It's because being creative is pretty much the only fun aspect of Reach. The standard gameplay of Reach just isn't fun. The DMR is not a fun weapon and neither is the AR. The AAs are not fun, they're just annoying. Until someone ends up making a gametype that becomes the universal, modified way to play then it's unlikely the game will be all that enjoyable. I had some fun times on Shad0w Vipers newest map, but honestly parties never really stay together long enough to really play multiple maps.
I am pretty much the opposite of most people here I got black ops and beat the campaign and tried playing the MM for a week or so and got bored with it. Not on topic but I feel like Treyarch even screwed up Zombies which was my favorite part of their game last time. Anyways I just much prefer the play style of Halo to COD so that's probably the case here but I don't get bored with the game and with the no AL in matchmaking and the forge I spend most of my time on Reach.
This exact conversation happens a million times after every single Halo game comes out. Is the new game boring? Is it not as good as the previous game? Is it not even Halo any more? etc. etc. Maybe I'm just getting a little too old and cynical, but I don't think anybody making these kind of comments has even the slightest objectivity - at least not until a year or two down the road when you have the benefit of perspective. It happens with every single Halo game, but they've all been hugely popular and had devoted followings. Personally I've had my frustrations and moments of boredom with all of them, but I also got sucked back into all of them inevitably. When Halo 2 came out I found the changes very irritating; I felt like my view was too tight and the red flashing and weapon recoil was too annoying compared to the smoother, almost mechanical feel of CE. I also didn't like the needlessly gritty and dark textures. Halo 2 seemed like it was trying too hard to be exciting and suck me into the action, and it took a surprisingly long time for me to adjust to that. Eventually I did though, and loved the game (though never quite as much as the original). Halo 3 in some respects felt like a return to form - which is to be expected, since Bungie seemed to consciously try to split the difference between 1 and 2 in how the game just felt. But equipment got on my nerves for a while (got so tired of people being bailed out at the last second by regen and bubble shields). And I had a hard time getting into the maps. Eventually I got over all of that, especially with the maps, since some of my favorites ended up coming out as DLC. With Reach, I downloaded the beta and barely played it for whatever reason. The game felt weird to me, I didn't like the slight adjustments to the control scheme, I didn't like armor abilities or the loss of equipment (ironic, isn't it?). But I knew I was buying it regardless. I am still getting over my issues even as we speak. Luckily I have Forge to keep me occupied while I get used to the new game mechanics.
I couldn't disagree more. You state these like they are blatant facts, but impressing you is a rarity in it's own right. Much like I stated before, not actually playing the game is what is killing the game.
So true. Every gun save for the power weapons feels slow and ineffective. Evade and the Jetpack are the only fun AAs, but evade on a Spartan is just plain too big. Sprint feels like a basic requirement to speed the game up rather than a fun to use AA. On the plus side, Monday Night Combat just released their huge bugfix/balance patch and free DLC maps. Everyone should do yourselves a favor and buy that game.
Just putting this out there, I love every aspect of reach except Team Objective. It's the best game I've played in my opinion. Give reach time. When more map packs come out the more variety there will be.
The Noble Map Pack made it 10 times better. The only thing that was really putting me off from playing Matchmaking was the lack of good maps. Let's be honest here, all the default Forge World maps suck except for Asylum, which is decent at best. Anchor 9, Breakpoint, and Tempest are all great maps and I hope to see some of the Forge World maps get cycled out. Add the winners of the Forgetacular and (hopefully), the map line up will actually be good. Firefight's a blast as well. I've played more Firefight than Matchmaking, which is really weird for me since I barely played ODST Firefight at all. Customs are still really fun too. I know some people are being put off from customs because the mini-game capabilities aren't as great as Halo 3's. I only really play competitive customs though, so customs are still great. I actually prefer the DMR over the BR. I've recently started to try to pace my shots more often, and when you do that, you can 5-shot rather easily, especially going up against an opponent who's spamming you for body shots. Pacing your shots and getting a 5-shot is as satisfactory, if not, more so than 4-shotting in Halo 3. Overall, the actual gameplay of mechanics of Reach are much more enjoyable to me than Halo 3's. Something about it just seems more refined than Halo 3's. Plus, the MLG playlist should be coming out sometime soonish. MLG's really fun because they get rid of the only really annoying thing in Reach, AA's... at least as starting AA's.
The only thing I dislike about armor abilities is that they completely usurped equipment (which I grew to really appreciate) and they are used too much. Basically all of the armor abilities except maybe sprint should only be usable about half as often as they are. People with jet packs spend half the game off the ground. People with camo spend half the game invisible. When everyone in the game is doing that, it quickly gets irritating.
The biggest thing for me is that my friends have slowly started moving on, and that makes me not really want to play anymore either. The map pack has helped a bit. Fresh content makes me want to play more now. I was kind of getting sick of the launch maps. It's also hard to get custom games going when only 2 or 3 of my buddies are online and willing to play Halo. I like the armor abilities. I'm not awesome at Halo. I would say that I'm average. Armor abilities help switch things up a bit. In Halo 3 I would start a game and getting BR'd in like 5 seconds. Now, armor abilities help me enjoy Halo more because the game is no longer just about who can aim the best. I actually have fun playing and games seem to be more even instead of the total blowouts that I would have to endure in Halo 3.
I kind of feel this way. I like most of the Armor Abilities, but not Load-outs. I think abilities would be much better suited as pick-ups, rather than everyone constantly having whichever ability they want. On topic, I don't think Reach is getting boring at all. With most games, I play them, have fun, and then move on. But the Halo series, Reach included, has staying power.
