9 years later, and Bungie have brought the main Halo saga to a close. Considering their previous offerings have been met with greatly mixed opinions (especially on the subjects of Halo 2 and ODST) it's interesting to see how this final episode gives the series a new direction just before it is passed over to Microsoft's 343 Industries. Taking place during an important event in a loved universe and Halo 3 being a tough predecessor to beat, Reach needs to be the best it can be if the Bungie-bred titles are to be given a fond farewell.
As the title suggests, the context of the story is the fall of Reach, one of the final human colony planets. As shown in the beginning of Combat Evolved and the novel written by Eric Nylund, it depicts the 'glassing' of hundreds of cities and the tragic end to the Spartan warriors. The player is put into the shoes, armour and helmet of Noble Six, a newbie to the Noble squad. As fate decides, this squad is destined to be the last of all the Spartan squads, and to see the demise of the planet first-hand. The scale of this is, as expected, considerably larger than Halo 3 and instead of taking part in a multitude of one-man-army skirmishes, you are on the UNSC frontline and will see armies clash around you as you fight towards your objectives. You also won't just be going on a tour of the same battlefield either; as the campaign takes the squad from ruined cities to icy caverns and, most spectacularly, into space in a a death-defying mission to save what could be humanity's last hope (and something Halo players will be very familiar with). Each mission is recognisable in its own right and consistently action-packed.
While this all looks great as a shooter, it still struggles at times with Halo 3's fairly clumsy story-telling; too many characters saying too little leaves the player with little sympathy for each of the squad's members, and this somewhat hinders the impact of their inevitable demise. It's no easy feat to make a successful action-adventure in which there is no ultimate victory, but in such a familiar franchise it was a great opportunity to pull at players' heartstrings and for me it didn't nearly deliver.
To fit with the more matured tone of the game, the visuals of the game have had their biggest overhaul since the series' beginning. The colour palette has fewer blues, purples and reds and instead has darker, richer tones. Environments are not bright and lively but are moodier and foreboding, with thunderous skies hanging above scorched earth. The look of the weapons has vastly changed; the classic assault rifle has a much sharper and more visceral appearance, and the Battle Rifle replacement, the DMR, kicks violently in your hands as it fires. Many of these visual additions are thanks to the new graphical engine that Bungie has built, and for the most part it is a welcome change, but it is not without its problems. During the campaign, and occasionally in Firefight, I had some of the worst framerate issues I've seen in a video game, and some moments in real-time cutscenes were everything would slow down and blur horribly. This is certainly not intentional, and I have seen it on other copies of the game. It looks so bad in these moments that I find it astounding that Bungie released the game with such a glaringly obvious graphical flaw.
With all this aside, it's known that with Halo most people come for the campaign but stay for the multiplayer. Of course, as it follows the same basic staple as the other games' staple, it's hard for Reach's multiplayer to disappoint. In fact, not only does Reach keep the same formula fans have come to know and love but also adds to the mix with various new objective gametypes such as Headhunter, a skull-gathering match which requires risk-taking as well as skill, and Invasion, a Bad Company-like game of pushing the defending enemies back in stages, pitting Spartans vs Elites. The intensity and competitiveness is still just as high, and with a whole host of new medals and awards you'll always feel rewarded for your hard work on the field. The old, complex ranking system is gone (to my dismay) and is replaced with a basic exp-collecting system, but with a twist - these experience points are 'credits' and can be used to buy armour pieces for your Spartan, which is now far more customisable. This is a very personal multiplayer experience and one that will certainly please the hardcore and dedicated, but my one gripe was the selection of maps. In total, there are 9 maps packaged with the game. Two of these were remakes from Halo 1 and 2, two of them are only available in Invasion, and almost all of them were taken exactly out of campaign missions. One map, the gigantic 'Forge World' has been split up into various smaller maps, but regardless of this I was greatly disappointed that there wasn't the variety nor the individuality that Halo 3 had with its maps.
Bungie keep in Halo 3's standard, however, with packaging even more than just campaign and multiplayer. Forge and Theater are still superb additions, especially with the new super-map Forge World inviting endless creativity. Firefight has also been added, carrying from ODST, and remains one of the finest wave modes seen amongst the many that have sprouted up since Gears of War 2's Horde mode. Finishing the list is the Custom Game option, and even more (yes, more) options have been added to fully customise your private game experience.
Halo 3, for me, was a timeless classic and I had some of my greatest times gaming on it and I knew from the start Reach wouldn't quite beat it for me. However, despite there being small things that put me off from saying this is the finest of the entire series, Halo: Reach is nonetheless a fine addition to the Xbox 360's biggest franchise, and one that will be more than enough to satisfy fans of the Halo universe. Thankyou, Bungie, for all your hard work. 8/10
