some other notes on Reach having replayed it after a couple of years:
-The animation is fantastic across the board. The Spartans, the Covenant, the Marines, the mo-cap cutscenes, the Assassinations, the ragdolls. Its all very expressive, dynamic, its just great, never better. Obv much higher poly count on just about everybody too.
-Rather liked the Assault Rifle actually, both the look and the sound. Definitely better than the "old timey popcorn machines" of H2 SMG and H3 AR.
-Framerate drops make baby Black Jesus cry
-Good FUCK do shields take forever to recharge in this game. Combine that with the lower base speed/jumps and fighting Hunters suddenly got challenging again.
-The level design/encounter design is generally very strong. Lot of big, open environments mixed with tighter interior sections, not a lot of backtracking, the art direction is strong with darker, muted color hues to fit the tone of the narrative. LOT of enemies in one scene, they really turned up the scale on these things, but the have the enemy AI to back it up. First time I really respected Elites as opponents, at least on Heroic. They're faster than you, have stupid good weapons instead of just plasma rifles all the time, lot of strafing and dodging in unpredictable ways, they're cool. As a fan of previous campaigns, you start to notice all the scenarios Bungie brings out. There's a nighttime sniper section, purple Covenant cruiser with narrow hallways funneling into larger playspaces, Scorpion tank time, hold this position segment, take this Warthog and go in either direction you like on the second level, Brute Chieftain/Elite Zealots at the finale, storm the beachhead with your buddies, etc.
-Fuck the vehicle system straight up its ass
-Propipe is cool, wish it did more damage like it does in multi. New Covenant weapons are OddOne tier, you got that red plasma thing that has a mile wide splash damage and hurts like a bitch when Elites/Brutes use it, but you grab it and it just kinda bounces them around. Plasma LOLaucher. The Needle rifle WISHES it was the Carbine so hard. There's a bigger Plasma Rifle, uh ok.
-Did marines get dumber between games? I swear they dropped straight down to bad kid status no matter what they're doing. God help you if you let one of them drive so you can use the turret like you would in Halo 3 or ODST, they can't handle shit anymore.
-Equipment is mostly whatever. I'll see "so you want to use struggle bubble shield that blows up in 2-3 seconds or camo that doesn't really work and mostly confuses yourself" and I'm like "Nah I got sprint thanks bae". The jetpack is good though. The extra verticality has a lot of good usage, particularly in the City section. My favorite improv bit is near the end of the fourth chapter where you have to breach the Spire, a Banshee flew down and started showing at whats-his-face with the minigun. He tried flying off, but I got up on a rock and jetpacked right up to him as he was leaving, booted his ass off, and just flew up to the top, got a checkpoint and everything. Halo.
-The turret/space ship stuff is just fine. Not great, not awful, just some new thing to do. In Halo 3, you had four levels of Covenant fighting with increasing complexity, fought in a variety of locales of various shapes and sizes, with a great weapon/vehicle sandbox. The Storm is a big climatic mission, with the Scarab, Hunters, Brute Chieftans, assault the AA gun on the hill, etc. You gotta switch it up after that, and thats where Floodgate comes in, new enemies with a different pace and feel to combat than what you've been playing so far. Well, Reach doesn't have any Flood, so they gotta find other ways to introduce variety. So now the fifth level is a Rogue Leader section/low gravity/Truth and Reconiliation-High Charity purple Covenant level, then you introduce the Brutes back into play, then you split your battles up with a surprisingly enjoyable new flying vehicle connecting them together, then you backtrack to Swordbase with the Tank section and then uh...fight waves and waves of Covenant fuck it we're out of ideas.
edit: Final note, I really like the broad strokes escalation of how fucked Reach becomes.
Like, first mission, "comm arrays offline, ya'll go check that shit out, IDK rebels or some shit", think its gonna be pretty routine, get there and "oh SHIT son aliens
" Second mission, you ride in to protect your homeboys at ONI Swordbase, turn on comm arrays and AA guns, clear out the base, blow up their carriers, you feelin' yourself a little bit. "LMAO these aliens aint shit how you gon invade a militarized planet breh
" Third mission, "Aight let me go see just how many of these niggas on the planet anyway just so we know how much to put on the leaderboard
oh hold up hold
up fam THERES LIKE A MILLION OF THESE DUDES IN THE CUT RIGHT NOW
"
Fourth stage, bring your whole crew, rolling deep, blowing up towers. "
popped a sweat that time, but we got em. Bring in the USS Big-Ass Gun pls", blew up the Spire...and thats when Covenant Bigger-Ass gun swoop in like "lol yeah ok little ship gg no re
"
Fifth stage, ya'll REALLY working your ass off, storming beaches, space dogfights, infiltrating alien warships, heroic sacrifices, damn USS Savanah going down, like "Man...this fucking sucked, but we did it fam...we did it
"...and thats when like two dozen Covenant Supercruisers show up laughing at us and its just the most demoralizing shit in the world.
Its like you think you through taking Ls, and then you get an even bigger L. Its like the video game version of Elzar's life.
