more, simply because his story was fore more interesting (a disgraced warrior fighting for redemption) than the Chief's. Look at Gears of War, also. Those aren't terribly interesting guys or anything, but we've learned a little bit about them at least. We got a bit more of Dom's past than anyone's, and even though we mock it constantly (in my Marcus Fenix voice: Hey Dom, me and Carmine are watching the Super Bowl next weekend, ya think you and Maria could come over and....ohhhh whoops) it's still more enjoyable than the silent guys like Chief. And it bothers me even more because Chief is NOT like that in the books. He cares about his fellow Spartans greatly and will never leave one of them behind. He talks just like a normal person, has ideas, plans, etc.
"Dom - Me and Carmine were gonna play bags later and were looking for another pair. If you and Maria could swing by we could... oh... man... I'm so sorry Dom. I can't keep remembering how your wife was killed by aliens."
ReplyDeleteWhy the focus on the silent protagonist? There's so many of our awesome games, with awesome stories, and awesome protagonists that are silent. (Halo, Bioshock, Half-Life, Fable... geometry wars.)
ReplyDeleteI understand the point, and I definitely know what you mean. When Master Chief didn't talk it felt almost... stoic, at least, for the first few games. As time has gone by, we have grown tired of our hero not saying anything, then it was repeated again in ODST.
If Reach ends up being a squad based game play style, I'm hoping it's with a coop flair to it. Coop in the all the other Halos, although played through to death by me and many others, is as old and dated as their multiplayer. It's just the single player story with another guy added in the mix. Reach is a fantastic opportunity for Bungie to add in some strong coop moments due to the nature of how the Spartans fight (in the books) when they are a full unit and fighting force. Personally the line about the Lone Wolf stuff breaks up some continuity in my mind. If the guy's an actual Spartan than he was raised and trained in a group setting, relying heavily on his squadmates for support and survival. Enemy can correct me on this, since he's read more of the books than I have, but that's the general attitude I felt in the first few I read.
Yeah, they've all been together since they were 6 years old. Maybe this one just has a bad attitude though and doesn't get along with the others blah blah blah. That would be fine with me, as long he talks and maybe this game will bring him back to the others and force him to be a team member again.
ReplyDeleteYeah, like Salad said they grew up together and were sectioned off into certain teams. The only "Lone" guy might be Kurt (my personal favorite Spartan as well as the one I felt I related to the most from "Ghosts of Onyx"), but he is put in charge of training a different type of soldier.
ReplyDeleteIn "The Cole Protocol" there is a Lone Team if you will. Grey Team. They basically exist alone and act as a guerilla warfare team more than anything.
Side note: I never ever grow tired of Josh doing Marcus inviting Dom and his wife to do stuff. Gets me every time.
ReplyDelete...wing.to.wing.damage...
You used my name! Now the internets knows who I am!
ReplyDeleteConsider your identity stolen.
ReplyDeleteOk, 3N3MY's comment forces me to correct my previous statement about it being pre-rendered.
ReplyDeleteYes... I do think it is a pre-rendered opening cinema. No, I do not think it looks fantastic but looking at the previous Halo games, it is an improvement of even the in-game movies. Most of those were just a shitty rendering of in-game engine with the addition of very off-sync lip movements. However, there is hope that maybe they finally got it right with the new engine creating a whole new, not-to-be-expected look and what we saw is completely in-game. But that is wishful thinking. If I am truely going to call a pre-rendered cinematic "amazing" it better be on the same level as those from FFXIII.
As for the story. I'm excited not having a clue what to expect. Its like a lot of movies. I enjoy seeing and not reading the books first. I find that I am too critical as they never follow the book correctly.
Oh, and just to make a comment. I do get sick of "Josh's" Marcus inviting Dom comments.... and this is the first time I've heard them. Lame.
I know that this thread is getting a bit populated, but I just thought of something HUGE!
ReplyDeleteThe Elites are back and that's awesome! The HUGE thing is will they speak lame-ass-not-scary-at-all-perfect-english or can we expect to hear "WORT WORT WORT"? I sure as hell hope I can't understand a damn thing they say...except for their screams!
Who pooped in your cereal?
ReplyDelete