Review: Halo: Reach

[ChupathingyX]

For me personally I found Red vs Blue's storyline more interesting than Halo's.

Also why do female characters in the Halo series always have INCREDIBLY frustrating voices?

Also another thing I hated about the series is how you never got to play as an elite fighting against numerous humans. You're always playing as the annoying, military jargon spitting, bad pun yelling marines and playing as the boring Master Chief who has for me no likable aspects. Boring armour, dull voice, dry humour. I don't understand why everyone loves him so much, especially since whenever I've asked someone they never give a reason as to why they like him.

 

[Narcogen]

I'll always find it funny that an army of Spartans couldn't hold one planet, yet one (the Chief) could take care of so many overwhelming odds missions in Halo's one to three.

Only one of Noble Team is a Spartan II like the Chief was. The rest are cheaper and less well equipped and trained. (How Noble Six ends up being the second "hyper lethal" Spartan, after the MC, is somewhat beyond me.)

The Covenant have brought overwhelming force to bear against Reach-- certainly far more than the Chief faces on Halo in the first game, more than he faces in Halo 2, at least up until the arrival of the Covenant fleet overhead halfway through the game-- and more than the single Covenant cruiser that attacks Earth in the opening of Halo 2.

Where the forces present are larger, the Chief faces only a portion of them-- only those that board Cairo station in Halo 2. Only those that attack Crow's Nest in Halo 3. Where the enemies are not limited, they are spread out-- the surfaces of the Ark and each Halo installation are larger than a single planet.

The Covenant objective is also different-- they're going to "glass" Reach by burning it, something that can't ultimately be prevented by ground forces. The novels make a point of demonstrating how engagements in space nearly always went to the Covenant, even when Spartan units on the ground were able to keep UNSC forces more even on the ground.

 

[Narcogen]

I never played any of the Halos aside from the odd multiplayer every now and again, but I have to respect Bungie for making the epic series. The Halo franchise may have created some of the worst hated trends in FPSs (regenerating health, 2 weapon pickup, generic soldier, generic story (supposedly)), I or anyone else cannot deny, or should not deny, the impact that the Halo franchise has done to the gaming industry, and possibly the world.

Congradulations Bungie, don't let Activision suck your soul.

Goodnight, and good luck.

Bungie created the generic soldier and the generic story?

Wouldn't that make them the original, and everyone else the generic ripoff?

In the Halo series, three games have health packs: Halo 1, Halo 3: ODST and now Halo: Reach.

Two games have only regenerating shields, but lack a way to recharge health: Halo 2 and Halo 3.

The two weapon pickup may be a trend you hate, but I don't. Forcing the player to make tough choices and change tactics makes for a more challenging and more interesting experience.

 

[EvilDemon]

The story, plot and characters in Reach are just dull, there not engaging at all. Theres no reason to care for the characters and their personalities/traits are only shown at their most basic level. Pretty disappointing as ive found Halo 1-3 to be great on all these points and its a shame they couldnt have got it right this time around and made a perfect game.

That being said the gameplay is fantastic, its good to be a Spartan again unlike in ODST. The action set pieces are great, could have been better but still fun. Killing covenant is a blast as usual and no more pesky flood yay
Obviously multiplayer is a blast, Forge, Firefight and Versus aswell as Co-op

Why Bungie decided to not have 4 player splitscreen on Firefight dumbfounds me, i dont want to play online against 12 year old idiots, id rather have my friends on the couch next to me and its annoying that we cant firefight.

 

[Fortesque]

*Gets behind Flame shield*

I rally cant wait to get Halo: Reach. It just looks awesome, as was Halo 1, 2 and 3.
(Yet to play ODST)

 

[RvLeshrac]

I'm pretty sure that you could increase that average IQ for any gaming forum by 50 points by just insta-banning anybody who bashed Halo.

That's a touch harsh do you not think?

There's plenty of people who fall into both pro and anti Halo camps who you could call a certifiable dumbass. It's not so much their opinion as the lack of perspective and tolerance applied to it. Doesn't mean you should ban everyone automatically for having opinion X.

He was saying that in response to all the dumbass trolls who are attracted to bashing Halo.

Any time anyone, anywhere, pops up to point out that Halo is just an average FPS that does things we've already seen, there are a bunch of people who start yelling "troll."

It has gotten to the point where most people don't even bother justifying the position. No matter what we say, Halo is apparently the only decent FPS that has been produced in the history of gaming, and saying anything bad about it is tantamount to burning orphans alive after feeding them ground-up kittens.

