Halo: Reach
Publisher: Microsoft Developer: Bungie Platform: Xbox 360 Release: 2010 Players: 1-4 (Campaign), 2-16 (System Link / Online) Genre: First Person Shooter Rating: 9.4 \ 10.0: Excellent
Above
is a player wielding an assault rifle attacking an enemy piloting a Ghost
Halo:
Reach is a prequel to the original Halo trilogy. You witness the fall of the planet Reach, something fans have been waiting for since the 2001 release of the novel Halo: The Fall of Reach. It's ironic that, sadly enough, this is the last Halo game developed by Bungie, yet it falls at the start of the main series' timeline. Reach is set in the year 2552, when mankind is at war with an alliance of alien races collectively known as the Covenant. The Covenant claim the destruction of humans is the will of their gods, the long-extinct Forerunners. The aliens are opposed by the UNSC (United Nations Space Command) army, which
genetically alters a small number of selected soldiers into supersoldiers called Spartans who don
powerful suits of armor with a rechargeable shield. The armor enhances reaction, strength, and jump height. (Halo fans, remember that this takes place before Master Chief is one of the last Spartans still serving in the UNSC) The campaign begins by
shows the ruins of the planet Reach, the UNSC's military stronghold. The battered and dirty helmet of your customized Spartan lies on the ground. Immediately followed by this is a flashback to a UNSC camp on Reach, where Spartan Noble Six, the character whom you assume the role of, meets
Noble Team, a squad is composed of five other specially selected Spartans. Your
teammates are Noble One, Carter, the bold, no-nonsense leader of Noble Team; Noble Two, Catherine (better known as Kat), the team’s techie who has a robotic prosthetic arm (it was lost in a prior battle); Noble Three, Jun (pronounced "June"), the team’s sniper; Noble Four, Emile, a witty but sometimes silent soldier who has a dome-like helmet with a skull painted on it and carries around a machete; and Noble Five, the bulky Jorge, who’s
brutal in battle but has a big heart.
Noble Team’s first mission is to investigate distress signals coming from a farm. The action takes awhile to heat up, but when it does, you’ll realize that, even on Normal difficulty level, this game is no cakewalk, especially when you try to tackle it on your own. You’re sure to encounter frustrating moments. You can engage in two-to-four player co-op, which eases the trouble, unless you have the world’s worst partner (my brother), who sabotages the mission in any way possible. The battles in this game are on a larger scale then ever before. You can see the charred remnants of mountain ranges and cities, and look up at the sky to see dogfights between Banshees and Falcons. It's even possible to be crushed by Banshee debris. Something you’ll notice right away is how amazing the game looks by Xbox 360 standards, especially during cut-scenes. I’ve found that I’m one of the only people I know who enjoys cut-scenes or even the campaign. The campaign’s story, while not very deep, is compelling and has several twists. But the campaign isn’t all there is to the game. Of course, for those who have an Xbox Live Gold Membership, there’s Matchmaking-- online multiplayer. There are a massive number of game types in Matchmaking, including old favorites like Slayer, Capture the Flag, and Oddball. There's also a handful of new modes, my favorite of which is Headhunter. In this game type, every player starts off with the possession of a single flaming skull. More skulls are scattered throughout the map. To earn points, you must deposit these skulls at a zone. Upon dying, you will drop any unbanked skulls you have on you, and if you hold the maximum number of 10 skulls, your location will be revealed to enemies. There is also a new co-op playlist that allows you to play the campaign or Firefight in a matchmade game for the first time. Nowadays, games are focused on having solid online multiplayer, and not only does Reach do that, but it delivers some of the best local multiplayer options of any game I've ever played. Returning from Halo 3: ODST is Firefight, a mode in which you’re given 10 lives (bumped up from seven) to fight for your life in various sub-modes. You are now able to customize nearly every aspect of the game, from the loadouts to the traits of Spartans and Elites. You can also host a Custom Game, which allows you to play any Matchmaking mode offline with friends, or invite your Xbox Live friends. You can set your own rules and also save your presets as a new game type. This feature allows even those that hate shooters to have some fun. You can turn Reach from an FPS to a racer to first-person hide-and-seek; as the countless Halo: Reach game