Gaming Update #18: Purple Aliens and the Woes of John Marston

by natetodamax

The idea for this blog is pretty old. During my brainstorming period that frankly lasted several weeks, I revisited Halo: Combat Evolved, got back into the groove in Persona 3, and ate some weird mochi balls. Now, I believe I am ready to sit down and dedicate the next hour or so of my day to some in-depth writing about neither of those. Rather, I'll be looking back on my luscious experiences with Bungie's latest purple alien murder simulator and Rockstar's open world game, Grand Theft Horse (known to some as Red Dead Redemption). Oh, and this will totally contain ending spoilers for Red Dead Redemption.

Halo: Reach

Bungie's last entry in the Halo franchise creates the impression that the series is afraid to progress further than just a few modifications and enhancements here and there. Indeed, Halo: Reach is a cool game, but Bungie's attempts to make sure the experience feels new don't seem to work as well as they'd hope.

Last One Out, Turn Off The Radio

How did the Covenant manage to get this on Reach without anyone noticing? I will be honest and say that I am not a fan of how Bungie tells their stories. Specifically, I hate having orders barked to me over the darn radios in the game. I didn't mind it at all in Bioshock because it's a lot more personal and there are subtitles, but holy crap Halo: Reach. Aside from the cutscenes, there is practically zero meaningful face-to-face interactions in the game. Instead, you are put on a large map and told to do things as you are speeding around in vehicles and getting shot at by Covenant. I don't know about you, but when I'm taking fire from all sides I'm not going to listen to anything some schmuck says to me over a silly radio. This combined with the lack of subtitles lead to me finishing Halo 3 and Halo: Reach without having a clue what I was doing and why I was doing it. And it's because of this that everything I know about the Halo universe is stuff I've read online at official wikis and other pages, websites created by people who, to my surprise, managed to scrounge together information about the fiction and make paragraphs out of it. That's not how I want to experience a game's story.

Cue dramatic shot of Noble Team    Even worse is how truly frustrating the campaign can be. I played on Normal my first time through, and I couldn't believe how many times I was getting killed. And none of the times I perished was the result of taking too much fire. Rather, the campaign is packed full of unavoidable explosions and other nonsense that it makes your deaths feel really cheap. You'll be gunning your way through a mission when suddenly, surprise! An Elite that you didn't know existed comes out of nowhere and eviscerates your pathetic figure from behind with his big glowy sword. Other times you'll be making your way through an area when surprise! A Ghost decides to hit the boost and run you over. Not to mention stray bullets hitting explosive objects which result in you getting a faceful of hurt, Wraiths that can kill you with pinpoint accuracy from a mile away, and those Shade Turrets that always know exactly where you are.

Is Ze Multiplayer At Least Fun?

I sincerely hope this was staged Aside from the moments when the Covenant are teabagging your body in celebration of their latest one-hit kill, Halo: Reach is an enjoyable experience. The core gameplay triangle of weapon-grenade-melee remains relatively unchanged, which is probably a good thing because it works. Ze multiplayer is entertaining, but after a while you start to realize how little it really offers. Bungie puts a huge emphasis on having unique weapons that require different strategies to use them effectively, but there just isn't enough of them to keep things fresh. After a while you start having that realization where you find yourself saying, "This is the mode where everyone has the DMR. This is the mode where everyone has the assault rifle. This is the mode where everyone has the sniper rifle. And this is the mode where everyone tries to capture the other team's flag... while using DMRs." Believe it or not, but I actually got bored playing Reach's multiplayer after a while. Armor abilities add an interesting element of strategy to the game, but not many people seem to know how to use them correctly. Specifically, I'm talking about the jetpack and armor lock abilities. It seems that everyone who uses the jetpack chooses to fly up as high as possible when they come across an enemy, which usually results in that person getting peppered with bullets like a sporting clay. And those that use armor lock will comically initiate it every time they get shot, which leads to situations where my team gathers around the coward like a firing squad and flattens him as soon as he comes out of it.

Fight Or Fall, We Can't Stop It Now

So, Firefight. I'm glad that I can do matchmaking since having to get a group of friends together seemed like an annoyance in ODST, but after a while the novelty just wore off for me. The amount of customization in Custom Game Firefight is simply incredible. Yes, I downloaded a map that got me the 1,000,000 point achievement in 10 minutes, but I had more fun doing that than I did in any Firefight Matchmaking game. Because come on, achievements should be fun to get. And flying around with infinite jetpack with infinite rockets firing at groups of Elites that spawn every 3 seconds is just hilarious and worth it.

Concluding Thoughts: I could probably write a lot more about Reach but I'll cut it off right here. If I made it seem like Reach is a bad game, then believe me when I say that Reach is easily the best in the franchise. The campaign is by no means terrible. It's just frustrating. And the multiplayer is capable of providing hours of entertainment, but it's disappointing that the game's simplicity is blanketed by a plethora of menu options that make it seem like it's the deepest multiplayer experience to ever reach consoles. No pun intended.

