Halo Reach: Review
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
, Posted by Scott at Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Halo, without
a doubt, one of the most revolutionary and popular game series in existence. In
fact its newest installment, Halo: Reach, is one of the most successful in the
series to date. Why has the Halo series been so popular? Because it has that
key component that will make any game successful; originality. Halo is known
for being original, just look at how they revolutionized the things we expect
to be on games, like theater, or customizable games, and they have kept that
spirit of originality in every new title, which is why they keep selling so
well.
Now on to
Reach; I dove into this game with admittedly high expectations, and was in no
way disappointed, one of the most noticeable changes is the improvement on
graphics, which surpass Halo: ODST and Halo
3 by far. And along with the ridiculously large maps, it is the kind of game
where you just want to stop the action and look at the scenery. But you can't
judge a game purely on the graphics, that's why Bungie has gone all out, from the first
cut-scene you will notice that Bungie's presentation skills have greatly
increased, from cruisers blowing up, to making deep connections to Noble Team.
The
Campaign is of a perfect length running a little over 6 hours, but that is not
including exploring time. The maps are enormous to say the least, and Bungie took advantage of this size and has
hidden Easter eggs all about the maps, so be sure to check every last nook and
cranny for door switches where they shouldn't be. The game also boasts cameos
from characters that fans of the game will recognize, but also throws in a few for
the fans of the book series.
That
being said, I feel like there was a lot of emphasis on the "BIG NEW ENGINE
THAT CAN ROCK UP TO 50 AI AT A TIME!" and though the engine definitely
helps for the maps and graphics I honestly didn't see many times where it was
being used to its full capabilities, putting 50 AI on the screen at once
happens rarely in the campaign, and the cut scenes are prone to some pretty bad
lag at times, but this should not be a deterrent.
Somewhere
that you can see the masses of AI attack you is in the new and improved firefight
mode, which is everything that the fans wanted and more! The ability to have a
custom game inside firefight with as many tweaks as you like has so many
possibilities that should keep players coming back for more and more. Speaking
of customizing things, Forge has been reworked from the ground up, overhauled, and
then put on steroids. The Forge mode, much like the firefight mode, is
everything the fans have wanted and more. The ability to make objects merge, and
go into the terrain adds millions of possibilities. I have not gotten to use Forge
to its full potential yet, but I can say that Forge combined with Forge World
is a great platform for creating custom maps or levels. It has many different
environments with almost limitless possibilities for what you can build, and is
a great reason to come back and play even more.
The
multi-player in Reach has also been run through the PIMP machine and works much better. Now when you kill people
and you do really well, it is reflected in your points, which you can use to
buy various armor additions or firefight voices, and makes you feel like you
actually accomplishing something rather than staying at one
rank forever and feeling like you suck.
Overall,
Reach is a swan song to the series, and you can tell that Bungie put every
ounce of care they had for Halo into it. I recommend this game to everyone who
enjoys a high quality first person shooter, because this is the best that is
here to date. For all these reasons I give Halo: Reach a 5 out of 5.
Currently have 0 comments: