An awesome game, that I would naturally give a 9.8, but gamespot doesn't have that. Please read...
Campaign: There is no way to describe how amazing this games campaign is. The story is amazing, and fun. It is very sad, and very emotional, which makes you feel like you're in the game itself. It is written very beautifully, and the cutscenes are very well done. I feel like I'm watching a movie when playing this game. Remember when the elites drop down from the ceiling? Priceless moment. I won't give away any spoilers, but this is the best campaign yet in the halo series.
The campaign is much harder than the other halo games, and it actually gets harder when in co-op. This can be a little annoying because that means the game will adjust the difficulty when there are four people playing legendary. That means legendary with four people will be four times harder, so that it evens everything out. Clever, but a lot harder.
The campaign has a lot of priceless moments. Like using a forty foot gauss cannon, using a grenade falcon, setting up turrets, spaceship fight, and the epic zero gravity mission. This game has a lot of memorable moments. This is one campaign you don't want to miss.
Multiplayer: The multiplayer in Halo Reach is a lot of fun like the other halo games. A lot of people think that it hasn't evolved, but it has. Loadouts make combat a lot more crazy, and hectic. But there are some problems with loadouts:
Maps in Halo Reach aren't as good because of loadouts. In halo 3 Bungie could make a map, and not have to worry about people spawning with different items, and weapons. In halo reach though some maps aren't so good, because they were built for having loadouts, but then you play it in classic slayer, and then the map doesn't flow right anymore. Basically the flow of maps is a little weird.
The map diversity in this game is a little low. Where is Last resort? They made only a couple of maps, but gave the excuse that forge world is worth thousands of maps. That is true, but they won't be as good as a set map. That is what made Last Resort so good was because it had a set scenario, and had a great feel to it. Forge can never overcome a set designed map. But that doesn't mean the forged maps aren't goof though. They are still fun. But there are only two invasion maps. The game has a lot of pointless small maps: Boardwalk has to be the WORST map in halo history. It has no real point, and has a very bleak environment. Also countdown wasn't too great either. They needed maps like guardian, and when is death island from Halo PC going to appear? That map was epic. One other problem was that all of the maps are based off of campaign. This made the maps less focused on being a good map, and more of being recycling something from campaign.
Another gripe on multiplayer is the vehicles. Vehicles in the other halo games were made for you to be able to take down enemies. Not so anymore. The banshee made me mad in this game. Its fuel rod shots are now guided, but it has about as much health as a mongoose. No joke! A single DMR can take down a banshee. The seemed to make vehicles as a mode of transportation, and not as a mode of action. This entirely ruins the purpose of a vehicle. When I get in a vehicle because I am being chased, I should think 'Banshee beats pistol' but not in halo reach. You actually have to think if a banshee can beat a pistol The scorpion tank can drive without a turret now, but its controls are pretty confusing as first. Also ghosts are weak as well.
There are a lot of new game modes in multiplayer like firefight, stockpile, invasion, and many more. These gametypes can be a lot of fun, but some of them like headhunter, are pretty annoying. Invasion is a lot of fun, but it can get old fairly fast because there are only two invasion maps. They needed like four invasion maps so that it never got old.
The nice thing about multiplayer is that loadouts make combat very unique, but it also means excellent players can't do as well. In halo 3 a good player could always win, but with loadouts a good player may lose to a n00b, because the n00b had a better loadout. This is good for begineers, but horrible for experience players. Remember that Halo Reach multiplayer is a LOT of fun. These are just the tiny problems. I just made mountains out of mole hills so that you understand the problems.
The maps that are there are really nice. Since they are from campaign this means they usually have a lot of detail, a mood to them. Like countdown is the inside of a launch site. You can go around the base, and explore the different areas, and even see the ship. Boneyard also is a good map, and is very detailed in certain areas like the scaffolds climbing up the side of the unfinished ship, to the gun racks in the buildings. The maps also have some diversity in gameplay points.
Forge: Forge is better than ever in this game. Remember when in Halo 3 you would use up all of your pieces just to build one building? Well now that one building is a giant piece! This means players can make profesional maps easily. Also the ability to move objects angle by angle, or to make it so that they move by a certain amount of degrees makes building quick, and precise. This allows levels to be excellent, and some of the worst forgers can make good maps.
