I remember the first time I played Halo: Combat Evolved. No one had ever done something like it, and I was in love. I remember everything about it. Playing the campaign. Killing people with the God-Pistol. Me and my friend in warthogs hitting each other in the middle of Blood Gulch and launching up in the air.
Then Halo 2. Superjumps. Xbox Live. The Battle Rifle. They somehow improved what I thought was a perfect multiplayer. I was so entranced. I remember playing 16 player Free For All Rocketball on Midship, where you were lucky to add one second to your hold time. This game was amazing.
By Halo 3, I was a Halo fanboy. I bought the Halo 3 Xbox 360 and special edition Halo controllers. I bought every map pack. I easily put more than 500 hours into Halo 3. Halo 3 was my life for a few years. I would play almost every day. Halo 3 was MY Halo. I played Forge for hours, building intricate maps and putting thought into weapon spawns. I remember nights where I’d get into a custom game at around midnight and suddenly it was 8 AM. When ODST trailers started coming out, I was pumped. I attacked anyone who questioned the $40 price tag. I attacked anyone who insulted Bungie as a company. I was a fanboy to the extreme. When I played the campaign, I enjoyed it, and was still active on Halo 3 matchmaking.
When that first teaser debuted for Reach, and I heard “This is Sierra Two-Five-Nine. You’ve got Spartans on the ground, sir. We’re not going anywhere.” I got chills. I still get chills. Excited didn’t quite describe my emotions for this game. I bought the Reach Xbox 360 Slim. I bought the Legendary Edition. When I saw the trailer for the improved Forge, I was ecstatic. I was sure this game was going to be great. I was optimistic to say the least. I told off anyone who insulted the CallofDuty-like Armor Abilities, and although I loved the BR, I supported the arrival of the DMR. I played everyday the Beta was out.
However, when I started playing Reach, It didn’t quite have the same feeling as the earlier games. It felt… different. Something upset the perfectly balanced equation of Halo. When Halo:CEA came out, I bought it, hoping it would fix the multiplayer of Reach. It made it better, but something still felt different. Compared to Halo 3, my time played on Reach was miniscule.
Now, on to the leaked information, and my thoughts on it.
Elites Absent from Multiplayer
I feel this is a good idea. I felt the different player models through off Balance, and added too much distraction from gameplay.
Randomly Spawning Weapons
This is something that will kill and casualize Halo. One of the key elements of Halo 3 was thinking, it’s been a while, has the Sniper spawned? Or having someone run into the Sword room on the Pit and having to think whether or not the Sword was spawning. Dropping rockets around the map will remove a lot of the skill factor.
Insta-Respawns
My heart sank when I read this. The article talked about how a newer played could be killed by a more experienced player, but still have the time to respawn and kill his killer before his shields had a chance to regenerate. There was a Halo ViDoc a while ago, where a member of Bungie says “2 men enter. One man leaves. The other is respawning. And that’s Halo” This removes that aspect of the game. Every fight should be a fair fight.
Armor Abilities
AA’s hurt Halo Reach for me. I think maybe if everyone had Sprint and no other selectable Abilities, it would be fair, but I think it throws too much “What if” factor into the game. When you see someone, and you engage him in a fight, you shouldn’t have to think, “What if he jetpacks away?” or “What if he goes into Armor Lock?”. I think equipment had the right balance of “What If” factor, and that made Halo 3 great.
I’m remaining optimistic for this game. I am hoping that almost all of the announced “improved” features will be alterable in the game options menu. I’ve avoided mentioning the fact that this game is looking more and more like Call of Duty, because I know that will just cause everyone here to lose their cool.