Red Dead Redemption

Now here's a game I've been meaning to write about for some time now. Red Dead Redemption tells one of the best stories I've experienced in a while, closely rivaling one of my all-time favorite games Mass Effect. John Marston is truly the best character Rockstar has created. You can really sympathize with this guy in nearly every way. He's a no-nonsense kind of dude, but he's also a devoted husband and father and even a humorous fellow at times.

Scumbag Blues

EEEEEEEEEGGGHH If there's anything I disliked about the story in Red Dead Redemption it's probably the majority of the characters involved in it. Nearly every contact you meet in the game is a total scumbag in every sense of the word. There's Seth, who is one of the most frightening things I've seen in a game. You become acquainted with Mr. Nigel West Dickens, who made me want to tear my hair out every time he talked. Let's see... there's Colonel Allende and his right hand man De Santa. One of them abuses women, the other... well, both of them abuse women. And you got Irish, who always has more alcohol in him than Lindsey Lohan on a Friday night. (Did anyone else notice that he touches a horse's penis when you arrive in Mexico?) All of these people I pretty much wanted to kill, although I can make an exception for Seth because even though he gives me nightmares he is pretty amusing to watch.

But most of all, I wanted to murder Edgar Ross in the most vicious way possible. The ending of Red Dead Redemption left me with so much rage and hatred for this guy. Heck, I wanted to slap his voice actor. So imagine my excitement and thirst for blood when I found a stranger in Blackwater and promptly asked him for the location of Edgar Ross. When I talked to the dude's brother, I thought for a second that I was going to feel bad about Ross, because his brother was a real nice guy! He gladly told me where Ross was and never once suspected that this random cowboy strapped from head to toe with weapons was going to rip out Edgar's windpipe and stamp it into the ground. So I approached Edgar slowly to make it seem all cool and nonchalant, and in the ensuing dual I blasted him directly in the face with every bullet my pistol could hold. It was easily the most satisfying thing I had ever done in the game, and I love how they flashed a bright red title card when Jack walks away. At that point, I was literally done with the game. There was nothing else I could do in New Austin that could possibly feel as worthwhile as that one moment.

That Compass...... It's So Far Away!

I'm gonna hit y'all with a fact that will likely blow your mind and shatter dimensions. It's this: Music is the most powerful form of entertainment. Game soundtracks can be great, but sometimes you get tired of hearing that pounding orchestra over and over again. Red Dead Redemption incorporated music in one of the most amazing ways I've ever seen. I am of course referring to what some would consider to be the best two moments of the story: when you first enter Mexico and when you are finally allowed to return to your family. The former is so perfect. The somber sound of "Far Away" by Jose Gonzalez play softly in the background as you ride your horse across the barren wasteland of Mexico, sun beating down on your neck (or in my case, the moon). Several hours later, once you've forced Dutch van der Linde to commit suicide, the tune "Compass" by Jamie Lidell accompanies you as you ride your horse to reunite with your family. In this example, the song creates such an amazing feeling of happiness that is unlike anything else.

I have thought about what a game would be like if it made heavy use of real life music instead of original scores. There are situations where inserting a good song from the real world can make a normal scene amazing, as evident by Red Dead Redemption. But when you think about it, these instances are few and far between, and overusing real world music would certainly make these moment less stunning.

But Let's Not Beat Around The Bush Here

"HOW ARE YOU DOING JOHN!?" "I'M GOOD, HOW ARE YOU!?" "JUST FINE, LET'S CONTINUE TO TALK IN THIS REGISTER FOR THE NEXT 3 MINUTES!!" Alright, so I've swooned over Red Dead Redemption so far. But by no means is it a perfect game. I did have some issues with it, most notable the mission structure. It seemed like almost every mission involved some sort of shootout that came after an incredibly long horse ride with whoever was joining you. I like the fact that you can hold the A button to match their speed, but after a while it got somewhat tedious listening to John and his companion literally yelling back and forth at each other. Grand Theft Auto IV had a similar problem; a lot of missions involved too much driving for me.

Perhaps Red Dead Redemption is an example of a game that is too big. It's fortunate that the horse butt physics are so stunning because you'll be staring at a lot of horse butts during the game. (That sentence might be a lot weirder than I intended). The oversized map is especially noticeable during Free Roam, which I ended up avoiding because of this. The game drops you into it, usually far away from all the other players. The starting horses are so darn slow, and it sucks having to practically crawl your way to the nearest group of players only to find out that they moved someplace else as soon as you arrive.

But whatever. I enjoyed Red Dead Redemption so much that I simply cannot go on and on about the little flaws it has. It's irrelevant.

Concluding Thoughts: Simply put, Red Dead Redemption is one of the best games I've played. The story is constantly exciting and a it's real tear jerker. If you haven't played it yet, first of all, shame on you! And second, here you go.

Well

It feels good to finally get all of that out. There was a time when I didn't think I would write something about these two games. This ended up more like a review blog than I had intended... regardless, I hoped you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Until next time, children.