Overall 9.5 Graphics 8 Sound 8 Addictive 9.7 Story 8.3 Depth 9.3 Difficulty 8
8.7
Halo: Reach The Planned Acc..
Overall: 8.7
This game is a really great game. It offered me over a year of entertainment, and could've offered me much more. Campaign-wise, the game does a very good job of telling the story of what happened on the planet Reach. I warn you, though. It's not a very happy story. I'm not going to spoil anything, but yeah, it's pretty sad. Multiplayer-wise, the game has 4 types of gameplay. Regular multiplayer, where you get to kill all of your friends like you used to in all the Halo games. They added a few new aspects to multiplayer, though. First off, there's a new game-type, Invasion, which puts Spartans against elites in a fast-paced objective game where you have to unlock two doors, and then capture a core. (Whether Spartans or elites do it depends on the map.) Second, they offered us this new feature, armor abilities. These include abilities such as Jet Pack, it's a jet pack, Evade, you quickly roll on the ground; this is good for escaping tight situations, Armor Lock, you quickly punch the ground and become invincible for a short time, and can also kill fast-moving vehicles if they run into you, Invisibility, do I need to explain invisibility? Sprint, you run, shield, you create a bubble shield that not only protects you, it heals you, and also your comrades. And finally, you can create a clone of yourself to confuse your enemy. There
was a name for that, but unfortunately, I can't think of it right now. Another type of multiplayer is Firefight. You and at most 3 more people are put up against constant waves of Covenant forces. The game has many types of set-up. You can control what enemies come out, their transportation, your health, your guns, basically every aspect. You can even become an elite and fight for the Covenant. Third, is custom multiplayer. It's multiplayer that you as the player may set up. You can control what ordinance the players get, basically everything, except the map, which brings me to the final type of multiplayer. Forge. Forge is one of the greatest things about this game. There's tens of thousands of maps that players create, and they create some very professional maps. Some better than the creators of the game. Overall, though, this game has a ton to offer, and can offer years of entertainment. I give this game an 8.9 overall. And I think that's pretty fair.
Graphics: 7
This game's graphics are very good compared to past Halo games. Overall in the Xbox universe, they're not the best. The textures are very good, but the game itself doesn't really look very realistic. But then again, it's a game set 500 years into the future. It's got some pretty mind-blowing levels, and maps. They put a lot of detail into the little things. I feel this is the right time to bring this up, you can customize your spartan's armor for a cool look. But that's not even the cool part. Whatever your spartan looks like, in the Campaign, you play as Noble six. Or you. The spartan you play as is
your spartan in the campaign. I like that little touch that they added. They added tons of new armor pieces and visor colors, it's really difficult to choose. But this game's graphics are very good compared to other games. The game has some glitches, though. Sometimes when you die, your character stays erect, or even continues to run. But that's rare. Sometimes an unknown force will launch you outside of the map, and sometimes, there's lag. Nobody can help that, though. Overall, the graphics of this game are average, but they're definitely not the worst of all. The graphics of this game get a 7. How's that sound?
Sound: 8
This game's sound is very good. That's the one thing about Call of Duty that never matched up with Halo. Their sound. I'm not picking sides in the whole Call of Duty vs. Halo conflict, either, so don't private message me insulting me because I'm a Halo fan. Haha. I'm just messing around. But the game's sound effects are very precise, and good. They're all synchronized to your actions, or others' actions. They even hinder your hearing when grenades of certain distance explode. The gun's sounds are very good too, and realistic. Unlike Halo 3's assault rifle, which sounded like a type-writer. But this game's music is what has impresed me most. Halo's music has always been pretty legendary. You can go up to most teenagers today, and they'll all know what Halo's main theme sounds like, am I right? This game had its own theme song that was very good, again, using a full orchestra. They also did a great job of setting the mood, for the sad moments, the action-packed moments, and the suspenseful moments. It also sounds very good, so that's a plus. Overall, Halo: Reach's sound quality gets an 8. That's pretty high for Xbox 360 standards.
