Halo Reach

Developer: Bungie
Publisher:  Microsoft Game Studios

As the last Halo game developed by Bungie, expectations were pretty high to say the least and though this title isn't much of a departure from previous games, it definitely adds some new twists to the formula.

You play as Noble 6, a recent addition to a less then welcoming all-Spartan squadron... getting ODST flashbacks yet?

Speaking of ODST, Noble 6 handles more like the rookie then the Master Chief, while your shields regenerate, you'll still have to hunt down medpacks like you did in ODST, moreover, dual-wielding is gone! This time however you get some new additions, mainly the armor abilities, these are secondary skills that you pick up and enhance your character, ranging from a shield lock, a hologram duplicate of yourself and my personal favorite: a jetpack.

The game tries to have a deep story about losing a war and squadmates, but honestly, it's so poorly handled that I just couldn't care about anything or anyone other than shooting Covenant, though in that department the game does an awesome job, they are as aggressive as ever and possibly more intelligent than they ever were, best of all, there is no flood in this game, so the campaign is definitely a strong point.

But of course, the game's main draw is the multiplayer and it's about as awesome as you would expect there are plenty of modes including an improved Firefight mode, though I wish they'd kept some of ODST's maps.

Graphically the game is an improvement over Halo 3, everything looks more crisp and detailed, though it comes at a cost, the game suffers from ghosting and I'm also not a fan of the bloom style they used.

Overall Halo: Reach was a good farewell from Bungie to its fans, I don't think this game will be remembered as the best in the series, but it certainly does a better job than ODST.

Pros:

- Campaign missions are still a blast...

- Graphically, the game looks a lot better than Halo 3

- Multiplayer is still awesome

- New Armor lock abilities add some nice twists to gameplay

- Will I ever get tired of shooting Covenant?

Cons:

- Minor ghosting issues, I'm also not a fan of the excessive Bloom

- You don't get to fight Scarabs in this game
- Story and characters feel completely sterile, yet the game keeps trying to make us care

- Bungie, I love you guys, but seriously you need to hire better writers

Final Grade: A-

The boxart feature the Noble squadron traversing what I assume to be the remains of a battlefield, the armor is nicely detailed and the use of colors is pretty good, making this one of the better covers in the Halo series, though not as good as Halo Wars or ODST.

Unfortunately, when you open it, disappointment sets in, no poster, no catalog, it even has the same boring 48 trial card as ODST.

The manual isn't looking much better, once again trying to emulate a field manual, though instead of taking pointers from Ensemble's Halo Wars, they decided to use the same sterile look as ODST, even its contents are somewhat lacking, it doesn't tell you the game's backstory nor does it give you any descriptions for the main characters, though it does have some nice tables explaining the strong points and weaknesses of every weapon and vehicle.

Not a bad packaging overall, but it's definitely not up to par to its predecessors

Packaging Score: C+