We figured Reach was too big a game for just one reviewer, so we let two go at it. Mid mostly tackled the campaign (and for the record, he's on public record for dishing nothing but heaping helpings of hate on Halo campaigns), but he did get in some multiplayer as well. Mid's KpD is higher, so you decide who you trust...
You know...being a Halo fan-boy has its ups and downs.
You fight endlessly about the most minute details of a game, from in-game strategy to who has the worst host. But...every few years you get the chance to play a new Halo game, fresh and crisp.
This being Bungie’s last Halo game, it’s kind of a big deal. They started working on Reach three years ago and had an extensive beta that was played to death by more than a million players for two weeks.
Unless you’ve been playing WoW for the last decade, in which case you wouldn’t be reading this anyway, Halo has been a prodigious franchise for Microsoft and, more specifically, Bungie, and this being the last of their partnership on this title makes it that much bigger.
It began nine years ago with Halo CE dropping onto the laps of Microsoft, and forever changed the Console landscape, and it presumably ends with Bungie making their last Halo game before moving onto different things.
I’m inclined not to say bigger or better for their future endeavors because honestly, after playing Halo: Reach campaign, exploring the expansive world for Forge World, and checking out the 11 multi-player maps included with the game, I’m uncertain how Bungie could make a bigger, more rewarding game.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the game is perfect or even the best Halo game released (I think that title still belongs to Halo 2 simply for making Xbox Live a viable, successful entity that has gone unparalleled on any other console). Even with Campaign feeling somewhat slow in the first few levels, the game ramps up towards a feverish climax and in this reviewer’s opinion, has the best closing level/sequence of any of the Halo games. Simply put, Reach is going to suck a lot of your free time for the foreseeable future. Your significant other is going to hate the game (unless they, too, play Halo) and maybe even you a little , if for no other reason than you ignoring them for the next few weeks, months, years while you get your Halo on.
Enough of the preamble, let’s dive right in shall we?
Reach loads with the Bungie logo, and from the moment you see the Main Menu with its foreboding clouds and the constant sound of rain and thunder, you can tell this is going to be a dark and violent game not meant for the faint of heart.
You are probably nodding your head at this point and saying, “well, I’ve heard this before about every other Halo game,” and you probably have, but from someone who has probably lost a year of his life in game time to Halo, believe me there are moments that will shock and surprise you.
If this your first venture into a Halo game then welcome, you’ll be staying a while. Every Halo game has always been about more than the campaign, and if Reach is truly Bungie’s last entry into the franchise, they’ve left us with a feast; from the expansive multi-player (which will be discussed later) to the Forge map editing/game editing system, to Forge World (which in its own right is a sight to behold), there’s enough to keep you busy. But you also have the powerful theatre mode that will allow you to capture, edit and produce that head shot you lucked out on or that bad ass flag cap you got with no shields. Finally, there’s Bungie.net, which ties everything Halo-related I’ve just mentioned together in one neat, stat-whoring package. [Come back Monday for our examination of Bungie.net’s new hotness. -- Ed.]
Before we get into any of the other goodies, lets start with the Reach campaign.
Campaign
Reach takes place on the Planet Reach, a rugged and worn-down planet colonized by humans and covered with searing desserts, soaring mountains and massive cities. You play as Noble 6, the newest member of Noble team, a rag tag bunch of war veterans who get the toughest assignments, and always manage to get the job done even if they can’t all come back in one piece. If you’ve watched Dirty Dozen, imagine them in war-torn Spartan outfits with some witty dialogue and you have Noble Team.
The game takes place over nine levels, each broken into three smaller levels. The campaign itself is extensive in what it covers, and tries its best to cover the eventual fall of Reach. In the mythos of the Halo universe, the fall of Reach is a turning point in the Human/Covenant war, and not a good one. Bungie does a good job of pulling you in to the large-scale battles, the wins and losses that get written about in books and relived in stories in the other Halo games.
The game starts with your character, Noble 6, joining Noble Team for the first time and being called on to go check a disturbance on one of the outposts on Reach. When they start investigating, they realize something is terribly wrong: the Covenant have somehow managed to infiltrate Reach without tipping off the UNSC. From that point forward, Noble team is sent on one harrowing mission after another, each a little bit more dangerous than the one before, putting each Noble member in peril.
I found this Campaign from beginning to end the longest of all Halo games. I am not going into the details of the campaign in terms of mission details, check points and achievements. There are some significant twists that take place throughout the game, specifically during the second half, that I don’t want to ruin. What I can reveal is that there are more ‘Wow, that was incredible’ moments than ‘man I feel like I’ve done this before’ moments in this game. I found there were fewer small corridor, closed-combat maps in this iteration of Halo than previous versions and most of the CQC takes places in the earlier levels.
I found myself wanting to see the “Holy shit!” moments right from the opening sequence, and playing through the campaign a second time, I realized why the best parts of the game take place almost exclusively in the second half. Like any good storyteller, Bungie slowly draws you in, pulling you deeper into the world of Reach, letting each battle and skirmish set up the last three or four tilts between the Covenant and the UNSC, which literally change the landscape of Reach.
