Anti-hype : Halo: Reach

Article originally written in French by Solo the CyberpunK and translated in English by DarkEvil.
See original here.

Halo: Reach will be out in a couple of days and I can't help but share my hatred towards thousands of Halo fans who'll soon run to buy this game. I completed Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST and I still can't manage to understand what's so great about this game. Let's be serious: this game has a lot of flaws on all regards. It can surely not say it has evolved over the years.

For starters, this article is only an opinion. It's entirely possible that you don't agree and it might be exactly what you need to pursue reading the article or stop right now.

My biggest complaint against Halo is that the single player campaign is not up to par. The gameplay is repetitive, so are the objectives and environments. The multiplayer game is great as is, but for a game with a selling price of 60 bucks, we deserve better in terms of gameplay and variety. It wouldn't be a problem if it was any game. The problem is that it's Halo : the game everybody qualifies as perfect. It's the "hype" that angers me: there are so many better quality titles!

Halo: Combat "Devolved"

The first Halo deserves respect. It was very beautiful for its time, it had vehicles, the possibility to use many weapons including extra-terrestrial...

Halo 2 added online gameplay, a feature many were waiting for, but the single player campaign was pretty similar.

Then Halo 3, the "last game of the series". It only brought the game to a next-gen platform with better graphics. That's all. Halo 3 is nothing amazing gameplay-wise or even if we're talking about the story and originality of the game: it's exactly the same game, admit it.

Halo 3: ODST. Hmm, Microsoft found a way not to release a Halo 4: they release Halo 3... 2! The story and objectives were both not clear and not original.

Halo is a playable game, I give you that, but it doesn't deserve to appear under any top 10 list. If it does, it's because the person making that list hasn't played enough games. The classics.

I quickly learned something. The games available at the release of a console nearly always become instant classics. When you buy yourself a new console, you want games. So you take anything you find at the store, but more precisely the one everyone is talking about. It might be due to a whole new generation of console gamers (in 2001) for whom Halo was their first shooter, those who didn't know anything about the past of video games with classics such as Half-Life, Unreal and also GoldenEye. And when you see something for the first time, you're always impressed, no matter if it's a quality product or not (remember your first video game).

I hate the Halo series, here's why:

Identical gameplay since 2001 (yes, 9 years)

The same thing again and again. You enter a new territory or screen: it's full of enemies. You kill them all and proceed to the next batch. Since 2001. Like an arcade style beat 'em up, the only thing missing is the arrow indicating you to go to the next screen. No real puzzle apart from trying to find out where to go next, no levels entirely different from one another: only the environment changes as the game proceeds.

No variety

The same enemies since the beginning of the series. Same ships. Same weapons. Same environments which aren't more complex than a 16-bit platformer: the mountain, the ice world, the metallic base, the fire world... The worst are the places connected by several screens who just look the same so that you have no idea if you're just circling around, like the famous library in Halo 1.

The story...

Technobabble during 3 games. No true story apart from a battle to activate or deactivate or reactivate or deactivate once again the rings. We hear nearly nothing during the cutscenes because the soundtrack is too loud. So I put the subtitles (by the way, not that it matters, but for those playing in French the translation is bad). Halo, it's the story of rings which can destroy planets, a bit like the Death Star in Star Wars. ... Hey!

Completely useless map

The map is always empty. It only shows you red dots so that you know enemies are near. No arrow to indicate where to go for the main objective or even colored spot to tell you if you've already gone there (Doom!) Take Red Faction: Guerilla. There's a road of arrows on the map and on the ground in the game. You KNOW where to go. In Halo, the map is always an empty circle, even when the series is supposed to evolve.

The vehicle controls

Why not do something like GTA or Red Faction: Guerilla? A different control for vehicles and shooting. In Halo, it's not precise and hard to look around while driving.

Master Chief

The character with the less possible personality! No emotion, nearly no dialogues, not even a face or catchphrase. You remember Niko Bellic in GTA IV, Nathan Drake in Uncharted or John Marston in Red Dead Redemption? Of course. They have distinct accents, a touch of humor, a unique look. In 3 games, what has Master Chief done to be remembered except being on the box?

The sword

A weapon that can kill in 1 hit is never a good idea if the conditions aren't optimal, especially in multiplayer. It's unfair. Even when I'm the one holding the sword I think it's unpleasant. While playing, I wanted the weapons of Unreal Tournament, each with different attacks, a second firing mode and some kind of balance (ex: the rocket launcher is powerful, but slow).

The artificial intelligence

A Warthog. You fire with the gun on the back, until you realize the driver is heading right towards the edge of a cliff! You tell yourself it might be better if you drive, until you realize the shooter on the back is doing absolutely nothing! On the first Xbox in 2001, I can understand, but in Halo 3, it's no longer acceptable. After reading a couple of reviews, I heard the problem was still an issue in Reach...

The important

Please, if you have 60 bucks to spend on a video game, why not invest in something innovative, something different? Red Dead Redemption, Alan Wake, Borderlands, Left 4 Dead, Mafia II, BioShock and BioShock II... You'll pay less for lots of them and you might end up with a more entertaining experience. If you absolutely want Halo: Reach, at least wait until it's cheaper, which might help Microsoft stop telling themselves: "Here, to make some money: why not release another Halo?" Do you really believe Reach will be the last one?