- Title: Halo: Reach
- Platform: Xbox 360
- Developers: Bungie Studios
- Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
- Rating: Mature
Score: 3 out of 5
Halo: Reach. It’s a game about humanity fighting a never-ending war by the skin on their teeth against an seemingly unstoppable alien collective war-machine known as the Covenant. This war has now made it’s way to humanity’s most largest military installation: Reach. Now, a team of SPARTAN-III commandos must defend Reach against all odds.
STORY
When you first played Halo: Combat Evolved for the Xbox back in 2001, they mention that the Pillar of Autumn, a human cruiser carrying the last known SPARTAN-II, encountered Halo after fleeing from the human colony Reach, which has been crippled and glassed by the Covenant. Well, Bungie takes you back to that doomed conflict and lets you experience it in a whole new perspective.
For those of you who have read the book, Halo: The Fall of Reach, you’ll instantly realize that this game doesn’t follow any of the canonical events that take place in the novel. Which is odd, because the novel is supposed to be an expansion of the Halo universe and was supervised by Bungie themselves. So, logically, shouldn’t the events that took place in the book ALSO take place in the game? Of course not. Continuity is fucked in the ass like a 2 dollar whore. But wait! It seems they do follow the canonical content of the book, Halo: Ghosts of Onyx. You see, in Ghosts of Onyx, we were introduced to the SPARTAN-IIIs. And the game is centered around a Spartan-III, not a Spartan-II. Interesting… Halo: The Fall of Reach never mentioned the existence of a SPARTAN-III project, so why introduce them now?
Well, if you read Ghosts of Onyx the SPARTAN-III project was a highly classified and top secret project developed by a UNSC Colonel named James Ackerson. He was Dr. Catherine Halsey‘s bitter rival, the founder of the SPARTAN project all together. Colonel Ackerson‘s SPARTAN-IIIs were basically cannon fodder to be used to take out high valued targets. You know, suicide missions. Every single activity of the SPARTAN-IIIs; their names, their missions, their accomplishments, everything, was kept behind a veil of shadows and espionage. So nobody knew of their existence except for those directly involved. But when you play the game, SPARTAN-IIIs are already on Reach, even though their base of operations were on Onyx located at the ass end of UNSC-controlled space. Not only that, everyone seems to know of their existence, despite all the secrecy. But wait! There’s more! Not only do the people on Reach know of their existence, they’re sending them to fight supposed Insurrectionists, even though they were created for the sole purpose of fighting the Covenant… what the hell, Bungie? Were the books created just for shits and giggles? Does the canon and continuity in the books not apply to the games, save for the SPARTAN-IIIs and Dr. Halsey?
As you can imagine, my mind was basically fucked sideways with something hard and sand-papery.
But even though continuity was screwed over like a dog getting screwed over by a car, the story of Halo: Reach is still interesting. Note that I said “interesting”. Not enjoyable. Not in-depth. Interesting. It’s hard to enjoy the story of the game and find it in-depth because it’s constantly being forced and rushed. I can’t take the time to even enjoy the characters because most of them are being killed off faster than I kill ice cream. It’s just a go to point A to point B over and over again. There’s no sense of conflict or desperation because everyone on the planet is acting like the covenant’s invasion of Reach is just another day at work. Sure, some UNSC forces become all teary-eyed when a civilian transport gets shot down, but that’s it. Hell, even when you encounter Forerunner ruins below the surface of Reach, no one finds it fascinating or mysterious. They don’t give it a second thought. I can’t immerse myself into the story or identify myself with the characters when everybody, except Jorge, doesn’t care. I’ll make an exception with Captain Keyes because when you encounter him, there’s just this air of confidence about him that makes you feel like all your efforts were truly worth it. What little worth it actually is.
Overall, I can’t bring myself to enjoy the story of Halo: Reach because everything is out of place. They had so many opportunities to make this game much more enjoyable by adding other story/plot elements by using content from the books, but they didn’t. Marcus Lehto himself said that they “built a military campaign”. And that’s exactly what it is. A military campaign. Go over here, complete that objective, and shoot those aliens along the way. That’s it. No real story plot or twist. It’s bland. It’s, dare I say, fucking boring. Sure, there’s the “twist” that the character you play as dies at the end of the game, but it’s not surprising whatsoever when they show your charred and battered helmet in the very first opening cut-scene.
I’m sorry. Bungie, you’ve created such a vast, immersive, and unbelievably enjoyable universe to explore, but you fell short with Halo: Reach; the place where it all began.
