Halo Reach

[Matt]

Have to say, I'm really enjoying the multiplayer in this - still! The melee is SO much better, just a little tweak to the much maligned [by me] system in H3. It's balanced now, no cheapness.

Will get back to the campaign at some point, but TBH it's another silly story told in a childish manner. Guess Bungie were contracted to leave room for an even earlier Master Chef prequel Halfway through, the AI is typical Halo AI - you chuck a grenade, enemies predictably roll out of the way. Their pathfinding is good, but the behaviour I'm seeing is apparently different to the "Best AI EVAH!" crowd. You can snipe enemies and the guy standing right next to him does nothing, lol. They're only tough because they're bullet sponges.

Have had some nice moments in the campaign. The opening level vista is very nice. Imagine it would be atmospheric if I wasn't playing it with a few mates, all of us ****ing around. Stand out action sequence was..... don't know what level or a name, or even what why we were there, but you're kind of running up a beach towards a building. It had great flow, very natural. Shame it ended quickly.

I'm not going to rate it until I've done the campaign in single player. Multiplayer is where it's at for me at the moment

[Uli]

wow, i just learned a remarkable ability of Spartan IIIs: they can crash-land and survive from an orbital drop

still, makes me wonder why even tougher Spartan IIs like Master Chief have to rely on entry pods?

[JohnMcL7]

wow, i just learned a remarkable ability of Spartan IIIs: they can crash-land and survive from an orbital drop

still, makes me wonder why even tougher Spartan IIs like Master Chief have to rely on entry pods?

This is actually canon, not sure if I need spoiler tags but will do anyway.

->Open Spoiler<-

When Reach was under attack the Covenant sent Elite strike teams planetside to take out the power reactors feeding the orbital MACs which unlike the ship-based versions have very quick recharge times. The MasterChief sends half his team of Mk II Spartans after the Elites to defend the reactors and keep the MACs online but a scarab shoots the Pelican down forcing the Spartans to jump out and freefall to the planet. They mostly survive by overpressurizing the gel layer and while they suffer damage, they were in stock mk V Mjolnir whereas Noble team appear to have customised and possibly improved variants.

John

[Matt]

Strange things are afoot. In game, it's saying there are only 449 players online in total! Must be a fault somewhere.

And **** do I hate SWAT. Why can't we have a simply Team Slayer Only playlist??

[EvilBoris]

The Campaign suddenly got much more fun after the 3rd mission and the graphics looked better too as of that Night time mission. When they were all just talking in that cave , the lighting was just stunning.

[Uli]

This is actually canon, not sure if I need spoiler tags but will do anyway.

->Open Spoiler<-

When Reach was under attack the Covenant sent Elite strike teams planetside to take out the power reactors feeding the orbital MACs which unlike the ship-based versions have very quick recharge times. The MasterChief sends half his team of Mk II Spartans after the Elites to defend the reactors and keep the MACs online but a scarab shoots the Pelican down forcing the Spartans to jump out and freefall to the planet. They mostly survive by overpressurizing the gel layer and while they suffer damage, they were in stock mk V Mjolnir whereas Noble team appear to have customised and possibly improved variants.

John

thanks for trying an explanation John. i just think that even if Spartan IIIs have better armor - which is unlikely since there number is much higher - it surely is not the most intelligible storytelling to

->Open Spoiler<-

find your character kicked out of a spaceship by a team-mate and then crashland on a planet all in one peace.

but, oh well, storytelling never was Bungies strong point.

apart from that i loved every minute of the campaign so far - i am at the end on mission 8. i just wish there were further 8 missions to follow but i already sense the end is near...

[FelixofMars]

Agreed. It seems the only way to extend a short campaign. Maybe I am getting older but I am sick of cheap AI who can shoot/throw through tiny cover gaps and have 3 times more health/shield than you but are always backing off.

I've finished Legendary solo. Spent eight hours earlier finishing the remaining three levels. I'm shocked, thrilled, and angry. I also never want to do anything like that again.

I guess it's prove that even the worst Halo players (myself, of course) can tackle a challenge such as this, with perseverance and swearing.

[MJ]

i just think that even if Spartan IIIs have better armor - which is unlikely since there number is much higher - it surely is not the most intelligible storytelling to

->Open Spoiler<-

find your character kicked out of a spaceship by a team-mate and then crashland on a planet all in one peace.

but, oh well, storytelling never was Bungies strong point.

Reach's Spartans can't be from the

->Open Spoiler<-

Spartan III programme

because that happens in one of the books after the Fall of Reach and their

->Open Spoiler<-

armour is described as being less bulky than the Spartan II armour

. I think they appear in Ghosts of Onyx.

