In the endless flood of negativity that is the Reach forum, I thought I’d share with the community my favorite aspects of the game.
Campaign.
The campaign for me felt like I was fighting for survival. In Halo CE-3, you feel like your fighting a real war, sure, but it didn’t really give me that gritty feel. Halo Reach gave me that. i felt I was fighting for the survival of me, my squad and the entire human race. The levels New Alexandria and Exodus were fantastic at portraying the hopelessness that humanity didn’t want to acknowledge, but they had to face.
Truly, these two levels gave me the feel of a hero, fighting back among the ruins of this smoldering metropolis to ensure the survival of just a few more people. Basically, I felt emotion at the sight of human civilization on its knees. I felt spurred into the fight, to defy the Covenant to save a few more. Very well done.
Also, the fact that the main character is you really sold this game to me. I never felt more immersed in a game, because, well, what game actually gives you a blank character, a tonne of customization and say ‘Alright, that’s you. Now play!’ I felt that I was in the war. EPIC.
Forge/Customs.
Forge 2.0 is the best editing system I’ve ever used. Sure, Far Cry’s good, but I find Forge much more easy, more fun and it takes up less disk space and loads in seconds. All good. The Forge 2.0 system is noob-friendly, with rotate features and the ability to ‘nudge’ objects into precise spaces and areas. if you liked Halo 3 Forge, Halo Reach forge will blow you away.
Custom Games gave me SO much customization. You could do anything! Just because Halo’s a shooter, doesn’t mean you can’t make the game into a role-playing game, racing game, and c’mon, there’s even bloody ski-ball! My favorite feature is perhaps the ability to make the objective a vehicle, the most fun I’ve EVER had. Trust me, play Hog-potato, you’ll love it!
Multiplayer.
Reach multiplayer (Bar one bad map…) is the most fun I’ve had online since I first signed in three years ago. Sure, halo 3 was fun but it was nowhere as diverse as Halo reach. There are over 20 playlists, four ways to play (Anniversary, Vanilla, Title Update and Zero Bloom) and four playlist hoppers to find the best games for you. I’ve clocked over a month of playtime online. I’m a Title Update man, myself, but I still enjoy all three other settings, too. Even if I do fail harder then Rebecca Black’s singing career on it… ;(
The most fun I have on Reach is in these three playlists: Multi team, Big Team Classic, and Invasion. Invasion offered Halo fans something they always wanted. Race wars! Oh, God. No, that came out wrong. Invasion offered players the chance to fight Spartans Vs Elites on the battlefield. This is just too cool, in my opinion.
Customization.
The Reach Armory comes with twenty helmets for you to choose, each with three attachments (Well, Pilot has 4, including haunted), sixteen shoulders, five wrist attachments, five utility attachments, three knee guards, four visor colours, four armour effects, 15 Firefight voices, 14 chest pieces, and thousands of colour variations. This gives every player individuality, and normally, I tend to remember armour variations before gamertag’s. So that’s helpful, too.
Firefight.
Firefight 2.0 gives you TOTAL control over your health, enemy health, enemy traits, waves, what enemies you fight and much more. It’s definitely one of the best features in the game, because anybody can play it. When I’m not playing, i set up an easy firefight game for my six year old brother, and he has a blast! Fun for everyone!
This is just a few things I love about reach. I will be playing this game until Halo 4, and might even come back for a few games here and there after Halo 4’s release.
You’ve got Spartans on the ground, sir. We’re not going anywhere…