<\/p>\n

Yeah, yeah. I know what you\u2019re probably thinking: \u201cHalo: Reach came out MONTHS ago, aren\u2019t you a little late to the party, Matt?\u201d Why yes, I am! But hey, I didn\u2019t get a copy until right before Christmas, and there have been so many games coming out on a weekly basis to start the year that it\u2019s taken a while for me to get around to it.<\/p>\n

But Halo<\/em> is Halo<\/em>, so even though I\u2019m a bit tardy here, I\u2019d still like to share my thoughts about Bungie\u2019s latest FPS hype magnet \u2013 the campaign specifically \u2013 and maybe get a discussion going to see what your experience with the game has been like. So let\u2019s get started!<\/p>\n

The Good:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

+ No Master Chief:<\/strong> I know the Halo<\/em> devout will despise me for saying this, but I\u2019m glad to finally see Master Chief out of the picture, just like I was happy to see him missing from Halo Wars<\/em> and Halo 3: ODST<\/em>. Master Chief has about as much personality as my big toe \u2013 and if my big toe had some type of disfigurement (which it doesn\u2019t) it would have MORE personality. To me, Master Chief, about as generic as sci-fi supersoldiers get, is the most overrated mascot \u2018icon\u2019 in the history of gaming. He recently ranked third in the Guinness Book of World Records\u2019 vote for the 50 top gaming characters of all-time, and I\u2019m sorry but that is completely absurd. I could pick hundreds if not thousands of characters, and Master Chief would never make my list of all-time memorable video game stars.<\/p>\n

Halo: Reach<\/em> introduces us to a new band of heroes, and while the crew of Noble Team at the heart of Reach<\/em>\u2019s story isn\u2019t the greatest cast of characters either, at least the individual team members have identifiable personality traits, enough so that I cared about their journey through the game and felt rewarded for seeing it through to the end.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

+ Familiar Halo, Broader Scope:<\/strong> Borrowing from common political speak, Bungie didn\u2019t take an axe to Reach<\/em> for this last hurrah, but rather used a scalpel to carefully retool the Halo<\/em> experience without disfiguring it beyond recognition. For the most part, Halo: Reach<\/em> plays like any other Halo<\/em>, using familiar guns to shoot at familiar alien enemies in a new yet familiar sci-fi setting. And that\u2019s fine by me. No, I\u2019ve never seen the Halo<\/em> franchise as the pinnacle of console FPSs, but every game has certainly been well designed and a heck of a lot of fun to play, so I didn\u2019t expect, nor did I hope for, any drastic changes to the formula.<\/p>\n

But amidst these familiarities, Reach<\/em> feels like a much larger game than any of the previous outings, and with the Noble Team regularly fighting by your side, the battles feel more alive and more intense. Bungie did a fantastic job opening up the environments to allow for dynamic firefights that never seem to play out the same way twice, and in comparison to a heavily scripted and rigidly linear game like Call of Duty: Black Ops<\/em>, the gameplay offers so much more freedom of movement.<\/p>\n

In particular, the New Alexandria level really stands out as one of the more exciting video game levels I\u2019ve experienced in an FPS. The stage takes place at night during a lightning storm, with the city of towering skyscrapers on fire and crumbing down under the Covenant\u2019s attack, and in the mission you are piloting a Falcon helicopter between objective points, engaging in aerial dogfights and then touching down rooftop to rooftop to clear buildings of Covenant, all in what feels like an open-world city without any loading transitions. It\u2019s pretty spectacular, and definitely a memorable gaming moment I\u2019ll take away from this game.<\/p>\n

+ Other New Touches:<\/strong> As I was saying, Reach<\/em>\u2019s makeup is very familiar to previous Halos<\/em>, but in addition to the more open level designs Bungie tucked in some other interesting features to further spice things up. The spaceship combat, while not a large part of the game, is great fun and something completely new that Halo<\/em> players have never seen before. There is also a new equipment system in which you get to carry one special ability with you at all times, whether it\u2019s sprinting, stealth camo, shields, or — my favorite — a jet pack!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

+ Epic Score:<\/strong> The music in Halo<\/em> has always been spectacular, but for me Reach<\/em>\u2019s score took things to a whole new level. Every moment in the game is made more epic, more momentous, more touching simply because of the music, and that\u2019s exactly what you want from a great video game soundtrack.<\/p>\n

The Bad:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

– Generic Plot, Generic Characters:<\/strong> Even though the Noble Team is more interesting to follow than Master Chief, the characters, setting and plot still struck me as overwhelmingly generic. The ending sequence closes the prequel story on a high note, but other than that there isn\u2019t a single thing that happens in the storyline that sticks out in my mind. The guys and gals at Bungie know how to design fun gameplay, but unfortunately they have yet to prove themselves as great video game storytellers. Halo Wars<\/em>, in my opinion, has the best story of all the Halos<\/em> \u2013 but it was developed by now-defunct Ensemble Studios.<\/p>\n

– Nitwitted Friendly AI:<\/strong> The enemy AI is quite formidable, constantly shifting around on the battlefield and working to flank your position. But the AI for friendly squad mates is noticeably undeveloped. If you choose to mount a Warthog\u2019s turret and let the AI drive, you\u2019ll regularly find yourself flipping over, getting stuck in corners or on rocks, driving into dead ends, and sometimes not moving at all as if the driver has suddenly gone brain dead. In combat, they really don\u2019t seem to help much either, beyond being bullet-sponge distractions.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

– Still No Iron Sights:<\/strong> Every FPS these days has an iron sights view, but still not Halo<\/em>. Certain guns have a sniper zoom, but it\u2019s just not the same as being able to zoom in without losing the view of your weapon.<\/p>\n

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Halo: Reach<\/em>. I\u2019ve never been a big Halo<\/em> guy, but this is the first one I\u2019ve played that left me thinking, \u201cnow that was actually worth the hype,\u201d when it was over. If you\u2019ve loved Halo<\/em> all along, you are certainly going to love it some more after Reach<\/em>. But if, like me, you haven\u2019t always been on the bandwagon, give Reach<\/em> a shot and it may just convert you, if only for this one game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yeah, yeah. I know what you\u2019re probably thinking: \u201cHalo: Reach came out MONTHS ago, aren\u2019t you a little late to the party, Matt?\u201d Why yes, I am! But hey, I didn\u2019t get a copy until right before Christmas, and there have been so many games […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1657,110,3,21],"tags":[1236,6646,6117,699,6079],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8763"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8763"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8768,"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8763\/revisions\/8768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}