After the awesomeness of the beta and HaloGAF's desire to have more of the same, I've come to the conclusion that
HaloGAF as a whole is simply out of touch with what makes a good Halo game. My friends and everyone I work with absolutely loved the beta. We literally couldn't stop talking about it and had life allowed, would have played so much more. I guess that's why I was so shocked to hear people here complaining about movement, weapons, and well, just about everything. I simply and categorically disagree with
just about every complaint leveled at Reach on this message board.
Was the beta perfect? Nope. Was it the train-wreck that so many of you make it out to be? Absolutely not.
It really makes me wonder how much Reach will change, and whether these changes will be for the better or for the worse. I put my money on Bungie making the right decisions, but I have to wonder given some of the harsh reactions here on GAF. I really hope that a message board minority (let's face it, HaloGAF is a very small number of people) won't have much of an impact on a developer that's just trying to make a kick butt game.
I'm very sorry and don't mean to offend, but HaloGAF, you're out of touch.
With Reach it really feels as if Bungie went back to what made the original Halo a "combat evolved" experience. I had the time of my life playing Halo 2 with my friends, and with Halo 3, it died out very quickly.
Reach resparked that Halo fire for us, and it really felt like a natural evolution of the game. From my experience, it was successful in catering to both the hardcore like myself, and the casuals like many of my friends. It was balanced, fun, spontaneous, tactical,
skillful, and well, Halo
evolved.
Reach takes just what it needs from past Halo games and adds its own special sauce. I don't want mechanical parity with Halo 3. I don't want the weapons to behave the same from the targeting to the damage, to the grenades. I don't want to leap around like I've been leaping for years, and I don't even care to run as fast.
I want Halo but I want it updated and fresh, and that's what Reach provided.
I'm really anxious to see if Bungie can sort through the feedback and introspectively look at what their goals are with Reach and head towards those ends.
Come fall, I'm hoping that both camps will be pleasantly satisfied. And if not, perhaps we'll reunite around Bungie's new IP.
toodles