Halo Reach Beta Forum
  • Subject: THE OFFICIAL REVIEW THREAD - POST IMPRESSIONS HERE!
Subject: THE OFFICIAL REVIEW THREAD - POST IMPRESSIONS HERE!

My Final review of the Reach Beta

Or rather, what needs changing, in my opinion.

- Spartans need to run faster and jump higher. At the moment the gameplay is just far too slow. I know these are Spartan-IIIs, but still, multiplayer doesn't have to rigidly stick to a realistic story. After all, you've got spartans killing spartans and then respawning 5 seconds after dying. Just make them run faster and jump higher.

- Bloom needs tweaking on some weapons. In particular, I feel the bloom on the DMR is a little too high. Either that, or increase the damage slightly on the DMR (not a lot, but slightly).

- Damage needs tweaking on more than a few weapons. The Assault Rifle, in particular. For the standard weapon, it's pretty damn weak. Sometimes it'll take more than a well aimed, close range clip to kill; that's just wrong. This NEEDS to be remedied for the AR at the very least. Why is it so damn weak?

- Some of the armor abilities need tweaking as well. For starters, I think a definite candidate for improvement is the active camo, or rather, the radar jammer that comes with it. Active Camo should NOT jam radar as well as turn you invisible. It's both overpowered and underpowered, oddly; enemies all get their radar jammed which seems overpowered in a combat situation, and it can cloak movement of the one using it, but at the same time enemies will know that there's a cloaked enemy in the area, even if you're not moving. Perhaps at most just jam the radar of the one using it to make it harder to set up an ambush and tell exactly when they'll come through, but it should NOT be able to give away your general position.

- This one is quite a biggie. I think (for some social gametypes at the very least) you should bring back the choice to use an Elite character model instead of a Spartan. It's already been proved that Elites can use all of the armor abilities that Spartans can, and vice versa. Of course, in a gametype where you can choose between either one, Elites should be similar to Spartans to prevent misbalance; they should move at the same speed, jump as high, have same shield strength and recharge time, and their health shouldn't regenerate. I think this would be good in social playlists at the very least.

- Elites are TOO ugly. Give them eyes that actually look like eyes.

- I actually think contrary to popular belief that grenade damage is alright. I think people notice it a lot more because they can't move out of the way as quickly. As such, with a faster movement speed, grenades may not need tweaking at all. Maybe just decrease damage a little. What I DO think though is that there shouldn't be as many grenades available in loadouts or on the map.

Well that's pretty much all of my big opinions. Make of them what you will.

  • 05.20.2010 10:55 PM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas

All righty here we go. My overall impression is that I'm really not all that impressed and to be blunt got bored part way through the beta and ended up playing other games. I do believe however that this game has some really good potential.

From what I've seen in the beta most of the weapons other than the power weapons feel pretty much useless. Non-power weapons need an increase in efficiency (increase in accuracy and/or damage). Personally I believe that each weapon other than power weapons should be able to kill at least two full-shielded opponents before needing a reload. This gives the average player the ability to get a kill before having to reload and the more skillful players a chance to really shine. Also considering you're carrying two tactical nukes with you it seriously dwarfs the other weapons. Figured the best way to outline the different weapons is based on the range of combat.

Close combat: Melee attacks were way too prevalent in the beta. There was a game of SvE slayer where all my brother did most of the game is sprinted up to our opponents and bashed them twice rather than even firing his weapon. The majority of his 10-12 kills was just by sprint double melee. This can be fixed with increases in certain close combat weapons. In my opinion the Assault Rifle and the Plasma Repeater should dominate close combat other than certain situations with the sword, hammer, and shotgun. With the addition of sprint and evade the sword, hammer, and shotgun have become way too powerful as well and other close combat weapons need an increase to help bring back some balance. I would pretty much consider those three weapons more of ambush weapons and would like to see them return to being just that. Also in close combat with full shields/health a pistol should not beat an Assault Rifle or Plasma Repeater in a straight up fight. These can be fixed by increases in the Plasma Repeater and the Assault Rifle especially. I would say that both need an increase in damage and/or accuracy. This can be done with serious reduction or removal of reticle bloom. I will discuss my opinion on reticle bloom later. Also on a side-note I believe the sword block should be removed it just seems silly and can make the weapon effectively useless.

Mid-range: Mid-range combat is going to done with mainly precision weapons and probably the needler. It is this range I feel the pistol should show its true power being able to trump the assault rifle and plasma repeater(although these weapons should be somewhat effective in this range as well). Also the DMR and Needle Rifle will fall into this range as well, but I feel the pistol should have the advantage with its faster fire-rate. The Needle rifle I think needs a slight increase in power. The pistol's power seems pretty good as is could use a bigger clip, but I've mentioned something about ammo amount above. The DMR probably won't need a damage increase it'd be nice to have an increase in accuracy however which can be achieved with a serious reduction or removal of reticle bloom. Same could be said for the accuracy of the Needle Rifle.

