I've never been a huge fan of the Halo franchise. I remember back in the early 2000, this far away, almost mystic time when I played mostly FPSes. I heard about this game called Halo, how it was awesome and a gamechanger in the FPS genre and all that. Then I tried it in a lan house I used to go (oh the 2000s...) and I remember three things about it: It began in this place with grass, I hated it and the assault rifle sucked beyond belief. And that was it for me with Halo.
Until Halo 3, I got utterly caught up by the hype and ended up buying a special edition even though there was no good reason for me to. I just really liked the trailers I guess. Good news was, I didn't have to work for that money but better yet, even if I did, I'd like to believe I would have thought it was a good investment. I did play a lot of Halo 3, finished the campaign at least twice (one in Legendary) and played a good number of hours in multiplayer. I recall having a 995/1000 in that game, the only achievement I didn't get was the one you had to use a Spartan laser to kill two guys. I do think I managed to do that once, but it was in another game mode... so no samurai sword for me. I played a few other Halo games here and there but mostly that was it untill today and the awesomeness that is gamepass.
Why am I telling all this, especially considering very few people will read? Well, because I felt I need to explain the title. Of course Halo: Reach wouldn't be a Call of Duty clone, but I wasn't sure what to expect from the game. Both because I really don't remember how Halo 3 was structured but also because knowing Reach came a few years after Modern Warfare, I expect to see a lot of that game in it. But I didn't. Halo's sandbox nature hit me right in the face for good measure.
It took me a while to really understand it, and some of the mechanics (assasination, vehicle hijacking) were only made known to me in my second playthrough on Legendary (I died a lot). But overall I loved the game. The campaign feels a bit weird, like it is just a bunch of multiplayer maps back to back and at times I felt I had no idea where was foward and where was back, but all the firefights made it worth it. Hijacking one of those tanks just to throw a granade inside or using the jatpack to get inside a Banshee is the kind of stuff that you don't see in other games. There is a clear identity to Reach that even if I don't approve of everything (the visuals in particualr feel very... plastic and unnatural) I will say it's a great FPS.
Anyway, I played Reach twice, one time in Heroic and another one in Legendary, this is how I felt:
Holy shit this game is annoying on Legendary. I died so many times... one wrong move and you're dead. Although there were times when everything worked that were beautiful. Once I used a hologram to distract one Elite. I rushed him and killed the fucker with two shotgun shots. Right then I saw another elite and he was gone with anotehr blast and a melee attack. The fact that I shortly afterward was one hitted by a Hunter blast in beyond the point. So is the fact that played that particular checkpoint some 20 times, and in most of them the elite pair killed me. Or is it? I don't know. I really want to know what people think of Halo games on Legendary.
Two things to finish. One: The storytelling was a bit confusing to me. The games move so fast that is hard to keep track of what's going on. So here we are on Reach investiganting an attack. Oh turns out it's the Covenant. Turns out it's a full invasion out of nowhere! Now I'm on space! Now I'm back at a city helping people escape...
Two: Kat-B320. I love her. And I loved her even before playing this game because of her amazing voice pack in XCOM2. Here's to you, Kat (and whoever did that mod, here's to you too).
Until Halo 3, I got utterly caught up by the hype and ended up buying a special edition even though there was no good reason for me to. I just really liked the trailers I guess. Good news was, I didn't have to work for that money but better yet, even if I did, I'd like to believe I would have thought it was a good investment. I did play a lot of Halo 3, finished the campaign at least twice (one in Legendary) and played a good number of hours in multiplayer. I recall having a 995/1000 in that game, the only achievement I didn't get was the one you had to use a Spartan laser to kill two guys. I do think I managed to do that once, but it was in another game mode... so no samurai sword for me. I played a few other Halo games here and there but mostly that was it untill today and the awesomeness that is gamepass.
Why am I telling all this, especially considering very few people will read? Well, because I felt I need to explain the title. Of course Halo: Reach wouldn't be a Call of Duty clone, but I wasn't sure what to expect from the game. Both because I really don't remember how Halo 3 was structured but also because knowing Reach came a few years after Modern Warfare, I expect to see a lot of that game in it. But I didn't. Halo's sandbox nature hit me right in the face for good measure.
It took me a while to really understand it, and some of the mechanics (assasination, vehicle hijacking) were only made known to me in my second playthrough on Legendary (I died a lot). But overall I loved the game. The campaign feels a bit weird, like it is just a bunch of multiplayer maps back to back and at times I felt I had no idea where was foward and where was back, but all the firefights made it worth it. Hijacking one of those tanks just to throw a granade inside or using the jatpack to get inside a Banshee is the kind of stuff that you don't see in other games. There is a clear identity to Reach that even if I don't approve of everything (the visuals in particualr feel very... plastic and unnatural) I will say it's a great FPS.
Anyway, I played Reach twice, one time in Heroic and another one in Legendary, this is how I felt:
Holy shit this game is annoying on Legendary. I died so many times... one wrong move and you're dead. Although there were times when everything worked that were beautiful. Once I used a hologram to distract one Elite. I rushed him and killed the fucker with two shotgun shots. Right then I saw another elite and he was gone with anotehr blast and a melee attack. The fact that I shortly afterward was one hitted by a Hunter blast in beyond the point. So is the fact that played that particular checkpoint some 20 times, and in most of them the elite pair killed me. Or is it? I don't know. I really want to know what people think of Halo games on Legendary.
Two things to finish. One: The storytelling was a bit confusing to me. The games move so fast that is hard to keep track of what's going on. So here we are on Reach investiganting an attack. Oh turns out it's the Covenant. Turns out it's a full invasion out of nowhere! Now I'm on space! Now I'm back at a city helping people escape...
Two: Kat-B320. I love her. And I loved her even before playing this game because of her amazing voice pack in XCOM2. Here's to you, Kat (and whoever did that mod, here's to you too).
