Halo: Reach. Good or bad?

[Eulogy]

Well for of those who have Xbox Live, we probably all got the Beta Version. I thought it was amazing! I'm stoked for this game. Is anyone else?

[Blaze]

Good. Beyond good.

Halo 3 was epic, Reach just gives me a nerdgasm everytime I think about it.

[Silver]

It was good multiplayer. I certainly won't be playing MW2 for a while (garbage game).
I just hope its not as easy as Halo 3 or ODST in single player mode. I would lose all faith in Bungie.

[Sam]

Good.

Halo's always had a better multiplayer than Call of Duty because it's fairer.

In Call of Duty, the higher level you are, the more choice of guns etc. you have.
In Halo, you begin every match with a rifle and if you want another gun you have to find them scattered over the map.

Call of Duty takes its gameplay way too seriously with all the "We lost this one" bull crap, at the end of the day it's a video game, Halo actually treats itself like a video game and not an actual shootout.

I much prefer hearing "Multikill, Killomanjaro" etc. than seeing a little pop-up in the corner saying:

"EpicNinja24672832, TRIPLE KILL."

I definitely don't give a f*ck if anyone else but me got a triple kill.

Halo > Call of Duty

[Baka]

Hmm, I actually liked ODST more than Halo3. In anyway, got legendary edition waiting for me.

[Raikt]

In Call of Duty, the higher level you are, the more choice of guns etc. you have.
In Halo, you begin every match with a rifle and if you want another gun you have to find them scattered over the map.

You could argue the same thing about the "Power Weapons" in Halo. In fact, most people do. Plus, I don't know if you played CoD4: MW (The one that didn't suck) but most of the weapons you had at level 1 could do just fine at max level. However, I digress.

Halo 1 > Halo 3: ODST > Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare > Halo 2 > Halo 3 > Everything else.

Fix'd.

Hmm, I actually liked ODST more than Halo3. In anyway, got legendary edition waiting for me.

You are not. I honestly never played Halo 3 much except for the occasional match making and forge. ODST was an excellent game, though. I had the Legendary Edition pre-ordered, before I ran out of funds. Now I'm settling for the normal edition.

[Sam]

Yeah... I miss CoD4 so much... mine broke... 

Another thing I absolutely detest in Modern Warfare 2 is the killstreaks.

There was nothing wrong with having a Recon UAV, airstrike and attack helicopter... at all.

Now we've got freaking PaveLows, AC130s, EMPs, and the most unfair thing ever... nukes.

I am not kidding when I say this: I was playing a game of Team Deathmatch on MW2, my team was winning, we were on about 6500 points, when suddenly someone on the other team gets a nuke. Everyone on our team went crazy and just tried getting 10 kills in 10 seconds. We got 7. We were on 7200 points when the nuke came down... the other team won the game.

It was amazingly unfair, as their team had that one guy who got 30+ with the 25 killstreak, then the dude in 2nd place on their team had like 9 kills.

On our team we had a load of good kills. I think the lowest was 8.

Unfairest game ever. That's why I prefer Halo. With the power-weapons thing, it's simply the first guy who gets them... gets them. Can't get fairer than that, in my opinion.

[Sam]

I am however looking forward to Black Ops. Treyarch are better than Infinity Ward.
With weapons like ballistic knives, tomohawks, freaking miniguns, it is going to be very interesting.

The currency system seems a fun thing also.

[Deaglan]

Out in 6 days i most likely will get it ^^ looks pretty good never took part in beta tho -.-

[Baka]

[LeoReborn]

You dont mess around, do you Mrs. Lee?

[ninja neb]

I wish i was here sooner for this topic. As some of you may know (youhearthat) I am a massive fan of the halo franchise, and i definatly was not settling for a normal or limited edition copy of halo: reach. I got the legendary edition and i was completly amazed by how much detail was but into the statue and the book. The statue was a fairly decent size too, not small or too big, just decent sized. Halsey's journal amazed me also, the detail inside the journal, it felt like someone sat down at a desk for about 5 years and told themselves they were Halsey, and this was thier journal, which they had to write really dam fast.

The game itself amazed me. Forge, taken to a whole new level. The multiplayer - immense. Campaign - Fits in perfectly. Firefight - still kicking more ass and then some. Theatre mode is back, but not many improvements.

