A few weeks ago I gave some initial thoughts on Halo:Reach. Now that I have completed the game and played a bunch more multiplayer I figured I would give a finalized review. A note before I start that I might repeat some of what I mentioned in the first impressions so my apologies ahead of time if this bothers you. And admittedly there are some features that I did not get to play and likely won’t very soon (like firefight, co-op campaign,arena) so that’s also why I don’t give grades at all but just my verdict on things.

Campaign mode

   This time through the Halo world, you are not the fabled Master Chief but as your own member of a special ops. team. You are able to set your own color and some of the looks initially in game which carries thru to cut scenes quite well. I know it’s old and easy to do but for me little things like this make the game sooo much better to enjoy. Cut scenes where I can say “HEY THAT’S ME!!” make you warm and fuzzy. As you gain points in the game (and online multi player) you can unlock upgrades to these looks cosmetically and they carry over here as well so that’s a nice positive as well.  You are dispatched onto the world of Reach, which has been colonized by the humans for years but is having reports of widespread unrest. Long story short the Covenant are here and they are NOT happy. That’s the basic plot and other then a few minor twists here and there it doesn’t vary a whole lot. To be honest I didn’t care. I don’t need undead or mutants or another life form running around to be happy. Halo= killing Covenant and that’s A O K with me. The story is great, but the only downside I have is that I finished the game in what amounts to a little over 10 hours of game play. When I originally asked a games store employee how he liked it when it came out and he said “It’s only about 6 hours long but that is long for games these days so I didn’t mind, but it’s good” I was taken back a bit. Long for games these days? WTF? What happened to the days of games being 40+ hours long? Is that only for RPG’s now? Ugh, just not enough time. I had so much fun in Reach that I wanted it to last forever, but it was taken from me too quickly, and I am just not one of those people who can play thru a game like this multiple times on harder difficulties.

Controls/Gameplay

It’s a basic Halo game. The controls haven’t changed much and it’s easy to pick up and enjoy. The guns and armour abilities are fun and easy to get used to. I just can’t get enough of flying the jetpack around some maps and using the sniper rifle to take out big baddies from afar. There are some new vehicles which take some getting used to at first but the missions do a good job of introducing them to you so you are not completely lost when using them in multiplayer. The new outer space missions are a great addition to the game and really give a good dogfight in space feel to it. They don’t overstay their welcome either b/c just about the time you start to grow tired of them the game switches back to the bread and butter FTS gameplay.

Online/Multi-player

Bungie really has a knack for multiplayer. There are a ton of great maps online, and a ton of great gameplay options. Grow tired of simple kill everyone of “slayer”? Well there is team capture the flag or time control modes. You can navigate the online interface easily and the community isn’t all that bad. I didn’t encounter too many jerks while playing even in the matches where our team was getting destroyed by the other team. Sure there will always be immaturity online but I found that Halo had less then some other games out there. The real jewel is the stats Bungie keeps on their site. Go to their official web site and you can sift thru all sorts of multi-player stats for yourself or anyone else you know the gamer tag of. It could easily keep you busy for hours seeing how good someone is (or how bad I am) or just trying to judge the tendencies of some players as well. Great job Bungie!

Verdict

It’s a great game no doubt. The buy or not to buy definitely depends on your play style. If you are someone who just wants to play the campaign in solo or co-op when a friend is in town for a few days, then just rent it. It’s too short to spend 60$ to own just for the main game alone. If you want to do the main story PLUS multiplayer, then by all means buy it. For as bad as I am at online play I still love it and can’t get enough of it. I hope also to one day grab a friend or child of mine to play the campaign co-op as well, as I am sure it will add a whole new level of fun to the whole thing. Please Bungie or someone put out more of these or BIG BIG downloadable content/map packs b/c this is a keeper and I want to see more!

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