The countdown is over and Halo: Reach is finally here. We’ll be slitting the plastic on our copy later this evening, and already we’re overjoyed at the prospect of new Covenant baddies, a graphical polish and the chance to experience the moodiest part of Halo’s backstory. But amidst all that excitement, something occurred to us, something we noticed when Halo 2 was released and again for 3, Wars and ODST. It seems that every time a new Halo game is released a small but noticeable collection of niggles created by fans, developers and journalists appear to take a little bit of the shine off things, and we’re betting that Reach will be no different. So, here are our five predictable things we think Halo: Reach could do without.
1.Copycat Cabooses
I loved Red vs Blue. You loved Red vs Blue. We all love Red vs Blue, it has a gorgeous mix of foul-mouthed humour, running gags and hilarious characters. But you know who loves Red vs Blue too much? Those plonkers in blue armour with names like xxCaboosexx and Cabooooose13 who hang around in multiplayer games wittering on about sandwiches in sub-par impersonation of our favourite lackwit. Enough. He was funny, you’re not.
2.30 seconds of cheap journali..er...fun.
As a game design ethos, Bungie’s famous Thirty Seconds of Fun is great. Attempting to build a game around a string of breathtaking half-minute shootouts strung together with breathers for restocking is laudable, but it’s still only an ideal. Between the two weapon loadout, unpredictable AI and broad landscape, there’s enough unpredictability in Halo to make clear that the 30 seconds of fun is a guiding principle, an abstract concept, not a concrete part of the gameplay. Yet every time a new Halo game hits the stand we have to read reviews and even entire features in which deadline strapped hacks talk about the 30 Seconds of Fun as if it’s real.
3.Uninspired Forge maps
A year before Little Big Planet offered UGC creators the toolbox of their dreams, Halo 3 brought us the Forge, a multiplayer game maker that allowed users to insert objects and weapons into existing maps, beefing up the firepower, closing up the choke points, building new ramps and ladders-it was all down to your imagination. And what was the best that the imaginations of most Halo 3 players could come up with? Rocket launchers and grav hammers in a map the size of a postage stamp. Loud, tiresome and repetetive, it’s the gaming equivalent of a Saxon album. And now we have Forgeworld to look forward to...
4.Clicking to sprint...
...oh, no, wait, we’re not playing Call of Duty. Although the absence of a sprint button almost makes me wish I was. While I accept that the first Halo can be excused due to its comparatively limited multiplayer options, would it really have hurt to add a sprint to Halo 2 or 3? The inability to vary your speed when under fire is one of the few things we’d change in Halo multiplayer.
5.The great debate...
Is there a more frequently debated topic in gaming than this? On some message boards there might as well be a ‘Start a tiresome “Is Halo Overated?” thread’ button right next to the log in. Over and over and over we read the same basic complaints-the guns are unbalanced, the vehicles are brilliant, the library is awful, the AI is great. Point and counterpoint ad infinitum. The fact is, it’s here in all its six games, seven novels and numerous action figure spawning glory. Let’s just say there’s got to be something to it, and not have yet another tedious debate as to the actual value of that ‘something’.