Halo:Reach

So I have recently been playing Halo:Reach and it is every bit the game I thought it would be. Bungie has really outdone themselves with this one. They have packed in new weapons, new abilities, and new features in their forge editor. They have also taken the firefight idea that was presented in ODST and created a fully fleshed-out game-type from it. I finished the game the other day and probably liked the campaign more than any previous Halo experience. I am currently going through on Legendary (slow going), and hoping to 1000gs this one.

Having said that there are just a couple of things that have been bothering me a bit. One is the balancing issue. I have beaten every previous Halo game on Legendary and I feel this one is quite a bit harder when you are on your own. I find myself really taking advantage of my NPCs just to progress. One mission where Jun was placing a bomb on a Covenant structure I ended up running all the way out of the area because I didn't have the firepower to take on the three Elites and two Hunters that were suddenly dropped on me. I stood way off and waited for ages while Jun killed all the enemies and finished what he was doing, which is I guess one of my biggest complaints: I wasn't really able to be in the fight. I wish I could make a bigger difference but I always have too few rounds, and not enough armor and shields. I can't even really expose myself to two jackals without being badly damaged and forget about taking on an Elite head to head, even without any distractions. At one point where I was assaulting a large Covenant tower (the one with the two HUGE elevators) I was riding to the top, killing one or two guys and then dropping off the side (saving myself with the jetpack) so that I could get a new checkpoint with fewer guys at the top.

Problem #2 will involve some SPOILERS for those of you who haven't finished the game (shame on you, it really IS good). I take issue with how most of the team died. Jorge was the first to go and his death was good; he needed to stay behind to manually trigger the bomb ala Bruce Willis in Armageddon. That I can completely understand. Then Kat goes -- from a single needler round to the head. It WAS a needle rifle and they DO kill with a headshot but ONLY when the shields are down. She had her armor on and nobody had been getting shot at so I can only assume that her shields were fully charged meaning it was impossible for her to die that way.

Next lets talk about Jun. He is the member that was escorting Dr. Halsey to safety. He was told explicitly to kill her rather than let her fall into enemy hands. We have to assume that if he came under fire either she would have died from enemy fire or he would have killed her himself and since she survived he obviously did as well.

Carter was next. I know when last we saw him he had his helmet off, but then he was talking to his team on the radio. No matter what they are flying in the pilots talk on headsets. Carter's headset was in his helmet. The only way he could talk to his team was if he had his helmet on, and if he DID have his helmet on then he certainly would have survived ramming the pelican into the scarab. C'mon, Noble 6 and Master Chief both managed to reenter planetary gravity without much more than a sprained ankle (walk it off soldier!), so how in the world could that crash kill Carter?

Emile went out like a badass and it totally works that he was flanked by enemies while he was busy working the big MAC gun. He probably was even aware of them coming up on him but his mission of clearing the skies was too important for him to stop, even to save his own life.

Basically, if I had been the one writing the story Jun, Carter, Kat and Noble 6 would all have met up at the end of the game and the last "mission" of the game would have been their death sequence. They had already made possible the future Halo games and done everything they could to protect humanity. I would have given them a mission where they are attempting to bunker in to a safer area to await the backup that was supposed to come in 48 hours ("that's imminent?"). They would be falling back from an overwhelming force and all 4 of them would be getting damaged slowly just like the ending of Noble 6. When I started the ending sequence I KNEW from the start that it was where I was going to die. I think it would have been MUCH better if the hope had been stripped from me little by little. Imagine trying to get into a more fortified area and a bulkhead door slams closed trapping one team member outside with the enemy forces (like every submarine movie ever made). The team members inside are frantically trying to override the door controls but the guy outside shoots up the controls to try and protect everyone inside. They are left to watch him via outside cameras as he fights off the horde that eventually destroys him. Then a wraith comes into view and starts pounding the door open. The mission would continue with the Covenant still in pursuit and you are hearing your team calling out sitrep:
"My shield unit is destroyed. It's not recharging."
"Running low on ammo."
"I can't move my arm!"
"Last clip!"
"Losing a lot of blood!"
"He's right on top of me!"
Suddenly the whole screen glares brightly and the camera switches to show the glassing of Reach as everyone, Covenant and Noble team alike, are washed away in the destruction of the planet.

Try and tell me that wouldn't be more epic than what we got.

END SPOILERS

The third thing that really bothered me was the in-depth armor customization menu that doesn't really DO anything. You work your butt off for credits so that you can afford to buy that new shiny whatever but all it does is change the LOOK of your character. I would have felt much happier about each bit of armor bestowing a tiny advantage. Like the shoulder pads that specifically say that they help with jet-packing. Why not make it ACTUALLY help with jet-packing? Even if it helped the energy recharge just a bit faster or gave just a tiny amount more maximum energy I would be happy. Or how about the chest plate that is supposed to help with armor? Why not give a guy a few more hitpoints? Or a tiny bit more shields? Or special defense against a particular type of weapon? Or a bit of extra ammo? Or a slightly larger radar?

These changes wouldn't be big enough to even unbalance the game. When you play Halo you have drawn-out confrontations. Unlike a game like Modern Warfare 2 where you win based on situational awareness (you see the guy first and you will likely win the battle), Halo requires you to hit the other guy with round after round and not let him get somewhere to lick his wounds. Because of this and the fast-paced nature of the game all of the extra tiny advantages would be swallowed up in the multiplayer experience that is Halo and not really make much of an overall difference to the matches. But feeling like you just worked hard to unlock armor that actually DOES something would make a HUGE difference to the individual players. At least it would to me.