Campaign - Okay, i will admit, pretty much all of the campaigns in the halo universe were pretty much easy, even if you set the difficulty on heroic. The only way to get a decent fight from the covenant was the play it on legendary, and then you are barely pushing yourself. Sometimes its the challenge people want from a game, and i do like to be challenged. Halo 3 tried to bumb up the difficulty, but the only time i really struggled was when i had most of the skulls active. But in Reach, well the campaign is really a bugger this time. Difficulty as definatly been raised, most of the time heroic can best challenging, without any skulls on, but legendary is something you would not want to face in a dark alley way. Even grunts with plasma pistols can kill you now, and the plasma pistol is considered the worst, yet one of the most handy, weapons in the game. Skirmishers are right buggers pretty much all the time, with there improved agility and ability to jump over a 2 story biulding. Thank god we have elites again, best enemy in halo, and definatly nothing to laugh at. Brutes should have keep there shields, but then again it definatly interesting have brutes charging with no protection what so ever, except the armour lock which they use often, then a cheiftian appears behind them, ready to slaughter. And who ever decided to give the grunts access to the plasma launcher is a suicidal idiot, those things are deadly, no matter what vehicle you are in. Jackles.... Not alot of improvements on these guys, practicly the same in halo 3. Hunters are weakened i think. Either that or the weaponary has been improved drasticly, and hunters are easy kills with most weaponary now. I was dissappionted with the drones, they should of played a bigger part in the game then they did. Those things were always trouble, but with the lack of them in Reach, halo has suffered slightly from them.

Firefight - Definatly worth looking into if you are a new comer to the halo games. Even though firefight is only a year old, its a welcome addition to the collection of game modes in halo. In ODST, firefight was still rough, unrefined, and lacked any match making ability. But now, its back, with new modes, bigger and better customization. Generater defense, rocket fight, sniper fight, score attack, gruntpocalypse. So much more to do, and now theres even matchmaking, even if the server is laggy at the best of times.

Forge - Now this is something that bungie has taken into consideration, to make it easier, better, simplier then back in halo 3. With a bigger budget, more forge items and access to the biggest map since forever, forge has definatly been taken to a whole new level, and one that won't be beaten soon. All i can really say to add on to this is basicly try out forge for yourself. Even a rookie map editor, like me, can make a half decent map. Shame it takes a long time while for someone unexperienced to make a map <-------- nearly 3 hours for me

Custom games - same as ever, and only has good as the maps that are made in forge.

Matchmaking - The new credit system is inspired, and i love the fact more things become available to you as you gain higher ranks. The gameplay itself still needs some more work, but its a month old game, it will need patches, like most games do at such an early age. A few problems (i'm just nitpicking here) i have with the game are the sniper rifles power. Although i do love the sniper rifle, i have found it alot easier to use, and also to land consecuative headshots, it might just be me and playing CoD:MOD 2 for a long time, using the M21 EBR, and from that practice i just got a whole lot better with the sniper. I will admit it is definatly alot smoother to use then all the old halo games, but there is just something about it that makes it just to easy to use. Plasma grenades have a much larger area of effect then back in halo 3. The frag grenades were like that in the beta, often killing somebody with full shields. Other then that, i really can't see much more problems with the online. The gameplay is just awesome, and some of the game modes are definatly great. Invasion is one with i happen to have taken a liking to.

Armor abilities - Now this is something which alot of games could take advantage of. This system also balances out the game, and increases the tactics required to play halo, and also increases teamwork. The drop sheild for instance is a handy device, often used to block enemy attacks and to heal others. Armour lock is a handy ability that not only make you invincable while in use, it also deflects enemy shots and also emmits an emp blast. Downside is that you can't move, so you are open to attack as soon as you leave the lock down. Hologram is handy for distraction tactics, or just making the enemy sniper waste his rounds or to make the enemy give away thier positions. Jetpack is a handy tool for making suprise attacks, from an unexpected direction, like from above or from the other side of the open window. Sprint can be helpful if you want to get an early lead towards the power weapons, or the better vehicles. Evade is the "covenant only" ability. It lets the user jump a few meters in the desired direction, effecticly dodging most attacks, like the rocket launcher, or a well thrown grenade.


Thats pretty much all i want to talk about, good game.

