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Re: Reversed development priorities indeed.
Posted By: Narcogen <narcogen@rampancy.net>	Date: 9/23/10 11:25 p.m.
: 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? You mean like with a gravity lift or an Invulnerability powerup? These things could have been explained. Armor Abilities are just another incarnation of Equipment. Perhaps Bungie came upon that design idea for Halo 3 and discarded it, or maybe Equipment was the first iteration and Reach is the final design. I think people could have lived with it, and I think they could have come up with a story reason for why the Chief was now able to augment his armor with stuff found on the battlefield. : 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. Or no plot to speak of until late in the story. It is perhaps regrettable that this impacts the best novel in the series, but bad or good, they're what they are-- spinoff novels. I think that's the risk you take when you decide to put those products out there, that this can happen. : 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. I doubt they'll address it at all-- it just wouldn't pay to. Most likely they can't fully explain away all the conflicts, and many people won't be satisfied with any possible solution. The rest-- don't really care.

Anger, Sadness and Envy Episode 20: Reach Spoilers

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