Halo Reach Review

Where would Microsoft’s games console market gone if Halo hadn’t been one of their debut games? It’s been a decade since Halo: Combat Evolved burst through our CRT televisions and Master Chief John 117 became an icon of how the original X-Box didn’t flop.

With two sequels and an army of fans more willing to wrestle Stone Cold Steve Austen with Brittle Bone Disease than utter a negative word in the direction of the Halo franchise, Bungie’s latest release takes us back a step. To a time before Master Chief, the Forerunners, the Flood and that annoying Guilty Spark tin can - to where everything went to pot for humanity- here is Reach.

Halo: Reach tells the tale of the fall of the human colony on Planet Reach. Heavily mentioned in the original Halo story arc as being the epicentre of where the war with the Covenant became more than duck and dive scraps, becoming instead fights for freedom and survival for the human race.
Through the eyes of elite Spartan squad Noble, Bungie gives an insight into the horror of how Reach went from a thriving military and scientific colony to a baron wasteland.

The narrative follows the newest member to Noble squad, a Spartan simply referred to as Six. With the nature of Spartans being elite, Six isn’t treat as the FNG (as in Halo 3:ODST) and is thrust straight into the action as a valuable team asset, as only the lead protagonist can be.

The storyline isn’t too dissimilar to a snowball rolling down a snowy hillside, gathering matter, size and detail all while increasing in speed, becoming more formidable as its final collision is imminent. All you can do is not avert thine eyes but have your eyes remaining locked on your screen as the Halo mythology, as always, is far too engaging to waste.

As is to be expected from a Halo game, the backgrounds and levels are phenomenally gorgeous to look at. So much so, there are points in the game where the levels should have sections where instead of pistol whipping alien hordes, you should be able to take as much time as you wish to meander and admire the set pieces and backgrounds. Cinematic cut scenes are even more stunningly gorgeous and when matched with the rock solid narrative, the two complement each other to create the Halo franchise’s finest outing.

To give players the full force impact of a human colony being destroyed and soldiers fighting their hardest to protect their home world, Bungie seems to have racked up the difficulty a notch. Even in normal mode, which in the past three games has been code word for every competent gamer to mean ‘piece of cake’, the Covenant troops put up one hell of a fight. Grunts are still the easy targets that clutter the space between you and the fun enemies, but now anything but a direct shot to the noggin will just force them to soil themselves mid-air before retreating to regroup/clean up.

Elites have also become a challenge again with a variety of different classes forcing players to get creative with tactics. Brutes also make an appearance to the nostalgia party but are far easier than their counterparts in Halo 3. Except if they are in great numbers. Simple solution, bring ammo. Lots of it. Gone is the classic Halo strategy of running in with guns-a-blazing, reloading and repeating. Now flanking, misdirection and close quarters combat all have to be pondered sharpish to not get whipped by the AI.

As can be expected from a Halo game, the longevity of the game lies not in the campaign but within the multiplayer and with Reach being the (supposedly) last game in the Halo series. All the stops have been pulled out to create a deeply creative and long term source of multiplayer enjoyment.
Online game modes for this instalment of matchmaking bliss are split into four different areas, matchmaking, custom games, forge world and division.

Matchmaking and custom game modes need no introduction having been a staple in the sales spiel since Halo 2 back on the original Xbox console. But as sensible, well-educated bearded men have shown with reasonable proof in the last century or so, evolution is a real process that affects the natural world and as such, the matchmaking and custom settings in Reach look similar to their forefathers but are significantly improved.

Matchmaking has introduced a few new ways to prolong online lifespan. Invasion is a stage led Spartan v Covenant sucker fest where an attacking team pushes forward to beat the defenders back to their own lines to grab an item of great moral significance for the pixels.

Invasion does well to pit the large, fast and powerful Covenant forces against the slightly smaller, more agile Spartans and is above everything a team game, lone wolf tactics by any or all of the team members will result in failure.

Arena is a new feature for online gamers and offers the chance for players who so wish to get competitive against their fellow gamers. Requiring three games a day for a week, the Arena sprites get around to compiling a ‘season’ in which gamers play, compete, win, lose, fail, cry and succeed, all of which is charted and at the end of a season. It’s reminiscent of a Call of Duty leaderboard except only for those who want to receive a ranking, leaving those to dick around dicking appropriately.

Firefight makes a return from the depths of Halo 3: ODST’s mediocrity with a few tweaks to make it better. Gifting Firefight with the ability to find random team mates through online matching is a great step forward from the strictly local or friends only Firefight from its previous source, and a variety of game types such as Rocket Firefight make for great fun.

Now Forge World builds on Halo 3’s forge mode but, as if you couldn’t guess, makes it something far more wonderful than before. Instead of the confines of a warehouse, Forge World utilises the basis of 4 playable maps and lumps them all into one huge expanse, alongside a generous budget that allow for the creativity of some players to really be explored. Popular Forgeworld maps can also be obtained from a Most Downloaded and Recommend tabs in the pre-game lobby settings which can result in the abstract genius of gamers to be shared around the world in the forms of inventive maps –from mind blowing go kart racing tracks to even golf driving ranges.

The ranking system has also had an overhaul for this outing. Following in the shadow of Halo 3’s military ranking system to gain emblems that set you higher or lower than your team mates, a new credit system has been introduced for the brand spanking new Armoury feature. Armoury gives players the chance to truly create an aesthetically customised Spartan soldier with a range of different helmets and trinkets to super glue to your Spartan with hard earned credits from completing games or completing the daily or weekly challenges.

Halo Reach does justice to wrap up the current Halo story arc. Halo’s 1-3 were involved in an intergalactic war to rival that of the Imperial Empire and Reach does well to set the scene of how 1-3 came to be.

However some of niggles felt with such a prequel was the knowledge that the game wasn’t going to end well for anybody involved. The opening sequence in the campaign initially shows a burnt out planet: ruined, scared, and no more. Then from an orbital view of destruction, we hit Terra Firma and low and behold, your carefully crafted armour helmet lies semi embedded in the dirt, visor broken.

Knowing how the Reach campaign will end is somewhat anticlimactic. All ties with the key character in Noble Team seem pointless as their fate is written in the fire that the opening cinematic emblazed on our imaginations. It’s a small complaint of an otherwise fantastic game.

Halo turned the first person shooter genre on its head with its blend of intense combat and thrilling vehicle sections. Reach has managed to stay true to its lineage and has become a fitting end for the Halo story. Reach burnt, Master Chief still floats somewhere out in space and gamers around the world will enjoy this game long past the arrival of any of the newest FPS titles coming out later this year.

Engaging, beautiful, challenging, fun and awesome are a few of many words that describe the Reach experience. If this was to remain Bungie’s last venture into the Halo universe they couldn’t have gotten it any better.