1. Gerblanski

   8

   This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I'll start off by saying i'm far from a Halo fan boy, far from it. But i do enjoy the games. They didn't need to change much of the core mechanic as they got it pretty much right from the off, and i bet to those complainers about it feeling to like the first or second, if they changed it radically, you'd all complain. Anyway, the changes they have made are mainly to the weapons, they feel a lot better than Halo 3/3:ODST, although i don't see the point in the DMR, its a glorified pistol, it doesn't sit in between the Assault Rifle and the pistol, but swinging more to the pistol. In my opinion, they should have kept the burst fire. The single player was fun and frustrating on Legendary but you'd expect it to be. And possibly one of the greatest mechanics in any game, if you die many times after a dodgy checkpoint, it reverts you back to the previous checkpoint. The story though is pretty flat. Its basically another invasion story, the Planet Reach is under attack by the Covenant, and you part of a group of spartans called Noble Team, realise the inevitability of the conflict. Because of this and the lack of lone wolf element to 1-3 (bar ODST), you do grow close to your squad mates as they perish one by one. Multiplayer is standard Halo. I'm not good at it, but it can be fun at times, more playing the right way, than your way, unless your way is the right way, but then that might not be as fun. Firefight is expanded further from ODST and is a lot of fun, with, or without teammates and allows me to level up online, without getting exceeding frustrated by playing *with* people who are better than me, rather than against. Finally the matchmaking system is still by far better than any other first person shooter has. They haven't seemed to change it on the surface since Halo 2 and theres a reason why.… Expand

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2. AFrozenFireball

   6

   This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Alright, Halo: Reach. Let's start off with the campaign; now, I personally was extremely excited to see what Bungie would do with Reach's campaign as I've read the novel 'The Fall of Reach' and in my personal opinion it is easily one of the best in the series. There is such beautiful story-telling and the opportunities were rich and infinite, Bungie truly could have delivered an amazing and immerse single-player experience, even far surpass that of Combat Evolved's, unfortunately, it falls short. There are a lot of things that Bungie did wrong with Reach, for one, they chose not to follow the book, but rather tell the story of how Reach fell from a different perspective; Noble Team's, Noble Team consists of six highly experienced Spartans, each assigned with a number, i.e. Noble 1, Noble 2, etc. You assume the role of Noble Six, you are replacing a Spartan III that had just recently been KIA, Thor, he used to be Noble Six or the sixth member of Noble Team, after his demise, you are tasked to fill his boots. Noble Team is as follows: -Carter-A259/Noble 1, he's the leader dude. -Catherine-B320/Noble 2, she's the team's techie. -Jun-A266/Noble 3, he's the team's best shot. -Emile-A239/Noble 4, he's the typical and cliche filled badass of the team. -Jorge-052/Noble 5, he's the big guns' guy and the only Spartan II in Noble Team. Now, the biggest problem with Reach's single player is the plot, in the sense that it absolutely and utterly destroys about 10 years of established Halo canon, and I, for one, do NOT like broken canon, right off the bat we see this; Carter, Jun and Emile, as suggested by their service tag number starting with an 'A' were members of Alpha Company, which was the first company of Spartan III's, for those who have not read the books, Alpha Company was wiped out during Operation: PROMETHEUS, therefore, Carter, Jun and Emile should be dead, but they're not, and yet, Bungie provides no info on why these three guys are still alive. That was the first contradiction I found while playing through Reach, but there are loads, the Pillar of Autumn being docked on Reach's surface is another one, the time it took for the planet to fall, along many others. Now that's only canon collisions. Let's move on. The missions themselves were incredibly repetitive and boring, there was absolutely no Halo feel to them, and at no point during the campaign did I ever feel like I was actually on a planet that was under invasion of a far more advanced alien race, Reach was getting fckd up, down and all around, for Christ's sake, and yet, the missions were disappointing, we needed to see the bigger picture, we needed to see how the planet literally fell apart in a matter of days, but half of the campaign was: >Kill some aliens. >Deactivate AA battery. >LOLDONE. Not to mention there was little to no character development, hence the reason nobody gave a flying f*ck about any of Noble Team's deaths. I shouldn't have been hysterical laughter after Kat got rofl-sniped. It shouldn't have been 'YES!' when Carter crashed his pelican against the Scarab. Bungie emphasized character development so much in their ViDocs, actually stating that Reach was going to be a character-driven story, well, I can safely say that Bungie and I have two completely different definitions of a 'character-driven story', all in all, the campaign was a major disappointment, and had some exciting moments, but overall, it was executed quite poorly. Now let's move on to the real juice of Halo: Reach - the multiplayer. This specific portion of the game was something that was hyped to death, Bungie always mentioned how they wanted to change the way Halo multiplayer works, that statement in particular was something that worried me. As much as I hate to admit it, I do not like change, Halo's multiplayer didn't need change, it was just fine, it only needed some refining from Halo 3's; better netcode and hitscan weapons and we would have had a multiplayer as good as Halo 2's. Instead, Bungie decided to take a noob-friendly route, they added Armor Abilities, reticule bloom, increased aim-assist, and bigger hitboxes. The two latter additions made the game way too easy, and the 2 former added randomness of biblical proportions. And THAT, is no good. Let me quote something a Bungie multiplayer designer said back in 2008: 'Any time you have a game system which players cannot understand, it might as well be random. No matter how fair the tiebreaker may be, if a single Assault Rifle bullet can slip by and decide the outcome, it might as well be random. And randomness is a poor substitute for tactics and skillful execution.' Reach's multiplayer mechanics and sandbox contradict the latter statement. As its multiplayer is the most random out of them all. In conclusion, Reach brings a disappointing Campaign and a disappointing multiplayer to any veteran Halo fans that understands the game's core mechanics.… Expand

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     1 of 2 users said yes
3. Birdman366

   2

   So I get this game, based on hype and because I thought Halo 3 was a decent game and that this would be better, but it wasn't. The campaign is to the point of nearing impossibility with the difficulty of some enemies. I rammed an elite with a wraith on legendary, and guess what happened? I blew up. He didn't even armor lock or anything. That brings me to my next point. They completely screwed up when it got to armor abilities. You don't need an armor ability to sprint or evade, plus armor lock is on all spartan armor. They should've had sprint, evade, and armor lock default for the character. They also have crappy online play. I mean, if you get in a game, it's pretty good, but it's a bit dull and pointless. The ranks take forever to get through. It took me weeks just to get to colonel. I expected so much more from this game, but it was just such a disappointment. They should have improved much much much more than they did. Plus, they used a lot of low quality textures. Try standing in front of someone and zooming in on them with a sniper rifle. You'll see that the textures have a lot to be desired. I play through a dull, meaningless campaign that's ruined by how they removed duel wielding, yet allowed elites to duel wield. They also let all the elites have all the abilities they want. If your a super soldier, your called that because your better, tougher, stronger, etc. than your enemy, not because you have a crappy shield that barely protects from anything and less health than a marine. Overall it wasn't very good. We give Bungie the hype and support they need to create epic games, and they just slam the door in our face with each game.… Expand

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     4 of 6 users said yes

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