> 2533274894863132;19:
> > I think reach was going for a simple functionality
> > over style, these are war machines not parade floats. Reach and odst had a great simple utilitarian feel that fits the halo universe very well, and the environments in reach I found to be the most naturalistic.
> > don’t get me wrong I think halo 4 had the best forrunner structures and lighting was the best but the external areas like the plants and rocks looked cartoonish and did not match the realism
> > of the other elements in the game.
> > reach had a great balance between these elements that showed a real eye for naturalistic design.
> > flamboyance is fine for the covenant since there philosophy is religious, much like the baroque designs found in medieval and renaissance churches but unsc designs should appear functional like modern military gear.
>
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> A cylinder rather than a designed shape is not more functional. Adding giant attachments to a magnum is not more functional. Increasing protrusion of vents, thus increasing area to get hit without reflecting a bullet along with areas to pool heat is not more functional.
> Randomly adding lights was never how the covenant expressed their flamboyant designed, elites built stranger physical gear, addorned fabric, and had specially made weapons, as seen in halo 2 chancellors, halo wars’ arbiter cape and special energy sword handle, and now with the prophets bane and arbiters new armor. The arbiters armor in general shows that they used physical designs to show specialty. The brutes armor having lights made even smaller sense, the brutes armor was supposed to look simplistic and brutal, not with smooth curves, complex designs, and lights. Their champion vehicle was a big wheel with borrowed forerunner hover tech, this race would not have special lights on their armor. This was a lazy design idea.
> The environments in reach were not done well, it felt too convenient, far too many directly right upward angles, which should only be done in small amounts, but almost every natural section lead to an extreme angle at some point, which shows absolute complete lazyness. Look at the picture of powerhouse, it literally looks like they had a flat area and just dragged the land up. In this presumably excavated area, why was the floor so flat, and why was the area uptop also flat? surely this unattended section of land would be morphed by rain and wind to be patchy, to have crack, with plumets and rises of terrain? Nope, just flat. They probably thought “only people with jetpacks will see this anyway” these same people responsible for the best skyboxes and backgrounds in video games. Simply shameful.
> The city’s were bland, those buildings felt absolutely pointless, unlike odst. There was no sense of direction, what city is designed around the philosophy of sections that lead to balconies with nothing else? Where were the stores, the police stations, the buildings being raided, the areas meant for city personel. How did those people get around? surely they have personal ships, where were they? Window washing platforms? Were those buildings just citys without homes, police, or variation? Just door textures, an occasional food stand, an elevator to a ground floor that leads to an outside area with jetpacks inside a chain fence that leads to unfinished poles with platforms: whatthe -Yoink- was that even supposed to be? “Yeah go to the tenth floor Tom, no, not the one with a foodstand around no other businesses, the one with the balcony that leads to a chain fence and jetpacks, you know, incase you need to jet pack to the building over there. What? Just make a bridge?.. Shut the -Yoink- up Tom, jetpacks are better.” Reachs city design was embarrassing.
alot of this is pure opinion not fact, but I have to say that things like the flat platforms on the buildings were helipads. Helicopters seemed to be a pretty common mode of transport so they do make sense.
also judging by the giant sloped mountain in the background it is clear reach had some kind of violent geologic past so the strange hills and valleys make sense.
as for the lights on their uniforms this I agree makes no sense so I just assume they are infra red markers for unit Id that the Spartans can see with their visors’. All the games seem to want lights on their soldiers these days.
I need to say I am not a halo 4 or 343 hater, there were things in halo 4 that did look amazing but there was an uneven balance to the art design. The forerunner structures looked amazing, the space station looked amazing, the first view of requiem when you step out of the forward unto dawn wreckage was breathtaking( this was the most halo feeling moment in the game for me), the people were looked amazing the best of any halo yet.
what bothered me were the desert and jungle levels, they did not have visual consistency with the other elements in the game. They looked like they were from a different game and did not match the realism of the other designs.
reach and halo 1-3 may seem more cartoony now but that was due to hardware limitations.
those games did have design consistency where forest and forrunner structures seemed to co exist in the same world.
I consider myself an art guy so the best way to describe it is imagine a comic book drawn by a guy with a very distinctive art style, he draws the book from cover to cover. This book would have a sense of unity. This is how I see reach and halo 1-3.
now imagine a comic book that is done by a group of different art styles(like the halo graphic novel ironically) so every chapter is visually different, not bad just inconsistent. This is what halo 4 felt like to me. Interiors and structures felt realistic, natural formations and outdoor areas felt cartoony.
I hope this clarifies my stance on the subject .
