Things Halo Reach did right.

Games Other Halo
1

Well I know Reach could have been better, Yet I wont go into that. I’m here to say the things Reach did right, even if it wasn’t done as much as it should have.

1-Health: Bringing HP back was amazing. It really does add a nice element of skill and gameplay.

2-Updating Forge and Firefight: I know Halo 4 may blow Reach away with it’s modes but Halo Reach gives so much options and things to do.

3-Making Covenant weapons a little more unique: In Halo 2 and Halo 3 the covenant weapons seem like just…humans guns with some more color. Halo Reach really did a good job of making them pretty unique. The sniper isn’t just a sniper rifle and the rifle isn’t just a rifle. Not all the guns do this but it’s a nice touch

4-The options [even if some were missing]. If you really look at the games people have created with Reach they seem nearly impossible. Things that even Halo 3 can’t even touch. Taking the time to look at what is out there blew me away. Games I didn’t even know could even be made. Big example: Chess. Yet some games make even Chess look small time

5-The A.I: Every enemy is a challenge, they have unique powers and weaknesses that make up some amazing gameplay.

Grunts-Weak and easy to kill however now give a fight. With heavy weapons and grenades they are pretty tough. On legendary they are -Yoink!-.

Jackals-From what I notice shielded jackals don’t shoot as much, however since they have shields they really make the player need to use there guns the right way. A more defensive enemy.

Elites-Perfect enemies. Bungie did Elites perfectly. Reach elites blow Halo2/3 elites away. Yet notice with no shields Elites aren’t too strong, but the A.I and actions make them a perfect enemy.

Brutes-Probably the best Brutes of any Halo game. From what I can tell Brutes take more body shots then UN SHIELDED Elites, yet they are perfect head shot victoms [aim good].

Skirmishers-More offensive Jackals. They make you aim like crazy and really make you watch your sides and back. Weak but the speed and agility forgives it.

Hunters-They are just too damn strong sometimes. Really did them right.

6-Doing it’s best to be classy-This one can be taken as bad as well as good. However it’s nice that Reach tried to bring back a more classy Halo. No duel wielding, HP is back, a good pistol, good elites, good enemies. It does wonders if you think about it. It in a way was a good homage to Halo:CE, sometimes in ways we don’t care to admit.

I can’t say it was done as good as it should have been. Reach could have been bigger, better, and more epic however the core, the spirit is all there. Maybe Bungie could have done Reach better in 1000 ways but the fact remains you can tell they wanted a more solid game. You may not think it. You can complain all you want but the fact is for all who say they added to many non-Halo elements don’t forget all the Halo elements they brought back.

2

I’m not a fan of the skirmishers, and the shield on the Elites can be absurdly strong. The enemy AI can be too smart sometimes (i.e. seeing you from a quarter mile away, arbitrarily moving just as you take your shot), and the squad members (Spartan or marine) are almost always useless on Normal or harder.

I do like the application of un-shielded brutes, since they balance the elites as the “other” big enemy. And The combination of health and shields was always a selling point for me. H:CE did it well, and now Reach does it well.

3

All valid points. It’s nice to see a thread in the Reach forums that discusses the great aspects of Reach. It’s a great game.

4

Yes, Reach did many things right, but they also did many of those right things poorly and it was to its detriment. Regenerating HP for example - its stupid. Why have health at all if it regenerates to one of two points?

Also, instead of making elites aggressive, and coming to hunt you down like they did in CE, the only difficult thing about elites on legendary (and with skulls) is that they took more damage. They stood in the line of fire, leaping about for a while whilst you shot them… Why aren’t they rushing you after they pop your shield…

Everyone likes to complain about MP but the campaign has carried the Halo series and even though Bungie dropped the ball for the story at H2, this one was a shocker.

5

I will agree as long as multiplayer is something that never makes that list, could care less about everything else.

6

Loved the game and still love it for a lot of reasons and those you mentionned are examples of them. Good thread

7

You forgot what I think might be the very best thing about Reach: stable online gameplay. In all the games I’ve played I’ve had one - ONE - case of teleporting players and genuinely messed-up play. And in that case there might have been some lag-switching or something going on. I see very little difference between being host or not. It’s a rock-solid piece of technology!

8

you forgot:

Grenade launcher
Concussion rifle (though doesnt need to replace brute shot)
focus rifle (could stand with a buff though but fundamentally sound)
balanced and usefull PP
revanent
post TU magnum DMR dichotomy - magnum reigns in CQb and DMR at long, mid they are =
AA slayer (while over implemented if it was just a single social playlist and never touch ranked it would have been great

9

-Netcode.
-File Browser.
-Active Roster.
-Enhanced Forge tools.
-Campaign rewind in Theater.

