Halo: Reach

First of all, a disclaimer: I am a huge Halo fan. I've played through all of the Halo games multiple times (except Reach), and am guilty of what the guys at sarcasticgamer.com call 'Halo Jesus' (Halo is perfect, Halo is amazing, Halo is the best thing to ever happen to gaming, etc.). So if and when I seem biased towards thinking that Halo is one of the greatest gaming series of all time, there's your reason why.

Let's break it down, shall we?

1. Gameplay

-For me, gameplay was very smooth. I never had any issues with pressing the wrong buttons on the controller (likely due to my involvement in the Reach beta), the armor abilities were very intuitive, the weapons were great (with some notable exceptions, cough cough Assault Rifle). The game mechanics, for me, are probably one of the core strengths of the game at large.

Level design was typical Halo: run around, shoot stuff, complete the objective, and move on. There was enough variety within the missions, at least for me, that I never got bored (with one very notable exception, to be dealt with later). However, it must be pointed out that the Reach campaign is probably the most difficult out of the whole bunch. I played on Normal, and even then some levels were extremely frustrating. I found myself using tactics that players on Legendary would use, and I was on Normal. I don't want to imagine what getting the 'A Monument To All Your Sins' achievement is like...

As for weapons, I think the DMR is one of my favorite Halo weapons of all time, right alongside the Battle Rifle from Halo 2 and the Silenced Pistol from ODST (the all-powerful Magnum from Halo: CE goes without saying as the greatest weapon in the series). The Needler Rifle was pretty cool too.

Despite the strengths I've glanced over so far, there is one level out of the entire campaign that annoyed the crap out of me, and that was the mission in space. When I saw this level in the trailers, I was beside myself with excitement, because I thought "hey hey hey HALO IN SPACE it's going to be awesome!" Maybe my expectations were too high, but the space level underwhelmed me, and that's, well, an understatement. You pretty much fly a Banshee in space. I had hoped for a better experience than just that. Heck, I can hijack a Banshee in Halo freakin' 2 and have more fun in that thing than I did in Reach.

2. Audio

-Marty O'Donnell's score is fantastic, as I've come to expect. The sound effects were pretty kickass. Dialogue was a little jittery at times, simply because I couldn't understand what Jorge (George? Joge?) was saying half the time, but overall the audio was a great experience. I wish I had an actual hi-def sound system so I could hear it in surround sound.

3. Story

-Seeing as you know how the game ends, the story seemed like it was just going through the motions until the last cutscene. I never really figured out what Dr. Halsey's role in the story was, and

***SPOILER ALERT***

Jorge's death was rather predictable. Of course the bomb needs to be manually detonated, and of course Jorge lets Noble Six go, sacrificing himself for the greater good, and of course this plot device hasn't been used half a million times in every single video game and movie ever made.

Also, introducing Cortana as some secret Forerunner AI didn't make much sense to me. If she's Forerunner, why would she let herself get captured by the Flood? Why not reveal the secrets of all Halo-dom to the UNSC right away and finish the fight before it starts? Maybe someone who's a bit more versed in Halo knowledge can explain this to me. That's what the comment section is for.

All my gripes aside, I think the survival level was really, really cool. I loved how your visor cracked and fell apart as you took damage, and your shield and armor ability never recharged, until finally you fall to the Covenant. That was a really impressive moment for me.

4. Multiplayer

-Firefight Matchmaking? The Armory? Arena? Heck yes. Count me in. Yeah, it would be nice to have more maps, and it would be super cool if more classic maps were redone for Reach since it's Bungie's last Halo effort (Turf! Turf! Turf!), but I'm assuming that new maps will be coming down the pipe eventually. I haven't played Reach since the most recent Matchmaking update, apparently it adds Team SWAT as its own playlist and Campaign Matchmaking is either here or coming soon.

5. Graphics

-This game will likely go on the list as one of the best-looking games on the 360 so far, maybe even for the console's entire lifespan.

6. Finish, er, start the fight...

-Overall, I don't regret buying the game right away. I don't like it enough to put it on my list of favorite games of all time, but I can't say that I hate it. It's got its fair share of weaknesses, but as a whole I am very satisfied with the total experience. I give it 4/5 stars.

What did you think of Reach? Write a comment!