nights you can view on YouTube show, the possibilities are near-unlimited. Furthermore, there's Forge, a mode returning from Halo 3 which allows you to modify maps with limited supplies and play on them with pals. Forge has been vastly improved, as you can now create structures. Lastly, there's Theater, in which you can watch and edit films of recent sessions, and pause to take screenshots of your favorite moments. Pics, films, maps, and custom game types can all be uploaded to the File Share for other Reach players to enjoy. You are still able to recommend a file to all your friends by selecting a single option, You can now obtain credits (cR) in order to purchase various items and also level up. This includes armor, which is just to look awesome; Firefight voices, if you don't enjoy Noble Six's voice in Firefight; and armor effects. There are daily challenges that give you a chance to earn cR. However, a large amount of these challenges can only be completed by playing Matchmaking, which I only sometimes. Your military rank can now be increased outside of Matchmaking, so you don't need to play Matchmaking for people to know how good you are. There is a handful of new weapons, including the designated marksman rifle (DMR), the grenade launcher, the target locator (human weapons), the Plasma Repeater, the Plasma Launcher, and the Concussion Rifle (Covenant weapons). However, it's missing a few old favorites, such as the battle rifle, the submachine gun (human), the carbine, the beam rifle, and the Brute shot (Covenant). You can't even dual-wield handguns (nor could you in Halo 3: ODST, released the previous year)! There are two new vehicles: the Falcon, a helicopter with two turrets (human), and the Revenant, a sleek, red vehicle equipped with a plasma mortar, boosters, and a passenger seat (Covenant). But the game is missing the Hornet (human), the Chopper, and the Prowler (Covenant). Even so, it's more important what a game does have over what it doesn't. However, the game suffers from occasional but brief frame rate drops despite the annoyingly lengthy load times, which are there to pre-load the games and prevent lag. Last of all, and this is self-explanatory if you've played a Halo game, the aforementioned visuals and orchestrated soundtrack are absolutely amazing. Halo games have always had great graphics, but the engine was drastically overhauled over the course of development. Halo 3: ODST doesn't have much on Reach in the visuals department! The vistas are gorgeous, and the character detail has been vastly improved. Examples of this are the dents and scratches on Spartan armor. The musical score is arguably composer Martin O'Donnell's best work yet, and while many of the tracks sound similar, they're all epic and intense. From gameplay, to graphics, to content diversity, there are few times when Halo: Reach ceases to amaze. If you’re an Xbox 360 owner who’s of age to play M-rated games (even though this game shouldn’t be rated M), then this game is a absolute must-have.
UpsNoble Team’s first mission is to investigate distress signals coming from a farm. The action takes awhile to heat up, but when it does, you’ll realize that, even on Normal difficulty level, this game is no cakewalk, especially when you try to tackle it on your own. You’re sure to encounter frustrating moments. You can engage in two-to-four player co-op, which eases the trouble, unless you have the world’s worst partner (my brother), who sabotages the mission in any way possible. The battles in this game are on a larger scale then ever before. You can see the charred remnants of mountain ranges and cities, and look up at the sky to see dogfights between Banshees and Falcons. It's even possible to be crushed by Banshee debris. Something you’ll notice right away is how amazing the game looks by Xbox 360 standards, especially during cut-scenes. I’ve found that I’m one of the only people I know who enjoys cut-scenes or even the campaign. The campaign’s story, while not very deep, is compelling and has several twists. But the campaign isn’t all there is to the game. Of course, for those who have an Xbox Live Gold Membership, there’s Matchmaking-- online multiplayer. There are a massive number of game types in Matchmaking, including old favorites like Slayer, Capture the Flag, and Oddball. There's also a handful of new modes, my favorite of which is Headhunter. In this game type, every player starts off with the possession of a single flaming skull. More skulls are scattered throughout the map. To earn points, you must deposit these skulls at a zone. Upon dying, you will drop any unbanked skulls you have on you, and if you hold the maximum number of 10 skulls, your location will be revealed to enemies. There is also a new co-op playlist