10

The two things in Reach I could not live without is the smooth and easy Forge coupled with beautiful netcoding. These things together save me a lot of “rage” moments.

11

Hitscan utility

12

> -Netcode.
> -File Browser.
> -Active Roster.
> -Enhanced Forge tools.
> -Campaign rewind in Theater.

Sad thing is that none of it is gameplay related lmao

13

> > -Netcode.
> > -File Browser.
> > -Active Roster.
> > -Enhanced Forge tools.
> > -Campaign rewind in Theater.
>
> Sad thing is that none of it is gameplay related lmao

I would consider netcode a gameplay-related aspect. It makes the game a lot smoother than Halo 3, which results in less of those lag-caused “WHAT THE F&@#!” moments.

14

I agree with all of them EXCEPT the AI. Although the AI is better than a LOT of games out there, my favorite still by far is on Halo: CE. They’d flank, they’d out maneuver, they’d hide, then knew when to do things, and what to do when that time came. Reach’s AI is good, but nowhere near that same level of challenging.

15

> Well I know Reach could have been better, Yet I wont go into that. I’m here to say the things Reach did right, even if it wasn’t done as much as it should have.

Not hating on you bro but…
1st. The health returning is well not really a bad thing I guess you can go with it or hate it, I for one dont really care its fine by me if it stays or goes for Halo 4.

2nd. Your idea on FF having more options and “things” to do is WAAAAYYY OFF! I’ve never felt so restricted in a Halo game EVER! you only get some freedom in a private FF, but online public FF its like being in prison. Almost anywhere you go is a bad spot, and why use jet-packs when 90% of anything 15 feet or higher gets you a 10 second death countdown. Also cant pick up other weapons and nades!?! And the lag for non-host is just ridiculous, Gears did it 1000 times better. Forge on Reach is way better than Forge on Halo3 by far, but need to make different colors to make Forge Maps better on Reach.

3rd. The Covi weapons being better looking are true in Reach. BUT The Beam Sniper becoming a Focus Rifle is the 2nd biggest FAIL in Reach since the DMR replaced the Legendary BR. What use does the Focus Rifle have really?? it just ticks people off, Nobody with average skill is stupid enough to just sit there and get killed by the Focus Rifle! The Beam was useful in Halo2/3 and people fought for them, and in Reach nobody picks up the Focus Rifle cause its always there to grab until the game ends.

4th. Most of the games on Reach already existed on Halo3 so your giving Reach a little too much credit, and yeah I played Chess on Halo3 with my buds way before Reach came out.

5th. The AI in Reach is a little more organized than the past Halos. But I noticed a lot of it came mostly from Halo3 but they added some new sneaky moves, which is probably why to me Legendary Campaign was easy even with the LASO skulls on, the game felt very familiar and I could predict the enemies moves.

Grunts are the same as Halo3 grunts with their awesome instint-splodes plasma nades like those of the great Walshy. Also their Fuel Rod shots are as accurate like in Halo3.

Jackals in Reach are easier since they no longer carry Beam Sniper. My god Halo2 Sniper Jackals on LASO legendary are the biggest pain than all enemies in Halo history. The Focus Rifle Jackals just simply tell you where they are when they shoot you from a mile away “hey buddy I’m over here”, as in Halo2/3 you die like 3/4 times before you even know from where the shot came from let alone even see them behind a tree branch or corner wall.

Elites are pretty damn strong on Reach but with a plasma pistol as your second and any Elite including the Generals are push overs even with the Legendary LASO skulls on. In Halo2 Legendary LASO a plasma pistol only P issed off Elites, Halo2 Elites have more accuracy than in Reach, In Halo2 they take you out in like 2 shots from their Plasma Rifle, their overshields need more damage to pop and take far more damage without shields. Also despite Reach Elites having Evade and Sprint the Halo2 Elites (Also have Evade and Sprint on all times) move faster and dodge quicker do to the fact that Halo2 is a faster game in general than Reach.

Ok the Brutes on Reach Legendary LASO are easier to kill than on Halo3, On Reach you can simply run up to any Brute run circles around them with a sticky or beat them to a pulp just like you can on Halo3 including the Chieftans. The AI in both Halo3 and Reach really slowed and softened up the Brutes and stupidfied them up to where they concentrate on throwing nades or running backwards. NOW on Halo2 its totally different, lets see you run up to any Brute on Legendary and try to beat at least one down before his back up arrives, they move so freaking fast and when in Berserker mode they swing faster and punch harder than Mike Tyson.

Skirmishers are just Jackals that run fast and will go down with one head shot (no problem) I’m just glad their not running around with a Beam Rifle.

