For those of you who watched Microsoft’s E3 Press Conference earlier this week, you were privy to the latest and greatest Halo: Reach campaign trailer, which aptly depicted the squad combat that would take place as you and a group of Spartans battle their way across the UNSC planet Reach. As you may or may not have noticed after the Spartans break the planetary atmosphere and achieve spaceflight, there is a raging battle occurring around the spacecraft inhabited by the super soldiers. The gameplay then drastically cuts to space combat in which the fighter flies around, shooting at Covenant capital ships and fighters alike. If you haven’t already watched it, we have it here for your viewing pleasure and I will ask that you watch it through to the end until you continue reading.
While this may serve as merely a set piece, this is a disturbing design decision on the part of Bungie that may serve to leave a sour taste in the mouth of gamers riding on the last game produced by the perennial studio. The problem is that Halo is traditionally a first-person shooter title and while there are vehicular elements that have been done before in the series – Scorpions, Banshees, Warthogs – space combat really doesn’t have a place unless it involves fighting from corridor to corridor of a UNSC or Covenant Starship. While there has been a decided excitement among the gaming community regarding this development, it is still a vastly concerning prospect. Certainly a fear of the unknown is prevalent, more or less, but it is within the realms of the unbelievable that Bungie would make such a design choice. It almost feels like Bungie is taking elements from games like Star Wars: Starfighter and placing them in Halo: Reach to make their last Halo opus an attempt to reach all the various nooks and crannies of the gaming community – possibly bringing in those who may have never even played a Halo game.
This seems plausible enough as the new classes combined with this ability could very well serve to create a Halo experience on-par with Battlefield series – epic set pieces where combat rages over massive game expanses. But is that what the Halo faithful want? Doubtlessly, the Halo: Reach beta was a hit – even as a beta – 2.4 million gamers can tell you that. But then again, the beta was pure, uncut action as any Halo game has been notoriously known. As E3 finished-up and more gameplay footage is shown, perhaps Bungie will allow players and journalists alike to have a shot at the space combat level(s) so an overall impression can be harbored before the game hits store shelves in September. But only the quality of the level and the content therein will be capable of making this one of the best moves Bungie has ever made in a video game or the deep, dark secret that might have ruined a potential game of the year. Cliché as it sounds, only time will really tell.
What do you think of the prospect of space combat in Halo? Does it ring true with the roots of the franchise or is it something best left to other games? Go ahead and sound off in our forums (click here) and give us an earful about what you think of Bungie’s move to include space combat in Halo: Reach, due out exclusively on the Xbox 360 later this year.
