After having put a lot of effort into Halo Reach, it is time to take stock of whether it is really a decent game or one of the average, especially after it has been announced with great fanfare that it was a bomb in terms of sales. I still remember how in the middle of summer I talked to some friends about buying it and in the end we all decided not to… and in the end we are all playing at night on Xbox Live. Once one falls, we all fall.
I can’t write this without thinking about Maca’s words in a comment on a previous article in which he talked about Halo Reach and said that it is a Halo 3 with better graphics. This definition could well be applicable to Halo ODST, that expanded expansion that ended up becoming a game that you could play in just 5 hours on the highest level of difficulty without breaking a sweat. However, the Halo Reach campaign is varied, adjusted in difficulty and quite enjoyable.
There are several types of locations: from Covenant ships, human cities on the planet Reach that are under siege, night levels in which we use night vision goggles, forests, screens with ground and air vehicles and even one in which we pilot a fighter in space. All this seasoned with new weapons, such as the plasma grenade launcher or the Covenant telescopic rifle.
A weak point of the campaign is in the argument. Obviously you know from the beginning how the story is going to end, but they tie up all the ends in a way that is too obvious, too easy. They could have put a little effort into some unexpected twists (I came up with a few during the game). Furthermore, neither the secondary characters nor you yourself have the desirable charisma and at no time do you identify with them.
On the other hand, the multiplayer is once again reinvented and enhanced by granting different abilities to the characters during the game: a shield envelope, a jet pack, sprints, invisibility or hologram. New, quite varied game modes have been included, both for “pros” and “noobs” and it is not as frustrating to play as Call of Duty: MW 2 because the evolution of your character occurs as you achieve challenges, decorations and defeat enemies.
But in addition, other game modes have been included, such as shooting (similar to the horde mode of Gears of War 2), Forge (to create our own scenarios) or cinema mode (to see replays of the games we have played).
In short, Halo Reach is a good game, which has a more varied and entertaining campaign than Halo 3 (and of course, much more than Halo ODST). If you liked the previous ones, you will probably like this one, and if you are not one of those who play FPS with a console controller, this is possibly the most accessible game in terms of skills (although you lose, of course).