Best game from Bungie so far is their last Halo game
I'm not really a fan of Halo series. I started play Halo from the 3rd on my xbox 360 and i was disappointed. Halo 3 is a generic shooter that not even close with my favorite generic FPS series, Call of Duty. But it still a solid shooter and i like the co-op feature for the story campaign. Good thing Bungie came out with Halo 3: ODST, it's nice to taking a break from the saga of Master Chief. I like ODST with its new hero and new campaign. It's pretty much more serious and well-made than Halo 3. Now, Bungie present their last Halo game (before Microsoft give the series to 343), Halo: Reach, which is for me, the greatest Halo game ever!
The Story, Halo: Reach is a prequel of Halo: Combat Evolved. It tells the story about The Fall of Reach, but specifically, it tells the story of 6 amazing SPARTAN-IIIs, do their best to make sure that humanity won't extinct in the war against The Covenant. You'll play as Noble-Six, a new member of the Noble Team, a group of six elite SPARTAN-III supersoldiers. There have been an attack on one facility on Planet Reach and USNC send the Noble Team to investigate it. As we all know, it's not the rebels that cause problem on Reach, it's the Covenant, and they not just come to invade Reach, they come to end the war by getting their hand on an artifact founded by one of senior ONI researcher. Now it's up to you and the rest of Noble Team, to make sure that The Covenant won't get the artifact and get that thing the hell outta the planet. As usual, Halo deliver an epic and heroic adventure on its story campaign which is very exciting to follow. I like Noble Team with their own unique personality. They even have their own customized MJOLNIR armor and weapon selection. It's really fun to know that you're not a lone wolf like Master Chief. The story campaign last for about 10 hrs on normal. Not too long but it still a great blast.
The Gameplay, Bungie made a couple of simple and effective changes to Halo's core gameplay. First, the control layout, no more RB for reload, it's X button everyone. Second, power-ups, yes, you can use power-ups like sprint (finally, a supersoldier that can do more than just jump at impossible height), armor lock up (protect yourself with invulnerable armor for a moment), and jetpack (it's like Killzone 3, but less cool). You can only carry one power-ups and it will take a little time to recharge after you use it. Third, as a SPARTAN-III (which is a cheaper version of SPARTAN-II), you can't dual-wield! Yahoo! Actually i hate dual-wielding, it's not realistic and look stupid. Fourth, you can pick any USNC soldier to join you in the battle. Actually, this is a useless feature because you can't give order to these ordinary soldier, and they usually die first. Fifth, just like ODST, there are no regenerative health, only rechargeable armor. Sixth, we can build our own Noble-six. Just like we build our character on Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, we can build our own supersoldier. We can customize the MJOLNIR armor and paint it. We can even be a female supersoldier! These simple changes make Halo: Reach a far more exciting experience than Halo 3.
The Graphics, Bungie made a significant changes on their engine. The new engine is enough to rebuild the beautiful and large environment of Planet Reach. Bungie maximized the engine capability by making large map, from large mountain to megacity and huge underground facility, each environment is build with high complexity and great effects. I always love to see hovering corvette super-carrier or pelican-class carrier in the sky or standing at the high ground and see the large scale battle below me. The engine is powerful enough too, i only find two or three parts of the game where the frame rate drop. But i find one weird thing on this new engine. The blur effect looks weird, it's not as smooth as the old engine or Unreal engine. But it won't bother you. The game have realistic animation too. This is the first time i see my teammate on Halo actually act like a functional elite squad.
The Sound, Halo's weak point in my opinion is always on the weapon's sound effects. I hate the USNC weaponry's sound. It looks like every USNC's weapon is equipped with suppressor. But Halo is famous for its amazing music scores and Reach is no different. Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori are giving their magic on Halo game again. But it's too bad that i don't hear a solo piano play again on Reach.
So, Halo: Reach is definitely the best Halo game for me. It's a must have exclusive title for every xbox 360 owners. I'm highly recommend it.