How Halo: Reach Makes Players Despair 

Hore Hey hahaha

@@smnrch7279 My bad haha!

Lol!

tbh i thought you were making a reference to the book the fall of Reach lmao

That's not how you pronounce it in spanish bro

Whole mission's absolutely brutal!

Right. It’s so bad, they simply can’t send help or they’ll get shot down too, which would be a waste of human lives and resources. All they could do is leave those people to drown inside the ship. Absolutely horrific

That's the reality they had to unfortunately accept, the depression behind that response is really dark.

@@paytonallen1027 I'm just glad they didn't include audio of people screaming as the ship sank. I would have had to stop playing for a while after that.

@@SapphireCrusader1988 yeah that would seriously have messed me up more than the original scene already did

I think the radio chatter works well with that. There's auntie dot which is essentially just a warning system, and then there's the escalating panic of the people picking up that signal. Similar thing happens later with the evac transport being shot down, before it leaves you can hear UNSC officers and stuff communicating with the ship and urging them not to take off, and the impending sense of there being no choice as the covenant are literally about to break through. Reminds me of the E3 trailer: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-s3MabEog3yQ.html

Agreed mate, one of the best endings to any Halo mission (I also love the end of Assault on the Control Room where Cortana starts panicking about Keyes too).

When I first played, I thought the line was refering to the slipspace bomb at first

@@ParkingCars Same here. My first thought was, "Damn right there's been a slipspace rupture." And then she says it again. And again...

@@SuperMano-me5vl and then the ships start popping up on screen, and then the despair hits.

That moment is so brutal but also very well done, one of the best deaths in the series.

Kat's death has 2 major things working for it; its spontaneity, and the message it actually conveys. The sudden shock of it happening is hard to fathom because it quite literally comes out of thin air. There's absolutely zero build up, and it occurs in a locale that seems reasonably secure. Hearing her voice cut out and her body go limp in the cascade of it all really hits it home. In a scene that was reasonably tense already, it coming so far left out of field completely pulls the rug out from under the players feet. The message it conveys is where the real despair takes place. Through all of the Halo games to this point we've visually and verbally been communicated that Spartans are the cream of the crop. They're nigh invincible, indestructible. A ferocious killing machine of lethal wit and skill. Kats death strips away all of our predispositions and lifts the veil in that Spartans really are just like us, their lives are as fragile as ours, and they can be taken away at any moment. The sudden impact of the shot, paired with the promotion that Spartans only ever die on their terms is an excellent twist that turns us on our heads because it conveys how unfair life can truly be, even for those we deem the best equipped. It's a standout scene in what is otherwise a rather, underwhelming overall grand narrative that I personally don't think displays the actual desperation of the struggle of Reach. There should have been a lot more gameplay segments of the player and their efforts actually failing, rather than the cutscenes conveying bitter-sweet comforts.

Kats death is one of my favorites of Halo reach, probably second aside from Six.

@@Garthorium thank u for ur essay and that last point would have had way more impact like the last mission

@@Garthorium bro it’s literally a game about a competition to see who can have the most cliche death

Damn. What a line.

It's particularly chilling because for the most part we don't see Spartans in the games losing hope. Remember, we've been playing as Chief, aside from ODST, up to this point. A guy who's mostly quiet, calm, and collected.

This is the one that stuck with me.

@@everythingsalright1121 Spartan III’s show a little bit more emotion than II’s, as most of them were 10-12 year old orphans of the war made into Super Soldiers. Most of them have a particular hate of the Covenant because of this fact. So when they are asked to go on suicide missions where 298 of the 300 Spartan III’s are killed, (Operation Torpedo) they don’t have objection to it as long as they kill the enemy. Emile in Noble Team is definitely one of these individuals.

@@everythingsalright1121 In the books he’s scared a lot of the time. He was especially terrified by the flood

I like the detail of how even with the re-entry pack he was injured pretty bad on his way back down

@@MillionBlue did he fall from orbit? I thought that after Jorge threw him out of the corvette he just boarded an allied craft and used that to go back to the planet's surface. I didn't know that Mjoulnir armors were designed to withstand atmospheric reentry. Now that i think about it i think Bungie lost a chance to make Masterchief look more badass in Halo 3, they could have had the high temperature of reentry burn away the armor's green paint leaving it charcoal black.