One gripe in forge is that forge world is about the only map you can forge in. Though forge world is like seven maps glued together, and it has so much open space that it is equal to hundreds of levels, it still doesn't have diversity in pieces. All of the items are forerunner. There are no wooden scaffolds, pallets, gun holders, wood blocks, water crates, or anything. It is all forerunner. This also means a lot of maps will look very similar to each other.
A lot of the vehicles in campaign don't make it in forge. Like the grenade falcon. Why wasn't it in forge? I haven't the slightest idea. Or the falcon with the machine gun? This would've made some crazy games, and would've made multiplayer/customgames a lot of fun. Sadly no.
The final gripe on forge is that there are soooooooo many barriers. This applies to multiplayer as well. This game is overloaded with barriers, deathtraps, and countdowns. I can understand invisible walls, and understand countdowns. But then death barriers? This makes forge, and multiplayer very strict. It means the map can only be interpreted one way. Like on powerhouse, there is cliff/ledge that is within jet pack distance. When you try to reach it there is a countdown. Fine. Then there is an invisible barrier. What? Yeah. This was really annoying because for custom games/forge you could've made a weapon stach, or a vehicle back there, and people would have to jump across and then get back quickly. But it isn't. It is like this on all maps. Like forge world when you enter the water there is a count down, and if you walk farther there is a death wall. Kind of annoying, but I'm guessing they're trying to cut down on camping. This makes levels very strict. Kind of sad. Getting your forge maps to work on custom games can be hard, because the game can refuse maps.
Theatre: Theatre is the same. No comment.
Custom games: Custom games is just as fun as ever. So much can be done with it, but there are some things that I wish they would've put in, but is still fun without. The orbital gun can not be made in forge or in custom games. Only in firefight. Kind of a bummer. Also you can only make one set of loadouts. That means you can't make specific loadouts for each team. This would've been fun for CTF, or assault, where one team has offensive loadouts, and the other would have more defensive loadouts. Still there is a lot that can be done with custom games. There is now jump height, which added onto gravity, and speed. One thing that is gone, which I will miss is instant kill. The heighest it goes is 300% which isn't bad, but it limits a lot of games like juggernaut, infection, and other wacky stuff.
Graphics: Halo reach has gorgoeus graphics. Depending whether you're in HD or not they will be different. In normal quality the game will feel a lot more artistic because objects will be blurrier, and seem to glow. This looks cool, but the downside is that characters in cutscenes during campaign will move weird. In HD these is no weird movement, but the artistic style is gone. The artistic style is because Bungie purposely made a fuzz on all characters to make them appear more realistic, but HD gets rid of the blur so graphics will look worse.
Split screen is pretty bad in this game. Halo reach has a lot of vegetation. But in split screen the game gets rid of all vegetation, and details. This makes the game (no joke) look like halo 2, or even Halo: CE. Kind of sad again. Still this game has wonderful graphics on single player.
Soundtrack: As usual Halo Reach has an amazing soundtrack. Not quite as moody as ODST, but then again Halo Reach is supposed to feel like ODST. Every once in a while in campaign there will be an epic track, but then it turns into an annoying beat. You here this beat throughout all of the halo games and it seems unfitting for such a great game. Still this games soundtrack rocks.
Firefight: Firefight is entirely customizable this time around. This makes firefight enjoyable with friends, because you can change the rules on how fast you are, what loadouts, or even what enemies spawn. The one problem though is that the firefight maps aren't built as well. As mentioned before msot of Halo Reach's multiplayer is recycled from campaign. Same with firefight. This means that maps may not actually be suited for firefight. A lot of the maps are smaller, and seem to be made for quicker games. In ODST firefight could go on for hours. In Reach it can go on for about a couple of minutes. Also there is a versus mode where two people are elites, and two are humans. This is also fun.
Final thoughts: Halo Reach is a fantastic game that was worth the wait. Whether it is forge, theatre, firefight, multiplayer, campaign, or custom games. There is definitely something here for everyone. This game is very well crafted, but as you may have noticed there are a lot of littel gameplay problems, but not really any problems with the game itself. Definitely recommend this game to all players. Thanks for reading my crazy long review.