Addictiveness: 9
This game is extremely addicting. It has 4 types of gameplay, so you have tons of things to try. Not only that, each type is fully customizable except for Matchmaking (Online multiplayer) Forge alone can offer years of entertainment. If you like to create stuff, Forge is your game. There's infinite possibilities as to what you can build. So you'll never get too bored. Online multiplayer will take a long time too. I've been playing for over two years, and I'm not nearly the maximum rank that I can be. It's that long. Plus, there's custom games, where you can create any type of game from Capture the Flag to old-fashioned Halo Slayer. You can control nearly all aspects of the game, including how fast you run, how high you jump, your player gravity, and even where you respawn. It's that cool. You can even view your past experiences through screenshots or even videos of that funny kill you got, or that cool position your friend got killed in. So you'll have endless entertainment with this game. This game's addictiveness gets a 9. That's very good.
Story: 7
This game's story is very sad. Little to nothing good happens in this game, so if you're overly emotional, stay away from this game's campaign. But this game's storyline is very informative. It tells of the events that happened just before the start of Halo: Combat Evolved, which is cool. You get to see things that may be familiar to you from the other Halo games. It's neat to see. Also, since this was Bungie's final Halo game, they loaded this game with neat little easter eggs. They even have a tribute room dedicated to the last ten years of gaming with them. It's quite a memorable thing to see. (No I will not tell you where it is, how to get to it, or what gametype it's in. And yes, I've been to it. It's not easy to get to.) So yeah, this game's story is very fluent, and makes you truly feel like you're trying to save this planet from being destroyed by the infamous Covenant that we love oh-so-much. So for having a great storyline, with some neat little plot twists, this game's storyline gets a 7, which is average.
Depth: 9
This game offers a lot, from getting achievements to building maps in Forge. The campaign alone could offer you months of entertainment from trying to complete difficult feats to completing the daily and weekly challenges that they've provided for you. These challenges range from all game-types except Forge and theater, by the way. The challenges gain you credits, which go toward, first off, leveling up, and second, you can buy all sorts of various armor parts for your Spartan. Getting all of them will take tons. The weekly challenges are always worth more than all the daily challenges. That means they're more difficult to complete. That also means they're worth more credits. As I explained earlier, Forge can offer years of entertainment, combined with custom games, and other sweet things you can do. This game's depth gets a 9. This is a
very big game.
Difficulty: 9
This game's difficulty ranges from easy as pie, to being as difficult as they get. The thing about this game is the Multiplayer. There are some people out there who are
tons better than you. Some people will make you look like a beginner again. Don't underestimate anyone. As for the Campaign, it has four difficulties. Easy, Normal, Heroic, and Legendary. Each difficulty being harder than the next. The thing about the campaign is, the enemies are much more intelligent. If you play on Legendary, they'll know exactly how to kill you. You cannot make mistakes. You will die. Don't underestimate them, either. As for the other difficulties, for multiplayer, it ranges from beginner to pro, and for Campaign, it ranges from easy to break-the-disk difficult. So overall, this game's difficulty gets a 9. They really do a good job of making a range of difficulties in these modern games, don't they?
Wrap things up...
If you haven't played this game, I highly recommend it. If you haven't played the other Halo games, no worries, this takes place
before them. So you won't be lost at all. It's a very good game, and has so much to offer. It's hard to resist. The music is legendary, the enemies are unique, and you'll just never be bored playing this. It's so fun. It's really difficult, and yet very easy. The control scheme is simple, and customizable, so you can play however you want. I really enjoyed playing this game. It's not my favorite Halo game out there, but it's up there. (My favorite is Halo 2, by the way. I love that game! :D) So yeah. Go play this game. Do it now. Haha. If you do play it, just remember the tips I told you, and also, try to have fun. :) Although it wouldn't be too hard. There's something for every first person shooter lover out there. So good luck, and again, have fun!
