Halo: Reach Review

Great Halo Game or Greatest Halo Game?

Let’s cut to the chase. Halo: Reach is the quintessential Halo experience. Bold statement? Yes. But here’s why.

Reach is the swan song for franchise helmer Bungie Studios. While Microsoft plans on churning out more Halo titles in the future, the creators of Master Chief are stepping away from the Halo universe to pursue other adventures. That said, it’s evident that the Bungie staff put every ounce of their heart and soul into Reach.

Starting with the campaign mode, Halo: Reach is the most cavalier spirited Halo title since the original. Players control Noble 6, the aptly named 6th member of the Spartan Noble team. Noble Team has been charged with carrying out high-risk ops on Planet Reach, the last remaining human stronghold against the Covenant forces.

And from the get-go, it’s evident the planet of Reach is in trouble.

This Spartan eats trouble for breakfast. With soy milk.

As Noble 6, you go through a total of ten missions with the rest of Noble Team. These stages include everything you’d expect in a Halo game: epic battles, close quarters firefights, intense vehicle sequences. Plus crazy fun new additions like space combat, and new weapon loadouts like jet packs and holograms leave you feeling like a brand new Spartan.

Speaking of Spartans… In the original Halo, Master Chief is seemingly the last of his kind. Not so in Reach. Each mission pairs you up with one or more members of Noble Team, breathing some camaraderie into what has generally been a lone wolf franchise.

And for the most part it works. By the end of the game I was generally concerned about my squad members. Small talks in between skirmishes reflect on characters’ pasts and the sacrifices of each person really add some oomph to the narrative.

All the while the story reminds the player in a truly grand fashion that the planet itself is at stake as well as all of humanity. In a word, epic.

Nobles 6 and 2 looking their best. Tim Gunn would be pleased.

Not only does Halo: Reach have an epic new story, but the look of the game is better than ever. Bungie gave the Halo-verse a graphics overall to produce some of the most stunning backdrops to ever grace an FPS. Cascading mountains, lush valleys, all beautiful to behold despite the constant onslaught of enemy fire.

I touched on the new weapon loadouts earlier, but let’s elaborate. Loadouts include sprinting, drop shields, armor lockups (temporary invulnerability), and yes… jetpacks and holograms. The names pretty much explain it all but trust me when I say Halo + Jetpacks = win. And strategically sending out a holographic clone of your Spartan to draw enemy fire opens up all kinds of doors for combat tacticians.

But all of these amazing campaign features don’t have to be experienced alone. Up to four people can play through the campaign together and the difficulty scales with each added player. Halo: Reach is arguably the most difficult Halo title to take on solo, so expect a strenuous trek with four people.

There’s also that whole online Matchmaking thing. It’s back and it’s awesome. Hop into games with other players to take down foul-mouthed eleven year olds or build stages from scratch in The Forge to throw down in with your friends. Sign up with the Halo Waypoint community service and you can link your accolades from Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo: Wars to your Reach account.

And every last detail of online matches can be tweaked in a startling number of ways, ensuring that players have all the creative control they could wish for. Throw in fresh weekly challenges and Matchmaking is the gift that keeps on giving.

"I'm the king of everything!"

For those seeking the ultimate challenge, Bungie has put some polish on the Firefight mode introduced in ODST. Simply take on continuous waves of enemies under a constantly scaling difficulty for as long as you can. Simple in theory, but only the most hardcore of Halo fans will be able to obtain the “1,000,000 Points in Firefight” achievement. Break out the Mountain Dew and black tar heroine, that’s gonna take a while.

It should also be noted that doing anything in Halo: Reach earns players credits which they can spend on armor pieces. You can buy everything from helmets to grenade laced fanny packs and make your Spartan as unique as you. There are a ton of armor additions to buy and it will take a hefty commitment to "catch 'em all." These cosmetic changes carry over into cut scenes and of course online play.

The Game 9/10
So what we’ve got here is a decade in the making labor of love. An epic story of survival and sacrifice, improvements to critically praised gameplay, and an online legacy coveted by its competition. Again, Halo: Reach is the quintessential Halo experience.

The Time 9/10
Checkpoints are abundant in Reach’s campaign allowing you to pick up where you left off versus starting a level from scratch on a new play session. The campaign’s ten stages can easily be knocked out in a weekend, but the online matchmaking is where you’ll get your money’s worth.

The Verdict
If you’ve ever taken part in Master Chief’s adventures, I cannot stress to you enough the delight of going into combat with Noble 6 and the brave souls of Noble Team. A love letter to its fans, Halo: Reach is the most enthralling chapter in Bungie’s book.