Halo Reach
As an entire package, Halo Reach is the best Halo game released to date. Halo Reach is the epitome of replay ability and it definitely offers something for everyone. From fans that simply enjoy playing through the story to those who are addicted to multiplayer, as well as those with more creative aspirations Halo Reach is definitely a game worth full retail price.
Halo Reach’s single player campaign takes place directly before the events of Halo: Combat evolved. Single player is no longer an apt way to describe Halo Reach’s campaign. As with the previous two titles up to four players can journey together through the story over Xbox Live or split screen. The additions of the competitive campaign scoring introduced in Halo 3 is back as well as the augmentation skulls that allow players to ramp of the challenge of campaign on top of the difficulty settings. Halo Reach finally tells the story of one of Human kinds most important events in the Halo Universe, the fall of the planet Reach to the Covenant. It had been referenced in each Halo game and explored in the Eric Nylund’s novels, and now fans will finally get to experience the destruction of mankind’s military stronghold.
Halo Reach will put you in control of the latest addition to an Elite group of Spartans called Noble Team. You are simply referred to as Noble Six a Spartan who prefers to speak with a weapon. As Noble Six you will follow Noble Team in their efforts to resist the Covenant and preserve what little can be saved from Reach. Bungie has created Noble Six to be your Spartan. When you first load Halo Reach, you will be prompted to choose whether Noble Six is male or female. In addition you will choose how Noble Six appears, by selecting different types of armour. The armour changes Noble Six’s appearance in both campaign cut scenes and Halo Reach’s multiplayer modes. New armour augmentations can be unlocked through credits which are gained by doing well in any facet of play in Halo Reach.
Following Noble Team during the fall of Reach presents and excellent and compelling story of humankind’s struggle for survival. While story may not have included as many twists or revelations as previous games it was everything I wanted it to be and it left me very satisfied. The campaign is not perfect with a few minor glitches and A.I problems that pop up throughout. There are a few weird instances where enemies will appear or disappear into thin air. There were also a few times were I noted NPC teammates walking into walls or becoming stuck on objects. My major gripe with Halo Reach and probably the entire Halo series as a whole is how terrible NPC teammates are at driving or shooting from vehicles. Whenever I’m greeted with a vehicle sequence where I have to rely on the NPC to shoot or drive I opt to walk instead.
Other than those few issues, I loved everything about Halo Reach’s campaign; the beautiful cut scenes, the great tie-ins to the original Halo as well as most of the multiplayer maps showing up in campaign. Halo Reach also takes a cue from Call of Duty with some cut scenes displayed through the point of view of Noble Six. This cinematic choice works just as it does in Call of Duty, giving the impression of frantic actions surrounded by a chaotic environment.
Playing through Halo Reach on a casual difficulty or with multiple players will make the game seem rather short, with only eleven missions the game can quickly be beaten. Legendary on Solo offers a much needed extension of the campaign but it is not for those who are easily frustrated. Thankfully Halo Reach also boasts an awesome multiplayer component that offers limitless hours of play.
Halo Reach’s competitive multiplayer offers the standard modes found across other first person shooters as well as those that are staples of Halo games. The two biggest additions to Halo Reach’s multiplayer are armour abilities and loadouts. While the loadouts are not as customizable as Call of Duty’s they do offer the player a level of choice in what weapons and armour abilities they start a match with. Armour abilities are augmentations to Spartan armour that allow a unique ability. Abilities such as creating a decoy, using a jetpack or throwing down a bubble shield are among my favourites. These armour abilities are also found in the campaign and firefight mode.
Firefight is the second competitive multiplayer mode in Reach. Firefight pits a group of Spartans against waves of enemies. After all the waves have been defeated the Spartan with the highest score wins. Firefight has been vastly updated since Halo ODST, allowing matchmaking as well as shorter rounds. This makes Firefight a much more digestible mode than it was in ODST. It now may take around 20 minutes to half an hour to complete where before it could take well over two hours. The addition of matchmaking is a great feature that should have been included in Halo ODST.
Two notable modes of play in Halo Reach apart from the campaign and multiplayer are Forge World and Theatre. Theatre offers the ability to go back and watch any recent campaign, firefight or multiplayer match. The match can be viewed from any player’s viewpoint, over their shoulder or from a camera the player is free to control. The matches can be paused, slowed down frame by frame and a host of other actions. Screenshots and clips can be taken and uploaded to Bungie.net and downloaded onto your PC for editing. Theatre mode offers plenty of value to those who want to critique their past matches or create a montage or machinima video based upon their exploits.
Forge mode was a great map editor in Halo 3 and Bungie has upped the ante with Halo Reach by creating Forge World. Forge World is not only a map editor but a map creator. While players can still go in and make additions to their favourite maps, Forge World opens up a blank canvas of terrain to let player’s imaginations run free. Several multiplayer levels have actually been built using this in game tool. I’ve spent several hours in Forge World and it is several times more robust than Forge mode in Halo 3. The ability to control objects and put them together is a lot simpler and the controls are have been tweaked to make it easier for players to bring their vision to life. My only complaint is that I wish there was a dedicated Forge World playlist that would allow select levels to be played by everyone, not just the creator’s friends. With Reach’s ability to upload a created map to Bungie.net and then expose it to the community, this may one day be a possibility.
Halo: Reach is easily the best Halo game to date. The stellar campaign along with the addictive competitive multiplayer and firefight modes are enough to justify the score below. The changes and improvements made to each component of Halo: Reach improve upon an already stellar formula for a video game. There are plenty of game you can spend your hard earned money on but I doubt that any other game coming out this fall will offer the same amount of replay ability that Halo: Reach does.
Thanks Bungie, its been great.