CHARACTERS
As I painfully said earlier, most of the characters in this game get killed off so fast, and those that live longer get so little screen time, that I can’t identify with any off them. They blank. They’re boring. I don’t feel mad or upset that they’re dead - they don’t matter to me because I know nothing about them. Their intentions, their motivations, their strengths, their weakness. There’s nothing between the characters so how am I supposed to feel something between me and them? Bungie said they wanted to create believable characters. They failed. I’m sorry, but that is all I’m gonna say about this.
GAMEPLAY
I am truly amazed. They managed to bring back the look of Halo: Combat Evolved. Bungie managed to bring back that awe you felt when you first set foot on Halo. When you first set foot on Reach, it’s just as big and alien as Halo. The visuals are absolutely stunning. Bungie also brought back the feel of Halo: CE as well. The weapons and vehicles feel like there’s power behind them. For better or worse.
That’s the only good part. Now for the bad.
As I explained earlier in the STORY component of this review, the campaign is so short, that you don’t have time to truly enjoy the gameplay aspects of the game. You’re just using the weapons and vehicles to get you to point A to point B. There’s no real purpose behind them when taking on the harder objectives because those objectives are so simple. There’s no complexity. You can’t really strategize how you’re going to tackle the obstacles in from of you by using what you have because whatever piece of shit weapon or vehicle you have on you works just as fine as the rest. Hell, half the time I can’t even use what I have to my advantage because the AI is too damn active. Especially the Elites. They just jump out of the way and out of danger right as I pull the trigger, making me waste valuable ammo because the levels doesn’t have enough for the good stuff.
When you play on harder difficulties it’s just trial and error, over and over and over and over and over - until you finally kill that Elite Ultra. I also love how the programmers placed incredibly hard enemies on the first fucking level. Ultras and fucking Zealots? Are you fucking kidding me? Hell, they’re even throwing that new enemy, the fucking Skirmisher, down my throat with their fucking needle rifles because the Grunts, Jackals, Elites, Banshees, and Dropships weren’t hard enough for a fucking tutorial level. They’re throwing everything at you so early on in the game that it doesn’t feel paced right. Sure, they got the story and campaign down, despite how short it fucking is, but they can pace the enemies? The first level is supposed to be the easiest, not the hardest on higher difficulties. On legendary, I’m fighting tooth and nail, using every bit of skill and cunning to get past simple spots in the game. Is it satisfying when I beat it. Hard to tell. I’m too busy eating a homemade burrito to calm myself down. In the end, I’m not sure the payoff is worth the effort and pure agonizing frustration for when you beat a highly difficult part of the game only to encounter an even more difficult part immediately after that bullshit. Of course that’s just me.
You may disagree with me on this, but it’s just my opinion and nothing more. I’m not paid to type accurate reviews that reflect the views and opinions of everyone. In fact, I don’t get paid to type up reviews at all. I’m going this on my own time because I feel like it. Whether or not you want to take the time to read this bullshit is entirely up to you. Fuck. I’ve never realized how negative I was towards Halo: Reach until I started typing this review. Huh. Life is funny that way.
Should I give this a bad mark? Probably not, because I’m just expressing my views from my playing experience. Because a lot of my friends like a good, excruciating, hair-tearing challenge. So I’ll give it a good mark. Why? Because I can.
FEATURES
Armor Abilities. Holy fuck. I have nothing but negative remarks for these things. First off: Armor Lock. It’s the most cheapest ability in the game. And the most frustrating. It lasts too long. It has an EMP effect. It makes you survive plasma grenade and plasma launcher sticks (which, in reality, the player who has been stuck should explode into paste while in Armor Lock, because the grenade is inside the shield with you. Fucking bullshit). Armor Lock is an ability that makes you survive everything. I can understand that it’s an ability that protects you from explosions and prevents vehicles from splattering you, but the duration of it should’ve been cut in half. They should’ve also gotten rid of the EMP effect. There’s already two weapons in the game that does it for you: the plasma pistol and the grenade launcher.
Then there’s the Cloak. It’s pointless. What’s the point of cloaking if you’re relaying your presence on the battlefield to everyone by painting targets on everyone’s motion tracker. It’s lets the enemy know you’re there. They’re alert now because of that. But not only does it jam your opponent’s motion tracker, it jams your team’s too. That puts them in danger because they’re watching their motion tracker for enemy movement and now they’re everywhere. Cloak doesn’t help you or your team. Not only that, but you become visible when moving while standing.
The Medic Shield, or whatever the fuck you call it, the Bubble Shield look-a-like, is useless for when you need it most because it takes forever for your health to recover and it only recovers when your shields are fully recharged. That makes it easier for enemies to kill you because all they have to do is either, A: destroy the shield, or B: walk into it and beat you senseless.
