Halo: Reach

Well well well, look who decided to post a review! Just to update you guys (whoever reads this) on where I've been, I recently got a proper job. Like, full time proper job. The good news there is I'll be able to keep up to date with the latest releases. The bad news is, I may not have enough time to finish a game a week. We'll see. I'd love to keep doing this weekly, but I may not be able to. luckily, this came at one of the few slower points of releases during this year. In a week or so, this should pick up again with Deus Ex Human Revolution, but hey, whatever happens happens.

As it turns out, I recently acquired an X-Box 360, so I thought it was about time I reviewed the consoles current flagship game, Halo: Reach. And awaaaay we gooooo.

STORY
Halo: Reach puts players in the customizable power armour of Noble Six, the newest member of Noble Team, a Spec Ops unit composed of elite soldiers known as Spartans. The game is a prologue, and therefore allows players to play through the events leading up to the beginning of the Halo Franchise.

Reach can be taken as a seperate story to the main Halo games, and is ultimately better for it. The characters are more interesting than the Master Chief, and the "Fall of Reach" is certainly an interesting storyline to set a game to. You always get the sense that the situation is hopeless, and that you are doomed. That said, the little scene at the beginning showing a flash forward to the end of the game kind of ruins the experience a little.

Without wanting to spoil anything, the ending (the REAL ending) is one of the best instances of gameplay and story merging seamlessly that I've seen in any game.

PRESENTATION
Halo Reach is by far the best looking game in the series, and it's certainly visually interesting, what with all the bright colours and interesting character/vehicle models. The various landscapes that Reach has to offer are all nice to look at, and varied enough as to not get boring.

The voice acting is fairly mediocre, however, with certain characters being acted suitably and others just being forgettable. The soundtrack, on the other hand is fantastic. The signature theme of the song is just fantastic at getting me in the mood to pwn some noobz.

The biggest problem I've ever had with Halo was the weapons, and how they always sounded like plastic mattel toys. And for the most part, they still do. They just fail to sound powerful, and as such, they feal like they have no real weight behind them.

GAMEPLAY
If you've played a Halo game before, chances are that Reach isn't going to surprise you. The running, jumping, shooting fun of the series remains intact, and it's about as solid as it's going to get. The vehicles continue to handle retardedly, but that doesn't make them any less fun to use.

Reach has made various improvements over the previous games, the biggest of which would have to be the AI improvements. For the most part, your AI teammates aren't completely useless, and actually help you complete your goals. Clearly this doesn't happen all the time, as I've seen numerous examples of teammates inadvertantly causing the players death.

New features to the Halo formula are the addition of armour powers and assassinations. For the most part, assassinations aren't a huge game changer, though they are a nice little addition rewarding players for their sneakiness. The armour abilities, however, add depth to the fairly simple gameplay by giving players the choice of 5 or so different, interchangeable perks. These perks can be as simple as Jet Packs or Sprint, or as complex as a cloaking device.

My biggest problem with the gameplay would have to be how Bungie teased us with a space flight/combat level, and never let us play it again. And it was a fantastic level too, probably my favourite of the whole campaign. To have something that different and fun dangled in front of you, only to be snatched away is terrible!

Space combat gripes aside, Reach delivers on the solid gameplay that the series is known for.

REPLAYABILITY
Chances are that if you're buying or have bought Halo Reach, then part of the reason for that would probably have been due to the games multiplayer feature. With a huge variety of game types, there are worse ways to occupy your time than Reach's multiplayer modes. My personal favourite is Grifball, but the traditional game modes are great too.

Aside from that, there are achievements to get, as well as a theater mode to mess around with. Also the games level creator, Forge mode. Haven't played much with that, but what I did use was surprisingly simple to interact with.

OVERVIEW
Ok, so I'm no huge Halo fan, but Reach would have had to have been one of the best games of last year. It has a solid single player campaign, with interesting characters and settings, as well as one of the best multiplayer experiences that the current generation of gaming has ever seen. If you have an X-Box 360 and don't have this title, theres almost no question that you should get it soon, if not now.

Next week (hopefully) a retrospective of Splinter Cell Conviction. Hope everyone has been well, I'll see you next time!