Halo Reach Review

[Jokersvirus]

This was a long time coming. As this was the start of the end for the Halo series, I think I should do it some honor and redo this review.

Background/Story: Halo Reach takes plays on a colonized planet of, where else, Reach. This is the second planet to have contact with the alien race known as the Convenient, according to Dr. Halsey, I think that is her name, the aliens hacked our computer terminals and chose that name. The convenient, or convies for short, are on a holy war with all of humanity and anything else deemed unworthy to live. First planet to come into contact was Harvest. To start off You, Noble 6, just arrived and are thrown into the Noble Team, your military record, as given by Noble 1, in VERY short detail, describes you as an American badass. You've pwned a few noobs before. Well as the game starts off the first mission is to investigate an area close by. It seem Reach has had an issue or two with Rebels and they needed a good beating up. Well we know what occurs, we find the convies and its a race to inform command they are invading.

The main objective through out the game is kill the convies and save Reach. Well that all changes after about 90% through, which is a SPOILER ALERT

 

Your new mission becomes get Cortana to the Pillar and out of here. Also, the convies take out Reach in about 10 days time.

Game Play: As you know it is your typical FPS, run and gun. This time around we've been given new weapons, items and armor abilities. Jetpack, Armor Lock, Invis, Drop Shield, and of course, running. The weapons are new and fun, they bought back the old pistol from Halo CE that we know and love and it is great to use, got the Assault Rifle in a cool design, got a brand new weapon known as the DMR, designated Marksmen Rifle, this replaces the Battle Rifle, Its a single fire weapon. Now they also added the rectical to expand and become harder for you to shoot after exhausting so many rounds so quickly so they force you to take your time shooting and not spray and pray, which people still do. For those who have played Halo before, not much has changed from Halo 3. Also, they threw in some assassinations, which are animated and very sweet to watch. They differ from Spartan to elite, but still a good watch if you have time and wont die.

Controls: Very standard for a game like this, if youve played Halo 3 your control scheme is same, expect for now one of your buttons control your armor ability, nothing has changed beyond that. You will get use to it quickly.

Online play: Several different options to pick from, this time around its mainly unranked, meaning no 1-50. Just military rank and since the bungie community hit 117 million completed challenges they gave us more ranks, armor and other things. If you want to play rank there is ranked games where you have to complete 3 games to get a ranking from 000 - 5,000 or something. I think it is close to that. Mainly this online was designed for fun play not MLG try hards and what not. There is always something in that play list for you to do and not get bored.


Annoying things:
1. Armor lock is abused and beaten to death on MP. It is annoying to go into games with a power weapon such as the sword hit someone and the game still allows them to live even tho you hit them with the sword before they entered AL.
2. It did suck during campaign you only flew a falcon once or twice during campaign would have liked to see more of that.
3. During some parts of the campaign the grunts had massive numbers and Fuel rod cannons, even on normal or heroic, this is over-whelming and can cost you your life if your not paying attention.
4. How large the zone is in campaign, as I do enjoy exploring this does become annoying when I have to start from A have a battle in between and to run with nothing else to do, an example of this is the first mission. You can fight convies you found around the road as you head to the next point but its a waste of ammo. Another is when your flying a falcon and if you arent sure where to go and you aren't getting communications from Kat its a bit annoying.


Overall:

Pros:
I enjoyed how they created the first game that starts the series
The online aspect is always enjoyable to play and have fun with
the new weapons are a treat, along with the new vehicles given
the storyline was awesome
jetpacking, that was fun
over all armor abilities.

Cons:
limited use of certain vehicles
massive zones to run from A to B on
Annoying brats
abuse of Armor lock.

In conclusion, this game did justice to the series as a whole helping to open the events of Halo CE through Halo 3. The Spartans have learned their name, which was chosen by Dr. Halsey to replace Origin projection Generation 3 soldiers, or something along those lines. The game is beautiful the sceney is nice, and above all this game is something worth playing time and time again.

5/5 - buy.