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September 20 2010

Developer: Bungie Software
Publisher: Microsoft
Platform: Xbox 360 (buy)
Category: Shooter
ESRB: Mature 17+

Halo: Reach is easily one of the most anticipated titles of the year. Envisioned as a prequel to the Halo “trilogy,” it was developed by Bungie Software and published by Microsoft Game Studios. Reach is of course exclusive to the Xbox 360 and makes up a significant portion of Microsoft’s 2010 strategy. Looking around the media, Reach has been getting universally high scores across the board. Do I feel the game is perfect, as some do? No, but it’s still a good game. It may not entirely live up to the hype, but it’s still a worthwhile purchase.

The game starts out with some small character creation. You have the option to choose between a male or female model, and customize your armor to look how you want. It’s the same method used in Mass Effect 2, where the character you create is present, not just in the gameplay, but in the cinematics as well; it helps increase the player’s immersion. Another factor that helps with immersion is that Bungie continues the trend of the playable character being nameless and faceless. I feel it allows the player to become more attached; they’re able to put themselves into the game easier. It was a nice touch when they finally revealed Master Chief’s name at the end of Halo 3. It signified that this was the end of the player’s role in his story.

The planet Reach is the home of the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) SPARTAN project. As such, the player is not the only super-soldier on the battlefield, unlike previous Halo games. The player assumes the role of Noble Six, the sixth member of the Noble Team of Spartans. The other members fall into the basic action hero cliches. There’s Carter, the no-nonsense leader; Kat, the tough-as-nails chick; Jun, the sniper; Emile, the badass and Jorge, the guy with the big gun. With the exception of Jorge, Noble Team consists entirely of Spartan IIIs. The Third “model” of Spartans are the UNSC’s mass-produced elite troops; they’re physically inferior to the Spartan IIs, like Master Chief. However, with Reach being the center of most of the UNSC’s R&D, they have access to top-of-the-line equipment. It’s a creative way to return some gameplay elements to their roots, while still introducing new things for the prequel.

Noble Team was initially supposed to have two more members, as an homage to The Seven Samurai. It’s a solid parallel, as both stories have similar themes. An elite group of warriors facing seemingly hopeless odds, but unwilling to back down. To me, that was the draw of Reach. Going in, it’s an established part of the series’ lore that Reach falls and nearly everyone on the planet is lost. Knowing where the plot was going, I was interested in how it got there. I was expecting epic battles and heroic last stands, and I got it. To a point.

The game starts out with a fantastic first mission. You work alongside the entire Noble Team, which are a huge upgrade from the cannon fodder Marines you usually have accompanying you. They’re still dumb as bricks, but they’re TOUGH bricks. Anyway, the first mission gives some nice plot advancement, with the UNSC realizing that the Covenant has found Reach. There’s some cool cutscenes, and I was legitimately pumped at the point where I was locked into the garage. Halo was the first console shooter to really make the player feel like part of the story, and the trend continues all the way to Reach.

What follows is the traditional Halo fare. You have your vehicle-heavy missions and the obligatory sniper mission. The game really reached its climax, for me, in the fifth playable mission. Though, technically, it’s the sixth in the game, as the first “mission” is merely the opening cutscene. “Long Night of Solace” drops Noble Team on a beach, approaching a friendly base. It’s very reminiscent of the iconic beach level in the first Halo, only with the dial turned to eleven. Again, you’re fighting alongside the entire Noble Team, for the first time since the second mission, and it’s quite the spectacle. There’s very little cover to be found, so it’s just an all-out assault with a half dozen badasses. Unfortunately, this mission also features one of my least favorite parts of the game; the much-publicized space combat. It’s just slow and uninteresting. Even when using my afterburners, the movement just felt sluggish. For such a major point for the game, it was too short and just bland. Luckily, the third part of the mission, on board a Covenant ship was a suitable bookend to the great start.

Unfortunately, the game drops off after this point. The next mission takes place in an empty city, supposedly under siege by the Covenant. There’s very few enemies or allies to be found for such a large area. Squads of NPCs battling it out in the street would have been a welcome addition. Having to hold off waves of enemies to evacuate civilians seems like a good idea, but repeatedly failing the mission because they like to run in front of your crosshairs is not. If there’s only eight civilains left in this city, why is it so hard to keep them in a damn corner? Next is possibly my least favorite mission in the game. You fly around the city, moving from building to building, engaging in boring mid-air combat along the way. You get out at each building, fight your way to the objective and repeat. For a game that’s supposed to be all about the “team,” spending two missions entirely alone just breaks up the flow too much.

