It doesn't matter who you are or where you’re from, if you have the internet you more than likely have heard of Halo. Bungie on the other hand may or may not be known (but should) as the developers. Halo: Reach is Bungie’s last go around in the Halo fiction and they could not have sent their creation off in better fashion. For those who don’t know this does not mean the end to all things Halo. Any new Halo project is being done by Microsoft Game Studios internal build team 343 Industries’. Now I’m going to separate this into three parts, Campaign, Matchmaking, and Firefight/Forge.
The Campaign in Halo: Reach is one of the best out of all the Halo games. It’s also one of the easiest to understand. Unlike Halo 2 or Halo 3, Reach gives an amazing, action packed, story driven campaign that anyone can jump straight into. Along with having the best Halo storyline Reach is also the most difficult Halo to date. Bungie boasted that this one will be the most difficult to beat on Legendary (Hardest difficulty) and they have not disappointed. My solo Legendary run was one of the most difficult playthroughs of a game I’ve had in a while. Probably only to be bested when Fallout: New Vegas comes out. The story line gives you characters that you end up caring about, along with a massive scope of the war that’s on this planet. It gives the feeling that there is no way the humans can win this war. To top it all off the score Martin O’Donnell has created continues to deliver some of the most iconic music for the most dramatic moments in the Halo franchise and continues to do so. The fall of planet Reach is neigh and you feel that throughout the entire campaign experience.
Multiplayer has always been the milk and butter for Halo. Reach does not revamp the experience but adds to it which makes it better. The most proficient being the addition of Armor abilities to multiplayer. Jet packs, Sprinting, Holographic decoys’, Active camouflage, Drop shields, Armor lock, and Evade (strictly for Elites) all add a new dynamic to the multiplayer experience. You would think that some of those would make the game unbalanced but none of them do. I have had a lot of “man that was awesome” moments with these abilities. One of them was when I sent my decoy up a ramp to get a guy who was sniping around the corner to pop out. When he did I assassinated him because he thought I was my decoy and tried to assassinate it. I will say that one thing I would love to have in Multiplayer is more maps. Being Bungie’s last hurrah in Halo I thought they would pack this thing to the brim with maps. While there are a good amount of them some are just remakes of old maps, which I love, but still more new maps would be great.
Firefight has been expanded a lot since its initial releases in Halo: ODST. Now players have complete control over anything and everything. Want to have a firefight with all grunts? You can do that. Want to have a firefight on Legendary setting but you have unlimited rocket ammo, and complete overshield? You can do that as well. You think of an insane setting you want for Firefight, Bungie more than likely allows you to fulfill that. Forge also has been expanded to allow players to create whatever they dream of. I’m not huge on Forge but it seems like it allows a lot of precise movement of objects to allow creators to make what ever they want. I’m looking forward to downloading crazy maps, and playlists.
Bungie could not have sent Halo off in better fashion. They have packed in an amazing fall of mankind story, made multiplayer better, and gave far more power to players to keep the Halo universe alive and kicking while Microsoft takes the reigns and pushes out their own take of Halo. Reach is easily my favorite Halo game and the fact that this is Bungie last makes it a bittersweet victory.
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