Halo Reach: Initial Impressions

The game that led me to re-buy an Xbox 360 has been out for a couple of days at this point, and I’ve put in a decent amount of hours on it, so what do I think so far? Well to be fair this review pertains mostly to the online component of the game as I have only played about an hour and a half of the campaign mode, but that is not unusual for me when it comes to first person shooters as I prefer the competition of online multi-player, and so most of this review will be based on that.

One of the coolest new features is armor abilities which replace the one time use abilities of the pick up items in prior games. These new abilities include jetpacks(need I say more), sprinting, a shield dome protecting those inside from outside fire, and a hologram you can send out to distract other players, and more. These abilities can be used as much as you want as long as you allow them the short time to recharge. The online in this game has more possible game modes than I have probably ever seen in a game.  Some of the modes that I can remember off the top of my head are Slayer which is your typical death match where the first person or team to reach the number of kills needed wins the match, you have a few different variations of capture the flag which involves storming the other teams base to take their flag and carry it back to your base. One of my favorite modes which I believe is new to the series is headhunters, in this game type every time someone is killed they leave behind a skull, and you have to collect as many of these skulls as possible and bring them back to a designated place which keeps moving around in order to score points. Another new mode introduced is called Invasion in which you must either take over or defend points from being taken over, and at the end of the round you switch sides to do the opposite, whoever takes over the most points during these rounds ends up winning the match.

Firefight mode which was released in last years ODST has been revamped including the ability to find others online to play with in matchmaking, which was one of the things I complained about in ODST where you were only able to play with those on your friends list. The forge mode from Halo 3 has been reintroduced in a grander scale with lots of customization, I have tried tweaking with it a bit even building myself a castle with towers which was pretty cool, however I have a hard time figuring out how to add objective based items but that’s just my stupidity when it comes to map editing. The game advertises that you can play through the campaign with people you don’t know through the matchmaking system, but this option is nowhere to be found when I look for it, so for now I have to just play with friends if we ever manage to all be on at the same time.

There is a lot of meat to sink your teeth into when it comes the multiplayer, but how does it all stack up? When I played with my brother for a few matches and a few of his friends we got our butts handed to us but I was actually enjoying it. However when I play matches with random folks I feel really alone, and it seems as though most people do their own thing and don’t believe in team work leading to many losses which when compared to a game like Battlefield Bad Company 2 is the total opposite with its squad based play. Another complaint I have about the multi-player system is the matchmaking feature which hasn’t been updated since Halo 2. Call of Duty has this part done right, you pick the type of match you want to play and it hooks you up with others that want to play the same type, where as in this game you pick certain aspects but don’t really get to pick the exact type so you never know what you’re going to end up playing though you can choose to vote it seems that most people are never on the same page when it comes to this as well.

In the end this game can be so much fun when playing with those you know or when you get matched up with people willing to communicate and work together, but most of the time you end up in lone wolf situations and I can’t help feeling like I should just go play Battlefield Bad Company 2 or wait to play this when friends are all online which makes a big difference. I do like the improvements to Firefight, and the armor abilities teach an old dog new tricks and help make old game modes seem new again, but in the end this is the same Halo we’ve been playing for almost a decade, for better or for worse.

Side Note: You will find that most matches you play there will be at least one or two people on either team who quit early into the match, and this game does not allow them to be replaced which can lead to an unfair advantage in a lot of matches. In most games in this genre if someone quits the game will fill the spots in with new players.

Here is a video showing off Multiplayer with Bugie’s designers