Gotta love noble 6

@@arx3516 People only burn up from impact when they hit the atmosphere very quickly. Terminal velocity from a freefalling spartan doesn't reach speeds fast enough, as the energy needed to disapate as heat would only be potential, not kinetic.

@@arx3516 He did use a part of Truth’s Ship to effectively “surf” his way down.

Meanwhile I jump off a ledge to save some time and die from fall damage in Halo 1.

Halo 1 is a horror game in the second half disguised as an FPS. Being alone in 343 GS and the Library is entirely playing into the horror vibes.

@@anthonygusman9909 The Library is literally hell.

@@ChadHellgado can fall from orbit. Dies from jumping a ledge

@@definitelyjustcj4148, can fall from orbit, and breathe in space. Dies instantly the moment half their bodies hit water.

This is true!

Running it through on legendary the amount of effort that goes into it just to watch that happen. Just sit there a moment like bruh…..the fuck.

69th like! Great comment btw

A Pyrrhic Victory!

That, and the fact that you slowly lose members of your team, like Kat being shot in the head, Carter flying into a scarab, saving you and Emile in the process, speaking of Emile, he goes down like a boss, but dies regardless. In lone wolf, you are likely the only surviving human on the entire planet, having lost your entire team and given everything you got to the cause, and the covenant are coming to finish the job. You (From a Noble 6 perspective) don't even know if your deeds were worth it, or all in vain. The music, the background, was beautifully set for giving you those feelings Plus you can see bodies of spartans in the area, makes you believe wonder what happened before the cutscenes, but no matter what, it ended in death for them

shame 343 cut out Reach's full customization in MCC

@@niggalini what do you mean by that? :o I'm able to customize how I once was.

@@niggalini Agreed

@@niggaliniNo they didn’t they added to it

Yess, the body language in this game was killer

The voice acting plus the body language in the the mission The Package is really chilling. When Holland is radioing the Spartans in the beginning "Noble Six.. I need those guns taken out son" and both him and Carter sound so tired. You can tell that six is focused, but struggling. Digging deep like special forces do, but feeling the loss. He/she delays their hand signal to the ODSTs just for a second before commencing. So good.

It helps that this is the first Halo were cutscenes were acted through motion capture. The previous games were hand animated which is why Halo 3 and ODST characters move a bit cartooney/Disney like in the cutscenes.

That was hard to read

the whole battle of reach lasted one month

@standard nomad honestly as someone whose read and loved those books I’m fine with it at this point. Most, and by most I’d be willing to bet a good 90%, people who play halo will never *ever* read those books so I think reach did a good job of giving people who will, again, never read those books the feeling those books convey.

@@adarkwind4712 Read the books tho, I would still lean to the position games come first & foremost, being the most important medium for halo, all else is an extra & an extra like you have said the vast majority of fans will never engage with.

@@WolfGamingProductions …..read my comment again bro I did read them….unless I’m reading your comment wrong. If so then I apologize.

@@adarkwind4712 No, I was saying that I've also read them as well ^_^; No worries about the confusion.

@standard nomad that’s if you like to be anal. Reach both the book and the game were amazing, and it’s okay if there’s alternative accounts of events. That’s how life works, you can ask 5 people about the same event and you’ll get a different story every time even if it’s the smaller details

A hard hitting story that will be remembered for many years to come

Its inevitable but you fight anyway. That's the best part

@@user-id9fh7qj5j bruh "Halo 1-3 is more or less a cartoon" What games did you play 😂 They demonstrated how ferocious the covenant was and how our greatest secret (EARTH) was revealed and ALMOST destroyed. Literally handful of real veteran spartans/ soldier preventing the total collapse of Galaxy Wide Weapons and a Cosmic horror. That is what always has been halo.