Long Range: This is where the DMR and Needle Rifle should find their place being able to trump the pistol at this range although the pistol will still be somewhat effective at this range. Again the damage and accuracy of both could be increased with the suggestions stated above.

The power weapons seem fine the way they are if the rest of the weapons get a boost other than the removal of sword block.

On to the idea of reticle bloom. Looks like to me you guys tried to find an innovative way to simulate recoil. All in all though it just seems silly to me. Recoil doesn't make the weapon less accurate just makes the weapon harder to control. If you're going to simulate recoil then simulate recoil. The bullet/projectile should go where the reticle is pointed (of course factoring in range of the weapon and arc in terms of the grenade launcher). Although if you consider the fact that the characters being used are super-soldiers or big bad aliens that can flip tanks I really don't see where recoil would be much of an issue to them.

The maps were neat, but not really the style I prefer. I prefer more symmetrical maps where each side has equal opportunity for power weapons.

On to armor abilities. The armor abilities were a neat idea, but they just got annoying and boring after awhile. I'd like the ability to swap out armor abilities in mid-game. With the ability to equip or un-equip armor abilities it could bring all new tactics to the game. It could add more to team work as well. One person rushes rockets while another rushes jet pack. Both team-mates meet so the jet-pack can be un-equipped and given to the person with the rocket launcher. Also imagine the ability to jet pack into a building and being able to remove it so you can sprint. I also think armor abilities would be better with limited usage. Give them a battery or fuel supply of their own so once they're used up the player goes back to their base ability of either sprint or evade. With these limitations on armor abilities they can be increased in power while still maintaining balance. Camo could be returned to like it was in Halo 3, but the user would have to watch how much they use it giving it a more tactical approach.

All in all I'd like to see a limitation to armor abilities it just gets annoying and boring to run into a team where everybody is using armor lock or camo.

Well there is probably more to say, but it's probably been said already also considering how much I've written so far this review is getting rather long winded. Thank you for the opportunity to play the beta and wish you the best of luck in your final stages of production. It'll be interesting to see what the final product turns out to be.

  • 05.21.2010 12:18 AM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas
Subject: My Beta Review After 35 Games

after playing the beta i can feel the influences of combat evolved in reach, what makes halo what it is today. i'm glad bungie realized how much they had right the first time. with so many improvements it feels like they've come full circle while continuing to push halo as the top FPS out there. thank you bungie, you're still the best <3

  • 05.21.2010 1:45 AM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas

I can't wait for you to shut me up.

My review of the beta:

Firstly, I cannot deny that the Beta was great fun, I was totally hooked on it towards the end, especially the invasion playlist, it was a joy to play. With that being said, invasion wasn't without problems, as I feel it's unbalanced, the Spartans have a definate advantage over the Elites, particularly when it comes down to capturing the core. I believe that the main problem is the Spartans being able to spawn with Shotguns, making it extremely difficult for the Elites to even get the core outside the base. Furthermore, when they do manage to get it out, the Scorpian usually decimates them, and thus I feel the Scorpian may be overpowered in multiplayer.

Secondly, I feel like the skill gap has been reduced significantly, whilst this is great for new players, it's also slightly unfair on the loyal Halo fans. My reason for such a statement is that I feel the reduced clip size, and the fact that the DMR and Needle Rifle take so many shots to kill, makes multi-killing a lot more difficult. I'd be much happier if the DMR was a 3 or 4 shot, and the Magnum had its clip size doubled.

Thirdly, I don't feel like the rating system in Slayer Arena is that accurate, for example, a person who gets 11 kills and 17 deaths may get a higher rating that someone who gets 15 kills and 7 deaths. I feel that players should be rewarded for having a good K/D spread in this playlist.

Fourthly, armor lock usually slows the game down to a crawl, it's so frustrating to take a person's shields off, only to have them go into armor lock, and then wait for ages until they run out of power. I feel that armor lock should probably be removed from the game altogether.

But enough of the problems, overall the Beta has been awesome, the new gametypes are great fun and I hope they stay in the main game. The armor abilities weren't as broken as I expeceted (with the exception of armor lock), using spring or the jetpack adds a whole new dimension to the gameplay, and they're fun to use. Also, the new weapons and revamped weapons seem both fair and good, I'm loving the Sniper Rifle and Magnum. The vechiles have also been made easier to control, such as the Banshee, which is also good.

TL;DR: Thanks for the beta bungie, it was great fun, can't wait for the real game.

  • 05.21.2010 5:33 AM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas

ACTA NON VERBA

Other than the glitches and bugs that were discovered throughout the beta, the only gripe I have with it is that I think the hit box for headshots from the front is a tad small as it doesn't seem to encompass the entire front of the head. It actually seemed easier to get headshots from behind than from the front.

