Listen, I realize it’s rated as one of the most award-winning games across the world. It’s the reason the Xbox took off the way it did. Heck, it’s the reason console shooters just exploded. Yes, I did admittedly wait for it come the midnight release, and yes I have technically bought it twice thus far, but I am no longer impressed with Halo.
Halo: Reach (Reach), lemme just say, has a very impressive campaign mode. The story feels epic, and let me just say I am a fan of the books so I know how this game ends. The whole game just has this feeling of epic dread surrounding it, like all hope is lost and you are just going through the motions to try and survive. It was just awesome. Sadly, the campaign is only five hours and you are left with is the multiplayer.
This is where Halo, at once was my love, and now is old hat. I used to enjoy everything Halo 1,2, and 3 had to offer. But, it was during Halo 3 when something struck me: It felt like every other Halo game before it. The maps where similar to the ones in Halo 1 and 2, the combat was the same but with slightly different weapons, and there were slightly different vehicles. I totally skipped Halo: ODST because it was a slight retelling of Halo 3, which I didn’t care for Bungie getting lazy on the storyboarding. Halo: Reach has enough different elements, but finds a way to still F’ some things up. Allow me to explain….
Reach introduces new items like jetpacks, active camo, dodge rolls, armor lock (temp invincibility) and what not. It case you don’t know the stroyline, Reach is the planet where Spartans (the type of soldier in armor the Master Chief is) train and learn to be alien destroying soldiers. So…if this is the planet where all this awesome technology came from, why isn’t it in any of the other games? Also, it used to be in Halo 1 that popping a Hunter (a monstrous alien with a shield and cannon arm) in the back with the pistol would drop him. Now it takes 50 shotgun blasts, or 6-8 rocket blasts, more magazines of rifle ammo than you will ever have on you, etc.
The point is they made what was a somewhat simple task in the first Halo into a ridiculous endeavor. Perhaps the developers wanted to instill the fear you should have felt against them in the first place, which is fine I can respect that. Also, did you guys know that it has taken Bungie 8 years to finally put a sprint mechanic into a Halo game? I remembered when it was promised back in before Halo 2 was released, but then again Bungie also promised shootable cover, but I guess they decided against realism since glass is still and acceptable form of cover 500 years in the future.
As a matter of fact, after playing Halo for YEARS now, it never crossed my mind to think…why is it 500 years in the future, a freaking half century later, we are still using gas-powered ballistic weapons? What? You know what was the most advanced weapon in 1510? THE CROSSBOW! Are we to believe that in the future, weapon advancements pretty much halted at the gas-powered assault rifle. The weapons in MW2 are more advanced than the Human ones in Halo. The Covenant ones are interesting, but my point is made.
My final point to why I can no longer play Halo, it’s just not original anymore. You really wanna know the reason why Reach’s campaign seems so good to me? It’s because it plays out like both Modern Warfare games. The story is similar, the set-up is exactly the same, there is even a moment where you are manning a gunship’s automatic grenade launcher while you fly to your next destination. Hell, there was even a dual sniper scene. All Bungie did was straight up copy Modern Warfare. Now, if only they just copied the multiplayer formula, since the moment MW: Black Ops comes out, Reach is gone, as in, it’s being traded at my local Gamestop (favorite ever to shop in) the moment it comes out.
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