In my honest opinion, Reach can be described in one word when compared to previous Halos. Different. This isn't always a bad thing, as minor tweaks and changes freshen up a game. The problem I see with Reach is that the changes made affected the core gameplay mechanics of Halo 1/2/3. It just isn't normal for most veteran players. The movement speed, grenade damage, armor abilities, etc. (the list goes on forever), are all some major changes from the core mechanics found in previous titles. In this post, I will outline many of my major qualms with Reach. 1. The DMR Halo 2 and 3 are often dubbed as the best multiplayer games of the decade, and for good reason. Between these two fantastic games, the weapon sandbox stayed relatively the same. There were several tweaks, some new things like brute vehicles (Chopper <3) and equipment, but the weapon sandbox in both games is very close. This did a lot of good in multiplayer, because the veterans from Halo 2 had a much smaller change between games. The problem with Halo: Reach, is that it had a very drastic change from Halo 3's weapons to Reach.The DMR is a hitscan weapon (instantly hits target the second you pull the trigger). The BR was not hitscan, and players had to lead their shots to be accurate at long range. This tends to break down the open maps with little or no cover, because I can shoot from teleporter to teleporter on Hemmorhage without having to lead my shots. This was never possible on Valhalla, Sandtrap, or any Halo 3 maps. Imagine if you could camp on the dune of Sandtrap and pick people off across the map! It would have broken the map completely! In Reach, a team can win the entire game without even thinking about power weapons. Why? The DMR. The DMR has infinite range, and can be aimed with some skill, across any map in matchmaking. It also tears through vehicles like tissue paper (another thing not present in H3). The DMR IS a power weapon. Give it to a well coordinated team, and it's an easy win as well. 2. Objective Halo: Reach has drifted towards being very slayer dominant. What I mean by this is that no matter what the gametype, most players will have a primary focus on getting kills and a secondary or even tertiary focus on getting the objective. Point being, the core focus of objective gametypes has been lost between Halo 3 and Reach. I would say that 75% of my objective games turn into a bloodbath, with nether team making strong attempts towards the objective. Yes, there is almost always that ruffgonja-ing kid, who rushes the objective countless times, but I mean a full push as a team. Why go for a flag or capture a territory when you can sit nearby with your tank and destroy everyone? The reason players go for kills is because they are rewarded with each one they get. Every time you get a snipe, headshot, beatdown, assist, spree or multikill, a number pops up in the bottom corner saying something like, "+8cR." There is not a single reward for scoring the objective, aside from feeling good about yourself. Unfortunately, presented with these options, any smart player will simply go for kills so they can go purchase things like lighting or gold visors or a knife on their shoulder. What do objective players get? Nothing, nothing but death with no reward. But why in Halo 2/3 was this not a problem? People went for objectives all the time in those games! Its because the only way you could rank up in 2 and 3 was by winning. Trueskill goes up by winning, and experience goes up by winning. When you win objective games you are rewarded with a better rank in 2/3. 2 and 3 had incentive to win objective games while Reach has absolutely no incentive to win except for the satisfaction of winning. So how can we reward people who go for objectives (as well as give people incentive to go for objectives)? It's simple: 1. Objective Daily and Weekly Challenges: Right now, challeges basically involve 3 things: kills, assists, and campaign mission completion. Nothing relating to objectives. If we have more objective challenges with large cR rewards, people will go for objectives. Such as: a. Flagtacular!: Capture 3 flags today in multiplayer matchmaking (1200 cR). b. Get Off My Cloud!: Rack up 200 points in KOTH gametypes today in multiplayer matchmaking (1000 cR). c. Lawsuit: Detonate 3 bombs today in Assault gametypes in multiplayer matchmaking (1500 cR) -If you believe that challenges don't affect gameplay just pay attention to whenever there is a jetpack multiplayer challenge, because most people use jetpacks during those games. 