GhaleonEB said:
Thing is, what really makes this game different from the rest of the series are not the top level changes. The most dramatic change was the addition of Armor Abilities and Load Outs, and even they feel like an evolution of Halo 3's Equipment. You can build a very Halo-feeling game with them. Ditto with with the targeting bloom. What Reach did was make changes to the foundation of Halo's gameplay that feel arbitrary. We're slower and jump much lower, and the melee system was overhauled after four games. Why? I've heard Bungie describe the changes, but not what they wanted to accomplish with them. I don't understand how significantly reduced mobility and that bizarre shield/melee system help the game at all. It's those kind of details that affect the experience much more than the big ticket changes, IMO.
I fully agree with you about how the smaller fundamental changes bring about some of the biggest alterations to the feel of the game. I also echo your asking for explanations of not how things are changed but why. However, may I suggest a reason why I think we have yet to hear about such things?
This is just conjecture and speculation.
When making a game, the bigger the change, the harder it is to implement it. Sure you can tweak health and shields but making the outcome of a campaign level change is on a different scale and one is more likely to receive change than the other.
I think with Reach, all the foundations have been laid and put into place. No big features, at this point in development, can be radically altered. The small changes are all open though. To give an example, Bungie have revealed it's new tool for creating new game types. With the fundamentals in place the finished game may ship with a dozen multiplayer game types or two dozen.
The smaller features may be able to be tweaked for months ahead. Campaign and multiplayer don't always need to share the exact same mechanical restrictions, so decisions aren't all ironbound across the entire game. The game's engine doesn't need to be rewritten for small changes.
It would be hard to explain why something was changed, to explain what was intended by a change is the change itself isn't finalised.
I think we'll hear more from Bungie on the why, not just the how, as the game edges closer to release and the Beta is but a fond memory. Sometimes these changes and their explanations will come after the game has shipped or maybe we'll never find out.
The lack of a "Making of" documentary with the shipped game was initially disappointing but we have been told that such material may be forth coming by alternative means and maybe then we'll get the pertinent answers and explanations that hardcore fans ask and ponder about.
I also think someone else here might have hit the nail on the head. It seems to be true too from the media reports of the Beta. If casual fans still recognise Reach as featuring the traditional and familiar Halo formula, then explaining the changes won't be as high a priority that it would have been if the casual players didn't immediately click with the game.
Maybe I'm talking poop, it's always hard to draw conclusions about the bigger picture when you can only see a small section of it.