The other Armor Abilities are OKAY, but with so many problems with the others there’s no point in having armor abilities at all. It seems that the armor abilities are incomplete and unbalanced. The game doesn’t feel like was built to support armor abilities or that they were incorporated properly and with better care. The game’s level design weren’t really built around these abilities so that they can fully support them. If you were to play a game without any armor abilities as loadouts, but rather as abilities that you find perfectly placed across the map so that when you pick it up and have it until you are killed and your opponent takes and uses it to their advantage, I can guarantee the game would be more balanced because the number of players possessing those abilities would decrease and everyone would still have a fighting chance to use them by racing to the ability first or taking it off a dead player.
Firefight. It’s the best feature in the game hands down. You can create your own scenarios each time and never get bored, adding a great amount of re-playability. I never get bored of Firefight. And you can play cooperatively with friends. Brilliant. It’s fun, random, and well though out. Truly it is a great improvement compared to the Firefight mode in Halo 3: ODST. With the exception of two glaring issues. First off: Out of Bounds zones. Simple barriers would’ve been fine, but they game needed to tell me constantly that I’m not supposed to there. See that roof on that building which is clearly within the maps boundaries? Sorry! Can’t go there. Maybe that lamp post that’s only eight feet high? Ahhhh, no dice.
Bungie placed these Out of Bounds zones on the map so that players wouldn’t cheat in firefight by finding sniper perches or safe zones to where the covenant can’t reach you. But who gives a shit? They’re AIs, they don’t care. You’re not going up against players, you’re going up against fucking computers. I can understand the Out of Bounds being on Multiplayer maps so players can’t cheat, but it’s not necessary on Firefight maps; because the computer doesn’t care.
Then there’s the fact that enemies follow you into your spawn areas, or “safe zones”. It’s a safe zone. It’s suppose to be SAFE! Here I am being spawn killed by fucking Hunters or Generals who though they’d set up camp inside and redecorate the building with my entrails. In Halo 3: ODST, the bad guys stayed outside while you recollected your wit and formed a strategy. In Halo: Reach, the enemy bum-rush you for shits and giggles.
Forge. It’s fun. Except for the Out of Bounds bullshit obstructing my forging. Thankfully, the ability to forge is now easier to do thanks to all these new little gismos and gadgets that you can use to create the perfect map. I still hate that fucking out of bounds shit, though.
Theater. It’s the same as Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST except for one major improvement: you can now rewind in campaign saved films! THANK BUNGIE! Now I don’t have to restart the whole fucking film, try to find that perfect fucking screenshot or clip, only to fuck up and restart the whole fucking film all the fuck over again. Thank you, Bungie! Thank you! I sincerely mean that!
Active Roster! It’s simple and easy to use. You can see what your friends are up to at all times. So it’s like being a stalker… only legally.
Spartan customization. I love it other than the fact that some of the armor add-ons like uplinks and extra gear and pouches are so fucking expensive. Seriously. I can buy a commando chest rig that carries eight assault rifle magazines, a med kit, and an extra pouch for utilities for only $60 bucks. Yet in Halo: Reach everything is over 1000 fucking cR! Holy fuck nuggets! My credit module is screaming at me, Bungie!
I may have had a lot to complain about, but the sheer amount of extra features and all the things you can do with them are enough to give this a good mark.
MUSIC
Marty, you’ve done it again! The soundtrack to Halo: Reach is absolutely stunning and awe inspiring. You truly feel the emotion and setting of this doomed conflict through the story that music is telling, not the game itself. However, I’m disappointed in the fact that there’s very little variety of scores in the game. Some of the scores are repeated constantly in the game. I would’ve liked to hear more, but what little there is was brilliantly composed and orchestrated. Well done.
THE VERDICT
- Story: 0
- Characters: 0
- Gameplay: +1 (only because the experience may vary)
- Features: +1
- Music: +1
Overall score: 3 out of 5
I really don’t know what to say. I’m am both disappointed with what Bungie presented, but strangely satisfied with the sheer amount of what they gave. I really can’t say whether people should buy this game, rent it, or ignore it. It all depends on the taste of the player. The campaign is short and bittersweet, the multiplayer is a rage fest, firefight is fun even the enemies are cheap, forge and theater are better than ever, and the ability to customize your Spartan with a vast variety of armor will leave you plenty to work towards. I can’t recommend this game, but I can’t say not to avoid this game either. In the end it’s entirely up to you.
I use a five point judging system because I judge a game by its five components: Story, Characters, Gameplay, Features, and Music.
