Make no mistake. I am no fan of the title update for Halo Reach. I despised everything Halo 4 attempted. I enjoyed Halo 5 a little better as a sci fi shooter but not as a Halo title at all.
The look has been god-awful. Ugliest designs I’ve ever laid eyes upon, especially in comparison to what Halo began as and its evolution up to 2010.
The gameplay has ranged from “meh, this is kinda cool” (Halo 5) to “this is the worst thing I’ve ever played”, (Halo 4.)
The handling of the titles in general has been awful. Just awful. Bugged launches, little content at release, slow release of future content, micro transactions, ugly UIs and customization, (pizza weapon skins? Really? What is this, Black Ops 4?) Terrible glitches, massive storage space updates, the entire version of Reach on the MCC disrespecting the original release, this idea that they need to leave a unique stamp on Halo and attracting crowds who are already dedicated fans of other games, as opposed to just doing like every other game and servicing it’s own fan base while still finding ways to pioneer… I could go on.
HOWEVER:
What I witnessed in the gameplay demo and the trailer was astounding to me. When they said, “we are returning to the traditional art design,” I scoffed. I wholeheartedly believed that was a lie, they would do master chiefs helmet the Halo 3 way and then everything else would remain untouched. But I was wrong. That. Looked. Like Halo. Do I have nitpicks with it? Absolutely. But it generally speaking they got it right. They captured that element that’s been missing for me every since Reach.
The gameplay, the weapons, they looked like they felt right. I didn’t enjoy the design of a few of them but it was the gameplay that mattered. The grappling hook, initially setting off a wave of internal disgust, actually captivated me once I saw a few of its uses. As far as campaign goes, that is a fantastic spin on evolution of the gameplay in the series, like adding a cool new way to look at fusion coils or propane tanks in the environment, without compromising everything about the core gameplay itself. As for multiplayer I hope it’s either not included or a rare and limited use experience. In campaign, as long as it’s not too ridiculous, its not going to break my immersion into the idea that I’m a space ranger fighting purple and blue blooded aliens. C’mon guys.
The graphics are acceptable for Xbox One. I’m actually excited that it’s really a One title and not a series X; I have little desire to spend 5-700$ for a console and controller and so on and so forth just for one game. The game still has sprint, I don’t know why people expected that to be gone either. If it’s implemented correctly, it will not interfere with good gameplay. Personally so far the only time I liked sprint was in Reach, because it was limited well. We’ll see.
I’ve dunked on 343i for years, but I’m going to give credit where it is due and so should everyone else; the fact that they abandoned the vain attempt to re-imagine Halo in their own imagery and style and have gone back to something that much more resembles the real thing is already a massive step in the right direction. And the gameplay already looks 200X more fun than anything in 4-5 ever was. Why would I trash them for moving in the right direction ? If the community is not careful, you’re going to get the series scrapped if you can’t accept small wins where you can get them.
So you don’t like the grappling hook, the graphics that I honestly don’t even see anything wrong with (guys I grew up playing CE on a potato computer, I’m not complaining about lighting or 4K blah blah blah texture shader whatever gibberish) or sprint. It’s still a small step in the right direction. Enough of those and it will be made whole again. We need to understand that 343 didn’t create Halo. Most of the original creators have been long removed from the series. So of course they would be struggling to make a new way while retaining the old feels.
