Why you should play Halo Reach

[Kim]

I used a jetpack to hijack a banshee.

'Nuff said.

[Magus]

Shouldn't I play the first eleven before playing this one?

Although it is a super-prequel (the best kind of prequels), right?

[Azisien]

Yes. I mean a lot of the weapons and vehicles are superior to the Halo's afterwards. But uh, yes, prequel!

[Magus]

Originally Posted by Azisien

Yes. I mean a lot of the weapons and vehicles are superior to the Halo's afterwards. But uh, yes, prequel!

Yeah, I get a kick out of how plot continuity always falls in the face of needing to add new elements to the gameplay in prequels.

Although it wouldn't have been impossible to pull off a prequel where the technology felt less. Like have them use machine guns instead of lasers or whatever. Well, I know the other games have machine guns too, but anyway, there was probably some way they could pull it off.

Also, as for it being "tenuously connected", that doesn't make a lot of sense. The villain is the Covenant, right? The first time humanity encounters them. The main characters look like they wear Halo powerarmor. Seems pretty connected, all in all.

[Kim]

Originally Posted by Magus

Yeah, I get a kick out of how plot continuity always falls in the face of needing to add new elements to the gameplay in prequels.

Although it wouldn't have been impossible to pull off a prequel where the technology felt less. Like have them use machine guns instead of lasers or whatever. Well, I know the other games have machine guns too, but anyway, there was probably some way they could pull it off.

Also, as for it being "tenuously connected", that doesn't make a lot of sense. The villain is the Covenant, right? The first time humanity encounters them. The main characters look like they wear Halo powerarmor. Seems pretty connected, all in all.

Halos 1-3 are about Master Chief and the Halos and the Flood and the Guiltysparks and the Covenant want to destroy the universe except the elites blah blah blah. Halo Reach is about a group of Spartans, none of which are Master Chief, who are on a planet that canon says is scorched until glass by the end of the game, and the opening cutscene shows your protagonist's helmet with a bullet hole through it lying on the glassed surface. They are trying to keep this planet from being destroyed. This really has very little to do with the recurring plot threads of the main Halo games, except for some stuff near the end that connects them.

Also, Halo Reach actually improves the gameplay by returning to the first Halo's single wielding of weapons and combination health and shield system.

[Azisien]

Originally Posted by NonCon

Also, Halo Reach actually improves the gameplay by returning to the first Halo's

I'll give you

combination health and shield system.

that but certainly not

single wielding of weapons

that.

[Marc v4.0]

Originally Posted by Azisien

Yes. I mean a lot of the weapons and vehicles are superior to the Halo's afterwards. But uh, yes, prequel!

Reach was the Earth's largest and most important military installation, housing and developing weapons technologies for the Spartan programs. A great deal of highly advanced weapons and gear never made it off the planet in any form because the Covenant bombarded the surface until it was literally glass.

Fail safes were enacted to ensure the location of Earth and other important military outfits were not discovered. Outbound transmissions were cut, and entire memory banks emp-killed. Much of the gear on Reach was unknown to anyone but high ranks and the people who created them, who were likely on Reach at the time of the attack.

The "new" Covenant weapons (the plasma rifle that isn't a plasma rifle, plasma-grenade shooter and the Force Gun) are easily prototypes of later weapons or experimental technology. Reach was attacked by a fleet consisting of as much of the Covenant forces as possible, so it isn't a far stretch to think that some of the units had stuff that others might have lacked.

Both the Needle Rifle and Force gun share aspects of the energy sniper that they use later in the timeline

Yay Backstory and Theory!

[Arcanum]

Originally Posted by Marc v1.0

The "new" Covenant weapons (the plasma rifle that isn't a plasma rifle, plasma-grenade shooter and the Force Gun) are easily prototypes of later weapons or experimental technology. Reach was attacked by a fleet consisting of as much of the Covenant forces as possible, so it isn't a far stretch to think that some of the units had stuff that others might have lacked.

Both the Needle Rifle and Force gun share aspects of the energy sniper that they use later in the timeline

Yay Backstory and Theory!

Well actually, Halo: Reach takes place before the gigantic invasion of Reach that happened in Fall of Reach (the book). The invasion force all started with the team of Zealots trying to recover Forerunner artifacts, basically a spec-ops team, which would make sense that they were equipped with more advanced prototype tech (though with the amount of weapons produced I think it's tough to call them prototypes).

But yeah, the entire game of Halo: Reach you're fighting against this advanced force that wasn't really meant to take out the planet, just recover the artifacts and put in some sabotage so that the main army would have an easier time to take over the planet. And with that in mind it makes sense that they would have more advanced tech to make their job easier.

That's just my take on it though.

Also, I remembered another thing that really bothered me about the game. After the mission where you attack the giant Spire, there's the cinematic before the mission "Long Night of Solace" where Kat borrows Emile's knife to fiddle in the dirt for some reason. I still have no idea why she does that. I mean, there was no movement to show she was drawing a visual aid to help her plan, and nobody on the team looked down at what she did with the knife. She just kind of stabbed the dirt. It makes no sense!!

[Kim]

It's easily the best the series has seen. It's only tenuously tied to the other games, and even then only at the very end. It looks gorgeous, and the plot is actually pretty decent, which is impressive for a series that has only had it's plot go downhill in my experience.

[Magus]

When I was playing Halo 2 at one of those Halo 2 parties about 7 years ago I ran around with duel magnums because that's how I roll.

Frankly it was the only way I could figure out how to beat the alien guy who has the lightsaber in whichever mode it is where the one player is the alien guy who has the lightsaber.