How would you have done Reach?

Community Halo Universe
1

I personally really enjoyed Halo: Reach’s story, but I understand it has flaws. I loved the battles, I liked the characters, and I think it had the best ending in the whole franchise, but it dropped the ball with sporadic pacing and under-developed characters.

What I would most liked to have seen was more interaction with Noble Team (especially between missions) and following through with more of the themes they presented. Also, perhaps mixing better with the book, although I imagine retcons were simply inevitable.

That said, what would you have preferred?

2

Mostly the same things you said, make it more compatiable with the rest of the Halo Universe and probably add some references to other events happening at the same time.

3

I would have made the story around the red team and not the noble team.

4

Follow the different sections of Red Team as they scramble to survive after a rough drop onto Reach

5

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I had more than just fun on that game.

6

Why not emphasis on working together as a team? Allow players to make use of other noble team members, or nearby marines that have been recruited into your fireteam, and let you give them orders, for example to fire at a priority target, to head over to a specific point of interest, etc… Reach had the fireteam mechanic, but the only thing that the marines in your fireteam would do is follow you, in my opinion they should have spent more effort on this area, since spartan III’s are not as powerful as the II’s, and would need to rely on teamwork.

7

Would have been a lot better had it focused on the SIIs, it really -Yoinked!- with a lot of -Yoink- putting SIIIs on reach

8

I would’ve had Noble Team be entirely composed of Spartan IIs. I would’ve had the majority of the missions be set before the Fall of Reach as so we can care about the characters (as well as not making the timeline of the battle confusing). And the last 4 missions or so would be set on Reach (where sadly the majority of the team would die).

9

> 2535470141661991;6:
> Why not emphasis on working together as a team? Allow players to make use of other noble team members, or nearby marines that have been recruited into your fireteam, and let you give them orders, for example to fire at a priority target, to head over to a specific point of interest, etc… Reach had the fireteam mechanic, but the only thing that the marines in your fireteam would do is follow you, in my opinion they should have spent more effort on this area, since spartan III’s are not as powerful as the II’s, and would need to rely on teamwork.

Exactly, everything in me says they actually planned to do that but it didn’t make it in. Why on earth would they waste time naming squads of Troopers/Marines and create a HUD for squad status then do nothing with it?

Squad orders would’ve been really cool though.

10

> 2533274840469109;8:
> I would’ve had Noble Team be entirely composed of Spartan IIs. I would’ve had the majority of the missions be set before the Fall of Reach as so we can care about the characters (as well as not making the timeline of the battle confusing). And the last 4 missions or so would be set on Reach (where sadly the majority of the team would die).

This is a really good idea. Story-wise, it would’ve been better if the focus was more on the secret missions carried out before Reach and how those affected the team’s members, giving them a larger window to develop the characters without lengthening the battle itself.

11

> 2533274916736578;7:
> Would have been a lot better had it focused on the SIIs, but it really -Yoinked!- with a lot of -Yoink- putting SIIIs on reach

This seems to be the #1 complaint about Noble Team and their place in the lore (judging from the responses here), and I completely understand. I wish Bungie was more clear on their reasoning for using III’s because it is a pretty baffling decision.

I can only asassume Spartan-III’s allowed them more freedom in the sense that they could pull a random shadowy black ops team from their -Yoink- more easily than with S-II’s, which already had a pretty defined number at the time, but I really don’t know if that’s even true.

Also, as with every game, Bungie seemed to want to tell a story that was as far removed from the novels as possible, and this works both for and against Reach’s narrative due to it being a prequel.

12

> 2533274840469109;8:
> I would’ve had Noble Team be entirely composed of Spartan IIs. I would’ve had the majority of the missions be set before the Fall of Reach as so we can care about the characters (as well as not making the timeline of the battle confusing). And the last 4 missions or so would be set on Reach (where sadly the majority of the team would die).

I like the idea of the game beginning away from Reach, but I probably wouldn’t set more than the first one or two missions elsewhere.

My biggest problem with Reach is how it starts. It’s ridiculously tepid. The Covenant are just sort of… there, somehow. And everyone just sort of says, “Oh, Covenant are here, that sucks.” It makes the Covenant seem more like a band of pirates who managed to sneak in the back door. Luckily things pick up fast enough that the rest of the game truly feels like a war, but that start to the story is among the worst I’ve ever seen. We’re supposed to take the planet Reach seriously when they let Covenant approach and land, on a populated continent no less, totally undetected, and then continue to have no idea they have Covenant walking around on the ground? The first mission just makes the UNSC and Covenant both look terrible.

