This is a question I want to throw out to all of my loyal and avid followers. There are games I like, games I love, and games I obsess over. I am pretty easy to please when it comes to gaming, so long as I have fun, I can overlook some issues. I am sure everyone knows a game everyone raves about, but you just don’t get the fuss.
you just don't understand
So in timely fashion, I want to talk about Halo: Reach. I have no intention of buying this game for at least a year or two, when it is nice and cheap in a sale. I do not understand the Halo obsession at all. The games are decent, solid, bland shooters, where did the stir crazy come from?
What do you mean there are no copies left?
I played the original, combat evolved, on PC, and it simply wasn’t terribly good. The weapons were silly looking and unsatisfying, the enemies stupid and irritating. It aspired to be a serious game, then had little pink armoured shaved ewoks running round flailing their arms. The game was schizophrenic to the point of ludicrous. I played Halo 2 co-op with a friend on his xbox, and had the same problems with it. It was just too shallow.
"thats right, now lunge, hold it, now into downward dog"
I ignored the series for a long time, until a few months back. I was suffering game drought, needed a shooter, had little money, nothing good was out. So I took the plunge and bought Halo 3 and ODST at £10 for the pair second hand. So, what had changed in the intervening years and a new console? Nothing. The game is decent, don’t get me wrong. It is fun, provides a brief distraction. Brief is the word, the two games only took me somewhere in the region of 12 hours to complete the pair. The weapons are still made by a child toy company, they still pew pew in a very uninspiring fashion. The naked ewoks still flail about in a manner calculated to be irritating. AI is appalling, your allies a liability. Also, Master Chef’s shield is basically the health bar, you lose the shield, get shot, you die, then what exactly is the purpose of the armour? Why not just wear the shield module and leave the armour at home, since it doesn’t appear to offer any actual resistance to high velocity projectiles? Everyone praises the music, and whilst much of it is good, it can also be very inappropriate. ODST suffered this in particular, walking through deserted streets with haunting echoey music is cool and atmospheric, but it continues when the big firefights break out, which changes the music from being ambient enjoyment, to some sort of MP3 player the rookie is listening to and hasn’t got time to pause. Also, Buck looks like he is wearing Nathan Fillion’s face, rather than actually looking like Nathan Fillion, creepy. I keep expecting the scooby team to run in and pull the mask off “I would of gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for those pesky kids!”
So why exactly are they getting such high scores thrown at them? I rate them at best a 7.5, the basic gameplay elements are there and they work, but nothing has been added. I would rate them a bit higher if the weapons actually sounded like guns, and not like a guy making gun noises. Presumably they are loaded with peas as well, having forgotten the actual dangerous bullets.
defense budget cuts resulted in all water guns being repurposed
So come on Halo fans, convince me to care. Why is this decent game series so massive? Other games that annoy me, GTA4, MGS4, Moder Warfare. Sound off in the comments, tell me why you like the game, or what games you just don’t get
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