New Alexandria is also excellent and the way objectives are handled is pretty unique for the series! Might have that on a list of 'things to cover' too, so keep your eyes peeled during September 😉

NA is the culmination of despair. It is truly the breaking point, where all but the most mentally resilient would have given up. Exodus is the rapid descent into despair. It’s the denial, the mental combat to continue, and ultimately fail, to grasp at hope. To say which is worse is subjective. To slowly sink into the darkness as you watch the light shrink into the distance, or already be cloaked in the inky void of despair. One is the pain of loss of hope, in knowing that even your best actions have consequences on not just yourself but others as well, that they will never be enough; the other you can at least take relief in utter helplessness.

It also opens with Six all alone on the pelican as he's taken to Noble Team. You don't ever see his face, but you can tell he's exhausted & emotionally torn as he looks over the war-torn city. As he gets ready to land, he does his best to put it all aside & return to work once more.

Kat’s death is one of my favorite moments in the franchise. Everyone else makes a heroic sacrifice; Kat just gets corpsed mid-sentence-what a gut punch.

@@doctaflo it definitely shocked us and it’s a realistic scenario too. That shit happens all the time in war and when it happens to such a vital character, it really hurts

Jorge's death was the sacrifice that ended with a lose, Kats death was to tell that in war, anyone can die at any moment, Jun Fuckin left, Carter did what had to be done for the mission, Emile was to say, not everyone comes home, Six, well [*REDACTED*]

Noble 6 isn't dead, he's MIA.

@@joshdamighty this is false. Noble Six is listed KIA as they found the recordings after retaking Reach. Even Halsey's speech in the epilogue confirms he's KIA.

@@kratkartan1486 u don't get what he is saying. It's a reference to halo's one of the most famous lines.

​@@dibangshuprasad12c77 those who know know. Spartans don't die, the just go missing in action.

Brutal but amazing.

@@BenPlaysGames Amazing because it was brutal.

To be fair, it *is* enormous, just... not when compared to other Covenant warships.

It's 900 meters and the Covvies classified the thing as a corvette. It's massive overall and it's considered one of the smaller, weaker covenant vessels. Just helps set up the appearance of the CSO which was so vast it looked more like an artifical sky than a ship.

Basically, I'm a fool! I knew it was pronounced 'George' as I played the whole game through before making this video, but by the time I came to recording having written the script etc I completely forgot 😂

@@BenPlaysGames i don’t think anybody will hold you to it 😂

@@performingmale4468 Ha, fingers crossed!

There's also the pronunciation of Nobel Six...

I think mendez calls him horhey as well in that animated master cheif story

Its power, Until you play ODST

100% agree dude, I consider Reach to essentially be Halo 4 in terms of quality.

@@BenPlaysGames Reach is worlds better than 4 imo. I gave up on 4 after like 4 missions because I had yet to find a coherent plot to care about, and those Prometheans were giving me far too much trouble. I'm on my second playthrough of reach in the last year and a half (and I only played the campaign for the first time a year and a half ago).

@@reaganharder1480 I've just started playing through 4 again and I'm finding it... somewhat uninteresting.

@@BenPlaysGames I think 4 hits it’s stride with the last few missions. Midnight especially was really enjoyable (and the soundtrack that kicks in is fantastic). Green and Blue, along with Arrival are 2 of the best tracks in all the Halo games imo

Yeah, but the Arcadia skirt ends with the Covenant being defeated on Arcadia, so at least that ends well

@@wolfwarlordjake8992 it took 2 covenant ships to overrun the defences on arcadia. One of them got destroyed early on. We see a 5 to 2 ratio which endet with 4 destroyed or seriously damaged unsc ships and 1 destroyed covenant cruiser. And even then the unsc were lucky. Sure there was some victory but the planet had to be evacuated. I find it a good narrative choice that the players see that whenever the covenant make planetfall everyone is fighting a losing battle. They overrun arcadia, Reach and even earth (or at least new mombasa) in a really short time and without much trouble. This is in a strong contrast to the player who have little to no problem killing them in the hundreds.

What?

@@katsikator5129 The final level of Reach is emotional because it's one you will always fail. When I played with my Twin Bro it was intense because we didn't know if we could win, but soon figured out that it was a hopeless fight

@@alexroy5854 oh ok

Damn man, feels like he actually died or something

Bro same, I also did this with my twin lol

Thanks Nick! And yeh, they definitely have a place in the series, completely different kind of atmosphere...

