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Reversed development priorities indeed.
Posted By: RyanTheHeretic <ryan.mcgowan@ntlworld.com>	Date: 9/23/10 7:59 a.m.
: That Halo's game design often took backseat to the story, while in : Reach the reverse is true, is evidence of this. Yes, I think this sums up Halo: Reach absolutely perfectly. Many of the biggest gameplay changes Bungie made with Halo: Reach, such as the 3D motion tracker, the armour abilities, the disjointed plot, SPARTAN-IIIs in MJOLNIR Mk. V, etc., seem to link pretty cohesively when viewed through the lens of "gameplay comes first". If Halo 3 had given the Chief Armour Lock, or Holograms, or maybe even a Jetpack, it would have felt completely at-odds with the tone and style of the two preceding instalments - out of sync with the universe of Halo 1 and Halo 2. Hell, people were stressing out over the Chief's gauntlets changing mid-series; can you imagine if he'd suddenly gained invincibility or flight? With H:R, it seems that Bungie took a more laissez-faire attitude to the story (at least relative to the trilogy) - a kind of, "eh, let's just throw levels together and the plot will define itself" attitude. I know that statement does all the work Bungie will have obviously put in to the Campaign a pretty big disservice; I'm just trying to illustrate a point. Bungie took a completely different approach to Halo development - they refused to be bound by fictional constraints, and because of this we have the best Halo game yet: armour abilities that are completely crazy and weird but tons of fun, reticle bloom as if MJOLNIR armour can't hold a gun steady, multiple-SPARTAN engagements, space battles versus space Banshees, etc. We got a brilliant game - the best yet, if you ask me - but a pretty naff plot, which, at least to a small degree, retcons chunks of The Fall of Reach and the universe established by previous Halo games. Decisions taken to accommodate a better game. A trade-off, in other words. Was the sacrifice worth it? Perhaps - but I'm not sure. It's certainly left 343i a bit of a mess to clean up.

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