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Reach tells the story of where the Halo saga all began, a human colony named Reach. When the Covenant appears out of nowhere and begins an invasion of massive proportions, it is all the humans can do to fight to stay alive long enough to evacuate the planet. You play as the quiet and faceless Noble 6, the newest edition to a group of elite Spartan III's known as Noble Team. As part of this group you'll face off against seemingly insurmountable odds while executing top secret, nigh impossible missions. The story is a grand-arcing affair, taking you from cities to barren wastelands, and from lush vegetated mountains to a cavernous underground archeological site. One mission even sees you take to close-orbit space as you fight to defend a docking station against incoming waves of Covenant fighters. Needless to say, this game fully fits the definition of epic. Although you only play as the one Spartan throughout, Reach can best be described as an ensemble game. There are only a handful of moments throughout the campaign that you are without the company of at least one fellow super-soldier. This presents one of the games oddest dichotomies. The enemy AI is markedly improved from its predecessors, especially on Legendary. Even one single Elite needs to be respected, or you will quickly find yourself plastered against a nearby wall with the guttural laugh of the Elite echoing down the corridor. However, in either an effort to offset this, or as a story telling mechanism (to make sure they don't die), your Spartan companions are invulnerable. This can obviously be used to your benefit allowing them to soak up the hits as you pepper the enemies from a comfortable fifty yards away. However, if you are playing on Legendary this could be your only lifeline in some areas, as some of the fights can be ridiculously hard at times. [i](Note, when I discuss the AI or toughness of the game throughout this review, I'm referring to facing them in any way that does not use the plasma pistol + battle rifle “noob combo.” Even though this is a legitimate way to play, I find that it trivializes the experience and tend to not use it.)[/i] As mentioned earlier, the AI for Elites has improved tremendously. They dodge and flank like never before, leaving the unprepared as an easy target. Vehicles can also can be punishing to the unwary. One new vehicle in particular stands out, as it's quick-firing cannon and lightning-fast driver reflexes will spell certain doom to you at least several times throughout the campaign. However, to help you through the story, you'll find the newest element to the Halo games in the form of Armor Abilities. These have taken the place of the gadgets from Halo 3, and serve to be a main staple of the game play. They come in several flavors, including Active Camo, Armor Lock, and Jet Packs. These all see full use in online matches as well as in single player, and can at many times decide the difference between life and death. I lost count of how many times I made it around a corner under a hurricane of plasma fire with only a sliver of health left thanks only to Sprint.Read full review
Halo Reach has beautiful graphics and a nice story line as you progress threw in the solo game.I did not care for the lack of ammo and healing device drops. I found myself spending way to much time running around looking for both. You can use enemy weapons they drop, but are extremely low on ammo when you pick them up. I found myself starting new Missions empty. This game gets harder as you advance which I do extremely like.Driving one of the many vehicles or flying the planes into battle is wonderful. You also develop a love/hate for those enemy elites ha ha ha. I would love to see more ammo, choices of weapons available in the solo missions. I enjoy playing them over and trying new tricks.The games Ai is pretty good, but can not compare with the online fast paced matches.I have had my clock kicked many times. I am still training before I get to involved in the online team death matches. I have reviewed many matches via YouTube and my Nefphew's who's a pretty good player.Many of the players online are unbelievably great. Overall this is a fantastic game.Read full review
I have now played ALL the HALO series games, and frankly, I don't care for this one as much as Halo 2 or 3. I like some of the new tricks, like the jet-pack and being able to fly the Sabre and the Falcon, but the controls keep changing with every evolution which inevitably gets one killed, while hitting the wrong button for changing weapons or reloading. The story, the art, the animation, the imagination are all still top of the line, genius talent, but in the world of 'reality', we need to deal with so many losses and so many changes. Leave the games alone! Bring back the Master Chief, and put the controls back where they belong! I like the new menu items that allow you to build your own game, which makes this version virtually eternal. I bought this disk used, so I don't know if there is a problem with it, or if I am doing something wrong, but every time I 'finish' a level. I get my points, my achievements, my rank promotions, but the game restarts at the same level, over and over again. Bungie has never been big on instructions, so it's hard to even know if I am making the right menu selections when starting, but one would assume that 'resume game' would put you at