Halo: Reach Discussion

[Warsaw]

So you don't want Halo to be Halo? I hear this game called "Modern" Warfare just came out, you should check it out.

Cartoony doesn't make Halo what it is. If that were the case, then the books wouldn't be so dark and gritty. The current style is Bungie essentially trying to preserve the cartoony feel of the first game which is a result of the technologies of the time. It's fine for the main trilogy, but they keep trying to make it more in depth and they are failing at that task because they never actually add more depth; all they do is add more guns and more enemies while failing to delve into more detail on the existing stuff.

Also, I hate modern warfare games. Give me the future or give me the past, playing terribad representations of counter-insurgency ops don't appeal to me.

[thehoodedsmack]

What do you guys want, exactly, when you say "darker"? Halo can't get all that realistic. Aliens die, your fellow soldiers die, occasionally a main character bites it, what more can you do? You want the kind of realism described in the books? Brutes slashing heads off civilian children? Or maybe marines screaming out for their mothers while half their torso melts away from a plasma burn? Someone offer up some ideas besides saying "I want it darker and more realistic." The Halo games are already rated M, anyways. Adding any darker elements would be sure to garner the attention of anti-videogame critics, and stuff up a lot of unneeded fuss.

[Heathen]

You want the kind of realism described in the books? Brutes slashing heads off civilian children? Or maybe marines screaming out for their mothers while half their torso melts away from a plasma burn?

Yes, I absolutely do. Why write such rich and interesting details when you aren't going to give it in the stories main medium? Its censorship of the worst kind. The kind that distorts the very subject. The kind that leads everyone to believe something that isn't. Let it be grim and gory. Its a war game.

Someone offer up some ideas besides saying "I want it darker and more realistic." The Halo games are already rated M, anyways.

Then let it earn it. Let it deserve it. People who say that halo deserves its M rating are the same people who's parents didn't let them watch TV until they were 14. Why do game companies have to bar themselves for parents? Its supposed to be the other way around. Parents are supposed to bar their children from the games if they don't want them exposed to something. Why make ratings like M or AO if people are going to fuss when their kids play the games with these ratings when they bought them for them? It makes developers shy away from the M and AO ratings so that people don't throw fits.

Adding any darker elements would be sure to garner the attention of anti-videogame critics, and stuff up a lot of unneeded fuss.

Let them get all fussy. They can't do anything about it because the labels clearly warn people what is in the game and what will be experienced. When the child comes up to the parent and says "Buy this for me," they should read it. By all means, let them get fussy.

[=sw=warlord]

What do you guys want, exactly, when you say "darker"? Halo can't get all that realistic. Aliens die, your fellow soldiers die, occasionally a main character bites it, what more can you do? You want the kind of realism described in the books?
Yes actualy, i would like to see the grim side of halo, the side thats mentioned but rarely shown, ODSt was the first time in the entire series you actualy saw a covenant invasion glassing a planet, you hear about it in the other games you even get a sneak peek in halo3 when the flood arrives, but you never actualy saw the brutality.
what i want is to see limbs be sliced off when a energy sword cuts through said limbs, i want to see the decal as a plasma bolt hits your armour and burns it away.
The Halo games are already rated M, anyways.
It would be no worse than with terminator salvation where you see the guys belly blown to shreads with a metal skeleton inside with all the veins arteries and other stuff hanging out, that was what 12+ wasn't it?
when i was 12 the most gory films you got then was "james bond: world is not enough" and all that had was a thermal view right at the end through like 3 walls of bond boneing the chick but these days you get things like american pie which are far more direct on such subjects, these days you have as i said terminator and other much more detailed media.
Adding any darker elements would be sure to garner the attention of anti-videogame critics, and stuff up a lot of unneeded fuss.
There will always be critics in the world no matter what medium, infact i seem to remember few years back a modder got arrested on terrorism charges for making a level for a game which consisted of his school...

Im not sure about anyone else but when i saw Et Tu Brute, i was actualy interested in the brute ripping the arms of the marine and the brute punching the marine as well as the elite slicing the brutes legs off.

[Warsaw]

^IAWTP

Also, Heathen took the words right out of my mouth. I want to shit my pants when a brute slices a Marine in half with the Brute shot or punches a hole in the hood of my Warthog. I want to feel honest fear when I hear the screech of Flood about to pounce on me and my hapless kin, and then I want to panic when said kin get mutated in gruesome fashion right before my eyes.

I think "Deadspace and Red Orchestra meet Halo" sums it up well.

[TeeKup]

The Flood is the most horrifying force in the galaxy. An extra-galactic abomination to everything that is what we call normal. Able to convert known sentient beings into it's nightmarish thralls with in seconds, controlled by a malevolent and extremely intelligent central consciousness and able to communicate through any said thralls at any given time or distance.

Halo: Combat Evolved presented the flood very creepily. Halo 2 was SORT of creepy...not really. Halo 3 did shit all to make it creepy other than to show Gravemind is truly twisted and evil.

The flood is not original, but it did a good job at representing its villain archetype. I want to be scared shitless by it.

tl;dr, What my good friend Warsaw said.

[Heathen]

So was I. I was just thinking about that the other day too!

E: at et tu brute knees and ripped in half stuff.

[Con]

I always felt Halo games were too dumbed down and pretty. They really fail to showcase humanity's dire condition and the horrors of war. There's so much rich story-telling that could happen, but they hush it away in favour of gameplay.

[Heathen]

I always felt Halo games were too dumbed down and pretty. They really fail to showcase humanity's dire condition and the horrors of war. There's so much rich story-telling that could happen, but they hush it away in favour of gameplay.

that...almost sounds like sarcasm...but thats pretty much right.

[Kornman00]

I was really just poking fun at the whole "more realistic and iron sights" part. What part of iron sight makes it so damn great? It only eats up one more input (combo) IMHO. Realistic...yeah, be more specific with what you mean there. I agree, I would like to see some more Human aspects (no pun) in game. Like someone was saying, how this would actually affect the mind of a human in this kind of war.
OIF is a cake walk compared to this war. Not all marines you see are going to have a battle hardened mind. Hell, both sides should have a "omg, fuckfuckfuck gonna die!" character chance (in the actual game mechanics, not just dialouge). You know, not all the time, but some of the time (don't want your entire squad turning chicken now).