Halo Reach remains a masterpiece of dread - and the greatest prequel story of all time

nanoUFO@sh.itjust.worksmod to Games@sh.itjust.works – 165 points –
Halo Reach remains a masterpiece of dread - and the greatest prequel story of all time
eurogamer.net
28

My childlike innocence of the world was lost the day I watched what happened to Kat. That one was a gut punch. Jorge's made me sad, and angry, but Kat's just took the wind out of me, I remember feeling literally numb for a few seconds while my brain processed what just happened.

Bungie did a phenomenal job with the game. It was different, it had it's flaws, but the campaign they stuck the landing 10/10 - pure Halo. Amazing writing, purely for the fans. A good game is fun to play and has a fun story, a great game will stick with you long after you play, and Reach did that for me.

Everyone familiar with the lore knew going in that it was going to be a tragedy. Reach had to fall after all. The tricky and surprising thing was getting people to root for the team and have hope for them, knowing the planet was going to be glassed.

They turned the story of the planet into a small personal story about a very desperate situation. It isn't the best game, by any means, but it's impressive in it's own way and one of the better prequels.

That game has some of the best cutscenes out there too

I bought a brand new at the time 60" Plasma TV just so we could co-op Reach. It was amazing. A couple of years ago we did it again but using the magic of the MCC and internet. Good times.

This headline could only be written by someone who never heard of Metal Gear Solid 3.

Let's not pretend that MGS lore is more than a barely comprehensible fever dream. It's good, for sure, and insanely pretty for a 2004 ps2 release, but try explaining it to someone and see how far you get.

Sucks for you, I love barely comprehensible fever dreams! Keeps me on my toes, and I find the "is this symbolism or just insanity?" game a pretty fun thought process to have throughout

Not a complaint, but it does raise the entry level for people getting excited about the story.

I think you can enjoy it as a sometimes absurdist rollercoaster. It's not necessary to hang onto every word and understand every bit of symbolism. The insanity is interesting enough and startling enough to get you by on surface level entertainment alone as long as you find craziness fun.

I wish MCC would stop locking me out so I can play again.

Idk what error you’re getting but try changing dns. When using some dns providers or private dns it borks the connection to Microsoft servers.

Unpopular opinion buy I found Halo, in general, to be very mid at best.

Halo revolutionized the FPS genre on consoles. While some aspects are definitely mid there’s a reason why it’s held so highly for many.

IMO only Reach to 3.

Didnt have 4 much in memory (meaning it wasnt impactful to me) and 5 is also non-existant.
Infinite was meh though I like Cortanas replacement. She has good humor.

That's a pretty popular opinion, actually.

I feel like "mid" is pretty generous in my opinion. One of the most over rated series to exist just behind Elder Scrolls trash games.

Why would you downvote this person? This is the bravest comment on Lemmy.

I take it you were not a console gamer when it came out?

Correct. PC gamer. It's probably why it was very mid for me as a FPS.

Really it did a few major things for fps

  • regenerating health, allowing for a smoother difficulty curve and easier time balancing for devs
  • online multiplayer
  • A-B tested a bunch of controls for console shooter control schemes going forward

Until halo right-stick to turn, ads to aim on screen was a common control mechanism.

As soon as it released regenerating health, the control scheme and online multiplayer became a must-have for AAA fps. For PC it's basically just regenerating health, which was has proved to be a mixed blessing.