COLUMN: “Halo: Reach” fixes flaws to please the crowds
Halo: Reach is the final installment of the Halo series developed by Bungie, as Microsoft is taking over the series’ future activities. “Reach” is the perfect punctuation mark on a decade-long journey of Halo games. The Halo series has meant a lot to so many different people over the past decade.
From the first game, released in 2001 on the original XBOX, to inviting all of your nerdy friends on a weekend to your house to play multi-player games all night long – oh, those were the days!
Halo has been solid in the ever-changing world of video games, the only positive to owning an XBOX console, I think. Halo is not merely a game to people – it is books, movies and merchandise, which have grossed $1.7 billion.
Halo spawned the online, competitive, multi-player world of video-games. With Halo comes a new culture of gamers – competitive nerds.
With this came new lingo, trash talk, and actions, like when you call someone a “newb” after killing them, then proceed over to their body and “T-bag” them. Halo has been a constant way of life for so many gamers in the world.
Halo: Reach got back to the basics of the series – the campaign. It was like Bungie took all the complaints of gamers on past games and tweaked it to make a final masterpiece to leave everyone with a good taste in their mouth.
Unlike the previous Halos, where you play as Master Chief, Reach is a prequel to the rest where you play as a basic Spartan called Noble 6 for players to project themselves onto. You are free to accessorize Noble 6 to look the way you want him to, so you will see some really ugly dumb set-ups while playing online.
The storyline in the original Halo was great, and Reach gets back to this greatness with an in-depth storyline that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Bungie doesn’t seem to put out another online game, they thought about the little man who loves some background and story to his game, not just the T-bagging champs of online.
During the campaign time you’ll find a lot of tried and true mainstays of the Halo format. That means plenty of big battlefields, crazy vehicles, lots of aliens to fight and tons of weapons to help make the Covenant pay. It takes only around 10 hours to beat the campaign, but it is an action-filled 10 hours and the most difficult campaign out of the series.
A good part of the Halo series is the online multi-player games, where you can either team up with some friends or go solo on the ultimate T-bagging experience yet. The core concepts of past Halo online game-play have stayed the same, but with new features, weapons and modes available, it freshens up the online play to feel new.
Armor abilities and tweaked physics, along with what Microsoft calls “Player Investment”, keep the gamer coming back more and more. Player investment works because everything you do in the game, whether campaign or online, gets you credit towards unlocking customizable features for your Noble 6. At least they give you something for throwing away so many hours towards one game.
Also, Bungie has put together weekly challenges for players to compete in for bragging rights. This new addition will keep even the most run-of-the-mill player turning his XBOX on weekly.
Halo has no big surprises in the online gameplay, only a few tweaks, which is good because you should not fix something that isn’t broken.
Halo: Reach is a great game. Bungie did the necessary tweaks to the game to put a lasting impression on the faithful series followers. The graphics and sound are great as usual. The online gameplay is never ending until you have to go to bed. The campaign gets back to its original greatness as in the original Halo.
This is a must-buy game if you have not bought it already. I can not write down and try to explain everything that goes on in the game, it needs to be played and experienced firsthand to get the final pleasure out of what most likely will be the last Halo game.
Positives: Great graphics, music, campaign, online gameplay and tweaks and accessories that were needed.
Negatives: Possibly needs more online maps. Wait for expansion packs.
– billy.harlow@aggiemail.usu.edu