For those that don’t mind a bit of a spoiler, read on to the next paragraph. I won’t reveal too much but just enough to whet your appetite for midnight, September 14th. For those that want a clean, virginal experience, move right onto the Multi-player section below.
In no particular order, some observations of the best and worst moments in the Reach campaign without giving anything important away:
- Using the the hologram load out to send a wraith in the opposite direction so you can sneak behind and melee and destroy the unsuspecting Wraith never gets old.
- A Warthog with dual rockets at the back is pretty much the baddest vehicle combo you can have. You know, Michael Jackson Bad.
- There is one large battle in particular which will have all Battlestar Gallactica fans wondering why no one has made a good BSG game yet. A space fight in an FPS game never looked so good, even if the controls were a bit noobish.
- The sombre moments that take place in the second half of the game are emotional and the in-game music that has always been a strenght of Bungie’s really shines during these moments.
- It felt like there was more time spent in vehicles in this campaign than other Halo games. There is one level where the Hornet has a major presence and it pays not to bang said Hornet into high rises and condos during the early skirmishes. I wish I’d known that the first time I played that level.
- I wish the game hinted at which load outs would work well for the upcoming battle. I’d pick hologram on one checkpoint only to realize halfway through the level that sprint or armor lock might have been a better option. In a few levels where you are surrounded by Elites in Super Charged armor (cause you know, that’s just what Elites needed), having the right load-out would really have saved me a few deaths.
- A back story into Noble 6, the character you play, might have been a new angle for Bungie to take and I feel like that opportunity was missed. I know in a lot of these FPS games, the protagonist is just another grizzled soldier following orders, but with the events on Reach playing such a critical role in the timeline of the Halo universe, it might have helped knowing why a Marine would risk his life again and again other than just, you know, duty.
Multiplayer
Unfortunately, I didn’t get as much time as I would have liked to play Reach multi-player, but for many of you reading this, this is the main reason you are buying Reach. There is a reason why Halo has dominated the top of the Xbox Live charts, and you are probably wondering what makes this Halo multi-player any different than the previous versions.
The guns and vehicles for the most part behave similarly to previous Halo games and the introduction of a few new weapons like the Needler Rifle and the DMR certainly add some spice, but Reach is different maybe more so than any other Halo game for one reason: load outs. Load outs are going to change the way you play Halo whether you are a MLG Pro or a Big Team noob.
Halo 3’s equipment (Bubble Shield, Energy drainer etc) was Bungie’s first attempt at trying to change the gun/melee/nade dynamic that Halo is so famous for, and it just didn’t work. Since equipment could only be used once and was either too powerful (regenerator), or useless (flare), it just didn’t catch on.
The second time around, Bungie has figured out how to use the load outs properly, and really, the game is more fun with it than without. Each load out provides you with a distinct advantage, but doesn’t allow you to dominate the game. You still need to be able to aim, grenade and strafe to live more than you die, but the load outs add a much needed fourth element to the well entrenched shoot/melee/nade triumvirate.
If you count the five maps that come with Forge World, along with the other multiplayer maps, you are looking at 13 maps ranging in size from the small arena maps to large-scale Wraith riding, Hog jumping, Hornet gliding maps. I’ve included a small description of the ones I got to play online before writing this review. I don’t cover all the maps because I didn’t want to include any opinions on maps I didn’t get a chance to test in a “Live” environment.
- Boardwalk: A new symmetrical medium-sized map ideally suited for 4vs4 MLG style game-types. With long unobstructed open air hallways and sight lines perfect for sniping or end-to-end DMR-ing, this is going to be a great CTF or Slayer map. The backdrop of a city burning to the ground is a nice added touch.
- Pinnacle: A remake of Ascension with slight modifications which makes it seem a bit smaller and feels like there is less of an advantage to the people on the high tower side. It’s an asymmetrical map but still could be used for competitive 4vs4 games of Team Slayer and Ball. Jetpacks and invisi are the load outs I had the most success in Team Slayer in Matchmaking
- Asylum: Remake of Sanctuary and plays very similar but with one side over looking a ocean-view cliff. Makes for some tight rope fights along one side while trying to avoid falling off, which changes the map just enough to make it feel new again. I enjoyed it, but I will say, with some of the load outs like Sprint for Spartan or Evade for Elite, this map gets cut in half pretty quickly. It’s going to be interesting to see what the competitive community does with this map.
- Reflection: Remake of Ivory Tower from the good old days of Halo 2 but remade if the decorator was Ozymandias from The Watchmen with lots of shiny gold walls mixed in with some Feng Shui to create a bright gold Asian motif. Trust me, it plays better than it sounds. I can’t wait to play King of the Hill and Ball on this map.
- Countdown: A new symmetrical multi-level map inside a UNSC launch base. It looks like something out of a James Bond movie, to be honest. The total area of the map doesn’t seem that large, but with the air lifts and the rear entrance ramps, it’s a difficult map to lock down as a team due to its multiple escape and entry routes. I’m not sure yet how this map will play in a competitive set-up, but for 5vs5 anything, this is going to be a popular map.
