Halo : Reach Review

So a couple of days ago, I picked up a copy of Halo : Reach to try it out, and went straight over to my friends house for a mini party. I would definatley say that if you are a Halo fan, then this game is going to be on top of your "to buy" list, because I wasn't really a fan of Halo. I never played much halo because I never had xbox live for the online multiplayer, normally getting the other Halos for the storyline.Recently I decided to buy a copy of Reach and also get Xbox live just for it, and I have to say that it was worth it.

Halo : Reach is going to be the last Halo game from the game developers Bungie, as they say farewell to it and leave its fate in the hands of Microsoft. Bungie managed to make a really good prequel to the sequel, and managed to not mess anything up so that things won't make sense in the other stories.

Story

*Spoiler Free*

Halo : Reach is set on the planet Reach, which the events are set a few weeks prior to Halo 1. Reach is currently being assaulted by the Covenant in search of something on the planet and a small group of SPARTANs are dispatched on the planet to defend and make their last stand on the planet.

The Humans are starting to colonise space, thanks to new advances in space travel. Civil war was promising to break out soon, but the United Nation Space Command made a group of super soldiers, named the SPARTANs, who are physically augmented from child birth, to stop them.

Soon after, a group of aliens that are called "the Covenant" discover humanity, and attack them at a colony named "Harvest". The covenant believe that the Humans are an affront to their gods. From then on, Humanity continues to fight the war and lose lots of ground, but the Covenant never find the location of Earth.

Reach is a heavily populated colony and research and military facility, and holds the defense line before Earth, and soon after is attack by the Covenant and start to bombard the city, killing everything, and then your team is sent to Reach to defend it.

You play as a member of the Noble team, and your squad consists of 5 other SPARTANs all with their own distinguishing characteristics. You play Nobel 6, the newest member of the team.

The campaign consists of 10 missions, and also has a very simple storyline. It was to defend, attack and defend again, thought that sounds boring, it isn't that boring, as missions do vary objectives and the story if you have read any of the books, is about the Fall of Reach.

The length of the game will be a good 8 hours long.

Grpahics and Sound

Graphics on Reach are not the best graphics you will see nowadays, but it is still smooth and has a very nice looking feel to it. I haven't really had any problems with the graphics so far, and it has been an improvment from the other Halos.

Sound effects haven't changed too much, and the announcer that says "Flag Taken" is still the same as it was from Halo 1.

The music in Reach has changed a bit, as theres no longer the original Halo music but a new one made just for Reach. It is still a very good theme, and the style has changed and now has a bit of rock and techno mixed in with it which also still sounds great.

Multiplayer

After the main campaign, there is still the Multiplayer, and I have a very very strong feeling that Reach's multiplayers will last for ages with the Halo fans and players. Halo 2 was still being played a while ago, and was only stopped being played because they shut down the servers.

One major change to the online portion of the game is that matchmaking has now been remade so that you will get put up against players that are around your skill level, and this is done with a huge amount of equations and stuff in cluding your win/loss and your Kill/Death Ratio. Now that the game has just been released, there won't be so much difference, but as the game progresses then thats where it will start to make a difference.

Firefight is an online, cooperative game that puts up to four players together to withstand hordes of enemies that come in waves of increasing difficulty. You are scored on the type of kill and the enemy, and while you can respawn a certain number of times, you must defeat each wave in the allotted time limit. It is a fun and addictive gametype that could open the online side up to players hesitant to jump online straight away because co-operative gameplay is always fun and friendly.

And then you have the competitive side of the online games. The traditional modes return with 13 maps, and six different modes. You have: Rumble Pit (a free-for-all game with 8 players), Team Slayer (4v4 team death matches), Team Objective (4v4 objective based games like capture the flag), Multi Team (6 teams of 2 compete in various challenges), Big Battle (8v8 mix of gametypes), and Invasion (6v6 where teams fight for territories). Each categories has its own subcategories, and when you add in user content, the number of gametypes is staggering.

When you re in the lobby, you have the choice of three games to choose from, as well as a none of the above option. Once the majority have voted, the game begins. It is a small, but very smart addition. When most games begin, you will be given a choice of the loadout you wish to begin with. Each choice will offer a primary weapon, a secondary, and an armor ability. If you end up playing as an elite, the weapons and armor abilities will vary. You can change the loadout in between respawns, and you can also choose your respawn location. The loadout choices will depend on the type of game you are playing, and there are many.

Conclusion

Halo : Reach is a very good game, and will be played many many years after 2010, and I have to say that Bungie did do a very good job on leaving the Halo franchise with a bang. Though there are a few things that i would want, it still did live up to its expectations. There will of course be many map packs being released in the near future, and many updates. Have fun playing!

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