[Raikt]

Armor abilities - [...] Armour lock is a handy ability that not only make you invincable while in use, it also deflects enemy shots and also emmits an emp blast. Downside is that you can't move, so you are open to attack as soon as you leave the lock down.

Hologram is handy for distraction tactics, or just making the enemy sniper waste his rounds or to make the enemy give away thier positions.

Armor Lock also has another use: if a vehicle slams into you while Armor Lock'd it will massively damage it. (Or outright kill it in the case of the Ghost and the Mongoose.) It's actually possible to severely damage a Scorpion or Wraith with the EMP blast after it breaks. Try it the next time a Warthog is barreling down on top of you. I guarantee you lulz will be had.

Hologram is my second favorite. There are not enough words to describe how useful, and hilarious, this can be. I have destroyed so many vehicles, hidden enemies, and snipers because of this one Armor Ability alone.

[ninja neb]

I find it funny when the armour lock sends a rocket right back at the person who shot it. I have seen ghosts try to ram people with armour lock on, and i always laugh slightly at the sight, but i don't think i ever saw a warthog ram someone in armour lock. I should try it myself when i next get the chance.

If we are talking about favourites, mine would be drop sheild, hologram then jetpack. I love the drop sheild, for some reason people always end up being betrayed because of my shield. Like i use it, someone from the enemy team try to enter it but end up dieing from a tank shell or a rocket. And the jet pack i like for uses in sneak attacks. Dropping on someone from above is always something that provides me with much amusement.

[Silver]

I found the jetpack to not only be almost useless, but it makes you quite an easy target for the opposing team; ie. me with a sniper rifle, or my team with a DMR all around.

For another example; Slayer DMR on 'The Cage'. Jetpack flies to top of roof with sniper rifle. Jetpack simultaneously gets shot at from a full, 4 man team. Score is now 0-1.

Hell, I find Active camoflage more uselfull than jetpacks, at least then if you're on Hemorhage, Boneyard, or Spire with a sniper rifle there are lulz to be had. Heres my order of best to worst armor abilities in mutliplayer matchmaking, and then another for campaign:


Armor lock; Always a good choice, temporary invincibility to save you from that stick or rocket you get back up you're good to go, EMP at close range for that idiot who's T-bagging behind you thinking you can't turn around fast enough, stall with it for friends to respawn, overall best ability for multiplayer

Hologram: Its up here because i can't really tihnk of anything wrong about them, other than you could be in armor lock at the time, instead of some fake guy running off somewhere. Good for inspecting rooms and making snipers waste rounds and others, grenades

Sprint/evade: These get to share a slot since they are essentially the same thing, a good way to cover distance. Both are good with things like a sword or hammer, or just to get the hell out of there. Sprinting over to unsuspecting snipers for that assasination is great as well as rolling into someone, sticking them, and rolling back to watch the fireworks is good fun. Problem is, if you are sprinting/rolling ahead of your team mate(s) you are singled out, and shot.

Bubble shield/Drop shield/cactus wearing a sombrero: Its really not that great, its nice to heal up with it, but in close range its useless, at long range, you set a timer for your death. If others aren't ready for that blue bubble of happy to appear, you could possibly kill the entire team. Had good potential, but it just can't be usefull in matchmaking.


Active Camoflage: When I first heard it was in this game, I thought "hot damn, this is gonna be my favorite ability" It has the same problem Scrambler has in MW2 as well as more problems on top of that. The mass of dots on the motion sensor announces you're approach, your movement lowers the usefullness of it even more, as it weakens how hidden you are, and to an experienced player, who not only knows you are there because the mass of dots say so, he also knows that the blur in the corner needs to be shot. Its not all bad though, If you are stationary so that you are at its maximum level of invisibility as well as far enough away so that one can't see the dots or the blur, like say, on Hemmorhage or Boneyard; then you may have a sniper in hand and a good way to kill undetected. So, it can be good, but only in a very specific instance. So=bad

Jetpack: There is no cover when you are above things. therefore, Flying out in the open with absolutely no cover screams to every sniper on the map “I hate my life and everyone in it – please kill me now.” They will oblige you. Flying upward may be a harder way to track another person in theory, but to an experienced player, it dont matter what direction you are moving, you're gonna get shot. In the head. Many times.

Now in campaign... actually, i dont feel like doing this. I'll do it tommorow if i feel like it. For now, thats how I see it for armor abilities.