Tom

After having played more than half of the game, I have to say that this game
isn't what it is made out to be. It in no way touches Halo CE in the story
nor does it lend much leading up to the Halo CE storyline. It is simply
combat and tactical talk in the cut scenes with some relevance touching on
the Halo storyline. In honesty though, that doesn't bother me, but these
issues do.

Graphics: While they do look good and there are some nice textures, the
stuttering and framerate issues are not a few and far in-between as noted in
many online reviews, they are there and they are noticeable. In the cut
scenes (which should be the best looking parts), there is motion blur on the
character movements. Now, motion blur in gaming is supposed to be an effect
that improves the look of the game for realism. This looks more like the
scenes of the Six Million Dollar Man when he is running fast with image
trails going behind him as he speeds forth. I am not exaggerating here
either. The textures for the most part are definitely nicer, but the
character model are about the same with the same ugly faces, not much
improvement there, although the armors have very nice textures and detail
with that worn look to them. In a few of the cut scenes, the Noble Team
characters can look pretty ugly and very cartoonish. The environments look a
little more realistic compared to Halo 3, but the overall detail isn't much
better than 3. Having made the comparison, I would rather have Halo 3's
looks for smoother playability than what I am experiencing with Reach as the
difference is not enough of an upgrade in graphics to really be a game
killer for most had they used Halo 3's engine.

Game play is very near same as the first Halo, no dual wielding weapons (I
do like that), you'll pay dearly if you think you can melee the enemy to
death right off. The melee speed is really toned down, I like that as well.
The weapons are great (Hammer of Dawn type weapon add-on is a copy-cat
feature from Gears). The armor upgrade choices you have during the course of
the campaign is cool. MY problem with this is, a lot of this stuff didn't
exist in Halo CE, so somehow Halo took a step back in weapons and gadgets
when the storyline advanced??? Also, the enemy weapons from Halo 3 existed
almost in their entirety in Reach, but they didn't Halo CE ???. I won't get
into weapons details as it may spoil it for some, they are cool, but
nonetheless perplexing to the story for me. I do like the vehicles in the
game as well, more realistic to drive, tricky at first but very nice. Again,
a few vehicles in the game, whatever side they are from, were not in Halo
CE, nor 2, nor 3.

In all honesty, this game doesn't deserve a 9 as didn't Halo 3. There's
isn't much of a story to it. I guess I may be unfair at this point since
this is supposed to be a 'lead-up' to the Halo stroyline. I'll just admit
that it is anti-climatic so far as I already know the story, so this may be
the issue for me and most here know I am a storyline buff when it comes to
games. Like doing Star Wars they way they did, I love the movies (except
Phantom Menace was a joke), but I truly wish they had done them in order.
I'll also admit the game doesn't feel right without the MC or Cortana in it,
they were the main two in Halo and I don't see whythe MC could not have
been part of this since he was obviously right at the beginning of Halo CE
when you rev him up for service on the Pillar of Autumn. I guess I haven't
gotten over romanticizing with the first Halo and the bias is coming
through. My opinion may inflame some, but this is what I see and experience
with Reach. It is a "reach" to say this is the definitive Halo, it is for
the combat aspect when comparing CE to Reach, but not much else. Of all the
sequels (prequel in this case) , it certainly plays closest to the first,
but it still doesn't compare.

Tom

"Tom" <noway@nothere.com> wrote in message
news:_YOdnXJOUYSfoQnRnZ2dnUVZ_h-dnZ2d@insightbb.com...

<snipped>

I wanted to update this a little. I finally played coop campaign on
Legendary for the first time with just one other player and I will say this,
the reviewer is right. It nearly double the enemy count and nearly triples
the Elite count and they are harder to kill. And that is just with two
players. It seems it is easier to play Legendary on Solo mode. Now we did
finish five missions in about 4 hours time, but considering I did those same
missions in about (more or less) double that time in solo, with dumb-assed
friendly AI, I think says a lot.