The game picks up the pace near the end, with the final missions featuring some of the epic moments I was expecting from the star; and as the bodycount starts to rise, so does the tension. Unfortunately, for a series that has featured some spectacular ending segments, Reach’s final moments are just boring. The difficulty and FUN weren’t there; it didn’t feel big enough to follow the battles leading up to it. That said, the epilogue segment was one of the most impactful moments of gaming I’ve ever experienced. In the end, I completed the campaign on Normal difficulty in about eight hours, average for a console FPS.

One word sums up the campaign: uneven. The game builds momentum over its first half, but then suffers some ups and downs through the remainder of its time. While it seemed to be well on its way, Halo: Reach never reached the epic level it should have been capable of. To make matters worse, the game seems to retcon some of the lore previously established in the Fall of Reach novel.

Of course, the campaign is only half the Halo equation. Multiplayer has seen some rather substantial changes this time around. The weapons have once again been tweaked. The new long-range Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR) and it’s Covenant equivalent, the Needle Rifle are easily my favorite weapons from any Halo. Armor abilities have been added as well, ranging from limited invulnerability to stealth to jetpacks. It allows players to play the style that best suits them. The Hologram ability has to be the most fun of the bunch as tricking your opponents never gets old.

The gametypes are varied, with a solid selection of playlists to choose from, including the hardcore-oriented Arena. Firefight mode from ODST has been added to Matchmaking, allowing you to play when your friends aren’t around. Multiple maps and variants such as Rocketfight and Sniperfight have been added to the mix, increasing the fun. The big draw of Reach’s multiplayer is Invasion mode. Invasion pits a team of Spartans against a team of Elites, with different armaments as well as physical abilities available to each side. It’s objective-based, and as the offense moves from objective to objective, the game makes more weapons and vehicles available, so the game escalates as it moves on.

Reach brings some unlockables to multiplayer. In Halo 3, you rose in the ranks as you played, but it never meant anything. In Reach, you gain Credits as you play, increasing in rank as well. As your rank goes up, you unlock additional armor upgrades in the Armory to spend your Credits on. It’s entirely cosmetic, but everybody wants the coolest-looking Spartan on Xbox Live. There’s even daily and weekly Challenges, ranging from kill goals to survival across all game types that will earn you additional credits and encourage players to try out the various playlists.

Multiplayer isn’t without its flaws either, though. Everybody hates when there’s that jerk only interested in griefing his own team. Halo: Reach implements a system for booting players that betray their teammates. If you’re killed by friendly fire, you have the option to boot or forgive the offending player. It works in theory, but not in practice. Halo is a game known for its sometimes chaotic multiplayer, it’s not unusual for an accidental rocket, grenade or tank to take out one of your teammates. I should not be kicked out of a game because XxXh3adsh0tXxX was dumb enough to step in front of my sniper rifle and was too ignorant to realize it was his own damn fault.

Another issue is the gametype selection. When you enter a playlist and the matchmaking finds a game, the players get to vote on the gametype. Again, it’s an idea that works in theory, but not in practice. What you end up with is the same one or two gametypes getting selected over and over and over. In a game known for its multiplayer gameplay variety, this system leaves entirely too much up to the community, and the community loves SWAT and Snipers. I want my Halo to be fast and fun, not tactical. If I want that, I’ll go play Modern Warfare. Infection is fun the first couple times, but I’d really like to play something else, as well.

Bungie has said they’re going to be tweaking the playlists, along with addressing some other multiplayer complaints, but isn’t that what the Beta should have been for? Across all game modes, multiplayer is almost constantly fun, but also frequently frustrating.

In the end, Halo: Reach is a solid, but not perfect experience. There’s certainly plenty of fun to be had in the campaign, but a lack of character development and an uneven pacing to the narrative prevent it from being the game I hoped it would be. Similarly, multiplayer is one giant playground, but some glaring oversights that should never have made it to retail will likely put some off the experience. I played through the campaign once and plan another cooperative playthrough on Legendary difficulty, not to mention many hours of multiplayer with friends, so it’s not a bad game. I just wish Bungie’s final installment of the franchise they made famous were a little more polished.

Screenshots

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