Review:
Halo Reach - Was it really worth remembering?

“I got an idea, let’s make a prequel to Halo only with none of the characters from the original games and a poorly thought out story. Oh, and don’t forget that we have to upgrade the multiplayer so the players will still buy it!” That’s right folks, its time for yet another Halo game. Has Bungie’s player base finally matured? Or will we find ourself still playing against twelve year olds playing a “Mature” rated game? Not to mention just the gameplay aspect of this new title; will it just be another generic shooter, or has Bungie finally redeemed themselves since they made Halo 3.

First of all, let’s be honest here, ever since Bungie made Halo 3 they’ve been throwing the “Halo” name on a bunch of mediocre titles  just to sell the name to make a quick buck. Sure its a good marketing tactic, taking advantage of a successful property, but gamers should be smart enough to tell a good game from a simple spin off. Obviously I’m talking about the games Halo ODST and Halo Wars which were, at least in a general opinion, outrageously bad to put it nicely. Aside from all that though, we can only remain hopeful with Halo Reach, a prequel to the original game. With the promise of a brand new multiplayer system and campaign we now venture to the planet known as Reach.

Before Halo Reach, Bungie created Halo Wars and Halo ODST, both spin offs of the Halo series. Both of which were generic as an extra campaign to Halo 3 and then a terrible real time strategy game.

Before we talk about the big multiplayer factor, let us begin with what really makes a game, the campaign. The story revolves around a group of six spartans known as “Noble Team” who are stationed on the planet Reach, your character enters the group as the sixth member of the group and resembles however you’ve customized your online character. The campaign plays like any other Halo game, fighting off covenant and achieving objectives as told through your heads up display. However, it becomes obvious almost right away that the story is extremely boring from the get go. Army group goes to fight off alien force on planet, but then the world goes to armageddon and back, then the group ends up all dying; you know, the basic prequel story. Oh, sorry to spoil it, but yeah everyone in “Noble Team” obviously dies since they weren’t in the other three games after all. Speaking of their deaths, the writers do a terrible job of killing off these characters. Only two of the of the six characters die in a truly rememberable way, the others are killed suddenly, off screen, or even have their deaths implied. Halo Reach could have been so much better, but it seems as though Bungie took too much time working on the online aspect of the game than to create a memorable story.