Awesome part of the game and one of the best across the series!

Hmmm. Never noticed the toys. Gatta go play it again. Over and over and over

@@moeman5122 so far as I remember, in the initial map of Exodus you can find multiple teddy bear backpacks, some gym bags, fallen wheelchairs and I think you can even find more stuff on the ground like newspapers and pads with info, including some close cafes.

@@Sebastianguitar01 I'll keep an ear out

@@Sebastianguitar01 ....Honestly if it was me down there, boots on the ground, I'd have lost all composure and started screaming. Hate toward the Covenant, Despair for the loss of lives, Mourning for Jorge for the universe did not deserve this unit of a teddy bear man....Just I would not have been in a good headspace. Probably get overzealous at the first fucking Covvie I saw, better if it was an Elite or Brute but I would relish in peeling a Grunt like a fucking ONION.

Agreed Egg, that scene is a banger!

“How could there be teams of Spartans just like me that have ever failed?” And then, Bungie found a way to show us.

Turns out Cortana saying the reason she picked Chief wasn’t because he was the strongest, the smartest, the best shot or best fighter, he was actually middling to average in almost every test, and apparently he is even short compared to most Spartan II’s. But he had one thing, he was lucky. So lucky that he literally past tests confirming that if given a blind pick he will choose the correct answer far more than average. And he was a determined fucker, and wouldn’t back down for anything. She chose those two traits to be more valuable in War than any martial skill, because if you aren’t lucky you end up like Kat. Or any number of other Spartans that where just not in the right place and caught a bullet for it. And it was the correct choice. So much so he carried all of humanity with his determination and luck.

@@realddormond7158 Well Chief wasn't exactly Average he almost always came close to or in first place. He was more so equal on everything and wasn't blowing other Spartans out of the water in certain aspects like Kelly or Linda did. To say he is just a Average Spartan II would be a under statement he's just a bit above the rest. At some point you can't keep calling it luck, at some point it's just skill

@@realddormond7158 Not what that quote means. Chief is considered lucky because he always manages to be at the right place at the right time. He is by far the best Spartan II there was, incredibly skilled and impossible to take down, and, through luck, was always where he was needed.

Amazing mission! It's the 'battling the covenant in a city' mission I'd always dreamt of after finding Halo 2's Earth stuff fairly disappointing (especially compared to the early gameplay trailer).

I love Exodus for a dozen or more reasons! Among the top is that is an Urban Jungle setting and all it has Spikers, my most favorite weapon in Halo! Definitely my most favorite mission in Reach!

Exodus is one of my favourites on Reach along with the sniper level Nightfall. I really liked the way you worked your way out of having almost nothing at all but a pistol and half health, upgrading your weapons with each wave of enemies you take down, and finally obtaining the brand new jetpack.

Exodus is one of my fav as far as environment design goes, BUT Long Night of Solace would probably be my overall fav. Deadahead is such a killer of a track

I'm personally a big fan of New Alexandria. Every objective you completed lead to a Covenant cruiser coming in hot and just glassing a part of the city without any thought

I completely and and utterly agree with everything you've said here Frank, 'nail in the coffin' is an excellent way of describing New Alexandria! On the off chance you're interested, I actually made a video about the mission a month or two ago: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lnRdBuIX-Lg.html

I'm the idiot who played the entire game for this video, and so knew it was pronounced 'George', but wrote it in the script as Jorge and then forgot and pronounced it as you would in Spanish. My girlfriend keeps telling I'm getting old and I never agreed with her until now haha. And cheers for the kind words too mate, appreciate that. May be covering ODST in coming month as well, so do keep an eye out!

That’s the Spanish way of saying Jorge

@@BenPlaysGames I honestly just thought you were taking the piss out of the spelling

@@MojitoHTX spanish people do NOT pronounce jorge like that lemme tell u

Um he didnt write reach

Per Wikipedia, the writers of Halo: Reach are Joseph Staten and Peter O'Brien.

Eric did not write the halo reach story, he wrote fall of reach. Both stories are wildly different and the game retconns large portions of the novel. Halo reach is my favourite halo in terms of gameplay but the story is so difficult to believe i have to give best story to 1 or 2.