In closing: Halo is Average. A-V-E-R-A-G-E. It isn't terrible, it isn't bad, it isn't the GREATEST GAME EVER TO EXIST OH GOD I NEED NEW PANTS JUST THINKING ABOUT IT. It is *AVERAGE*. If you can't handle that, I'm not sure what to tell you. If you can't deal with the fact that you're playing an average game and enjoying it, perhaps you need a psychiatrist.

 

[saxa]

Uhm sorry to bother chaps, but t'seems my stream was misplaced.

Can you Help me find it?

"200, Stream not found, NetStream.Play.StreamNotFound, clip: '[Clip] 'http://video2.themis-media.com/ea7ae37a7a46a0c28e8f8ce7cf27f956/mp4/escapist/reviews/9b414ba9182c2f0bbe9e39309b700b8e.mp4''"

 

[Tears of Blood]

Yeah, I'd love to watch the supplement, but it doesn't seem to be working. Wee!~ Now I get to watch Slim Jim and LotRO ads over and over!

 

[BloodSquirrel]

In closing: Halo is Average. A-V-E-R-A-G-E. It isn't terrible, it isn't bad, it isn't the GREATEST GAME EVER TO EXIST OH GOD I NEED NEW PANTS JUST THINKING ABOUT IT. It is *AVERAGE*. If you can't handle that, I'm not sure what to tell you. If you can't deal with the fact that you're playing an average game and enjoying it, perhaps you need a psychiatrist.

See, this here? Where you treat your opinion as fact and say that anyone who doesn't share it needs a psychiatrist?

That's trolling. You're a troll.

 

[protogenxl]

In the beginning Nobel 1 says "This is a Team none of that Solo Stuff" these are words to ignore.

I remember in previous Halo games when there was more than one hog in a group of AI they would fill my hog then the rest would pile into the remaining hog a follow closely and shoot at things. In reach you are lucky if you can get AI to load into your own vehicle never mind a second. Most of the time they will stand there like posts even when holding the horn down. When they do try to follow they will crash, They will drive backwards the whole way, They Won't shoot at any thing, or a situation will happen that I have encountered few times They will drive forwards, then backwards, then forwards again, Like a Heavily Armed Pendulum!

If you are paired with a Nobel team member it is just as bad. say you flip the warthog 2 out of 3 times the Nobel member will not get back into the hog they will stand there stiff you can run them down, melee, shoot them with the hogs turret till it over heats they won't move. Then when you hit the checkpoint the missing Nobel team member will magically appear and proceed to take on a wraith with an assault rifle while you frantically try to get them to get in the hog by parking between them and the wraith. The best thing about Nobel Team members is normally they can't die so they are great for drawing fire.

The AI in Left 4 Dead 2 is the best I have every played with, Resident Evil 5's AI partner was manageable, With Reach raising the friendly AI to the level of Michael J. Caboose (Team Killing Tendencies included) would be a massive improvement!

 

[Hawkeye16]

Nice review, I could feel the epic wind of Reach blowing. I just cannot wait to coop through the campaign.

As a side note, how is the music? I always enjoyed the Halo theme and how it fits perfectly with the action.

The music is the clear best in the series. Have fun with that.

 

[BloodSquirrel]

I'll always find it funny that an army of Spartans couldn't hold one planet, yet one (the Chief) could take care of so many overwhelming odds missions in Halo's one to three.

When does Master Chief ever hold an entire planet by himself?

In Halo 1-3 he's just the guy who can fight his way to the most important places at the most important times.

 

[Dimbo_Sama]

'If you've ever liked a Halo game before, Reach is for you. If you like FPS games in general, Reach may still actually be for you - and is absolutely worth a rental.'

This doesn't sell the game for me, I mean seriously? 'may still actually be for you'? That doesn't fill me with confidence. Yes Halo is a good game, but it was good when I played it 10 years ago and they barely changed anything. Rent first then buy I think.

 

[Zealous]

I agree. Every game should have a jetpack in it.

Also, good review. Now if only UPS would get its act together I may be able to find out what all the fuss is about.

Agreed. My copy has been "sent with courier" for the past ~32 hours.

 

[John Funk]

'If you've ever liked a Halo game before, Reach is for you. If you like FPS games in general, Reach may still actually be for you - and is absolutely worth a rental.'

This doesn't sell the game for me, I mean seriously? 'may still actually be for you'? That doesn't fill me with confidence. Yes Halo is a good game, but it was good when I played it 10 years ago and they barely changed anything. Rent first then buy I think.

