Review: Halo: Reach

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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Review: Halo: Reach

Bungie's farewell Halo title is also arguably its finest.

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Lim3

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Feb 15, 2010
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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?
 

Agayek

Ravenous Gormandizer
Oct 23, 2008
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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.
 

PixelJunk

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Jun 28, 2010
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Seaf The Troll said:
Jezzascmezza said:
Lim3 said:
I give it a 5/10
Isn't that maybe a little harsh?
that maybe a lot harsh?
Not harsh at all. To actually pay full price for something that's already been done "and better I might add" is ridiculous. Don't get me wrong I love Bungie. Have many fond memories of the Marathon trilogy, Pathways Into Darkness, Myth, but that was a long time ago. Somewhere along the way Bungie lost what it meant to be an independent innovator. To celebrate that in anyway only shows what's wrong with the industry. So to the Halo series good riddance. Now maybe Bungie can get their act together.

*edit*

Bring on the hate.
 

Jared

The British Paladin
Jul 14, 2009
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Playing it now, and do love it...

Death from above ftw!
 

BloodSquirrel

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Jun 23, 2008
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Seaf The Troll said:
Jezzascmezza said:
Lim3 said:
I give it a 5/10
Isn't that maybe a little harsh?
that maybe a lot harsh?
It's a Halo thread. The game is a lightning rod for trolls.

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.
 

Baby Tea

Just Ask Frankie
Sep 18, 2008
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Jezzascmezza said:
Lim3 said:
I give it a 5/10
Isn't that maybe a little harsh?
What can you do? Irrational hatred is irrational.

I was fairly 'ehhhh' about Reach for a long time. I really enjoyed the Halo series, but it certainly wasn't a 'favourite' of mine. However, I've been watching and reading multiple reviews, and finally allowing myself to view some game-play videos and trailers and I'm pretty impressed. My Amazon copy will be arriving either today or tomorrow, and I'm quite happy (and not over-hyped) to don the armor of the Spartan once again.

Looks like a great, fitting conclusion to a fun, enjoyable series.
 

Infinatex

BLAM!Headshot?!
May 19, 2009
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I'm still on the campaign and I'd have to say that it is miles ahead of ODST in the fun dept. (ODST being the only other Halo game I've played). I'm loving every minute of it and I think it has definitely encouraged me to play the rest of them.
 

Lim3

New member
Feb 15, 2010
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BloodSquirrel said:
Seaf The Troll said:
Jezzascmezza said:
Lim3 said:
I give it a 5/10
Isn't that maybe a little harsh?
that maybe a lot harsh?
It's a Halo thread. The game is a lightning rod for trolls.

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.
I wrote a one sentence statement to get in for first place, then immediately set about backing up my opinion. I am a fan of Halo; otherwise i wouldn't have finished the campaign the day it came out.

The fact is i don't understand all these great scores it's getting; because as a gamer who grew up on Halo i can't help but be disappointed in this game.

Now all i have to do is wait to be bashed for not liking it and disagreeing with people.
 

Woodsey

New member
Aug 9, 2009
14,553
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BloodSquirrel said:
Seaf The Troll said:
Jezzascmezza said:
Lim3 said:
I give it a 5/10
Isn't that maybe a little harsh?
that maybe a lot harsh?
It's a Halo thread. The game is a lightning rod for trolls.

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.
So they're stupid because they don't agree with you? Nice.

He wasn't trolling anyway - he just gave a score. To him 5/10 might mean average, thereby perfectly describing Halo which is fair enough if that's what he thinks.
 

Onyx Oblivion

Borderlands Addict. Again.
Sep 9, 2008
17,032
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All I wanna do is Campaign and Firefight. Tons and tons of Firefight. And I'll end up helping out tons of friends on Legendary runs, before moving onto the dreaded Solo Legendary run...

I'll go Solo on Normal/Heroic first, then jump online.
 

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
20,364
0
0
Lim3 said:
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.
 

Arkhangelsk

New member
Mar 1, 2009
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I have to say, this game looks like fun. I never was a huge fan of Halo, but 1 and 3 were entertaining enough for a while. They weren't that deep for me, but they certainly were entertaining. If this game ups that level of fun, I might have to buy it.
 

Le_Lisra

norwegian cat
Jun 6, 2009
693
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I don't want to start a war or a discussion, really.. but it just looks so *unappealing* to me..

Each to his own, mine is somewhere over there.
 

Arkhangelsk

New member
Mar 1, 2009
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Seaf The Troll said:
Jezzascmezza said:
Lim3 said:
I give it a 5/10
Isn't that maybe a little harsh?
that maybe a lot harsh?
How is it harsh? 3/10 would mean it's bad. 5/10 means that the game is average. 7/10 or 8/10 would mean the game is great. 10/10 implies perfection. If he finds the game to be that amount of fun, shouldn't he be allowed to think so?
 

Withard

New member
Feb 4, 2010
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The Spartans soldiers are now a comic gold. Halo Legends only sought to solidify that. Having played the game its about 6 or 7 out of 10 for me too :(

ahh well.
 

Chamzaboogie

New member
Mar 29, 2010
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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.
 

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
20,364
0
0
Chamzaboogie said:
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.
It was one of the things that I didn't like, actually. Not to say that it was bad by any stretch of the matter - Marty O'donnell is a great composer - but that it just didn't have a really memorable track for me until the very end.

BrunDeign said:
If Halo is such a multiplayer centric franchise, why is there no multiplayer review? Are they going to release one?
Yes. Traditionally, our reviews for all games focus on the singleplayer, since different players will have wholly different experiences online, but we'll have a multiplayer segment coming sometime soon from EIC Russ Pitts :)