- The Cage: A new map built fully on Forge; I would say its a cross between Ascension and Lockout. Its built on the side of a Oceanside cliff and its a group of long narrow hallways with a central mid section where you could see a Ball or King of the Hill game taking place. While it isn’t perfectly symmetrical, it is close enough that you could play competitive MLG-style games depending on the spawn. The spawn mechanism is going to determine how great this map really is. I’ve only played a few games on it, but I immediately took a liking to it with its long sight lines and multiple escape routes.
Weapons and Game Types
As I’ve already mentioned, a lot of the weapons and game types from Halo 2 and Halo 3 make their appearance once again, so instead of covering whats already been covered in previous games, I thought I’d focus on the weapons and game types that are new and going to make an impact in Reach.
During the Reach Beta, one of the most popular debates was which medium/long range weapon was best: the human DMR or the Covenant Needler Rifle. Bungie has tweaked both weapons since the Beta and it is noticeable. The DMR seems to track targets slightly better than its competitor, but the bloom seems to play a larger role in the final head shot of the DMR. If you fire too quickly, that last head shot becomes something you chase rather than something you finish with. The Needler Rifle, on the other hand, takes a bit more aim to control and misses more shots but holding the trigger down gives you the advantage of turning it into semi-automatic spray machine with some surprisingly accurate results. I prefer the DMR, but I suspect this argument isn’t settled just yet.
The Halo: CE pistol has been redesigned and released in Reach as a solid secondary weapon. It can no longer dominate the map the way it did in Halo: CE, but that’s probably a good thing. You don’t want one weapon to become the ultimate closer making all other options moot. While toning down of the pistol was expected, it saddens me that the smaller clip size really limits you from being able to take out one guy cleanly. You are almost always counting on the second-to-last or last shot, and if you miss with either, the reload will almost surely get you killed. The saving grace of the pistol is that in competitive game settings, having the pistol as a secondary weapon is a major upgrade from the spray-and-pray option of the AR.
If you’ve played with me, you know I am not a fan of Big Team games, but I think in Invasion, Bungie has the best Big Team Battle game type they’ve ever made. It pits Spartans vs. Elites with the Spartans starting off on defense with high ground to their advantage while the Elites move forward trying to take away that high ground. The game progresses through three objectives, and the team that progresses the furthest or defends the longest wins the round. You switch sides and go again. I really enjoyed the game play even though I was playing with strangers, which is almost a death knell in most Big Team battle games. The constant directions from the game toward a new objectives kept the game play fresh and allowed strangers who had no real team chemistry or proper communication to herd toward a common goal whether it be Spartans defending two high ground locations or putting together a surprise attack from below as Elites. As you got further into the game and successfully completed objectives, new load-outs get unlocked along with vehicles for some real Big Team Battle mayhem. I’m not saying I am going to play Big Team on a regular basis, but when I do venture into Big Team, Invasion is going to be at the top of my list.
Firefight is also something that has been given a tune up since the days of Halo: ODST (the game that shall not be mentioned), and with the added feature of being able to search for battle mates [it’s “battle bros”, dude. -- Ed.] online through matchmaking or find another group of four to play against as Elites, this version of Firefight should be more popular.
One of the new features within multiplayer is the constant update to “Commendations” that occur mid-game. Similar to what Modern Warfare had with its achievements, getting so many killing sprees and head shots will reward you with credits that you can use to customize your Spartan, and all those upgrades you make to your Spartan are seen wherever you do battle whether it be matchmaking, custom games, firefight or campaign. It was pretty cool seeing my Profanity Clan logo while I was going through the Reach campaign, even during the cut scenes.
One of my pet peeves in past Halo games was never being able to tell if you received an assist on a kill or not; now, whenever you receive an assist, you alerts you immediately which I thought was a great little addition.
Ode to Bungie
I’ve barely touched the surface of the Halo: Reach multiplayer experience, but you are starting to get the sense of how expansive this game really is. From being able to create anything you want to in Forge World to having a Campaign that will take you between eight-to-10 hours on your own on Heroic and probably five to six hours on Co-op Legendary (which is how I would recommend everyone to play it), to the countless hours you will lose in multiplayer, Reach is the final, and in my opinion, the most complete Halo game Bungie has released.
With true competition coming November 9th, we are going to see a sci-fi FPS go head-to-head against a military shooter, and see what the fans really want to play. My money is on Reach, but I suspect you already knew that.
Bungie is at a crossroads and before they leave to make games for Activision, they left us a gift to be enjoyed for the next few years. I’m not a fool in thinking that the Halo franchise is done after this game. I understand Halo is too good to pass up and I expect Microsoft will farm out the franchise to a new developer. In the meantime, enjoy Reach because you aren’t going to see many games with this much packed on for quite a while. As a fan of the franchise since the first game released nine years ago, and who has been lucky enough to make countless friends and share incredible experiences all because of Halo, I for one think that without Bungie, Halo will not be the same.
Thank you and enjoy. I’ll see you online in two days.
