Halo: Reach

Of all life's truisms perhaps the most specious is that nothing is perfect. Whether a safety valve to prevent a blowout of hubris, or merely an envious reflection of our flawed and capricious nature, it is dogma inherent to all. But nowhere is it more apparent – or afforded greater prominence - than when wielded as a chisel by …

[Greg J Preece]

True successor to Combat Evolved?

I won't be playing that, then. I'm one of those supposedly "resentful" PC FPS gamers, and when the original Halo came to PC I gave it a shot. It was one of the most depressingly disappointing games I have ever played. Dull, repetitive, derivative crap, and from what I've played of the others when I've been drunk enough, they're no better.

And pointing out a large number of flaws in a mediocre FPS series right before giving the game 95%? Riiiight...

[Alan Bourke]

Absolutely.

The other Halo games were OK but like you say if you've played FPS games on the PC over the years it's very much a case of 'uh ... so what'. Massive hitboxes, tuned for console pads, all the rest of it. Yawn. Not to mention aliens stolen from MDK.

[Loyal Commenter]

Exactly.

I'd imagine, by these criteria, that when Half Life 2 Episode 3 finally appears, it'll get 175%.

[Martin Lyne]

I'm Sorry?

"Genre-defining"?

What genre is that? THe one QUake and Doom started, and was then revolutionised by Half-Life?

Or the sperate one that Halo: Combat Evolved resides in? H:CE beginning life as an open ended world with wildlife and interaction and ended up as a console-ised copy-pasted, generic, bland shoot-hide-repeat-fest.

Seriously, the codex level.. how did everyone not feel like they had been utterly ripped off? It was teh SAME LEVEL REPEATED 5 TIMES.

I had to make my own pleasure in it by, in a level where you open a door and the enemies run and jump on the flying bike things, reloading about a squillion times until I managed to headshot each enemy and steal their bike. Skipping a whole section of the level. Great fun. Completely unintended by the developers. For obvious reasons never played 2 or3, and yet my definition of "FPS" is still perfectly intact.

Anyone that's interested in a really enjoyable game check out Star Wars: Republic Commando on Steam. Cheap and fun.

Over to you fanbois (i won't be reading this thread again anyway)

[Michael Xion]

not to be picky...

...but Halo CE was originally developed for the Mac platform. I assume that the reference to 'PC gamers' is in the generic rather than the specific sense :-p

[Si 1]

Halo

I've got to be honest, I've never really seen the appeal of the Halo games. I had an Xbox 1 with Halo at launch and it was pretty good, but I never expected all of the 10/10 plaudits it received. It was a pretty solid FPS but nothing surprised me or made me feel it was revolutionary. It was a solid 7/10 in my book, worth playing but nothing special.

It feels a bit like the Emperor's New Clothes. No matter how many times I play the games, I just see a fairly generic but well made sci-fi FPS. Lots of people say that you need to play on Legendary to enjoy the game, but I found I just died a lot. Maybe one day I'll see what everyone else sees, but until then, I'll carry on scratching my head.

So far this year, my favourite game has been Mass Effect 2 by a country mile. Maybe Dead Rising 2 will challenge it?

[firefly]

I've never played a good console FPS

..and of course it all boils down to the control system. No matter how good the graphics, story and gameplay, the frustration of getting shot in the back while i'm slowly panning around to do a 180 makes me rage. No console controller is as fast or precise as a keyboard and mouse.

But don't listen to me, I'm just a grey haired old bastard that still plays Q2 over 12 years since it came out. I seriously doubt that people will be playing Halo in 12 years' time.

[Daniel Wilkie]

I would agree

But I now prefer consoles. Odd world as I swore I'd never move on from Keyboard and Mouse, but here we are, and I have.

I find if I run all the sensitivies on 1 down from the highest levels, they respond quick enough for me.

This is from someone who still plays UT as well.

Also, since Halo 1 came out 9 years ago (!!! - christ I'm getting old) then it only needs another 3 years to make it 12, and it's definately still being played at the moment!

[DPWDC]

same here

always was keyboard and mouse, but controlers didnt take much getting used to - and I can keep turning right without lifting the mouse off one side of the desk - putting it down on the other side - swings and round abouts!

[Alex King]

Pointless review

Boils down to: "If you liked the other Halo games, you'll like this one even more". It offers nothing for readers who, like me, have never played any of the others and want to know whether it's worth spending their hard-earned on.

[Anonymous Coward]

But its xbox360, it is the same thing every time.

Anything on the xbox 360 can't be genre defining because it is lame ass controls and so you never really feel part of the game, you know you are two rumble stick controllers away from anything resembling normal movement, a slow ponderous movement. A person on Mouse and keyboard would ruin your day if you went up against them.

I have played all the halos and I played halo 3 with mates on legendary and was pushed through all the cut scenes, finished in one night and I didn't need the cut scenes to know what was going on. (I never even bothered with ODST because it was a flagrant excuse for a sequel when the main character had gone.) But if your game can be done in one night on its hardest setting by four drunk lads and the plot is soo cobbled together you don't need the cut scenes to explain what is happening, no plot twists, no complexity, is it genre defining? No it is just written for Americans.

Half life 2 was genre defining and came out about the same time as the xbox360.

To me Crysis and Far cry 2 were the next genre defining FPS' for scope of the environment and the decals for weather / vegetation etc.

Halo reach compare to either of them? Probably not.

[Daniel Owen]

Huge halo fanbois

See I am a big halo fan, family life means I don't really get to play like I used to, but still a big fan.

Wasn't impressed with ODST, the lack of anything new multiplayer wise, meant it wasn't really a halo game.

See the thing with comparing console games and pc games is that the campain is never going to be as accurate in term of a control system, and it's designed to accomodate that.