Perhaps a better way to handle it, while changing the game’s story very little, would have the first mission be about intercepting a human ship lost on the edges of Reach’s space. The story would be that the Covenant advance strike team, with their cloaked carrier, arrived in the system out of range of the planet’s detection, but were seen by a human vessel before they could engage their cloak. The ship fails to report in and Reach fears the worst, sending Noble team to investigate.

Noble finds the ship drifting, the cloaked carrier now long on its way to Reach. When they board, they’re ambushed by a Covenant team left behind to scavenge the on-board computers. Mission ends with destroying heavily guarded Covenant phantoms in the docking bay. We can have some kind of dialogue with the team wondering how the Covenant got out there, how this small force disabled the human vessel, etc. As Noble reports what they found, they learn that Covenant landing parties are being spotted all over the planet, and no one has any idea where they’re coming from. The game continues on from there more or less as it was, foiling Covenant as they try to take footholds on the planet until the carrier disengages cloak shortly before the rest of the fleet arrives.

This makes the cloaked ship more of an actual plot point instead of what seemed to me like messy writing trying to make excuses for the Covenant to be there mysteriously (for whatever reason they needed that mysterious 5 minutes in the beginning of the first mission). And more importantly it allows the UNSC on Reach to immediately see that Covenant are landing on their planet. The fact that they were taken by surprise, that there are too many for them to counter, and the fact that they don’t know where the cloaked carrier is then all lend to making the Covenant look like the threat they are, instead of the whole situation making humanity look blind and incompetent.

I really love playing through Reach’s story overall, but the greatness of the rest of the game just makes the beginning all the more frustrating for its (imo) poor storytelling.

13

I would have given Noble more development and added a lot more dialogue that show the timeline and relate the story of the game with the novel. 99% of halo reach fans probably don’t know that when New Alexandria was burning, The Pillar of Autumn and most of the navy were chilling on the other side of the planet.

14

Wouldn’t even have gone with the “before” approach. Halo Reach would have been the adventures of Fred and Red Team on the surface, hitting Covenant targets from the shadows while keeping Vice Admiral Davenforth safe. Maybe even have a scene or two with Halsey in Castle.
I mean maybe Noble would have been there but they would have been stuck on Reach with the IIs and none of them would have died, least of all Jorge.
The final mission would have been Chief and the crew of Ascendant Justice coming to save them.

15

> 2533274824409174;3:
> I would have made the story around the red team and not the noble team.

Same here.
But sadly Bungie always tried to stay far from the book and create they’re own story.
Which is the main reason as to why the people are so divided about the story.

16

> 2533274884722193;12:
> > 2533274840469109;8:
> > I would’ve had Noble Team be entirely composed of Spartan IIs. I would’ve had the majority of the missions be set before the Fall of Reach as so we can care about the characters (as well as not making the timeline of the battle confusing). And the last 4 missions or so would be set on Reach (where sadly the majority of the team would die).
>
>
> I like the idea of the game beginning away from Reach, but I probably wouldn’t set more than the first one or two missions elsewhere.
>
> My biggest problem with Reach is how it starts. It’s ridiculously tepid. The Covenant are just sort of… there, somehow. And everyone just sort of says, “Oh, Covenant are here, that sucks.” It makes the Covenant seem more like a band of pirates who managed to sneak in the back door. Luckily things pick up fast enough that the rest of the game truly feels like a war, but that start to the story is among the worst I’ve ever seen. We’re supposed to take the planet Reach seriously when they let Covenant approach and land, on a populated continent no less, totally undetected, and then continue to have no idea they have Covenant walking around on the ground? The first mission just makes the UNSC and Covenant both look terrible.
>
> Perhaps a better way to handle it, while changing the game’s story very little, would have the first mission be about intercepting a human ship lost on the edges of Reach’s space. The story would be that the Covenant advance strike team, with their cloaked carrier, arrived in the system out of range of the planet’s detection, but were seen by a human vessel before they could engage their cloak. The ship fails to report in and Reach fears the worst, sending Noble team to investigate.
>
> Noble finds the ship drifting, the cloaked carrier now long on its way to Reach. When they board, they’re ambushed by a Covenant team left behind to scavenge the on-board computers. Mission ends with destroying heavily guarded Covenant phantoms in the docking bay. We can have some kind of dialogue with the team wondering how the Covenant got out there, how this small force disabled the human vessel, etc. As Noble reports what they found, they learn that Covenant landing parties are being spotted all over the planet, and no one has any idea where they’re coming from. The game continues on from there more or less as it was, foiling Covenant as they try to take footholds on the planet until the carrier disengages cloak shortly before the rest of the fleet arrives.
>
> This makes the cloaked ship more of an actual plot point instead of what seemed to me like messy writing trying to make excuses for the Covenant to be there mysteriously (for whatever reason they needed that mysterious 5 minutes in the beginning of the first mission). And more importantly it allows the UNSC on Reach to immediately see that Covenant are landing on their planet. The fact that they were taken by surprise, that there are too many for them to counter, and the fact that they don’t know where the cloaked carrier is then all lend to making the Covenant look like the threat they are, instead of the whole situation making humanity look blind and incompetent.
>
> I really love playing through Reach’s story overall, but the greatness of the rest of the game just makes the beginning all the more frustrating for its (imo) poor storytelling.

