Halo Reach

[englishbob]

I enjoyed my second night of playing SP than my first. I am on chapter 3 now, and its showing a different side to it.

My usual bugbears with Halo remain though. Story and the way the story tries to explain itself is poor. Cutscenes confuse, characters are introduced, dropped in a second, squads just vanish and then reappear from somewhere. I have no idea what is going on, how I got there, and how everyone else is, and it always ends up boiling down to "go this way", "press X to activate". No sense of involvement whatsoever.

Valve showed the way years ago with Half Life 2, its incredible that in reality, no-one else has gone with that way of telling a story and presenting a character within a FPS that way since. If they have then it has been rare.

[Brats]

I wouldn't call Halo the pinnacle of storytelling, but I do like its approach of treating the audience with intelligence (possibly more than it deserves). It requires the player to read between the lines and doesn't feel the need to signpost obvious stuff. This can backfire though, as a lot of people missed the crucial twist at the end of Halo 2 for example, but I prefer its approach rather than being explicit.

But the best thing is all the metaphors to organised religion. It's not completely overt, but it is pretty blatant and I'm surprised it hasn't caused more of an uproar. It's like a videogame written by Phillip Pullman.

[elaniel]

I've played up to Chapter 5. I may have just been tired last night, but there hasn't been anything that's wowed me yet. I've enjoyed it, but (so far) I haven't seen or done anything memorable like in Halo 3. I know I'm only about half way through, I just want it to ramp up a bit.

EDIT:
(Also, I hope it's okay to post this here)
I have a bonus UA Multi-Threat MJOLNIR MARK 5V (B ARMOR) and RECON helmet codes.

If anyone wants them, send me a PM and I'll pick randomers later on today

[englishbob]

I wouldn't call Halo the pinnacle of storytelling, but I do like its approach of treating the audience with intelligence. This can backfire though

Here is what I know of the Halo story, and I have played all of them...

Your a giant man-come-human thing, on a spaceship that comes under attack and you escape to a planet that is actually a massive Halo. You start to fight against some enemies called the Covenant. The Coveneant themselves have enemies, which in turn become you enemies, called the Flood.

Thats all I know. The rest has passed me by. Maybe I am thick and/or have a terrible memory. What I do remember are storys and events from films I haven't seen for years and can recount most of them and how all the characters and events fit in. With Halo though, this has never happened. Through process of elmination, I'd say they are doing something wrong with the story and the way its communicated.

[Riskbreaker]

I've played up to Chapter 5. I may have just been tired last night, but there hasn't been anything that's wowed me yet. I've enjoyed it, but (so far) I haven't seen or done anything memorable like in Halo 3. I know I'm only about half way through, I just want it to ramp up a bit.

Finished chapters 5 and 6 on solo Legendary after you jumped off last night. The House of Bungie has been cursed many, many times

Elites as expected are complete bastards and all need to die, die, die. I think Bungie have gone a bit over board with their evasion, it's enough that they take quite a kicking in the first place without dodging every shot fired in their direction.

All hail the Armor-lock though, is it me or does it stop tagged plasma grenades from killing you? Didn't play the Beta so it was fairly new to me. Sod jetpacks, I'll take the ability to survive a plasma tagging anyday. Shame the Elites know to wait until it expires before filling you with bullets.

Elites aside I've been quite impressed with the campaign so far. The story isn't going to win any awards but it's been quite straightforward to follow and it's certainly providing plenty of spectacle. One problem with playing Legendary is you're so occupied trying to stay alive that you tend to miss some scenes playing out in the background. I'll probably play through on normal next just so that I can watch what's going on

[elaniel]

I hope you please help me with those chapters then, no way in hell I can make it through on my own on Legendary

[Riskbreaker]

Of course dude, I just had to play on as I was really getting into it. You know what I'm like once the Elites start pissing me off. If it wasn't for me we'd have swapped to Heroic after the first Elite encounter on chapter 1

There are some pretty darstardly set pieces later on. Most of which involve Elites of course.

[Brats]

Maybe I am thick and/or have a terrible memory. What I do remember are storys and events from films I haven't seen for years and can recount most of them and how all the characters and events fit in. With Halo though, this has never happened. Through process of elmination, I'd say they are doing something wrong with the story and the way its communicated.

Or maybe it just isn't a style you prefer. A method of of storytelling can't be 'wrong' if some people can follow and enjoy it. I haven't read any of the Halo books, but I undestand they sell pretty well, so some people must enjoy the story.

[ItsThere]

This can backfire though, as a lot of people missed the crucial twist at the end of Halo 2 for example, but I prefer its approach rather than being explicit.
.

Which bit do you mean?

[Brats]

The twist was that the Covenant were not invading Earth after all. They were after something far more deadly to the universe - the ark. It just happened that the location of forerunner portal that gave access to the ark happened to be on Earth.

[Brats]

I'll add that the game doesn't explicitly say this, but there are lots of references from Cortana about the attack on earth being not the full Covenant force and she intercepts a radio message from the Covenant saying they have been beaten to 'it'.

The reason becomes apparent at the end when we find out about the ark and that the Covenant are seeking it. The 'it' the Covenant are referring to is the ark and they think they have been beaten to it by the humans, not realising that humans have lived on Earth for millenia and have no idea that the secret of the ark is on their homeworld, beneath the ground of New Mombassa.

It's a way of telling a story that I quite like, where bits of conversations throughout the game piece together an overall story without having to overtly rely on cruder methods like a narrator or some dude talking loads of exposition.

Conversely, I didn't like the storytelling in Half Life 2 so much, as Gordon's actions seem incongruous to what he knows at specific points and the story has to be relayed at times through exposition from the characters. Horses for courses though, I appreciate that many people love HL2's way of doing things.

[Orgun]

Heh

[ItsThere]

I'll add that the game doesn't explicitly say this, but there are lots of references from Cortana about the attack on earth being not the full Covenant force and she intercepts a radio message from the Covenant saying they have been beaten to 'it'.

The reason becomes apparent at the end when we find out about the ark and that the Covenant are seeking it. The 'it' the Covenant are referring to is the ark and they think they have been beaten to it by the humans, not realising that humans have lived on Earth for millenia and have no idea that the secret of the ark is on their homeworld, beneath the ground of New Mombassa.

It's a way of telling a story that I quite like, where bits of conversations throughout the game piece together an overall story without having to overtly rely on cruder methods like a narrator or some dude talking loads of exposition.

Conversely, I didn't like the storytelling in Half Life 2 so much, as Gordon's actions seem incongruous to what he knows at specific points and the story has to be relayed at times through exposition from the characters. Horses for courses though, I appreciate that many people love HL2's way of doing things.

Ah fair enough, I remember figuring that out to, it makes sense in the overall scheme of things - the Covenant are focusing all their efforts on one part of the planet (much like the control centre in the original Halo) so they obviously have information pointing them there.

Otherswise they would just be glassign the planet. Like Reach.

[englishbob]

Heh

Me in a nutshell.

[Malc]

After one, 1 hour session of Halo Reach, my Xbox has red ringed with a E74 error.

The game was good up to that point though. Very satisfying combat.