Graphics 7 Sound 8 Addictive 9 Story 7 Depth 9 Difficulty 9
Review Rating: 5/5
Submitted: 10-01-12
Review Replies: 5
10
Best halo game yet RetroCanadian
Halo Reach is an amazing game. It provides depth into the story of the Halo trilogy, and is a great way to get some back story of the games but still leaving some questions, some to figure out and some will remain un-answered. All though some things don't make any sense, like new weapons and vehicles, they do add some challenge and possibilities to the game.The addition of forge world and plenty of forge options have unlocked limitless fun and creativity. Forge is more than making custom maps, it is also 3D art, contraptions, parkour maps, challenge maps, and many other possibilities. Players may share there forge creations with the addition of the file share option. This unlocks limitless fun for all whom seek challenging and fun games.The matchmaking option is also improved in plenty of ways. It has plenty of game types and different maps. The maps are offered in different variants for different game types. There are also customizable load outs, Spartan traits, leader traits, game settings and map layout traits. In game you can
select any of the load outs witch contain an armour ability (armour lock, active camo, sprint, evade, hologram, jet pack and drop shield), grenades, and one to two weapons. But in some game variants there are no load outs. Custom games is a great way to build and show off your own game mode that you built with the endless options. They have options for players to
select there own forged maps, default maps, customize player traits, add timers and rounds, add limits to spawn times and lives of players and objects, the list goes on.Now onto fire fight. Fire fight is a challenging way to boost your skill and has more than expected options. There are many types of fire fight, and you can customize Spartan, elite, wave, and drop traits. Up to 4 players can play in a lobby and some may challenge the other players by being an elite and fight with the waves of enemies against the Spartans.This concludes my review and I have not explained the campaign in order to prevent spoilers for those whom don't own the game or have not played it.Thanks for your time, sincerely- RetroCanadian.[Re-edited by a more competent self]
Graphics 9 Sound 8 Addictive 10 Story 10 Depth 10 Difficulty 8
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 08-11-12
Updated: 04-26-16
Review Replies: 1
9
Halo Reach; Still my favorite game. SpyKnightShooter
Halo Reach is personally my favorite entry in the Halo series, even without fan favorite Master Chief as the main character. I still play it to this day to reminisce about Halo before Bungie's transition to Destiny, and before 343 took helm of the franchise. And even after all these years, Halo Reach is still one of the best Halo games out there and I'd recommend that anyone who owns an Xbox 360 or and Xbox One get a physical copy and experience the game for themselves.
Graphics
The graphics in this game are pretty impressive for the time they were made in. A lot of the models for Spartan reflect a lot of grit and are dirty from the war on Reach. Each spartan's armor makes them look different from the squad, Kat being the teams tech specialist wears light armor, with Jorge being the brute of the squad wearing large chest pieces and shoulder pads. Even the new enemies like the Skirmishers look like true covenant aliens to be feared along with the giant ships that glass cities and a large spectacle looking like it was taken directly out of a film. However during cutscenes when there is many characters moving at once, the motion blur is dialed up to 11, making it taxing on the eyes whenever the team moves together. Aside from that however, the game's skyboxes are the best they've been in Halo, with it depicting an actual war that you can see raging on in the distance, giving the war on Reach a dark gritty feel that reflects the tone of the story.
Sound
The sounds in Halo have always been amazing and this game is no exception to that. Every weapon and vehicle in this game has their own sound that differentiates them from other weapon in the entire game. Covenant weapons may sound like true alien weapons, while UNSC weapons reflect the militaristic weapons that are used today, just
updated to look like weapons of the future. The music in this game also facilitates the sound design, Marty O'Donnell's score really hits home what Halo Reach is about, and when you're blasting through aliens with Marty O'Donnell's legendary score playing loudly during your moment of triumph this game there's nothing else like it.
Addictiveness
This here is the best part about Halo Reach. Due to the fact that this was Bungie's final game in the Halo series, they made sure to take all the previous Halo games' minigames and other forms of content and pack them all together. They took Halo ODST's best contribution to the series; Firefight, and expanded it to multiple maps along with the ability to customize every bit of it. You can play as Spartan or Elite, defend the generators or survive rounds of the toughest enemies that you can choose to appear during certain rounds. You choose how many skulls you want to enable, you choose how difficult you want this to be. Get tired of Firefight? Head over to Custom Games and run a couple matches with your friends, or play split-screen and battle it out once again customizing every option, to weapons that spawn, how much or how little your health is available, what game made, time limit, you name it you can change it. Maps not doing it for you? Head over to Forge, where it is the best that it's ever been in the Halo franchise (Excluding Halo 5). You can either create your own, or search through the file share browser and see what everyone in the community has created and uploaded and play these modes and maps for yourself. And if you think they can be improved, feel free to overwrite it with your own ideas. Just wanna play online? Head over to matchmaking, where you can co-op Campaign, Firefight, or just have PvPs with other players across various gamemodes. And after all that is said and done, head over to Theatre mode and relive all the moments you just experienced. Take pictures and record videos for everyone to see in all their glory. The game has so much replay-ability on its own that even now I still go back to turn on skulls and get rare dialogue that I've never seen. And all of this to rack up credits to buy pieces of armor for your own spartan, where you can customize just about every piece head to toe. And if you need more credits, there's always weekly and monthly challenges to speed up the progress. This game offers the most amount of content out of all the Halo games hands down.
