Halo : Reach - Initial Thoughts

(I am hoping that Chill P doesn't post about 4 hours later disputing everything I am going to try to say (like this), but we shall see.)

The game feels much better than I figured it would, which is encouraging, but there are still some complaints that I have.

On the positive side:
-The game's general feel reminds me more of the earlier Halo games, and less of Halo 3.
-The new armor loadouts are intriguing, and add a nice wrinkle to the game.
-There is voting in matchmaking now, so you have a variety of options each time you want to play.
-Team SWAT is delicious.
-The controls have been changed on the controller to a more user friendly style that makes shooting and meleeing easy. (In the past, if you wanted to be quick on the sticks, boxer or green thumb were your only options. Now, Bungie finally got their shit together and moved the melee to the right bumper.)
-While moving around the map, the game has built-in names for all locations... so no more of "Steve's rock" or "Bill's hill" to describe stuff. Now, it will say something descriptive that everyone can learn and therefore instill uniformity.
-Health packs are great and allow for action after your shield goes down. You know exactly how much life you have, and finding health packs isn't that easy where you would be able to complain.

Ok, so how about the negatives?

My thoughts on the Halo series of games all boils down to the success that Halo 1 had, and the foundation it laid for the rest of the series. Halo 1 was built around slow, methodical, precise shooting from medium to long range, but also allowed for up close combat that was sporadic and exciting. The pistol dominated the game (like it or not, that is still what made the game as great as it was), but shotguns, plasma weapons, or even assault rifles had their purposes. With all of this, long range fighting still took place by ample amounts of sniper rifles (on most levels) as well as pistols being used. (Oh and also, I would be rude to not include the king of multiplayer Halo 1, which was the rocket.) Anyway, these were the crucial vertebrae in the backbone of the greatest multiplayer FPS that consoles had ever seen.

Halo: Reach seems to follow in the footsteps of Halo 2 and 3 in that it still lacks the killing power from medium range. The DMR and pistol are great, but they still need too many shots to kill, which is frustrating. Put simply, people aren't dying very quickly unless you have extremely powerful close range or long range guns. All too often, I get into DMR battles with people where I am pelting their face and the shield keeps lighting up as the person just runs right at me with their favorite "spray and pray" gun and kills me. This isn't the way Halo should be played. The skill and precision have been toned way down, and the "hold the trigger down" factor has been upped dramatically. I would hope that the DMR/pistol will be increased for the actual game, but we shall see.

Oh, and God forbid you get into the "covy team slayer" gametype, because the covenant rifle with a scope is firing licorice candy apparently. You have to shoot until your fingers are tired to actually kill something.

This will work for now, but I will need more time with the game to really get a feel for it.

Something to remember is that this is only a Beta, and the game will probably be much different than this come the fall. But as of now, I would love to see gun strengths increased so that the constant holding down of triggers and hoping for a kill comes to an end.



SC