Halo: Reach is a must have for any Xbox 360 owner, and a system seller for those who don't own one. Pick it up today.
Now for nine years Halo has been made by a studio called Bungie. It's been through their hard work that we've received one of the most memorable gaming franchises in history. That being said, Halo: Reach is the last Halo title from Bungie as they've handed the reins to Microsoft's 343 studios. Bungie has strived to make Halo a remember able experience over the years and with Reach they deliver.
The presentation of this game is just unbelievable. The game has a great soundtrack and the campaign is Bungie's best as you'll never find a dull moment in it. There are ten missions and each one is pretty lengthy, the entire campaign will take around 8-10 hours to beat depending on your skill level and difficulty played on. This campaign is by far the hardest Halo campaign and will be sure to give you a challenge.
The story itself is top notch and provides a great experience for the players. From the beginning you know exactly what's going to happen to Reach and because of that, the game is given a Tarantino feel. Then there's the characters themselves. Noble squad is comprised of six spartans who all have their own unique skill sets. Over the course of the story your character will gain the trust of the others and create a stronger experience for you.
The gameplay of Halo: Reach is even better than it's previous counterparts. The game comes stocked with more weapons than before with some quite a few brand new ones as well as the favorites we've grown to love. Assassinations have been given animations so now instead of just hitting someone in the back theres a whole move. The biggest change is the addition of load outs. Load outs essentially take the place of equipment from Halo 3. Some of the load outs include sprint, armor lock, and even jet packs. Yes, jet packs have been brought to Halo and let me say, they are fantastic. Each load out provides a neat action that will help your cause and thanks to them the overall gameplay is much better.
Another great thing about the gameplay in Halo: Reach's campaign is that unlike every other Halo it doesn't feel like you're fighting a whole bunch of little groups. Each fight feels like a battle and can last for quite some time. You can also recruit local marines to fight for you by running up near them and waiting until they say they'll help. It's a neat feature but the marines aren't very good fighters and are more likely to get killed quickly.
A new feature brought into the Halo series is space combat. In one of the missions in Reach you'll be put on a fighter craft and duke it out with several types of covenant space crafts. This is a welcome addition to the series because it's hands down one of the best parts of the game. Everything controls smoothly and seeing Reach from above is truly a treat.
If one thing is for sure, it's that Halo: Reach looks absolutely beautiful. The character models and fantastic level designs aren't too far past anything that's ever come out for the Xbox 360 but the back drops are magnificent. The art is this game is awe inspiring, and in each level you can just stop to look at the far away points of Reach's skyline and just be floored by how pretty it is. It's not on the same level as Uncharted 2's pretty, but it's close.
The multiplayer of the Halo series has long been a popular gaming destination. I'm happy to say that once again Halo is on top. Matchmaking has been vastly improved so you easily find the type of game you want to play, vote on a specific game, and even adjust your settings so you don't have to deal with annoying players. Basically, you can tailor your multiplayer experience to fit you. You can also take the experience you gain and use to unlock armor to use for your character.
All the old game types are there with the addition of a new game called Invasion. In this game you'll either be Spartans or Elites and you'll fight it out to try and either protect or capture certain points on the map. It's a great game mode and will provide anyone with hours of fun.
Firefight is back and this time it's much better. You can set different settings to change how the game plays so it's not just a horde mode clone. Also you can finally play with anyone you want to over xbox live instead of waiting to get three friends together.
Now Halo: Reach is not perfect, it has a few faults. The frame rate has tendency to drop when there's a lot of people out on the battlefield. This causes the game to slow down a bit and it takes a little away from the experience. Also, some enemy AI tends to get stuck on things and therefore easy to get rid of. For instance, I once saw a banshee flying into a wall and not moving. Needless to say it was easy to defeat and went on my way. You're teammate's AI isn't perfect either. They can't drive well at all. I was on the back of a mongoose (ATV) and instead of going over the jump normally, we would keep hitting a rock causing us to flip out of control and plummet to our dooms. These things are minor and don't take too much away, but are annoying.
Overall Halo: Reach is an unbelievable experience that no one should miss. It provides an enthralling campaign, addictive multiplayer, and jaw dropping art. The game will provide you hours and hours of joy and will take you for one heck of a ride. Bungie sent off the series exactly as they wanted to and it couldn't have gone much better.