User:StalkerGrunt117/Halo: Reach Review



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Halo: Reach is a first-person shooter video game set in the Halo universe and direct prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, depicting the Fall of Reach. It was developed by Bungie, LLC. and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360 console.

Campaign
While I will not go into detail about the storyline, as it is explained in it's article page, Reach follows the story of Noble Team, a group of Spartan-IIs that participate in numerous missions across Reach during the Covenant invasion.

The story is very well executed, fitting very well with the book (Not perfect, but nothing really is...) and actually manages to portray scenes of drama as you see the planet being slowly conquered, and seeing your team fall apart Spartan by Spartan. The most dramatic for me were the death of Jorge and Emile, and of the playable character, Noble Six, that was killed saving the Master Chief, guaranteeing the events that followed in past games. Some suspicion also rose about the enemies of the game, wich i will get into details later. A certain Elite Marshall managed to get pass Noble Team at the Relay, then another one killed Kat and another one tried to stop Six from using the Onager. Were those actually one Elite that followed Noble Team? Throughout the whole game i was under the impression that i was followed by something. Also, at the very end, in Lone Wolf, the last Elite to come into the picture wields his sword with his left hand. What other Elite can do that?

Beyond the story, the campaign was also brilliantly designed. There are 10 missions in the game (and another one that is just the first cutscene). Each of them have different combat scenarios and and will put the player/s into various fights with various assets:

Here,s a short summary:
 * Winter Contingency; The first level of the game. It opens up as a detective style chase for whatever has messed around with the relay station. The level takes place in the open, similar to the first level of Halo 3, with a small tutorial. The level is very wide open, and half of it can be played to each one's desire: the game puts you at the wheel of a civilian truck which you get to drive around cross-country, choosing your route: You can either go uphill to some remote kivas or downhill to other structures. This circle reminded me of the second level of combat evolved. After you do that, the game has you defending some troopers from Covenant forces. Another things I really enjoy, parts where you have to defend an area. Parts like these familiarize players with the environment and also allows them multiple options in tackling enemies. The level then includes a scripted cinematic viewed from first person (although I am not a big fan of scripted events, the ones in Reach are rare and only serve as first person cutscenes), then you reach another area you have to defend, again with multiple options. Then as the level progresses, you get into some tight fights with elite and other covenant nemies, then it's over.


 * Oni: Sword Base; The second level of the game. It starts out with a courtyard fight then opens up into a huge area where you have to drive a Warthog around (or a Wraith, or a Troop hog, or a ghost) to activate an AA battery and a Comm array. The level reminds me of The Silent Cartographer as it allows the player to choose where he wants to get first. After that you get back to sword base which you know from multiplayer, get to the roof, help Emile then watch an epic cutscene.


 * Nightfall; Another level reminiscent of Combat Evolved, the Truth and Reconciliation. The levels is set at nighttime, with the player armed with a sniper with a ton of bullets. The great thing is that you have the options to choose if you want to go all rambo and shoot everything or do the level silently picking up active camo, or even better, distracting the enemies with holograms. The level has a number of areas to defend, and a map you may know from multiplayer, powerhouse. The level also features creatures native to Reach, such as the Guta.


 * Tip of the Spear; this level puts heavy emphasis on vehicle combat, but not only the vehicle you have, but also vehicles you can hijack. The mission is pretty wide open, with multiple routes trough each areas, the best one being the last part where you have to reach the spire, battling on the ground, flanking enemies, stealing banshees...whatever you want. The level also features one of those scripted scenes, yet the player can actually take part in the action, wich makes it very good. The player also has the option of going to one of the 2 mounted machineguns, each one changing the enemy's spawn locations further on.


 * Long night of Solace; arguably the best and hardest mission of the game, it is just incredible. The player starts off by assaulting a beach to get to a launch facility (similar to the Silent Cartographer again). The awesome thing on the beach is that you can linger around as much as you want because enemies are dropped off in infinite numbers as do your allies. Once you get to the launch facility, you get into a Sabre fighter, into SPACE...a huge open level that has you fighting tons of enemies in Banshees, Seraphs and Gunboats. Once that is over you get to another area where you get to fight off a giant Covenant Corvette's escorts, destroy its engines, then board it. You fight inside it, in zero G atmosphere. Fighting inside the ship is very reminiscent of yet another CE level, Trutch and Reconciliation (and Keyes). After you do that you go to the ship's command deck, eliminate all opponents, then go back to help Jorge, wich at the end meets a terrible fate, sacrificing himself for the good of the planet.


 * Exodus;
 * New Alexandria;
 * The package;
 * Pillar of autumn;
 * Lone wolf;