So the TU beta testing is well underway, with changes made to bloom and AAs. Lovely. There’s also a zero bloom gametype. Also lovely.
So what’s the idea here? If the TU version goes over well - and it seems to be - will the TU settings then completely take over “Vanilla” or “LOL” Reach, or will full-on Reach still exist alongside the newer settings?
And zero bloom? I’m not the hugest fan, as it makes gameplay very fast and it starts to resemble COD in how dead you get the moment someone sees you. Will that be in a separate list? And how will MLG look after all is said and done?
I wonder. What do you think?
the title update is a rudementary test of the new game mechanics for halo reach. Anyone that calls it Reach needs to get off the band wagon because nothing is perfect and the existing TU settings have much to be desired.
When I first heard the idea of zb and 85% i was really excited because they seemed to be good implementations to speed up gameplay. When I played them however, zb’s settings are worse than default reach, in fact I would rather have 200% bloom than a god magnum secondary. 343 is working with MLG to make their settings which is very good though, because the “mlg slayer settings” are way better than zb or anything in the TU.
I dont really have a problem with 85% though, im glad sword block is gone, and magnum with bloom isnt a problem, bleedthrough is cool too.
Its just that some people worship this TU, when in reality its only slight game changes (except for zb), dont think that this will “revolutionize reach and get people playing it again” because more people will leave and return due to the changes and the online population will hardly receive a long term effect.
Most people left reach because:
- they got stomped and destroyed every match
- they miss h2 or h3 settings (dont even say ce, I know people like it but its been a computer game, not a console one… online at least)
- some combination of 1 and 2
Just because you were good at h3 and bad at hr, does not mean in any way that the TU will be your saving grace in terms of skill. If you were bad before, this isnt gonna do much for you.
I just call it Reach because everyone knows what Reach means.
Truth be told, I haven’t been playing much of the TU Reach because I strongly prefer the TU settings over the zero-bloom settings - so strongly, in fact, that I really, really don’t want to play a zero-bloo game. It’s too much of a mess for me to get a handle on.
If the choice were only zero-bloom or only TU settings, I’d take TU in a heartbeat. When you crouch with the DMR bloom basically disappears, which makes good sense tactically, as it makes you a sitting duck and can only be used if your situational awareness is pretty darn good.
> I just call it Reach because everyone knows what Reach means.
>
> Truth be told, I haven’t been playing much of the TU Reach because I strongly prefer the TU settings over the zero-bloom settings - so strongly, in fact, that I really, really don’t want to play a zero-bloo game. It’s too much of a mess for me to get a handle on.
>
> If the choice were only zero-bloom or only TU settings, I’d take TU in a heartbeat. When you crouch with the DMR bloom basically disappears, which makes good sense tactically, as it makes you a sitting duck and can only be used if your situational awareness is pretty darn good.
me and you are on the same page:
I play several customs of 85% bloom every day to warm up, ZB settings are rarely played (although fun) and when we play them we do so on MLG v6 maps and with MLG v6 slayer [zb] with radar on.
Maybe im just a nerd, but it frustrates me when people say “Reach” because reach is the best halo since halo2. Halo 3 was perfect on system link, but online it blew big ones. Expecially when you have a bad connection and a closed nat.
I’ve played way, WAY more Reach than I ever did Halo 3. Something about it is much more addictive to me. Even getting angry at armor lockers - and I do get very angry about them from time to time - somehow ADDS to the experience. Encounters seem a lot more varied than just jumping around with the BR. And sprint alone was such a good addition to the sandbox. Why on earth wouldn’t a super-soldier be able to run?
That said, Reach has been a problematic experience, and I have to say that there’s something admirable about Bungie taking real risks with their baby like they did with this game. It makes me worry quite a bit for Halo 4. It’s clear that this community is highly divisive, though this can be attributed to Halo’s success. A lot of people have some seriously impassioned opinions on every tiny aspect of multiplayer - there aren’t too many games that have people foaming at the mouths over things like movement acceleration and blast radius!
It’s clear to me after all this Reach TU business that 343 will be unable to make everybody happy all the time. The question remains as to how they’ll make most of the people happy most of the time. It’s clear, post-Reach, that the Halo multiplayer experience has become far more complex than it was before, and moving forward from this environment is going to take some seriously smart decision-making. Loving Reach as much as I have, I’d hate to be the one holding the bag if none of the inevitable changes made swing in my direction.
The ideal situation would be to have a whole bunch of playlists, but as the population of players is cut into finer and finer slices, game quality could seriously suffer in some places. I don’t envy 343 with having to get it al figured out!
Hopefully a decent range of playlists in the ranked department, such as FFA, Objective, SWAT etc., where people can be rabnked according to their best gametypes and not just ONE single gametype which is hardly going to be everybody;s best one.
Then some decent maps wouldn’t go amiss either, I mean the current crop are unbalanced in the spawn department (Reflection, Pinnacle anyone?), and lack imagination and colour. The Fiorge maps are ok, but are somewhat samey in taht they are just overly grey/blue - and lack contrasting backgrounds and elements (sand, snow, rain, forest,…). And finally the only decent ones (coincidentally in the new map packs, or on puprose, who knows) need to be added more regularly.
Plus an outright removal of AL would be very welcome.
If these 3 were done on top of an 85% or ZB change to bloom in all playlists (I’m leaning towards 85% more nowadays to reduce the rate of fire of weapons), and removing the radar avoiding abilities of the jetpack, then Reach will finally feel like it caters more to skill and variety for all