The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

When Reach was coming out, I was all like, “No. I hate Halo. I dislike the feel of all of Halo’s weapons, and I hate how everyone takes a million shots to kill. I hate how it moves so slowly. I had a lot of fun with Halo 3, but that was dicking around with awesome people. No, I don’t have time for Reach, and I don’t want it. I only bought Halo 3 to play co-op anyway.”

Then everyone started talking about it, and eventually Cole was like “Hey, I got my students loans and I bought Reach, let’s play!” So I gave in to the inevitable. I would be timely, I would play Reach.
I haven’t beat it yet. I’m on Mission 8 of what, 10 missions, I believe? 11 missions? I’m a good chunk there. Enough to write some impressions, anyway.

First off, it’s clear that Bungie is really good at what they do. The game shows a really strong level of polish that I sometimes forget Halo has after playing so many other standard shooters. The experience is refined to perfection.
It’s just not really any different.
Seriously, the gameplay is exactly the same as it has been in previous Halo titles. They try to mix it up by adding the armor abilities, which are cool, though sometimes kind of silly. For example, Sprint is so basic, as you play, that it bothers you when you pick up some other cool thing and lose it. There’s no reason for it not to be just a normal ability you have. Playing with the Jetpack, Hologram, and Drop Shield, though, is a ton of fun, especially in a co-op scenario, where you can run ahead and use Armor Lock or the Drop Shield to draw fire, and have a friend rush up from behind. They did those abilities well. Still, the way you kill the enemies, fundamentally, hasn’t changed. The Plasma Pistol works just like a Plasma Pistol, and you use it to pull down shields the same way. The Assault Rifle is still completely awful and I hate it (although they did power it up a bit from Halo 3, so that is appreciated) and the grenades grenade the exact same way. You have a few new toys, but you’re fighting the same enemies who fall to the same tactics. In the end, it’s just Halo.

The campaign does try to mix it up with a weird space shooting section. This section controls really well, but it is, in the end, kind of shallow. Your missiles are super-homing, and it brings up a little “lead” marker on your screen, so any difficulty in shooting targets with your cannons is nonexistent as well. It’s a fun distraction, but just that. If you could bring those ships into Forge and do something cool with them, well, then we’d talk. As it was, it was a nice break from the normal bang bang of the game, but nothing more. I couldn’t handle a whole game of that, for example.

I do appreciate other little touches. For example, I love the fact that you make your main character, and see them in cutscenes. I couldn’t give a shit about the Halo story, but the fact that I can make a custom female Spartan and see her doing things story-wise is actually something I really like. I mean, my character is going to be generic gun-wielding dude no matter what they do. Might as well make them customizable, so I have a chance of being a little more attached. It also makes campaign co-op more inviting, because you’re rolling with your friends, who all have their unique colors and outfits on. It’s nice.

That’s… about all I have to say about Reach. I don’t regret not buying it. I may regret it once Coffee and the other Talking Timers come up with some ridiculous Forge maps I can’t play, but I probably wouldn’t have time to play them anyway. I do say I am enjoying the campaign, and want to finish it. But that’s purely because co-op makes everything better. I can’t imagine playing Halo: Reach without at least one other person, just like I couldn’t imagine playing Halo 3 that way. I tried playing ODST that way, and hated it completely, just confirming my suspicions.

I dunno, it’s Halo! What more is there to say, really?