Halo Reach, the fourth game in the Halo series was a masterpiece of a game because of its renovations on classic Halo elements, and because of its completely new features. Like the Halo games before it, Reach incorporated a unique multiplayer experience. Though the Halo games are not renowned for a great single player experience, Reach’s single player was far superior to ODST’s single player. The Forge map editor, which is arguably the best thing about the Halo series, is back in Reach with a few upgrades. Halo Reach is one of the best sci-fi shooters of the last decade.
Reach takes place in the year 2552, which is shortly before Halo: Combat Evolved, on the human inhabited planet of Reach. At this point, the humans have been fighting a war against the alien alliance known as the Covenant, and most of the human inhabited colonies have been lost to the Covenant. You follow the Noble Six team, made up of 6 elite Spartan super soldiers. Over the course of the game, you drive the Covenant out of Reach, but at the cost of many of the lives of your Noble Six comrades.
As a AAA title, the quality of Reach’s gameplay, graphics, sound, and controls was top notch. Halo Reach’s multiplayer is well balanced, dynamic and extremely creative, and its single player experience is an immersive and detailed science fiction adventure. Halo Reach’s controls are easy to use and very similar to the old Halo games. Your weapon is on the right trigger and grenades are on the left trigger. The biggest change is that reload is on the X button (like Call of Duty, Battlefield and Medal of Honor), and equipment is on the left bumper. Melee attack is still on the right bumper, switch grenade type is still on B, swap weapons is Y, and A to jump. Reach’s sound is top notch with a brand new system for creating the best effects and music. Reach combines sound effects to create the most realistic sounds. For example, if you hit a player in a Warthog, it will play a sound particular to Warthog collisions, and a sound particular to human collisions. If you were to hit a Covenant in a Warthog, it would make a slightly different sound. The music was also designed to mix together in a similar way. All of the music played in-game has multiple points of overlap with other pieces of music. This means that the music can switched subtly to reflect the mood of the events around the player. Reach’s multiplayer was a true pleasure to play. As more of a multiplayer guy myself, I loved the huge amount of game modes and maps, especially Forge World maps(many of which are made by player). Grifball and Zombies tied as my two favorite game modes. I also played a lot of SWAT, partially because of the amazing voice of the announcer for this particular game mode. I liked how you could customize your avatar, and there are plenty of things to buy. Multiplayer is my favorite part of Reach, from messing around with friends on Forge, to a relaxing game of Grifball or Zombies, to a competitive game of SWAT.
Halo Reach was one of the best games of the last decade, and you would really be missing out by not picking it up.
Developer: Bungie
Publisher: Microsoft
Genre: First-person Shooter
Release Date: September 14-15, 2010
Platforms: Xbox 360