Online everyone has the same controller, so alls fair, you don't like getting shot in the back whilst trying to turn, then try facing the person that's shooting you!!!

That said COD multiplayer has taken over as my fav fps, and I am not sure I can go back.

[Anonymous Coward]

What a load of whining console-hating miserablists

The first Halo was a great game, with an deep and thoughtful storyline (beats the pants off Half-Life in that respect at least), and some good level design. It propelled the xbox into the playstation league almost on its own.

Was it perfect? No. But at the time, it was pretty close.

Now piss off back your dingy bedrooms, sit in your crusty chairs, and fiddle with your mouse in silence.

[Greg J Preece]

GOOD LEVEL DESIGN??

Deep storyline??

Dear God man, are you ill? The level design in Halo was so crap even Bungie got bored of it - how about the "level" at the end of the game that makes you play the same room over and over? That is the laziest piece of level construction I have *EVER* seen.

And storyline? Two warring factions disturb an ancient enemy? And you've never heard that before? You need to read more, dude.

[Alan Bourke]

Nearly perfect?

It might have seemed that way if you hadn't played many FPS games before. Storyline? Some derivative space marine bollocks, give me a break.

[cre@mstick360]

Halo Reach vs COD Black Ops

I don't get to play games these days, due to a 3 year old son and girlfriend who is anti console/PC/fun.

As a friend pointed out when I was considering buying Reach, wait until Black Ops is out.

He is of course right. If I can only sneak a couple of hours here and there during the week, I'd rather play that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtRnpC7ddv8

[Florcz]

Excellent game

Not been a massive fan of the Halo series up to now, but this one is spot on. Well done Bungie. Glad I've got something to replace the incredibly annoying Battlefield games which were clearly coded by prats and the highly tedious MW2 which is so easy to rack up high scores it's no fun. Shame the PC doesn't get a look in with the new Halo, but that's the way it goes unfortunately - PC gaming is reserved for what it's good at - games like Civ.

As for the guy still playing Quake 2 - that was the worst one! What are you still wasting your time with that crap for? Quakeworld was the best in '97 followed by Quake 3... besides, after 12 years it's time to move on, seriously! Did counterstrike go over your head?

As for the comment about control on the console being a reason not to play - at least everyone has the same controller making the games a more level playing field - besides if it takes you so long to turn 180 degrees, up your stick sensitivity and learn to be skilled with the 360 controller - it wont happen overnight, but when you master it it is very satisfying.

No need to be so negative about a game you probably have not played just because someone who has has rated it highly - that just makes you look like an idiot.

[eiocreative]

Sitting at my PC? No thanks

I sit in front of a PC all day so the last thing I want to do is play games on it in my spare time.

For gaming you simply can not better a 50" TV, surround sound, a cold beer and a few hours with the console of your choice.

As for Halo, it's brilliant!

[Anonymous Coward]

Quite right

Which is why I have a large monitor (only 42", though) and surround sound on my PC.

I'm not anti-console, I just don't own one and probably never will as I don't even have enough time to sink in to my PC game collection.

Currently at hour 35 of Just Cause 2, 45% of Batman: Arkham Asylum, and considering buying Dead Rising 2.

[Jerome 0]

Perfection

How can any game where the narrative "mumble[s] along like a Special Brew-drinking-tramp raving about something" be 100% perfect?

[Urbanpanda]

Console peasants rejoice!

Blah blah blah, more moanings from the glorious PC master race, we get it, you prefer the PC and think anything not playable with a mouse and keyboard isn't worth your time. It's nice to see that Bunige have managed to recapture the brilliance of Halo:CE in time for their Halo swansong, everything about Reach is a love letter to what cemented the series as fan favourite. For me the best thing about them was always the enemy AI and Reach is no different, seeing an elite take out a group of marines, commandeer their Warthog and turn it's chaingun on you is always fun (once you manage to take him down anyway).

Shut it moaners, games on console have their place and this is a fine example of one. Your platform preference doesn't make this untrue.

[Daniel Owen]

100%

This has change from the 95% when I last posted.

"Indeed, it's even possible to find fault with Reach itself. The graphics, although an improvement over Halo 3, remain some way short of the best 360 titles. Dynamic check-pointing still occasionally leads to frustrating pinch points, and very occasionally to game breaking zugzwangs. And the narrative continues to mumble along like a Special Brew-drinking-tramp raving about something, something alien race, something humanity, something intergalactic war."

If it's possible to find fault then how is the game 100%? 99%? 98? Or does el reg only go up/down in 5% chunks and if so then why not simply give a score out of 20?

Beer because it's friday!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

100% are you for real

It's a very average game at best, a incremental improvment over Halo3 and offering not very much new.

Seems the reviewer is a 12yr old sucked in by the Microsoft hype machine that told him what a mega release it was...

Having played this, there is no way on earth this deserves a 100%,. A 75% at best. There are plenty of far better titles that truly deserve 100% scores (Uncharted2, Killzone2, RedDeadRedemption for example), this is not one of them.

[pablo011]

Wow

When you boys have stopped jacking off over your PC's and shoving your shiny LED vibrating mice up your arses have a go on a console for a bit of casual game play.

Halo is definitely no MW2... but I've had so much fun casually playing this game that I can see past some of the flaws and how some would rate this game highly.

[Rubymalvolio]

Average game

I remember all the hype when Halo was launched. I bought the pc version when it finally arrived and was very underwhelmed. There was nothing new or ground breaking at all, the hype was because it was the first half decent console FPS. Played through the third game a few months ago and it was identical to the first game except with better graphics. This review was a bit overblown, lots of better Xbox games around . With regards to the age old keyboard/mouse vs gamepad of course playing FPS on pc is better but until someone invents a method of lying down on the couch with mouse and keyboard I am happy to stick with controller.