I can see how that came off as waffling, when it really shouldn't have. I think Reach is a superbly made game that you'll probably like if you like shooters at all.

 

[kouriichi]

:/ 6/10.
Jetpacks got old fast, and i dont like half the game modes.
Customization is almost pointless because everyone ends up looking like a recolored version of eachother, and the "upgrades" do nothing for you.

I like the new fire fight mode over the ODST one. The multiplayer feels lacking.
In slayer "pro" you have to choice of weapons. The battle rifle (("DMR")) kills in 3 less shots. why would you pick the other?

The assassinations are nice and take moderate skill to accually pull off, but grenade spam is still a massive problem that just ruins some of the smaller levels.

Story mode is so far the best part of the game for me, and im not even through the 3rd level. :/ that says something about the multiplayer.

Im tempted to give it a 5/10, but a 6/10 feels better. Really the most fun i had was the comical descriptions of things and the unlockable voices.

All in all, im glad i didnt buy Reach. I rented it. I might rent it once or twice more. Maybe install it on my hard-drive and wait until someone sells me a f*cked up disc for 7 bucks.

 

[Mausenheimmer]

I give it a 7/10.

I finished the campaign today; the story was not engaging, the characters boring and the action and battles don't live up to their predecessors. Also there were plot holes; lots of plot holes, which i'm pretty sure there will be attempts to cover up.

When compared to the EPICNESS of Halo 3 (and 1 & 2) in terms of story line and battles Reach falls far short. You drive PAST scarabs in the last level, rather then engaging them. You DON'T take on hordes of enemies, the enemies themselves seemed smaller, less fearsome and more boring then in Halo 3.

On the upside the mission where you fly Sabers was fantastic. The mission where you spend 45 minutes island hopping (for lack of a better term) in a Falcon was not. It was dead boring, my co-op partner and I couldn't wait to finish it.

Also there was no Scorpion (tank) mission. What's up with that? I'm fairly sure I am not alone in looking forward to Halo tank missions; they played a big part in 1,2,3 and ODST and were a major fun factor.

I also found Firefight less entertaining then in ODST. They have made one major improvement: unlimited ammo on the maps. Having once done 3 hours on one firefight session in ODST however it was not as engaging in terms of switching skulls on and off and the variety of enemies. There is however the option to toggle the settings on firefight, which is a plus, and admittedly i haven't spent much time getting to know these.

I recommend it as a multiplayer game for online play and firefight. The campaign however is... more then a little disappointing.

PS Jetpacks = fun multiplayer. Oh and they haven't fixed the problem of simultaneous beat downs, if MW2 doesn't have simultaneous stab problems (that i have noticed anyway) why should Halo?

...there was a scorpion tank mission. Did you miss that entirely in the return to Sword Base?

To each their own. I found it WAY better than 2 and 3. I *liked* the subdued feel of things; it made it feel more personal. You have better things to do than engage the Scarabs in that one level - it's like how you don't fight any of the Covenant while you're running away in the warthog in the finales of Halo 1/3.

Yes, he did miss it. I guess he wanted to be in the Tank for the whole darn mission, but no tank level has ever been that way. I think he was just making a controversial statement for attention. After all, bashing Halo is instant cool points with a lot of Escapist reviewers (Movie Bob and Yahtzee specifically).

Like you said in your review, Halo: Reach is good not for what it's about, but the way it is about it. Sure, the tale of a doomed squad fighting a losing battle has been told countless times before, but it doesn't diminish an effective version of the story.

 

[MercurySteam]

I found it WAY better than 2 and 3. I *liked* the subdued feel of things; it made it feel more personal. You have better things to do than engage the Scarabs in that one level - it's like how you don't fight any of the Covenant while you're running away in the warthog in the finales of Halo 1/3.

I agree totally. Although Reach wasn't extremely engaging it told a decent story and let you play a game that was essentially Bungie's ego on steroids. But surprisingly enough it works. It may as well be called 'Halo: The Best Times", as it doesn't contain particularly annoying sections that tend to be in many games, just mostly the greatest parts of the Halo series.

All I can say is: Goodonya Bungie, you gave the Halo series one hell of a Legacy.

 

[De Ronneman]

Great review!

Honestly, respect @ Bungie for stopping their franchise before it get's out of hand. Also, it sounds like a pretty sweet game, especialy since you know the outcome, but still have to get there...

Also, is there ever a game featuring a squad of soldiers where you're NOT the new guy?

[sub]please, no examples, retorical question...[/sub]