Hunters on Reach are pretty much the Hunters on Halo3 and ODST, even on Legendary I knew exactly how to kill them in my first encounter thanks to past Halo3 experience. The Hunters on CE are the easiest, the Halo2 Hunters are just a hard as the ones on Halo3/Reach.

btw… the Buggers on Reach a by far waaaay easier to kill, just one headshot and boom they pop, on Halo2/3 they where a pain in the butt.

6th. And last on the whole classy thing…well to put it in the nicest way…Bungie really EFFed UP big time. Reach was a huge FAILURE in this department. Classy went out the window on Reach when “They” added the Bloom and Armor Lock.
There’s no class in sticking someone from kissing range and Locking it up, or sticking an opponent from across the map and expecting the Sticky Medal pop up only to see them Armor Locking it off. Or out DMRing someone only to see them Armor Lock when he is at death’s door and his babysitters show up to kill you. Or my favorite run up Armor Lock, EMP their shields and melee.

The Bloom gives the host the only DMR that doesn’t need pacing, Spamming is a Privilege giving to those with host or super strong connection with a 90% accuracy compared to the 50%-20% accuracy of non-host DMR. Bloom slowed down the game speed tremendously even with Sprint the game is the slowest of all Halos.

Simply look at the kills the Pros get at Reach events and compare them to the kills on Halo3 then to Halo2 and Halo:CE.
…on average and games vary differently.
REACH: 12 kills/ 5 assists/ 10 deaths(with ZB/TU we will see these number JUMP!)
H/CE : 25 kills/ 5 assists/ 15 deaths
Halo2: 35 kills/ 30assists/ 28 deaths
Halo3: 20 kills/ 20assists/ 20 deaths

I’ve seen many stats with only like 2 or 3 kills and 1 or 0 assists at events with the top teams like Instinct/Status Quo on Reach, and on Halo2 FinalBoss vs Carbon had stats with 40 to 49 kills and 30 to 40 assists on both sides!!!

Reach also got rid of the skill gap and was intended for average gamers. Bungie themselves said “Reach is a noob-friendly game, any gamer can pick it up and play”. They also took major ideas from other games NOT Halo related like…
COD/MW(primary audience target), Gears of War, and Shadow Run(Bloom came from this game). How could you say Reach has Class when Reach is not Halo at all with its Load Outs, AA’s, No-bleed through, No skill gap, 10 second deathcount everywhere, No Ranking, Super strict No quitting/AFK laws, its “hey look at my armor isn’t it cool” Armor inventory, the credit system from COD, the lame weak Spartan3s instead of the Spartan2 Master Chief.
There’s so much more I cant list it all…

I don’t mean to be mean and understand that maybe you like Reach and there’s nothing wrong with that but to say its Classy is the most ridiculous thing to say when Classy is the last thing Reach is…the only thing Reach has in common with Halo:CE,HALO 2, HALO 3 is the name Halo on the cover…

and in the end THAT’S what really sold the game in its launch on Sept 14 2010.

16

Better enemy AI (friendly AI is stupid on purpose as per tradition in Halo)

Elites and Covenant overall are more intimidating and alien like. Even the grunts are serious and what not.

A few new weapons and vehicles. The Plasma Pistol returns to it’s CE glory where it should have been instead of the nerf it had in Halo 2/3/ODST

Marty O Donnell and those who performed the score for Reach really out did themselves once again. Reach has a memorable soundtrack and is probably one of the things that stand out the most in Reach. Sound effects are top notched as always.

Better netcode. It’s better than Halo 3’s, much more consistent hands down. You can’t argue this one. However, as of late, the game has been picking really -Yoink- hosts.

Forge World ala biggest Halo map to date. I am still amazed that they managed to fit it on one disk.

Armor Customization (really loved this feature as always wanted more customization in Halo 3)

Increased graphics (by this i mean it’s big jump from Halo 3)

Arcade style FF (though Bungie ruined FF versus by including Covie AI instead of just Elites and Spartans).

Notice how most of the listed are praising the game mechanics (they are NOT that good). Theater mode was butchered, the campaign while enjoyable, wasn’t the deep emotional human story Bungie over hyped it to be and most of the default Reach maps are horrible (DLC maps are pretty good though). FF while fun, did not have the same challenge and excitement as the ODST variant did. Infinite Ammo (ammo crates) are a safety net to ensure you never run out of ammo on most human weapons. Even Limited had this and while that was closer to ODST, it still wasn’t quite right.

Really many of the parts of the campaign (including the first part of the space mission) just felt like a huge FF session and didn’t feel like Reach was being invaded till New Alexandria (an actual goal and plot develops at the end of the Package and concludes in the next two levels: PoA and Lone Wolves).

No rank system based on skill but rather playing time is flawed. You can boost in FF, Grif, or Living Dead, making it an inaccurate indicator of skill and throwing off the system (if there is one in the game which i highly doubt but thats just me).

