Jul 22, 2010
If it wasn’t for the Halo franchise then the original Xbox would have been dead-on-arrival and the Xbox 360 wouldn’t have even been released. This one series changed FPS games forever and it gave Microsoft the power to make a name for them on the video game front. Fast forward nearly 9 years and we are at the conclusion of the Halo series; well we are actually at the start of the Halo series, just the last game from Bungie.
Halo: Reach puts you in the shoes of Noble Six, a Spartan just assigned to the Noble Team. Times for the Noble Team haven’t been so great with one of their former members, the last Noble Sixth member, sacrificed his life against the Covenant. Some of the remaining Noble Team members are not too pleased with a new team member but planet Reach is under attack by the Covenant so all the boo-hoo bullshit has to be put aside.
Halo has always been about character development but before they only focused on no more than 3 characters at a time. Halo: Reach’s whole purpose was to deal with the back story with character we’ve heard about and already knew. Bungie does a fantastic job with the characters in this game, to a point it has as much character development as a major motion picture.
Bungie doesn’t disappoint with the campaign either, other than the length but how many of you are used to the 4 to 6 hour length from FPS games anymore? What Bungie does to maybe make up for the lack of campaign is how well done the story actually is. At no point did I feel angry through my body like I did with Halo: ODST. Reach will have your eyes glued to the screen until the final few minutes of the final Halo game from Bungie.
With their final farewell to the series, Bungie has added a lot more than you could imagine. Your team playing with you actually isn’t one-sided any completely useless and there are more enemies than the usual two groups. Ladies and gentlemen Halo: Reach has humans and animals trying to attack you! Halo: Reach also has people screaming and running away! This doesn’t sound like much, I know, but to a Halo game this is a pretty big deal.
Halo: Reach has also upped the difficulty rating just a bit. The enemy AI is hard as fuck on legendary and even on heroic it is hard. Reach has the most realistic AI to-date in a Halo game, which means you won’t be able to put it on the highest difficulty setting and brag to your friends that you are the man. When you can beat Reach on legendary then you are the man, by yourself too. You can of course play with friends too through the whole campaign which is a lot of fun, but I’ll get more into the multiplayer and co-op play a little later.
Most people scream when you talk about Halo and how cool the weapons are. Me, I think all of the weapons are identical, just different coats of paint was added to make it not so obvious. Bungie did manage to add some new weapons but they did at the same time take out a few (which makes sense since this is technically the first game in the series). If you’re like me then you’ll stick with the same 3 weapons the entire time.
One of the newest gameplay mechanics added to Reach are the armor abilities. There are such improvements as jet packs, camouflage, sprinting, and about half a dozen more. I think the armor abilities were a nice addition but at the same time why would they do this in the first game of the series (story wise)? Maybe I am just nit picking a little…ok Bungie it was cool, never mind me trying to make a point in your last Halo game.
It took Bungie how many games to finally upgrade the graphics? Halo: Reach is the best looking Halo game, hands down. Spartan’s actually look badass with their armor shinning at any location they might be at. The locations you adventure to are beautiful and it is simply stunning how much happens on the screen at once and there is no slow down at all. There are still minor clipping issues and your teammates do get stuck sometimes, but overall Reach is the best looking Halo game and I am glad that Bungie finally did something with their graphics engine.
Here is a no brainer; the music in Reach is amazing. This soundtrack is much better than most sci-fi movies, past, present, and hell even the future I bet. That is one thing you never have to worry about, a Halo game will always deliver the best sounding game. You really do feel like this world is real with the sound by itself.
Now let’s get to the part that most of you care about. Halo: Reach has 13 multiplayer maps and 8 Firefight stages. The modes you can pick for your online parties are Assault, Infection, Juggernaut, CTF, Oddball, King of the Hill, Slayer, Race, and Territories. Those are just the old favorites because you also have Stock Pile, Invasion, and Head Hunter, the new modes Bungie has added to the online experience. There is a lot to do with this game when it comes to online play!
Halo: Reach’s campaign can be played with your friends, dropping in at anytime. I know other Halo games have done this before but this time around there is almost no lag at all while playing. It also has to be brought up that this can be done since some FPS games still won’t add this to their game. Reach is co-op friendly and it does to show you that Bungie listened to their fans when it came to making this game.