Make that four people. Jun and Halsey survived too.

@@warpuppythedragon659 When the halo reach story is"difficult to believe" but one spartan saving the human race isn't..

*Horehay will remember this*

Who is horehay?

@@yashshukla9590 It’s basically Jorge, but his name is pronounced in a wrong way. If I remember correctly, in Spanish they usually pronounce J as H, maybe the G too? Not too sure. But yeah, even in the Fall of Reach movie, an instructor called Jorge as “Horehay” instead of the correct pronunciation.

@@drweeberwob7849 Thats also due i think because of his hungarian origin. And that way, Jorge can pronounced in different ways which dont have to be wrong, depending on the language spoken. Since we mostly now use a more english version, since phonetically we basically say "George".

@@user-id9fh7qj5j Chief and Johnson

If I remember right it wasnt just chief and johnson but like a small group of people.

Thanks Jacob, really glad you enjoyed it!

Cheers mate, hopefully will continue to grow slowly but surely!

Brutal! Have just been playing through Reach again for a video over the last few days and I've come to the conclusion that I'm really not much of a fan of that section at all.

@@BenPlaysGames I think it was alright for what it was, but it definitely felt like more of a plot device than a section of gameplay to be thoroughly enjoyed. Although one of the guys from Crimson Skies helped in development for that sequence, so I thought that was kind of cool, and added a nostalgia factor for me while playing. It definitely could have been workshopped a touch, but I remember, when I played it for the first time, I was totally stoked because this was the closest Halo had ever brought me to piloting a Longsword. Overall I still enjoy that section. Personally, I think it’s definitely more fun on legendary when you actually have to use the platforms for cover so you don’t get sandwiched by the seraphs and banshees in defense of Anchor 9

Cheers Norty mate, hope all's well with you! And yeh, it's a cracking little game, that beach scene is absolutely brilliant and a great homage to The Silent Cartographer.

If only the space cutscenes were skippable :3

True that!

There is even a meta thing to this, but yea, you realize we are saving Cortana, which in turn is the partner that with MC saves humanity. But all this destruction, your death and the death of the last member of Noble Team on planet is to save the Pillar of Autumn. A ship that only two people are going to walk out of that destination of that next warp jump alive by the end of it all. Even in your final rescue, there is the essence of futility.

Cheers Philemon mate!

Me too haha.

El Nobles Locos 😂

Absolutely Mike, they're a bunch of horrible bastards in Reach 😂

[ assessing probe read-outs in confusion ] “Something’s not right, the fleet that destroyed Reach was fifty times this size.”

Just playing it through at the moment in preparation for another video, it's really, really good.

I'm a sucker for Combat Evolved simply because of the childhood memories, but Reach and 3 are the next two on the list for me (couldn't pick which I prefer between them). I was really hesitant about a prequel when they first announced the game, but so glad they did it!

Thanks mate! I've just started a playthrough of ODST for when I'm taking a break from Cyberpunk, hoping to get a vid out soon.

Cheers my man, appreciate that! And yeh, same for me, it's a marked change of tone for the series which really, really works.

Skills to pay the bills 🙈

No worries at all Gabriel and thanks for the awesome feedback mate!

Thanks dude! I've another on the channel too covering New Alexandria, with the added bonus that I don't balls up the pronunciation of some of the names haha.

@@BenPlaysGames exiting! I’ll check it out :)

I love the Maw too mate, the Foehammer part gets me every time. That warthog run is the tits too.

Perfect place to do it - and cheers mate!

I wasn't too excited about it after ODST, which I thought was good but not great, but boy did it turn out well!

That's real nice of you dude, thank you!

Cheers dude!

Mate you have no idea how many comments I've had about it. Rightfully so, as it is incorrect haha. Got them all right in my more recent Reach video, however, so hopefully that makes up for it a little!

😂 Awesome isn't it.

Thanks Jack mate!

Why?

As a way to show that 6 took some damage from their drop.

@@gartcw9955 Interesting.

Huh. I never thought to do that before. But it makes sense.

Another reason I do it is to help (mental) signify the tonal shift of Reach’s story. From feeling like we just delivered a crippling blow to the covenant, only for it to be completely undone, as described in the above video.