Review: Halo Reach
Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 9:45PM 
As their time with Microsoft neared it's end, Bungie had one last chance to create something great for the Xbox 360 and it's army of devout Halo fans. Off the heels of the entertaining yet disappointing Halo: ODST, Halo Reach attempted to capture the glory and mystique of the first three Halo games, and build upon the marginal story with a prequel, in attempt to make the story's first chapter the best of the bunch. It's live action trailer was able to Deliver Hope, but does Halo Reach deliver results?
Story
The story follows a group of five battle hardened Spartans and you, the sixth member of the squad, known as Noble Six. You start off as an outsider, replacing the well-liked previous sixth member of Noble Team, who was killed in battle. As the new sixth, you have a well established war record, but that doesn't prevent your teammates from needing to see you validate yourself through your performance on the field. Halo games always do a good job of wasting little time before immersing you in battle, piecing the story together as you burn through swarms of invading Covenant.
Bungie has always tried to weave a compelling tale throughout the various Halo entries, but the plot has always seemed a bit detached. For better or for worse, it was the action that carried the Halo campaigns. Reach tries it's hardest to rectify that, and for the most part succeeds, with a character driven plot which nicely develops the members of Noble Team.
As a prequel, Halo Reach had it's work cut out for itself to establish the grounds for the wildly popular Halo universe. Prequels are a tricky beast, as they're just one misstep from tarnishing the story's lineage forever. Bungie handles this like old masters, setting the stage for the start of the Halo story, establishing the Covenant as smart, vicious warriors, and painting Noble Team as the precursory heroes that got the whole damn thing started.
It's good to see some returning cast from the earlier games make it into the prequel, even if on limited terms. Captain Keyes, Cortana, Master Chief, Colonel Johnson, and even the forgettable Buck from ODST are all present, mostly as voice overs for firefight. No matter how limited they are in their capacity, the familiarity is still a nice touch.
Gameplay
What is there to say about the gameplay? It's Halo. It's something that's been tight and precise since Halo first appeared on the original Xbox. It feels good to be back in control of the Spartan super soldiers, after playing as the watered down ODSTs, being able to eat damage like a tank is a welcome re-addition, especially if you're trying to play on any mode higher than normal. My favorite part of the campaign was definitely the sixth mission, Long Night of Solace, where you pilot what appears to be a supercharged A-Wing into space to take down a Covenant cruiser and it's defending fleet of fighters, Colony Wars style. Once you board the cruiser, you're forced to fight in a low gravity environment, where the expanse of space mutes everything you'd normally hear. It is, to me, the best chapter in a very impressive collection that total to the campaign.
The skills are a nice touch to spice things up in Reach, allowing a little more flexibility and personality in your style of play. There are skills for everyone; sprint for the mobile, active camo for the sneaky, armor lockdown for the defensive, bubble shields for the team-minded, and so on. Of course a few situations require certain skills to advance, but outside of those limited instances, you're skill as you'd like. The only drawback in campaign, is that it's hard to find some of the skills outside of sprint and armor lockdown, and once you die, you're reset right back to the default skill of sprint. So if you've worked hard to find that jet pack, you better make sure you stay alive if you want to hang onto it.
There are a bunch of new guns thrown into the mix, and they don't disappoint. My favorite of the bunch has to be the concussion rifle, a slick little piece with exploding rounds, not dissimilar to Halo 3's brute shot. There are other awesome additions, such as a beam rifle, needle rifle, grenade launcher, and satellite gun, which paints a target on any ground location, enabling rounds to rain down from an orbital ship with pinpoint accuracy.
Matchmaking has plenty of robust options to keep you entertained after your 6-7 hours of campaign (my two player co-op time on Heroic difficulty) from the most basic Slayer matches, to the newly introduced Invasion game type. With so many variations to detail, I won't go into depth, but I do want to make mention of the improved Firefight mode. What seems to be a basic addition in most first person shooters, firefight pits you against waves of enemies which increase in mass and difficulty. Reach's spin on it allows you to fine tune the parameters to your liking. Low gravity? Why not. Infinite ammo? Sure. Wave after wave of low level grunts? You're in control, so play it any way you'd like.
Art Design
In typical Halo fashion, the graphics are beautiful. Character design is well done, with the personality of each member of Noble Team permeating through their self-reflecting armor choices. The backgrounds of Reach are greatly varied and all flawlessly constructed, from the beaches, to the cloud filled skies above the expansive cities, to the sterile vastness of space. Each backdrop is wonderfully detailed and full of life.
For the first time in the Halo series, your custom outfitted Spartan appears decked out the way you want him in campaign, as well as matchmaking. Makes sense since the story revolves around your part in Noble Team, not Master Chief, nor the non-descript ODSTs. What better way to make the player feel involved than to have his or her personality imported via armor design and fit right in with the rest of the well decked squad. It's little things like this, seeing my meticulously crafted purple and black Spartan of death interacting with the rest of the group, that make me happy. Thanks, Bungie.
Sound Design
One of the unsung strengths of the Halo series since it's inception, has been the marvelous soundtrack. Reach keeps the tradition strong, with plenty of melodies for every mood, effortlessly combining beautiful symphonic pieces with strong guitar riffs for the more action packed sequences.
Conclusion
Halo Reach wraps up Bungie's work with Microsoft quite beautifully. The campaign is great fun to play, and following the storyline doesn't feel like as much of a burden as it has in past Halo titles. For the competitive types, Matchmaking has plenty of options to keep your multiplayer sessions varied and interesting. For the offline player, Firefight and all it's tweaks add a staggering amount of replayability. And for the aspiring director in us all, Theater mode, which I'm shocked has yet to be done by any other game, can keep you occupied for hours on end, perfectly crafting your own clips to share with your Xbox Live buddies.
Buy it if: You own an Xbox
Don't buy it if: You don't plan on playing any other game modes after beating the campaign
Value out of $60: $60
The Score: 9 outta 10 Blasters!
Note: All images for this review were created and submitted by users, and taken from the Halo Reach screenshot portal at Bungie.net
Reader Comments (3)
Nice review. The inclusion of the credit system also adds replay value for outfitting your Spartan. I think my favorite stage was defending the doctor (forget the name of the stage) and the ending was also awesome. Go down fighting.
Nice review man!!! It makes me feel even worse for being broke right now but at least it assures me that this is a must have......unlike odst. I'm looking forward to joining you online in matchmaking.
Join us soon, Jean. It isn't the same without ya.