[EvilBoris]

Aren't Noble Team wearing Crazy Army prototype versions of armor instead of the lame Navy armour the MC has?

[mr_sockochris]

Strange things are afoot. In game, it's saying there are only 449 players online in total! Must be a fault somewhere.

And **** do I hate SWAT. Why can't we have a simply Team Slayer Only playlist??

SWAT will have its own playlist very soon. Everything was put togther around launch so people will try all the game modes instead of just sticking to what they know.

[JohnMcL7]

Reach's Spartans can't be from the

->Open Spoiler<-

Spartan III programme

because that happens in one of the books after the Fall of Reach and their

->Open Spoiler<-

armour is described as being less bulky than the Spartan II armour

. I think they appear in Ghosts of Onyx.

No, they are all Spartan Mk III's apart from Jorge-052 - the timeline is confusing because Ghosts of Onyx was written and published after Fall of Reach. By the time the events of the Ghosts of Onyx were occuring, the Spartan Mk III program had been on the go for a couple of decades and the first two generations (Alpha, Beta) had been trained, equipped and deployed with Gamma just finishing.

Initially Spartan Mk IIIs were equipped with the SPI armour (Semi-Powered Infiltration) which was more basic and cheaper than Mjolnir as it lacked shielding, instead it offered some active camouflage ability. Mk IIIs were sent in large groups against high value targets and expected to take massive losses which is exactly what happened in reality as only a very small number of mk III's survived.

Those who did survive were taken off the suicide missions and redeployed with upgraded armour (such as Mjolnir for Noble team) as to survive was considered exceptional. Some were sent as two man recon teams very deep into covenant territory or in other cases were deployed as the Noble team. Emile-A239, Carter-A259 and Jun-A266 were amongst the first of the Mk IIIs in the Alpha group whereas your own character (Spartan-B312) and Cat-B320 are from the second Beta group.

John

[JohnMcL7]

Aren't Noble Team wearing Crazy Army prototype versions of armor instead of the lame Navy armour the MC has?

No, it's still mk V although at the time there were some prototype new VI parts on Reach - the Mk IIs that are stranded on Reach after it's glassed get some of these upgrades from Dr Halsey to replace the damaged sections from their Pelican jump. The MC gets the full VI set just at the start of Halo 2, it seems possible based on the obvious variations that the Mk IIIs have that they may have had access to some new armour parts.

John

[JohnMcL7]

thanks for trying an explanation John. i just think that even if Spartan IIIs have better armor - which is unlikely since there number is much higher - it surely is not the most intelligible storytelling to

->Open Spoiler<-

find your character kicked out of a spaceship by a team-mate and then crashland on a planet all in one peace.

but, oh well, storytelling never was Bungies strong point.

apart from that i loved every minute of the campaign so far - i am at the end on mission 8. i just wish there were further 8 missions to follow but i already sense the end is near...

->Open Spoiler<-

Noble team were on equal status with mk II Spartans and based on their armour variations it appears they did have access to some upgrades. The bulk of the Mk IIs at the time were meant to be heading off planet deep into Covenant space so it would make no sense to give them untested prototypes rather than their tried and tested mk V armour. Noble Team were based on Reach however so would have ready access to whatever armour they wanted as they wouldn't be far away if there were any issues. The Mk IIs that returned to Reach to secure the Reactors did receive partial upgrades to their Mk V armour.

I assume Bungie expect the audience to think that Spartans are just so totally badass they can survive an orbital fall. I would have preferred they did something more convincing though such as force you to fight back limping before getting into a transport and being fixed up somewhere.

I was away staying at a hotel this weekend and asked for the WPA key for the wifi so I could go online, after playing Reach rather a lot I was amused that the key was 'Spartans'. I mentioned I thought this was amusing having played Halo rather a lot, unsurprisingly it turned out the son was a Halo fan and had chosen it. Admittedly it's not what you'd expect the key to be at a golfing hotel!

John

[Matt]

SWAT will have its own playlist very soon. Everything was put togther around launch so people will try all the game modes instead of just sticking to what they know.

Cool, thanks for letting me know

[rmoxon]

Agreed. It seems the only way to extend a short campaign. Maybe I am getting older but I am sick of cheap AI who can shoot/throw through tiny cover gaps and have 3 times more health/shield than you but are always backing off.

You say that, yet if you actualy read what you said, you make it sound like anyone who has completed even one level on legendary is some kind of war god...

Now arent you proud of your achievements?