that allows you to play the campaign or Firefight in a matchmade game for the first time. Nowadays, games are focused on having solid online multiplayer, and not only does Reach do that, but it delivers some of the best local multiplayer options of any game I've ever played. Returning from Halo 3: ODST is Firefight, a mode in which you’re given 10 lives (bumped up from seven) to fight for your life in various sub-modes. You are now able to customize nearly every aspect of the game, from the loadouts to the traits of Spartans and Elites. You can also host a Custom Game, which allows you to play any Matchmaking mode offline with friends, or invite your Xbox Live friends. You can set your own rules and also save your presets as a new game type. This feature allows even those that hate shooters to have some fun. You can turn Reach from an FPS to a racer to first-person hide-and-seek; as the countless Halo: Reach game nights you can view on YouTube show, the possibilities are near-unlimited. Furthermore, there's Forge, a mode returning from Halo 3 which allows you to modify maps with limited supplies and play on them with pals. Forge has been vastly improved, as you can now create structures. Lastly, there's Theater, in which you can watch and edit films of recent sessions, and pause to take screenshots of your favorite moments. Pics, films, maps, and custom game types can all be uploaded to the File Share for other Reach players to enjoy. You are still able to recommend a file to all your friends by selecting a single option, You can now obtain credits (cR) in order to purchase various items and also level up. This includes armor, which is just to look awesome; Firefight voices, if you don't enjoy Noble Six's voice in Firefight; and armor effects. There are daily challenges that give you a chance to earn cR. However, a large amount of these challenges can only be completed by playing Matchmaking, which I only sometimes. Your military rank can now be increased outside of Matchmaking, so you don't need to play Matchmaking for people to know how good you are. There is a handful of new weapons, including the designated marksman rifle (DMR), the grenade launcher, the target locator (human weapons), the Plasma Repeater, the Plasma Launcher, and the Concussion Rifle (Covenant weapons). However, it's missing a few old favorites, such as the battle rifle, the submachine gun (human), the carbine, the beam rifle, and the Brute shot (Covenant). You can't even dual-wield handguns (nor could you in Halo 3: ODST, released the previous year)! There are two new vehicles: the Falcon, a helicopter with two turrets (human), and the Revenant, a sleek, red vehicle equipped with a plasma mortar, boosters, and a passenger seat (Covenant). But the game is missing the Hornet (human), the Chopper, and the Prowler (Covenant). Even so, it's more important what a game does have over what it doesn't. However, the game suffers from occasional but brief frame rate drops despite the annoyingly lengthy load times, which are there to pre-load the games and prevent lag. Last of all, and this is self-explanatory if you've played a Halo game, the aforementioned visuals and orchestrated soundtrack are absolutely amazing. Halo games have always had great graphics, but the engine was drastically overhauled over the course of development. Halo 3: ODST doesn't have much on Reach in the visuals department! The vistas are gorgeous, and the character detail has been vastly improved. Examples of this are the dents and scratches on Spartan armor. The musical score is arguably composer Martin O'Donnell's best work yet, and while many of the tracks sound similar, they're all epic and intense. From gameplay, to graphics, to content diversity, there are few times when Halo: Reach ceases to amaze. If you’re an Xbox 360 owner who’s of age to play M-rated games (even though this game shouldn’t be rated M), then this game is a absolute must-have.
Great campaign
Content diversity
Don't like shooters? Not a problem!
Amazing visuals and soundtrack
New weapons and vehicles
Tons of new content
Downs
Sometimes very difficult
Daily challenges are overly focused on Matchmaking
Missing weapons and vehicles
Lengthy load times
Amazing visuals and soundtrack
New weapons and vehicles
Tons of new content
Downs
Sometimes very difficult
Daily challenges are overly focused on Matchmaking
Missing weapons and vehicles
Lengthy load times
ESRB: M for
Mature (DISCLAIMER: I disagree with the Mature rating, as there are just as violent games and movies with lower age ratings) (PARENTAL WARNING: This game contains intense violence, large amounts of realistic blood, bad language, and scary scenes) Content: Blood, Language, and Violence
Price: $19.99 (Retail)
No comments:
Post a Comment