2. Objective Commendations: These of course are very similar to the challenges but they are long term so that even if there isn't a challenge, people will still go for objectives because they are consistently rewarded for it. Examples include: a. Poor Yorick: Get Points in Oddball or Headhunter b. Conquistador: Capture Territories in Territories c. Star Spangled Banner: Capture Flags in CTF or Stockpile If all of these are established, I guarantee that there will be a tremendous rise in objective play. 3. Stats The addition of stats has slowly begun to consume much of this amazing community. I remember 7-10 years ago, when I would go to Battlefront 2 parties, or 007 Nightfire parties on the PS2, and we wouldn't care a bit about who had the most kill with what weapon. We played for fun back then. I feel that slowly, throughout the last several years, online statistics have begun to turn many players into ultra competitive, trash talking, K/D card pulling jerks. There is a definite line between being competitive and being an asshole. 4. Vehicles One of the main staples in all of the Halo games is the variety of drivable vehicles. Honestly, I think this feature sets Halo apart from other games. Nothing is more fun than driving around a buddy in a warthog and watching the wheelmen medals stack up. Halo 3 had a nearly perfect balance between vehicle attack damage and vehicle health. No vehicle was particularly overpowered, but all of them had specific uses. Another major factor in the vehicle success in Halo 3 is that the maps always had a solid balance between vehicles and their counterparts. My largest issue in Reach vehicles, is the fact that they are made, literally, out of construction paper. Vehicles can be a joke in big team battle, because a coordinated team can take down a vehicle with extraordinary ease. Warthog? 4 DMR's can rip through that in a matter of seconds. Banshee? I've seen that thing go down in less than 5 seconds because the enemy team all looked to the skies and used their DMR. In Halo: Reach, vehicles are imbalanced, with very high attack damage, and low health. 5. Remakes Remaking a map works well between some games. It really does. Between Midship and Heretic, yes there was some change, but it still felt like Midship to me. That's because there were not many changes in core mechanics between Halo 2 and 3. Remakes tend not to work, especially when the weapon sandbox changes. The open style of some maps worked great for Halo 1/2/3. But the BR/pistol did not have any of the range of the DMR. An open map generally played well back in the day. However, given the DMR, any open map with little cover instantly becomes a standstill. Players rarely go through the middle of the map, and those that do get slaughtered. When players cant use the middles of the map for infantry movement, the games, especially objective, become stagnant. Good god..If you managed to actually read the entire thing, you deserve several cookies. TL;DR 1. The DMR destroys any open map, due to it's ability to shoot players across the map. 2. Objective implementation was a failure in Reach. 3. Stats are turning too many players into ultra competitive idiots. 4. Vehicles are made out of construction paper. 5. Remakes do not typically work well, due to the diversity of weapon sandboxes between games. Feel free to comment, leave an opinion, whatever, but keep it classy
Let me see where to start. I agree with your last 4 points, especially the vehicle one. But your DMR argument is a bit unjustified for a couple of reasons. The first of which is the introduction of reticule bloom. However much some people may ***** about it, it's the only thing that stops the DMR from being a new sniper rifle. At long range you're forced to slow down your shooting to hit the target. Just because hitscan has been introduced it doesnt mean that it's easier to hit someone. You have to deal with the bloom of the weapon and slow down your shooting sometimes to hit the player, especially at long range. It's similar to the BR in that its purpose is the same, it just has a different way of carrying out that purpose. I prefer the DMR over the BR simply because I feel that it just feels better to use and slightly more precise than the BR. This may be because of your points mentioned above, but don't go slating the DMR just because you miss the BR. We all do. You also have to remember that the entire sandbox for Reach is different. You're not a Spartan II, you're a III, meaning that stuff has changed due to the Spartans being different. Also, don't forget the point that Bungie pointed out that a lot of the weapons in Reach were "experimental". This looks to merely be an excuse to include new weapons in my opinion, but who doesn't love new things? It's the reason we have the DMR instead of the BR. Other than that, you've done a good job of pointing out some major problems with Reach.
I have a pretty mixed opinion with the DMR. I hate the fact that it can ping people across the map, because if three people are team shooting a lone enemy, that person gets owned. But at the same time, the sniper is so much easier to use, so the DMR should be able to hit them. Idk, I preferred the BR because it had to be led when firing at range.
