Working as Intended

A few days ago I finally got my sorry, lazy arse around to buying a HDD for the Xbox 360; a problem I was well aware I'd need to solve since around mid-September. I don't use my Xbox 360 for much these days, but in order to play co-op Campaign or Firefight on Halo: Reach, you need a HDD. I think that's kind of stupid, but I found a HDD for super-cheap so I should probably stop complaining now.

To celebrate my getting around to doing something I logically should've done half a year ago, a friend and I are playing through Legendary (with certain skulls on) on ol' Reach, a playthrough I've wanted to do for the longest time. Honestly, I'm generally not a fan of playing solo campaigns in the Halo series. They just don't seem all that enthralling to me. However, playing through on Legendary, especially with a friend in 3/ODST/Reach, has become one of my favorite gaming habits. It's the way Halo was meant to be played, dang it!

Normally, I can't play co-op on Halo with m'colleague shown above, because in Hola 3 and ODST, the coding was arse-backwards, and playing co-op with anyone outside your own country was often like trying to wade through a swamp of pure lag-soup. I think that's still the case if you want to play with 2-3 people outside your country, but with just 1 other person the lag is pretty minimal.

The worst you'll get is a one-second delay on movement and jumping, which is... kind of annoying when you start, but you quickly adjust. Considering I'm playing with someone literally on the opposite side of the world, it's pretty darn good. The input lag only gets in my way when I'm trying to dodge incoming plasma grenades and the like, since I have to be aware of them one second faster than usual, which I never am. Knowing my playing skills, or lack thereof, I wouldn't dodge them anyway, so it's a moot point.

Anywho, I thought it might be marginally entertaining to write up my thoughts and feelings about Reach as I go through it for the second time (or at least the bits I find noteworthy). I... wasn't really a fan of it on the first playthrough. The mission design and overall gameplay flow was good, as is to be expected from a Bungie title, but I just never got any emotional connection with the setting, characters or anything like that. Hell, I couldn't (and still have trouble) remembering the names of the Spartans in Noble Team. It was never bad, but.. it just wasn't memorable to me.

But, hey, I like to think I've got an open mind, so let's give it a second look at, shall we?




I'll have to ask my friend for confirmation on this, but I believe we were playing through on Legendary with the Tough Luck, Catch, Thunderstorm, Tilt, Cowbell, Grunt Birthday Party and IWHBYD Skulls on. In order, this meant that on top of the hardest difficulty, the enemies would: dodge projectiles and grenades much more effectively, throw a million more grenades back at you, be much harder to kill, could only be reliably damaged with their own weaponry types, would explode 3x harder, Grunts would eject confetti and cheering children with killed (Don't look at me!), and NPCs/Enemies would occasionally say silly/awesome lines.

We tried with the Mythic skull on (2x health for every enemy) but that was honestly impossible for us. We got stuck on the confrontation in Winter Contingency, the first level, where Elites appear for the first time. After trying that sequence for nearly 20 minutes and failing to kill a single Elite, we gladly turned that skull off and never looked back. Considering how hard certain sequences down the road would and will be, I'm so glad we nipped that one in the bud.

I'm not sure if it was intentional, but Winter Contingency on Legendary is the hardest bloody level we've encountered so far. The later ones have difficult sequences, but the entirety of the first level after you encounter the Covenant seems to be a long string of, "Oh, yeah, this bit's really kicking our arses, isn't it?" Don't get me wrong, it's a lot of fun, and the challenge is why we're playing it right now, but by the time you have to deal with a Insta-Kill sword Elite and his plasma-orb spewing friends, it seemed like the game was taking the piss a bit.

It took us a good... 15 or so attempts just to clear that room. If it weren't for the great checkpoint system, we could've been there for hours and never made any progress.

As far as the level itself is concerned, I love the little open-world segment for the first 2/3 of the level (at least in co-op), but from a setting/story standpoint I think Winter Contingency sort of puts me in a weird mindset. I was hoping there was going to be a long build-up to the Covenant being on Reach, to set up how big a deal it was meant to be, and for a little bit it seems the game is going that direction, but then it just goes, "Fuck it!" and throws them at you constantly from a few minutes in.

It's hard to really get behind every NPC screaming and making a huge dramabomb about the Covies being on the planet when I've pretty much never seen Reach without them on it. I understand it's to get to the shiny gameplay quickly, but it really ruins the atmosphere and feeling of foreboding and peril.





That being said, the gameplay is as fun as it ever is on Legendary, possibly even more-so in Reach, since the game simply doesn't reserve itself and throws everything it has to offer at you right from the beginning. This is a difficulty, especially with the skulls on, that will make you fear Grunts of all things. Jackals as well have been upgraded from Halo 3, and are probably the main enemy that kills me now. I don't know what it is, as they seem to act the same, but if I could see a post-game tally of enemies that killed me, Jackals would probably be responsible for a good 90% of them. The fuckers.

Though as the levels go by, I'm positive Elites will be more responsible for my deaths. It's honestly no wonder Humanity has been having problems with the Covenant, considering how those bastards can dodge everything ever, while at the same time managing to throw a plasma grenade perfectly at 300+ yards onto my crotch.

I do have to say though, that on Legendary you certainly get to known Noble Team a bit better than on the easier difficulties, if only for the levels of resentment you start to feel towards them as they shrug off explosions to the face, while you die from a single needle looking at you funny. The best way to get past the harder moments, which is all of them, is to throw whatever Noble member is following you at the enemies and hope they'll keep them distracted while you pump 'em full of lead. Or plasma. Or running away really, really fast.

The next level, ONI: Sword Base played very much the same, with a neat little open-world segment at the beginning, but then changing to linear but intense skirmishes as the level continued.




Not really much to comment on about this level, as far as storyline and atmosphere goes. It's all pretty solid, except for the fact that I have no bloody idea what exactly Auntie Dot is, outside of another AI. Is it ever actually explained in the game? Because I can't remember anything for the life of me. Although I'm willing to chalk that up to me being a forgetful idiot, rather than anything on the game's part.

If nothing else, this level sternly reminded me how much Hunters are solely designed to cause me a world of hurt. Not matter what the circumstance is, the location or what I may actually be doing there (which is generally dying), one of three things will happen with I have to encounter a Hunter.

1) I will be insta-killed by that plasma launching thingy they have.
2) I will dodge the plasma round and instead be insta-killed by the Hunter introducing his shield to my skull.
3) I will dodge the round and the shield, throw a plasma grenade and inevitably get caught in the explosion.

The problem, or the fun, depending on how you look at it, is that you really can't kill them from a distance without a Rocket Launcher or Spartan Laser. One of you is going to have to get in close enough to distract them or blow them up. And they always show up in pairs, so you'll have so many incoming horrific explosions  fun and cuddles to deal with~!

That said, I'll happily take a million Hunters over The Flood. If I had to go through Cortana or The Library again on Legendary, I think I might just scream pure pile and implode in a singularity of sheer bitterness. If only because of those goddamn ranged forms. But they're not in Halo: Reach, so who cares? YAY!

Overall, I'm definitely loving Legendary, as I always do. I kinda wish the co-op connection was strong enough to support my UK friend and two others, but being on opposite sides of the world is a tricky thing, and I'm just happy I finally get to play. I can always do another playthrough with 3-4 people whenevs. Hell, I've gone through Saints Row 2 like... seven times since I bought it. I'm always down with the replaying shiz, yo. Or something?





:: ~Bonus Material~ ::




Why Emile really should learn to pay attention to closing doors...





Curse you, American-designed vehicles!