Review: Halo: Reach

Ever wondered what happened before the events of Halo:Combat Evolved, when Master Chief first went medieval on the alien Covenant?

That’s the tale developer Bungie tells with Halo: Reach, a prequel to the original landmark game from 2001.

The game retells the tale of the battle for the planet Reach against the Covenant – aliens who are trying to eliminate humans.

As the original Halo: Combat Evolved implies, humans eventually lost the battle for Reach, but from that defeat came the seeds of future victory. It’s a story about a military defeat that is surprisingly uplifting.

You are a soldier in the Noble squad, sent to deal with what is thought to be an insurrection on a distant outpost. Instead, your team discovers that the Covenant have begun their assault.

Battling through enemy outposts, your team is given an all-important task – one that all of humanity is depending on.

Completing the task is the sole focus of the last part of the game and the key to the future for Master Chief.

Fans of the series will be immediately comfortable with Halo:Reach. The gameplay, the weapons, the enemies, the vehicles are instantly recognizable. In fact, the game operates on the assumption that you’ve already played at least one of the other games, offering little guidance or training as action begins.

That could be a problem for newcomers. But for hardened Halo veterans, it’s like putting on the old uniform again.

The weapond are precision, the vehicles responsive and the levels masterful.

But as good as the single-player campaign is, the Halo series has always been about multiplayer and Halo:Reach cranks it up a few notches.

All of the old standbys are back, offering numerous ways to get your Halo on. One of the big additions is campaign matchmaking. Since you play as part of a team in the campaign, up to four players can team up to play. The game scales the challenge depending on the skill levels of your teammates.

A full-featured create mode – the Forge – offers players the ability create maps, record films and capture screenshots.

Another tweak that can enhance your online experience is the ability to narrow down the type of player socially that you compete with. You can choose how talkative your teammates are, how motivated they are to win, whether or not they want to work as a team and the general tone of your teammates. If you’re looking for quiet players who want to win as a team, the settings can be set to only look for them.

You can also specify which type of connection, prioritizing how you connect to the online world.

The additional features are extensive, including new gametypes, Forge upgrades and others.

Notable new gametypes include Gruntpolalypse – battling wave after wave of Grunts – and Rocketfight – unlimited rockets and rocket launchers.

Halo:Reach puts a capper on the Halo series. It brings the story full circle in an impressive way, leaving scarcely any room for letdown.

Platform: Xbox 360 Rating: Mature Manufacturer: Microsoft Games Score: 9.5 Noble chilies