Ohai, I see we like to make drastic and uneducated generalizations about the game and backing it up with little to no factual evidence. I'll just start it off with the DMR... The third hitscan utility weapon we've had in the Halo franchise. The H:CE Pistol and H2 DMR were also hitscan. The ability to use the weapon at range is on par with the CE Pistol, and better than the BRs (but mostly due to the 3x scope). I do agree that the DMR can be a little over powering at range, but the weapon is by no means actually OP. It also has close to the same average kill time as the H2 BR (post patch). Keep in mind, I'm talking ZB DMR here. Your droning about Objective settings has some merit, but is a little off the mark. The issue with Objective in this game isn't the settings at all, its that your playing in online with a group of randoms. Your issue with the gametypes isn't about the gametypes at all, its about a poor match making system and a terrible "ranking" system. In actuality, the main issue with Halo Reach is the "ranking" system. Supposedly True Skill is still there, but operating in the background where we can't see... It obviously is doing a terribad job though. Additionally, we've been smacked with the casual stick through the gameplay incentive system of cR. The whole credit system is actually a Skinner Box reward system, which the gaming industry has become overly reliant on unfortunately. I will agree that the vehicles are poorly balanced with the rest of the game... But not to a point where they're completely useless. They're just not as great as previous games. :/ Edited by merge: I highly recommend popping over to the MLG forums and reading up on the debates over utility weapons. There's been an never ending argument between various weapon traits such as: 4sk vs 5sk and 3shot-burst vs 1shot-precision. Myself, I'm in favor of the 1shot precision weapon over the burst mechanic, however a 3shot-burst BR that works like a 1shot weapon (like the post patch H2 BR) is ideal.... Really, I just love the sound of the burst. Btw, you completely left out player movement mechanics in your post. HR has the most unresponsive movement mechanics in the whole Halo series. It'd be nice if we could actually have an effective strafe again... :/
The necessity to lead was drastically less than H3, though. People are often misled by having either played Xbox CE on Xbox Connect, or CE PC online, where the fail net code necessitated a huge amount of shot lead that wasn't programmed in as a skill mechanic in the same way as it was with H3. EDIT: @ OP, I'd also be inclined to expand upon Schnitzel's point about you not factoring in that H2 was hitscan. You begin your post extolling the virtues of both Halo 2 and 3, yet most of the comparison with Reach which follows is focused on H3. Yes, H2 and H3 were very similar, the most similar pair in the series, but that isn't a get out clause for factoring in comparisons between H2 and Reach without going via H3. As demonstrated by Schnitzel's point about the DMR, Reach and H2 actually have certain things in common, things which are actually more similar in these two games than they are in H3 when compared to either. Things such as kill times, and the ability to cross map with the basic utility weapon. In fact, the H2 BR is more effective cross map than any DMR except the Zero Bloom one, so I feel you're over emphasising the damage this capability does.
I disagree that power weapons aren't a necessity just because the DMR can shoot cross-map. You stick to your DMR and see how well it pans out when I rocket/nade launch/sword sprint you. Yes, the DMR is a powerful utility weapon and you will get raped if team shot. That's just getting out-played by team work. If power weapons weren't such a big deal, do you think MLG pros would constantly be on top of their respawn times? Being a second late and losing out on one, especially rockets, could cost you the game.
No reason to be an ass about it.. But lets see. I am quite aware that the H2 BR was hitscan. I don't believe that I mention anywhere in my post something different. I was specifically talking about H3 because I have a lot more experience there. While I do agree with you about trueskill, you can't deny the fact that objective was horribly implemented. And yes, vehicles are imbalanced. It pains me because I play primarily BTB and a full party will all just DMR the hog/banshee/tank. One of the bigger reasons I didn't touch on player movement is because that point has been made multiple times. I would recommend checking out "RC Clone"'s post, he touches on that well. Yes, I did. I enjoy talking about the game. I'm just looking for more feedback. Also, my class has 343 and Bungie blocked on their servers so I posted in a few other areas that aren't blocked Well I play primarily BTB so good luck with that when I have range on my side. I did not mean to say that power weapons aren't a necessity. They are. But with the combination of vehicle health and it's unlimited range, power weapons become much less effective.
Whoever decided to increase the speed at which bloom resets when one crouches, and decided that zooming in should increase the actual precision of the weapon (I don't mean that it's simply easier to aim) made sure that the DMR would end up killing faster at long range than at medium range. You might not have noticed what crouching does if you play usually on small maps. I won't go into the problems with bloom again.
Dude, I play mostly on small arena maps and you would not believe the difference that crouching and spamming makes with bloom, especially at 85% in TU settings. While I think having a 3x scope is too much, I'd rather have no bloom than 85% (as with the TU) because of the increase of the skill gap. Shame we don't have a legit ranking system that actually pairs players up with equally talented opponents. :/