Halo Reach; unexpected surprise!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi1lIaBpdcI#t=09m41s

The last Halo game I really loved was a long time ago on the PC. I've played through Reach and it's brilliant.

I don't know if anyone has pointed this out but one of the missions has space combat! It's very cool.

My friends who had never played Wing Commander and are avid FPS fans loved this level and said they would be interested in a game which had more of it :)

WATCH! It's halfway through the vid..

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I'm a big Bungie fan (see avatar), but I have to disagree here. 1.) Reach is a good game but the story is blah and 2.) The problem with Reach's space combat is that it's blah as well...weapons autotrack, no radar, etc. It requires 0 skill (even on Legendary) to get through...


It's the exact opposite of what I'd want in a WC game in terms of space combat....
 
Reach's space combat is blah compared to maybe what you picture as the ideal, say, Wing Commander 3 level of space combat sim where you're adjusting energy levels and cycling through VDUs and chasing the ITTS reticule. But it's pretty on par for modern space/flight sims - pretty much like what you get in a Tom Clancy's Hawx game today. I was fairly impressed for its seamless inclusion in a shooter.
 
I totally agree with you, it's definitely not good enough/advanced enough to be used as a Wing Commander game. What I do like is the fact that the space combat has been included in such a big mainstream game and could also be in Mass Effect 3.

Just nice to know that our genre hasn't been left behind! :)
 
Yeah, the space combat's ridiculously simple, and I say this as a total incompetent at games. (My big achievement of the day was getting *1* kill in Big Team Battle. One.).

Yes, I do like the Halo series and am the only one that likes shooters amongst my group of friends (not all of them, though - Halo and Half-Life are the few I enjoy), but "easy" is often close to impossible for me. Took me a little bit of luck to get through Halo 1, 2, 3, ODST and Reach on Normal difficulty. That's how bad I am. And even I could do that part on the first try.

I suppose the only real challenge to the level is to get the escort part done in under 3 minutes.

I will say at least I enjoyed the space combat better than the helicopter part a few missions down - that thing has practically impossible controls (so much so they had to add an "altitude lock" to the controls to keep one's sanity).
 
I'm thrilled. Imagine all the people who bought Reach and played that bit of the game. Millions of people who've never played a space combat sim just got their first taste. This is one of the best things that could have happened to the space combat genre.
 
I should clarify my statement, I didn't like the initial defense mission. It was a bit confusing and trying to find Seraphs and Banshees could be a pain....it become more tedious than enjoyable.

The corvette strike I thought was fun...just something about smashing a capship I guess....
 
Does anyone else think this could be the future of big games?

Personally I would love a Wing Commander game which was first person and included walking around your capship, on planets, conversing or fighting --- but obviously you could run across the flight deck during a scramble and jump in your Vampire :D
 
I was thinking about this too. It's obviously nothing compared to Wing Commander, but Halo is huge, and perhaps it will generate some interest. Maybe a Halo flight sim could pave the way for a Wing Commander return.

Does anyone else think this could be the future of big games?

Personally I would love a Wing Commander game which was first person and included walking around your capship, on planets, conversing or fighting --- but obviously you could run across the flight deck during a scramble and jump in your Vampire :D

Games used to work like this. It was no surprise to see a game where you fly a ship, run around and shoot, use a mapscreen, and other things. Even games as "recent" as Shadows of the Empire did things like this. Of course, games were simpler then. Over time, as engines and graphics got more complex, games evolved into a more "do one thing and do it well" thing. And of course it was also natural to target serious players with more specialized products, such as with flight sims.

The more modern attempts to include multiple types of gameplay haven't really been as satisfying, in my opinion, though, because at least one type of gameplay winds up watered down. In Halo: Reach, the FPS type of play was still the same as ever, but the flight type of play was very watered down. This happens for a variety of reasons. Time and budget, of course. (And does it even make sense from a business standpoint to release one game that is a great FPS and a great space combat game when you could release one of each?) And there is also a game design issue at play - you want to have as simple and as common a user interface across the whole game as possible. But two really serious attempts at two entirely different styles of play need different controls. Plus, you don't want to waste time putting a serious space combat mode in your FPS when your fans likely will not want to bother with that anyway.

So you can get something like Battlefront 2, that does FPS, vehicle combat, and space combat. But it doesn't do any one of those things that well. And that can still be fun. But when you really want to get your space combat fix, Battlefront 2 isn't going to do it.

So we may see more gameplay variety in big games, but I don't think we'll be seeing multiple fully fleshed-out styles of play in games in the foreseeable future.
 
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