Reach Out and Touch Faith

...because faith is almost all I have to go on at this point. Every time I dive into Reach, I have fun for about 30 minutes and then I find myself wondering, "Is this it?" There are times when Reach really shines, and there are some aspects of the game that truly are the best of the series, but it's just not keeping my interest. Since the beta came out, I think I've actually logged less time on it than I have Bad Company 2 since then. I see why Bungie's ready to move on, because the formula is getting old.

I'll go through the positives first because I don't want to give the impression that I think this is a bad game. First, the level design (for all two levels) is fantastic. Both maps are intricately planned and offer tons of corridors for battle. They're not as plane-Jane as Guardian or Epitaph, not as pointlessly open or symmetrical as Snowbound or The Pit, not as confusing to learn as Ivory Tower or Lockout, and they're not filled with the awkward set pieces that made Hang 'Em High look like a paintball arena in a canyon. Learning you way around takes seconds, but mastering the intricacies takes hours. Both levels also have a great sense of verticality, something that suits Reach far better than any FPS I've ever played.

Second, I like the armor abilities. They seem fairly well balanced, and each has its advantages and pitfalls. Clyde's a fan of invisibility, while I feel naked without a jetpack. The aforementioned verticality (I think I just invented that word) of the levels gives the jetpack the edge it needs to be competitive with the other abilities, since it would offer little to no use on a map like Snowbound or even High Ground. The only problem with the armor abilities is that they make the hammer and sword better. The jetpack, cloak, dive, and sprint all make it much easier to get in close before the enemy has time gun you down.

Lastly, I really like what they've done to compliment gameplay. Adding names to map locations is brilliant, they finally mapped melee to a shoulder button, you can queue yourself to automatically join a friend when they finish their game, and navigating your friends list to send and receive invites is all done in-game now. Okay, let's get to the complaints.

First and foremost, where the fuck is my BR? Is it really so hard to balance a single shot weapon with a three-round burst weapon? You already have loadouts, just let us choose which rifle to start with.

Okay, got that off my chest; time to talk like an adult, now. My main problem with the game is that it's some sort of bizarre hybrid between Halo: CE and Halo 3. For every step the game takes forward, it takes another 2 back trying to recreate the first game. It just doesn't work that way. That game wasn't built for Xbox LIVE and a lot of aspects that fit that game well don't work in Reach. This is what happens when you let incessant fanboys with rose-tinted glasses cloud your judgement. Believe it or not, there are plenty of people who like the sequels more than the original, but they're not as vocal because they can still play their favorite version to their heart's content (hang in there, guys!). Here's the thing: bringing back health packs, fall damage, and single-shot rifles doesn't automatically mean you're getting the CE fans on board. Halo 1 was about horizontal play in spacious areas--don't act like you played anything other than Blood Gulch or Hang 'Em High seriously. Yes, both maps had elevated areas, but there was very little overlapping. The magic of Halo 1 was using an impossibly accurate pistol to gun down enemies you could hardly see. Hell, even the shotgun had pretty incredible range because close encounters were so few and far between. The reason health packs and fall damage were appropriate for that game was because these long range battles were the norm. Without health bars, a skilled pistolero could have wreaked havoc on lesser players because there was no good way to sneak up on him and he could typically manage to isolate encounters to one on one.

With the move to dual-wielding in Halo 2, maps became much more intricate and close-quartered. Having a weapon as deadly accurate as the pistol in that game would have rendered dual-wielding useless, and having health bars would have made stringing kills together even harder than it was. Plus, maps became much more vertical with a lot more layering, and having fall damage would limit your mobility too much.

So, the problem is that Reach is trying to be every Halo at once so it can please everybody, but it does it all wrong. The maps are tighter and more vertically oriented than ever, and having fall damage and health bars just adds an unnecessary amount of stress to the gameplay. The developers at Bungie are no better than Icarus' father who gave him wings that would melt as soon as he had too much fun with them. The difference in winning and losing a close-quarters battle is so minuscule that having health bars just punishes the good players after winning the first time. The open, long-distance gameplay of CE allowed the better marksman a fighting chance regardless of whether he shot first or had more health. The closer the battle, the better chance the lesser player has, especially when they fire first. To add to the problem, Reach plays more close quarters than any other Halo game to date. The shotgun has very, very little range, the rifles are entirely inaccurate unless fired very slowly, and the assault rifle and pistol have one hell of a time trying finish someone off in a single clip. The problem is that only a couple of weapons can actually kill someone who's more than 20 feet away before whatever armor ability they're using allows them to escape or close the gap. If they do close the gap and get within 10 feet, at that point the rifles are too weak to be of any real use. It's ludicrous how often the best strategy is to get in close and punch twice...or just spam hand bombs.

Luckily, I think a lot of this can be fixed. Unless they plan on opening the levels up and flattening them out, I say get rid of fall damage and add some sort of recovery rate to the health bars. They don't have to be as immediate as the shield, but a surviving player shouldn't have to leave a strategic position to have to find a damn health pack. I understand the motivation to limit camping, but the health bars really hurt the wrong people in objective-based gametypes. No one should have to make a detour to a health pack before getting into the hill or trying to gank some last-second enemy flags in Stockpile. Also, if they want to please the Halo 1 crowd (or, well, anybody who's played any console FPS ever), put the range back in the game. The recoil concept either needs to be thrown out or severely lessened, and the rifles need a slight boost in power. It's hilarious that they tried to make the rifles more like the pistol by making them single shot, but then made them harder to use and less accurate than the BR. Obviously, they missed the point. Anyway, if the DMR and needle rifle are made as accurate as the CE pistol, Reach should have CE's range game, and that's all it needs from CE (other than wacky Warthog physics).

Next, boost the power of every other gun (not including explosives or melees weapons) so that Halo 2's dynamic close quarters combat is back. It's ridiculous that punching someone twice is easier, faster, and more effective than the shotgun or even a fully-loaded assault rifle. Punching needs to be nerfed back to where it was in Halo: CE. It really needs to just be a last resort so you don't get that ridiculous trend from early Halo 3 days where people would just run straight at each other trying to get the winning punch. If I remember correctly, punching was originally made more powerful in a Halo 2 patch as to give single-wielding players a chance against dual-wielders. It made a lot sense for that game. But, since dual-wielding became less of a focus for Halo 3 and was completely nixed for Reach, why is the punch still so powerful? All it does is promote brainless bee-lining between players, and makes the sword and hammer all the more effective since someone wielding a gun has lost their best strategy. It's okay to make the assault rifle actually good, it just needs to lose to the pistol and rifles outside of 10 feet. Hell, make it effective from range if tap-fired correctly. There's no reason for it be nothing but a last (spray 'n') prayer or just a set up for a punch. If you make the guns better, the power weapons become less dominate (but still powerful) and the game will become less frustrating.

If all these changes are made, the game will still be dynamic and have the variety that made Halo 2 and 3 so great while also reviving the simple point-and-shoot nature of the first game. It doesn't matter which of the first three Halo games is the best because that debate will never settled, and it really doesn't matter. Bungie is never going to make a sequel that feels more like Combat Evolved than the sequels because it's a step backward in most areas. What is indisputable, though, is that CE was the most easily accessible Halo, and that's what they need to bring back. All that the recoil, the fall damage, the health bars, and the weakness of the guns do is make the game less accessible.

--Chilly P