Story
The story of this game is a depressing one, it's the tale of Noble Team attempting to push back the Covenant attack, even when the odds are stacked against them. Many people didn't like the story because of the fact that people found it to be too militaristic, and the characters weren't constantly chatting about their personal life and everything about them and instead were more focused on the battle they were in. However in my opinion, all of Noble Team with the exception of your character Noble 6 are really well done characters. Bungie stated they wanted players to be more connected with this team than they were with Master Chief, and in my opinion they succeeded with flying colors. Carter as the leader of noble team is the commander who deeply cares about all of his squad and maintains responsibility and control of situations, even defending his squad when they are threatened by other people like Dr Halsey, who originally started the Spartan program. Kat being the "smart" one of the group is constantly peeking in places even when she's forbidden to do so to further her knowledge on the war and stay up to date with everything going on, making her my personal favorite character and the one I'd like to know the most about. Jun being the silent sniper is subverts expectations and is extremely chatty and has no qualms with jumping head first into conflict. Just like Emile, who not once takes off his helmet throughout the entire game, leaving the only thing to remember him by is his iconic skulls helmet. He is the savage killer of the team and loves violence and killing Covenant, even when it's viewed as a dangerous option he still embraces it. Jorge being the brute of the group is surprisingly gentle and sympathetic towards those who have lost loved ones throughout the war, unlike Emile, even if it damages the reputations Spartans have as super soldiers. Because of this we see a bit of bad blood between the two which makes them more than just soldiers on the field. Finally there's Noble 6....technically Noble 7 but close enough. There's nothing known about him except that his missions are top secret and he is known as highly dangerous and highly skilled just like the Master Chief himself. Noble 6, is you the player, as whatever customization you have in multiplayer is carried over to the campaign as well, making you feel like that's you in the game like you're contributing to the war and protecting your friends. Despite being a lone wolf, Noble 6 is thankful for the squad and the people who have fought by their side throughout the war, and proves that even one spartan can pose the largest problem to the covenant even if they aren't the Master Chief.
Depth
The game's story took me a couple days to complete, 10 hours or so, however depending on the difficulty and skulls you have enabled, who you're playing it, the amount of time varies. The game has a lot of offer, in multiplayer, and singleplayer. Most of which was covered in the addictiveness section, as they go hand in hand with each other.
Difficulty
This is probably my least favorite part about the game, but also my favorite. This game on Easy, is of course easy. Normal is a little difficult, but still nothing to write home about. On Heroic however, I think this game is at the true pinnacle of difficulty. Enemies are not impossible ot kill or melee, but you can't rely just on that. Headshots are important and the best way to take out the enemies, but sometimes you need to spray enemies like Hunters to take them quickly before they take you out. The marines are not as helpful and will constantly die, making it very clear that the covenant outclasses regular marines, and when Spartans entire the battlefield, the tide changes. On Legendary however, enemies just become in my opinion unfair. Elites will rush to melee and even if you're outside their range of melee, you'll still die in one hit. So usually you prioritize them, stop them from getting close, however even so, you'll die in about 5 shots in quick succession, and when they're using a weapon that can overheat versus a weapon with a set amount of bullets after a certain point you need to reload, and the ai never overheats weapons. Even when charging a plasma pistol and firing, grunts and Jackals are able to follow it up much faster, and they follow you over a larger distance than when the player uses them. However, if you're up for near impossible challenges, that's the mode for you. And if that's not enough, enable some or all skulls, and fight without hud, enemies are faster strong throw more grenades that have larger blast radius, still have never beaten the game on laso, at least not without a squad of 4 other people basically carrying me. Maybe I'm just not that good, but that's just me.
Overall, this game is great, and anyone who has an Xbox an hasn't played this needs to get it and experience it for themselves. There's so much to the game that I could go on forever about how many things I've done and how much memories I have from playing custom games Indiana Jones maps and obstacle courses and races, and that one mode where you dodge the soccer balls that roll down with a gravity hammer and energy sword to get to the cars at top to run people over with...? I forgot what that was called, was fun and I still play that split-screen with my friends, and I probably always will.
Graphics 8 Sound 8 Addictive 10 Story 8 Depth 9 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 3/5
Submitted: 09-25-18
Review Replies: 1
User Notice 
