Nerd Mentality

XBOX 360 REVIEW – Halo: Reach

Posted November 4th 2010 by Frankie Aguilar.

When Bungie announced that their last piece of work in the Halo series would actually be the first chronologically, I found myself reeling. The last time someone decided to do a prequel to a fantastic and fan loved trilogy I was up to my ears in Jar Jar. Luckily for me and the rest of the Halo loving world, Bungie truly saved their best for last. Halo: Reach is a culmination of all the great things about the rest of the series while trimming a lot of what sucked about those previous installments. Being a prequel allows freedom from plot devices and story lines that severely hampered Halo 2 and 3 in the story department. And say what you will about Halo 3: ODST but that experiment paved the way for a game that looks and plays great, and is absolutely the Halo that the XBOX 360 deserves.

Now, when most people think of Halo, they think about how awesome the online play is because of the super refined run-and-gun gameplay, but what really shines about Reach is the story. That's right, this game has a great campaign, and that's because the story is actually good. Freed from the shackles of the forerunners and the Flood and the tangled web of incoherent and inconsistent story lines, Bungie was able to create the kind of epic tale the Halo universe has sorely missed in each game since Halo: Combat Evolved.

Reach re-inserts you into the half ton power suit of a Spartan, but for the first time in the series you aren't the Master Chief. In this fight you take the role of the newly appointed Noble-6, a replacement member to the Noble Team. If you thought playing as a Spartan was bad ass before, playing as a part of a Spartan team is off the charts. If you're unfamiliar with the story of Reach, here's a brief spoiler free synopsis. Reach is a UNSC (think our military but in space) base planet which the "alien race known as the"? Covenant decide to invade in search of ancient space artifacts. This act of aggression is the starting off point for the rest of the Halo series, so it's pretty important. You and your team set off on a series of missions to try and save Reach, and stem the seemingly endless tide of Covenant troops, who are more cunning and dangerous than ever before, due to the best AI in a Halo game yet.

The Noble team's defense of the planet Reach allows for great squad style gameplay that runs concurrent to an interesting story. These Spartans have a depth to them (something the Chief lacked) that is as varied as their skill sets, making the pacing of this campaign smooth and enjoyable. While they do fall into generally hackneyed warrior archetypes (heavy gunner, stealth, melee) the script and the voice actors that play them really brings you into the group. As the new guy, you tend to do a lot of bitch work, and get into some hairy situations for the sake of the team, but it's nothing a Spartan can't handle. Think of Noble-6 as a beta version of Master Chief, raw but talented, with the same take-on-the-world attitude and all the skills to actually pull it off.

The gameplay in Reach is really synergistic in its implementation in that it takes a little bit from every game, and finds a way to make it all smoother than any one yet. Being a prequel, it had to fit the timeline, so the health bars are back and the duel wielding is gone. A few gems from the newer instalments, like jacking enemy vehicles from them, did make it to the past, as well as a few new features that didn't make it to the future. Some new armor features make for a litany or new gameplay styles that will have players retrying levels with different load outs just to see if what happens. The foremost of these new armor features is the ability to sprint, which comes standard with your armor. Sprinkled throughout the levels are caches where you can trade out your sprint feature for active camo, a jet pack, or deployable bubble shields. And while all of this is great in the campaign, it's even better in the multiplayer.

While the Halo franchise was built on great gameplay and action, it has flourished due largely in part to the success of the mulitplayer, specifically its standard-setting online functionality. Reach's multiplayer, much like its campaign, is greatly aided by the vast backlog of trial and error from Bungie. The sheer amount of match styles alone would keep any FPS junkie busy for at least a month, but Bungie has done something deliciously evil with Reach: they've allowed you to accessorize. Throughout gameplay, both online and off, you gain points to upgrade the look of your Spartan armor. These upgrades range from the mundane -- helmet lights and visor colors -- to the ability to have your head explode confetti after you die. That on top of in-game achievements, along with the ever present Legendary difficulty, Halo Reach is a game you'll be playing for a long time.

The first time you turn off your XBOX after beating the campaign, you're going to get what can only be described as what the 5-Hour Energy commercials call "that 2:30 feeling". A sense of melancholy will invade your soul as a gamer, knowing that while the end was great, it's still the end. Sure, you can play through the campaign again and the multiplayer will be around for years, but you no longer have the next Halo to look forward to. Sure, there could possibly, technically be another Halo game, but without Bungie behind it, it would probably be similar to when Joel Schumacher took over the Batman movie franchise (see: Bat nips). But at least they went out with a bang. Halo: Reach is, for my money, the best game in the series. By freeing itself from its own history by setting itself at the beginning, Reach was able to see the pitfalls of the future and avoid them. So we can say a happy goodbye to Halo at the place where it all started: Reach.

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Tags: halo

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