It’s just my opinions of course. After playing this game for awhile, it seems Reach at the start was good but many missed opportunities kept it from being great like it’s predecessors. I did enjoy it regardless of what problems i have with the game.

17

> All valid points. It’s nice to see a thread in the Reach forums that discusses the great aspects of Reach. It’s a great game.

Agreed.

18

> > > -Netcode.
> > > -File Browser.
> > > -Active Roster.
> > > -Enhanced Forge tools.
> > > -Campaign rewind in Theater.
> >
> > Sad thing is that none of it is gameplay related lmao
>
> I would consider netcode a gameplay-related aspect. It makes the game a lot smoother than Halo 3, which results in less of those lag-caused “WHAT THE F&@#!” moments.

Yeah, I just thought of it as a netcode thing though, But I do see your point.

19

More Stuff

The Characters: I haven’t been so attached to the main folks of the Halo campaign since Halo 2 really. Odst came close but wasn’t really tragic, Buck was cool but the rest were pretty lame [sorry]. Yet for the short time you got to know them Noble Team seemed pretty cool. I made an entire thread saying how much better this department would have been if Reach was A-Longer or B-Had a sequel.

Even if Jorge and Noble 6 may have been the only really attachable characters the rest were still cool, had pretty cool dialogue and for a “short” game they did what they had to do. Not perfect but still nicely done.

The "story: I will admit Halo Reach should have been closer to “The Fall of Reach” that would have been perfect. However Reach did a good job of showing the structure of the Human Covenant war, at least on Reach. For every little victory the Humans had the Covenant had a much bigger victory.

You find a Huge covenant army and go to war with it. Knock some skulls. Destroy some Spire
Then one single Super Carrier pretty much destroys/kills everything in the area with the exception of a FEW.

Then you find a way to destroy the Super Carrier. Lose Jorge and finaly destroy the damn thing
Then the entire/close to the Entire Covenant armada slip spaces right to Reach and pretty much seals Reach’s faith

Then you rescue a few humans, Find Cortana, Rescue Halsey. Deliver Cortana
Yet then the planet is glasses. Killing millions/billions of people.

20

> Well I know Reach could have been better, Yet I wont go into that. I’m here to say the things Reach did right, even if it wasn’t done as much as it should have.
>
> 1-Health: Bringing HP back was amazing. It really does add a nice element of skill and gameplay.
>
> 2-Updating Forge and Firefight: I know Halo 4 may blow Reach away with it’s modes but Halo Reach gives so much options and things to do.
>
> 3-Making Covenant weapons a little more unique: In Halo 2 and Halo 3 the covenant weapons seem like just…humans guns with some more color. Halo Reach really did a good job of making them pretty unique. The sniper isn’t just a sniper rifle and the rifle isn’t just a rifle. Not all the guns do this but it’s a nice touch
>
> 4-The options [even if some were missing]. If you really look at the games people have created with Reach they seem nearly impossible. Things that even Halo 3 can’t even touch. Taking the time to look at what is out there blew me away. Games I didn’t even know could even be made. Big example: Chess. Yet some games make even Chess look small time
>
> 5-The A.I: Every enemy is a challenge, they have unique powers and weaknesses that make up some amazing gameplay.
>
> Grunts-Weak and easy to kill however now give a fight. With heavy weapons and grenades they are pretty tough. On legendary they are -Yoink!-.
>
> Jackals-From what I notice shielded jackals don’t shoot as much, however since they have shields they really make the player need to use there guns the right way. A more defensive enemy.
>
> Elites-Perfect enemies. Bungie did Elites perfectly. Reach elites blow Halo2/3 elites away. Yet notice with no shields Elites aren’t too strong, but the A.I and actions make them a perfect enemy.
>
> Brutes-Probably the best Brutes of any Halo game. From what I can tell Brutes take more body shots then UN SHIELDED Elites, yet they are perfect head shot victoms [aim good].
>
> Skirmishers-More offensive Jackals. They make you aim like crazy and really make you watch your sides and back. Weak but the speed and agility forgives it.
>
> Hunters-They are just too damn strong sometimes. Really did them right.
>
> 6-Doing it’s best to be classy-This one can be taken as bad as well as good. However it’s nice that Reach tried to bring back a more classy Halo. No duel wielding, HP is back, a good pistol, good elites, good enemies. It does wonders if you think about it. It in a way was a good homage to Halo:CE, sometimes in ways we don’t care to admit.
>
> I can’t say it was done as good as it should have been. Reach could have been bigger, better, and more epic however the core, the spirit is all there. Maybe Bungie could have done Reach better in 1000 ways but the fact remains you can tell they wanted a more solid game. You may not think it. You can complain all you want but the fact is for all who say they added to many non-Halo elements don’t forget all the Halo elements they brought back.

Couldn’t of said it better.