Halo Reach (Thoughts)

Recently, I've been playing Halo Reach again for some reason. And I found I actually really like it. I might like it even better than 3. Though I'm not fond of approximately 70% of the people I get teamed up with. But once you find the one player that does exactly what you need and can hold their own. You can usually partner up and really start having fun. It's not really about winning half the time either it's more about just playing a good game and acknowledging that one team played well and the other team played better. That's nice, it's nice, it's really cool.

I still don't understand people's beef with Halo 4, but what I do know is that Halo 4 ended up just being the same routine over and over again. Shit gets real old after you Ninja the guy coming up the lift with the inevitable Boltshot for the 50th time. But with Reach it's almost always a new game in the beginning, because you're uncertain of what the enemy is going to do early on. Are they gonna rush snipe to get their long sight lines on lockdown. Or will they go for Rockets and get an easy two free kills to net them an early lead? Or will they forgo all that and decide to rush head on while we're still trying to get everything locked up. It's interesting how the very beginning of a game can influence how differently the game will progress depending on the knowledge that each player has on every certain aspect of the map.

It also becomes sort of a mind game, when you're able to determine what your opponent knows about the game and be able to set up ambushes and set ups before they even know what they're going to do. It's really all about learning how your opponent functions, kind of like in fighting games but without as being able to tell if you're opponent knows what you're going to do. Which, in many cases you just gotta be unpredictable. Think ahead of what you're going to do the next time you die.

To say that the Spartans are much more hindered is an accurate statement I feel, but that lends Reach to being a much more different and some ways much more tactical than the prior games ever were. Because in 3, it didn't really matter what weapon the other team had, so long as you had a BR in tow you could take on pretty much anything provided you did well. So, you could pretty much walk around the map whenever and however you pleased. Not to undermine Halo 3's much more on-your-toes approach to the game, but that's what made it a great Arena Shooter, it was all down to reflexes and skill. That's what made it so much fun to play both casually and competitively. Reach however goes about much more tactically and much more slowly, giving both teams enough time to understand everything that transpires in the game and react accordingly. Plus, due to other weapons being much more effective than a DMR created that much more necessity to co-ordinate with your team and watch each other backs a lot more. Also, I do genuinely enjoy the bloom. It creates and interesting dynamic where the player can get lucky and spam all their shots or pace them to make sure they get the kill. And created special scenarios where a player can fire at an enemy that's trying to run away much more quickly. A feature that has never seen the light of day in previous iterations. I think that's what made me hate the DMR so much in Halo 4. Because it looked as though it still had bloom to it, but you could fire shots as fast as you wanted and the shots would hit dead-on everytime.

So yeah, Reach may be the black sheep for the Halo franchise. But I honestly think it was better for it because of that reason. Had, it not had the Halo name slapped on it so unnecessarily. I think this could have been the FPS to play for that generation. I kind of want another game to along with the very same principles as Reach but without the Halo name being attached to it. It would feel like a game intended for a very specific shooter audience that really hasn't come to fruition yet. I dunno, just my two cents.