the next level, not start you again at the level you just completed. Might be a tech problem with the saves or something. Another issue is when and how to deploy articles/equipment picked up, or even its function, there are so many, and my biggest peeve with this and all versions, is trying to read the screen instructions, communications, HUD, etc. Why bother having a huge screen so you can sit comfortably 10 feet away, if you can't read the screen! Even a young, 14-year old player, had to stand 2 feet in front of the screen to see what it was reporting. One more peeve, and don't get me wrong, I am not a biggot, but these 'foreign' accents drive me nuts! I don't understand half of the dialogue because of bad accents! I understand that the UNSC is a multi-national force, but come-on guys, even Hollywood gives us language we can understand! If you are making different language versions anyway, why not have the characters speak clearly in the selected language? (subtitles would help, but not if you can't read them because the characters are too small!) I am not an online player, so I cannot comment on that function or its capability. Balancing all the positives and negatives, it is a great game and I recommend it to Halo players. But 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'! Hopefully Halo 4 will bring back Spartan-117 (and The Arbiter) and maybe even be Kinect enabled!).Read full review
Well, let's start from the ebay experience. I bought a redemption code card because I really dislike having physical discs and just wanted to download it to the 250GB hard drive that's built into my Xbox. The card came very quickly, in a purple envelope, with handwritten addresses on the front. I thought it was a Christmas card from someone I didn't know, or at least didn't know the real name of. Inside the envelope was a monkey-shaped sticky note with "Enjoy the game" written on it and the card in pristine condition. No complaints there, I suppose. Plugged a USB keyboard into the Xbox and redeemed the code, it gave me my game, no issues. Now, the game its self. It's just... not a terribly fun game. I don't know, I haven't really played a lot of Halo games, and my friends really wanted me to play this one. But, I played up to the city levels, and I just wasn't having very much fun. It's really repetitive and all the enemies look the same, and the guns just feel like Nerf darts for how much damage they do. Call me crazy, but when I play a game where the character is supposed to be one mean mother-slapper, I want to feel like a mean mother-slapper, not a little kid running around with Nerf darts through the forest and around a shopping mall with a bunch of other little kids in different costumes also wielding Nerf darts. Now, that being said, it's quite a pretty game, for the most part. Yeah, there's a lot of dull and repetitive environments, but at least those environments are well made. Multiplayer is apparently where it shines, but the only time I want to do multiplayer is with my friends, and that's all well and good. The Xbox networking capabilities do this game just fine, and that all works well enough. For some reason it choked when I was running two systems through a nice Cisco switch. It was kinda weird, but we figured it out. Xbox issues I suppose, not really a game issue. Overall, fun for a while, gets kinda dull until you take it to a friend's house.Read full review
Lets keep it brief, if your're familiar with the Halo franchise this is the best "Halo" game to date. I say "Halo" because that is exactly what it is.. for some reason (don't worry its a brief rant that has nothing to do with my official review :) people think prequels are good, they're not, prequels are a way of saying the original ending could have been better but its not good to beat a dead horse. I say that for two reasons, one (like I said before) Halo Reach is for Halo fans, you know the ending!! FYI, Its not like 300! (Spartan joke)I won't spoil so relax... Storyline aside there is very limited changes from any Halo game (same weapons, similar characters, same enemies-which proves Bungie is sorry for making you fight JUST Brutes in the last one) Game play is solid but the core of the issue is that Halo is not a relevant franchise anymore. Seriously halo games are a Modern reminder of the "DOOM" series, Fixed sights, linear levels and although very entertaining (specially if you're a fan) you can't help but notice that the developers did not take into account that shooters have changed a LOT since Halo 3 and I dare say farther back than that. So lets not waste time getting into too much detail, If you know Halo GET this game, You HAVE TO. (Its the best one, just throw out HAlO 3 and the HORRIBLE ODST!)Apart from that Multiplayer is EXACTLY like Halo 3/ execpt Firefight mode (trust me gets old after a few plays) The "new" additions are not even worth mentioning, theres a space dogfight thats very good but its over so soon its an insult to game diversity! Physics and Graphics are ecxellent but thats to be expected. Theres just nothing about Reach that makes it different from all the other Halo games. Thats good in its own sense but coutiously reminds us that Halo games are at an end. Bottom line: Best gameplay so far, great story (except fot the first Halo) BUT DON'T MISTAKE "BEST" FOR DIFFERENT, ITS THE SAME HALO WE ALL KNOW!!!Read full review
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