  • 05.21.2010 8:25 AM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas
Subject: The Official "My Beta Review" Thread - POST IMPRESSIONS HERE

Let me put it to you this way... I was a freshman in college when Halo CE came out.

Overall Initial Impression or tl;dr
Multiplayer is fun. This game is having success by going back to the original formula from Halo CE that made the series successful in the first place. Imagine that! Will I buy the game when it drops? Probably not.

Why I won't buy Reach
My personal gripes:
ODST
Really? Bungie was sweating this game like it was going to revolutionize gaming. What happened instead was a game with potential that fizzled. I liked the solo/dark feel, and I am a music buff and the music was incredible, but for the game that had the most creativity since Halo CE it was horrible. Why? Encounters seemed forced and the game lacked depth. Also NO MATCHMAKING ruined the multiplayer and made it more work than fun. So what you ended up with was a overpriced game that lacked depth, had no multiplayer, and came with some map packs to justify the price. I can afford it but I also know the value of money and I felt the price was unfair.
Multiplayer Map Packs
What do you think the over under on Map packs will be on this game? 4 or 5? Halo 3 had 4 so I'll guess 5. Bungie may as well charge double and include an extra Map Pack disc. Also, most online players don't buy the later maps so they never get chosen for normal matchmaking anyway. You may as well be burning the money.
The Halo Franchise
With this being the 6th Halo game the series feels diluted. Bungie should have went with their gut feeling and not made any Halo games after Halo CE. Besides, it's starting to feel like the Star Wars sequels at this point see South Park skit.
Bungie Customer Service
I personally have not had any problems with Bungie but from reading the forums I can say Bungie employees take criticism way too personally. This makes Bungie seem condescending and out of touch. Customer service is hard but all businesses that deal with the public usually enforce industry standard customer service practices. It seems when the bullets start to fly Bungie dodges them by using the mods to clean up the mess.

Back to the GAME! Gameplay Mechanics
I am a Halo CE dude so everything is great.
-Slower movement/ lower jumping lends itself to more tactical battles and less jumping/ strafing acrobatics.
-Elites differing height and movement is awesome. Gives a new twist on battles and adds a very neat element to fights.
-fall damage homage to CE is good especially with jet packs.
-loadouts are an improvement over powerups and equipment. I always thought controlling weapons was part of the game but powerups always seemed unfair. Loadouts even the playing field.

Suggestion: Invisibility for the Elite during movement needs to be more invisible. Any movement makes invisibility useless.

Weapons

Bring NUCLEAR GRENADES Back! - Extremely disappointed grenades were nerfed. If Bungie intended the grenades to be Halo CE strong then leave them that way! Grenades are meant to kill not be a shield taker downer.

- no duel wielding = goodness. How do you balance weapons meant for duel wielding anyway? Maybe could have left the Plasma Pistol/ Human Pistol combo?
- Both grenade launchers very fun
- Needle Rifle seems much more accurate than DMR. Was this intentional?
- Focus Rifle is a joke. Needs to be beefed up majorly. At this point I am choosing the Needle Rifle over the Focus Rifle which isn't good for a power weapon.

Vehicles
All good except for the banshee. Needs to be beefed up so it doesn't disintegrate when an ant farts. Also, switching between the cannon and the gun is frustrating. Just put them on different triggers.

Control Schemes
I use Boxer and putting the grenades on the bumper is the best thing about this game. Keeps me from having to claw the grenades out.

Multiplayer Maps
Here is the score:
1 Large Map: Boneyard
2 Medium/Large Maps: Overlook and Powerhouse
1 Medium Map: Sword Base
Lets have some more small and Large maps.

Graphics
- The only improvement that made a huge difference to me is the skybox on Boneyard. That looks incredible.
- Noticeable improvements with sparks on explosions, the shimmer on shields, the weapons "pop" more, vehicles have more depth.
- Environments look slightly better. Nothing to brag about. Somehow, all the environments look very blocky.
- Water is absolutely horrible. Especially after all the bragging. Bungie has discovered how to make water look rigid.

Matchmaking
Improved. Getting games faster, hardly any lagging, glad you're bringing the banhammer on quitters. I personally would extend the quit time-out to 30 minutes. I like losing the ranking status except for the ultra-competitive arena. Makes the game more fun focused. I wish that parties weren't allowed so teams could talk more.

Final Score
Overall, what you expect from Bungie at this point. Solid gameplay, fun games, decent graphics, a solid multiplayer that will probably overshadow the campaign after the first two weeks from when the game drops. I hope they have firefight in this game. I'm going to wait and read the reviews on the campaign before I make my ultimate decision on this game.

  • 05.21.2010 9:08 AM PDT
  • reply edit unleash ninjas