Yup, this is exactly what I meant with the whole “pacing” issue. What’s sad is that they had the right idea with it being this kind of mystery/investigation thing, but the execution left WAY too much to be desired and the Covenant reveal was mostly dry.

There was a video I watched called “Halo Reach: 6 Years Later” where the dude explains how they could’ve basically took the exact same Winter Contingency mission and just flipped it backward and it would’ve been a FAR better level and more shocking introduction to the Covenant.

17

> 2533274832335336;16:
> > 2533274884722193;12:
> > > 2533274840469109;8:
> > > I would’ve had Noble Team be entirely composed of Spartan IIs. I would’ve had the majority of the missions be set before the Fall of Reach as so we can care about the characters (as well as not making the timeline of the battle confusing). And the last 4 missions or so would be set on Reach (where sadly the majority of the team would die).
> >
> >
> > I like the idea of the game beginning away from Reach, but I probably wouldn’t set more than the first one or two missions elsewhere.
> >
> > My biggest problem with Reach is how it starts. It’s ridiculously tepid. The Covenant are just sort of… there, somehow. And everyone just sort of says, “Oh, Covenant are here, that sucks.” It makes the Covenant seem more like a band of pirates who managed to sneak in the back door. Luckily things pick up fast enough that the rest of the game truly feels like a war, but that start to the story is among the worst I’ve ever seen. We’re supposed to take the planet Reach seriously when they let Covenant approach and land, on a populated continent no less, totally undetected, and then continue to have no idea they have Covenant walking around on the ground? The first mission just makes the UNSC and Covenant both look terrible.
> >
> > Perhaps a better way to handle it, while changing the game’s story very little, would have the first mission be about intercepting a human ship lost on the edges of Reach’s space. The story would be that the Covenant advance strike team, with their cloaked carrier, arrived in the system out of range of the planet’s detection, but were seen by a human vessel before they could engage their cloak. The ship fails to report in and Reach fears the worst, sending Noble team to investigate.
> >
> > Noble finds the ship drifting, the cloaked carrier now long on its way to Reach. When they board, they’re ambushed by a Covenant team left behind to scavenge the on-board computers. Mission ends with destroying heavily guarded Covenant phantoms in the docking bay. We can have some kind of dialogue with the team wondering how the Covenant got out there, how this small force disabled the human vessel, etc. As Noble reports what they found, they learn that Covenant landing parties are being spotted all over the planet, and no one has any idea where they’re coming from. The game continues on from there more or less as it was, foiling Covenant as they try to take footholds on the planet until the carrier disengages cloak shortly before the rest of the fleet arrives.
> >
> > This makes the cloaked ship more of an actual plot point instead of what seemed to me like messy writing trying to make excuses for the Covenant to be there mysteriously (for whatever reason they needed that mysterious 5 minutes in the beginning of the first mission). And more importantly it allows the UNSC on Reach to immediately see that Covenant are landing on their planet. The fact that they were taken by surprise, that there are too many for them to counter, and the fact that they don’t know where the cloaked carrier is then all lend to making the Covenant look like the threat they are, instead of the whole situation making humanity look blind and incompetent.
> >
> > I really love playing through Reach’s story overall, but the greatness of the rest of the game just makes the beginning all the more frustrating for its (imo) poor storytelling.
>
>
> Yup, this is exactly what I meant with the whole “pacing” issue. What’s sad is that they had the right idea with it being this kind of mystery/investigation thing, but the execution left WAY too much to be desired and the Covenant reveal was mostly dry.
>
> There was a video I watched called “Halo Reach: 6 Years Later” where the dude explains how they could’ve basically took the exact same Winter Contingency mission and just flipped it backward and it would’ve been a FAR better level and more shocking introduction to the Covenant.

Actman you mean ?

18

I loved it how it was.

19

I loved it how it was except maybe the first mission good do with a few different touches

20

Actually make it follow the lore correctly and the events that truly took place, instead of turning into some ridiculous fan fiction.