Grade: A-
My “Halo: Reach” story starts huddled outside of Gamestop, desperately clutching my 65 dollars as seconds ticked to midnight. The atmosphere was tentative, and you could taste the perspiration. As the golden hour finally arrived, in my hands I clutched my prize: a single copy of “Halo: Reach.”
The game is a prequel of sorts, and it follows a nameless man or woman through the Fall of Reach. The game opens with the player dead, their helmet lying shattered on the ground and a bullet hole the last place you would want it: right between the eyes. This fatalist approach shocked me a bit at the start and had me thinking, “But I’m an unstoppable killing machine who eats gunpowder and craps grenades, how could I die?” Rest assured that end waits for us all. Everyone dies, even grenade-crapping super soldiers.
The campaign itself is legendary. The level of difficulty is heroic and most normal players won’t find it easy. My first play through was in my living room surrounded by three of my closet friends. The end result was less than breathtaking. However, because I’m an achievement grinder, during my solo play, I actually got the impact of the story.
Having your obnoxious friends laughing at the cheesy piano music is not okay; alone in a dark room is how this game is meant to be played. *Spoiler Alert* As you play through, one by one your squad dies. Aid from their virtual selves being erased from the game world, the game actually makes you miss them.
Alone, this game is ruthless. The story itself is well written with moderately good voice acting. I’m not going to ruin the whole campaign for you, but essentially, players find something that will help humanity win the war against evil.
The aspect that most gamers will be throwing their lives away in is the multiplayer mode, which is by far the most polished out of any of the previous Halo games. The game introduces new leveling/ranking systems, which allows the unlocking of more and more armor. If you have played “Halo” before, the multiplayer will offer no shocks. Nearly every weapon is either a reshell of a previous weapon or a straight port, but this does not diminish from the experience one bit. The gameplay is smooth as silk and the only hiccup is the “Elite vs. Spartan” gametype where the Spartans have a big advantage. Aside from that, everything plays well.
And here I sit, writing this review to the sound of my roommate downstairs playing “Halo: Reach.” Sounds like the game is about to end. Time to go show him how it’s done.
“Halo: Reach” consists of a wonderful campaign, addictive multiplayer mode and a multitude of features that promises players will not get bored anytime soon.