Review: Halo Reach

After a year of hype and the promise that this would be the best Halo experience yet, Bungie’s last Halo finally lands on the Xbox 360. 

Developer: Bungie
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Platforms: X360

Reviewing a Halo title is always a tricky endeavour, mostly because those who are Halo fans are going to pick it up regardless of what anyone says, and secondly because Halo the series has been around for so long that everything that has to be said about Halo has already been said… or at least I thought. 

Back when we were Deeko, I was charged with reviewing Halo 3, which at the time I gave an 8.5. Not a bad score by any stretch of the imagination but one that I got more than a little flack for. This was after all, Halo 3 - the first big Halo title on a next-gen system; sadly for all that it did right it also failed to bring to the series the story and heart that the Halo mythology wrapped in books, animation and comics have revealed about this universe. 

After 10 years of  making Halo games Bungie has finally gotten it right with Reach. Halo Reach is a visual power house of a title bringing the 10 years of experience at Bungie together with some of the talent behind the best Halo fiction to deliver a powerful tale of overwhelming odds and a send off to one of the most pivotal fps franchises in the game industry. 

Halo Reach, tells the story of a group of Spartans known as Noble Team and their last stand against the invading armies of the Covenant. We all know that Reach will fall, but what transgresses from the first chapter to the last moments of Reach are a truly heart wrenching tale of sacrifice and hope set against a backdrop of insurmountable odds; and they are insurmountable. From the first moments that the discovery that the Covenant are on Reach is revealed the action doesn’t let up. 

This is a planet full of people facing extermination and Bungie does their very best to remind you of this throughout the 10-12 hour campaign. You’ll come across slain civilians, battered and bruised ODST soldiers, brutally tortured troopers and watch as Noble Team slowly dwindles in numbers. 

Gameplay has always been king for Bungie and Reach continues that tradition; delivering brilliant combat and hands down the most fully featured online multi-player this generation. Where Bungie has in the last few years really lacked is on the visual front. Halo 3 for its time was a decent looking game but after games like Gears of War and Uncharted debuted, Halo 3 was looking more than a little dated.

In fact one of my major criticisms of Halo 3 was that it looked like Halo 2 HD. In the 3 years since Halo 3, we’ve seen Killzone 2, Uncharted 2 and God of War III become the graphical giants of this industry, leaving many of the Xbox 360 exclusives looking nice but never stepping up to the big boys on Sony’s system.

I can proudly say that that’s no longer the case. Halo Reach is a marvel of engineering and art design. Featuring huge vistas draped in amazing textures and some of the best lighting ever seen in a console game. In my opinion, Halo Reach is one of the first tiles to really push the 360 as much as Sony’s first parties have pushed the PS3. Reach looks that damn good!

Not only is Reach a visual feast for the eyes, but it’s also a treat for the ears. Composer Marty O’Donnell has once again produced a masterful score, that not only gets you hyped during the middle of a firefight but also pulls on the heart strings during some of Reach’s more somber moments. Along with a fantastic score is just the huge overhaul in sound design on Reach. Weapons no longer feel like space toys; they have the weight and heft a weapon should have. Explosions rumble and pop, and plasma grenades hiss with a menacing burning that signals an untimely end for anyone caught in its blast. 

Halo Reach is sadly Bungie’s last effort with the series it birthed; but wonderfully enough the most poignant of the franchise. Its a title that feels drenched in love and effort from Bungie, more than any other Halo before it. From the beginning of Reach’s development Bungie has proclaimed over and over again that this was their swan song to the series, and it really is. Halo Reach doesn’t redefine the console fps as it once did 10 years ago, but it does deliver one of the best shooters made this generation; one filled with heart, quality like no other and a story about hope that few other games in the genre have managed to deliver. 

Galaxy Minute

-Halo has finally stepped up to the big boys graphics wise

-Engaging story with an ending that stays with you after the credits roll

-Brutal AI

-Can lag at times due to dozens of enemies on screen

 By: Michael Torres