I have to say that I still enjoy using Sprint quite a lot, though I do see where you're coming from with your point. Aside from the above, I feel that CQC has just become overly clunky in Reach. No bleed means you should melee as soon as you're in range or the enemy will and you'll be too late. 75% melee in MLG helps, but not entirely. I'd still love to play with fixed/without bloom just to see how the game's pace is. I don't find it boring yet, frustrating would be a better word, but not to the point where I don't want to play it. How long I last with the game depends largely on whether I can adjust to the new mechanic (which seems doubtful in terms of how much I loved past Halos, but you can never really judge this one until you're down the road) or whether Bungie address some of the issues that are putting me off personally. I worry on this latter point, though, since it really seems more and more like this is exactly how Bungie wanted Reach to play. I'll have to wait and see, the love affair ain't over yet at all, but the relationship is certainly looking a little strained for my part. As far as maps go, the map pack has helped but not rectified the situation. Anchor 9 is definitely my new favourite map, Tempest is fun but again has some rather frustrating aspects which detract from me enjoying it totally to about the same point as is true with Boardwalk. Breakpoint seems really nice but I haven't had a chance to play it in Invasion yet so I can't really say. I'm still quite 'eh' on the wider map compliment right now.
I'm really, really digging reach. Honestly, I haven't had so much customs since the 4-hour long Sacrifice lavapit/laugh sessions that were so much fun in Halo 3. I'm havin a blast, and I think the only issue is, like many have already said, is lack of people doing customs. People want credits to rank up, so they won't leave a matchmaking game to accept an invite, same goes for anyone doing campaign or firefight. But I still manage to have a great time, even if it's just me and one other person doing forge/1v1/**** around/team doubles. And when customs start up, it's just awesome.
You won't find many players out there that have played more customs in Halo 3 than me, and most of that was due to the friends list I had. Some of my better friends and I went ahead and played the beta and thoroughly enjoyed it, even though I had numerous connection issues once the Network Test connection went live. A few of those friends have purchased Reach, but not many of them are online. I guess they're just busy for now. I'm sure when Christmas break comes up, I'll see them on more frequently. There's a severe lack in Invasion maps... which was my big thing. I don't enjoy playing it without a friend due to the number of times I get caught with the one player that quits the game as my spawn partner. Which is sad because I'm usually pretty good at setting up camp near the enemy objective for my partner to respawn. As for the game, I still enjoy it... but don't devote my time to it due to lack of friends playing. I'll get my cR and then stop. Ironically, I spend significantly more time in Matchmaking this time around... and haven't even touched customs yet. One thing I'd like to see is spawning fixed, especially in Invasion games. Attackers need protection from spawn killing when they're alone. It's bad enough to only have one place to spawn in phase 1, and it's only compounded when you're alone there getting camped. I enjoy the AAs and think they're all fine, but think only Evade, Sprint, and Jetpack should be used in Slayer games. Team Objective games should include all of the AAs. I also think some of the loadouts could use some work. I have no issue with most of the things kids cry about. - Bloom is the same for everyone. - Armor Lock can be countered if you're smart and use your brain and don't hover around them like a retard. - The ranking system is better because a ranking system should have very few high ranked players and be pyramid shaped. The lower the rank, the more players. Halo 3's system was probably more hour glass shaped. Heavy high ranked or low ranked with few in the middle ranks.
This is the only Halo other than Halo CE where I've actually been consistantly playing it. Every other Halo game I was caught up in the hype and excitement of a new Halo game, and once that hype died out, I didn't care much about it anymore. Halo 3 is probably the biggest example of this. I only played 52 games in Halo 3 matchmaking, and I never made it past level 17 in Halo 2 (I played the hell out of campaign though). It's not really worth mentioning, but I've only played through ODST once and only played about 5 firefight missions. I liked campaign somewhat, but I can't bring myself to play it again just yet. I don't know exactly why I enjoy Reach so much, but I do. It has a Halo CE/Halo 2 feel to it that I really enjoy.
When I used to play Halo 3 I would get on every day excited to play with friends and do some matchmaking. Now when I play Reach I get on, do some challenges and then say "now what?" I cant really find anymore esciting things to do in Reach. All the maps basically look the same and the matchmaking really was not cared for that much. I didn't even buy the map pack yet because I dont think its really worth it. The maps still look the same and I think theres just too much detail. Atleast in Halo 3 You could go into matchmaking and almost every map was in a different location and had something unique about it. As for the forge mode... I wish there were different places to forge in like Halo 3. Now all you have is just a big open area that is clearly impossible to fill. You make a map and then you just see all this space around you and it makes your map seem bland. Basically I totally agree with you.
The largest reason I think Reach is still fun for me is forge/custom games. I was so disappointed in Bungie for taking out custom game options, because my favorite thing about halo has always been playing the way it wasnt intended. From mods in halo 2 to ghost merging in halo 3 to the awesome infection games and minigames that the best forgers would make. If Halo: Reach was solely matchmaking, I probably would not be playing it today. I do like the armor abilities (and love the new magnum), but there are many things I could ask for to increase the amount of fun I would have playing the game. Making the AR anything other than useless would be a nice start, and some maps in matchmaking (COUGH paridiso COUGH cliffhanger COUGH) are just awful. But overall, if it we didn't have Forge 2.0, I would have never been excited about this game. (Not to mention the custom game settings...again...). So I can see how someone who wasn't into forging, or didn't have the friends for custom games could be getting bored with Halo: Reach.
Yeah, I'm getting pretty bored of it. It alienates the Halo franchise too much and is way too frustrating for me to enjoy for much longer. I also had high expectations for forge, custom games, and the implementation of custom content into matchmaking that were not met, and for no good reason. The maps aren't that great either.
Well, they are working on that. A good number of Forgetacular submissions are going to be implemented into matchmaking.