For a story that frequently conveys a false sense of hope, it’s quite clever of Bungie to begin Halo: Reach without a sense of urgency, when not even the main characters seem all that surprised to see Covenant troops invading the titular planet. The campaign’s opening moments convey an appropriate sense of dread as Noble Team, a group of six Spartans, investigates a communication error. The sky is gloomy and overcast, the local wildlife is making a run for it, and civilians report gunfire. But then, when the Covenant finally show up, it’s a surprising non-event. Grunts squeal and cower, Elites bark orders in deep voices, and I’m standing on the far end engaging the same enemies I’ve been fighting for nearly a decade. It quickly becomes routine stuff, and I soon regretted opting for the game’s default difficulty rather than bumping it up a notch right from the start.
It didn’t take long for Bungie to turn the tables on me. After leaving a trail of blue blood behind us whilst crossing the rural farmland of Reach, we came to an outpost with a locked door. Kat, our token female Spartan, got to work on it while the you-know-what hit the fan: Dropship after dropship swooped overhead and unloaded Covenant troops into the courtyard, and the scene became a seizure of white, green and purple gunfire as Elites flanked us and Jackals used their powerful legs to jump to and from rooftops. No sooner had Kat opened the door than at least a dozen more Covenant fell to the ground all around me from a ship perched right over my head. A new objective popped up: “FALLBACK TO OUTPOST.” I sprinted – you can sprint now – into the building, whereupon they sealed the door behind me.
I don’t know the previous Halo campaigns by heart, but this is the first time in the series I can recall being forced to abandon a fight. After the game’s too-predictable opening moments, it’s a rude awakening and a reminder that we’re caught in a war that can’t be won. We already know how this story ends, and it doesn’t end well. To recall Master Chief’s famous line, we won’t be finishing this fight.
Reach, as series fans know, is the last human colony to fall before the events of the original trilogy, and the game’s consistently melancholy tone won’t easily let you forget it. Every victory for humanity is almost instantaneously followed by an even greater victory for the Covenant; every glimmer of hope suffers from an immediate reversal of fortune. We see dead civilians lying on city streets; we see skyscrapers crumbling to the ground; we’re forced to listen to radio broadcasts in which commoners request evacuation and are told that the military can’t make any promises. And while Noble Team’s efforts on Reach tie into the series’ central plot, it doesn’t dampen the stinging realization that by the time the campaign arrives at its conclusion, all six of them will probably be dead.
Halo: Reach does many things well, but its greatest accomplishment is in reinvigorating the Covenant as an enemy, a genuine threat to be feared. This might not have worked without such a relentlessly somber atmosphere, and removing any attempts to humanize the creatures is a major help – we return to the days when the Covenant were simply a collective of evil aliens hell-bent on the destruction of the human race – but the joy of the Halo series has always been in outwitting some of the most intelligent opposition that gaming has ever seen. Your enemies here are smarter, faster and greater in numbers than they’ve ever been before, and Reach offers the series’ most challenging and rewarding solo campaign to date.
Reach doesn’t putz around with a cover system, it doesn’t have a prone button, and no attempts were made to mix up the level design with platforming, puzzle-solving or exploration. Not that I’m against such things, but Halo knows its place. It’s about as straightforward as an FPS can be without sinking to mindlessness, thanks once again to the fantastic AI. Elites can haul ass, swerving to dodge your sticky grenades and running up to smack you in the face should you get too close. Jackals practically form miniature phalanxes, their shields virtually impenetrable unless you’ve got an energy-based weapon handy. The campaign remains remarkably relentless throughout for what is essentially nothing more than a series of gunfights, mainly because there are countless ways in which each individual conflict can play out.
My logic has always been that it’s infinitely more rewarding to outsmart enemies than to simply overpower them. Halo is all about combat, but it’s still smart, sophisticated combat, the kind where weapon choice is crucial and a well-placed headshot can mean the difference between victory and defeat. It’s almost essential to play Reach on the infamous Legendary difficulty, just to appreciate how much of a thinking man’s shooter this really is.
Bungie plays up nearly everything that’s worked for the series in the past, from the enormous (but, at the same time, not quite open-ended) outdoor environments to the lengthy driving segments. The few times Reach explores new territory, it feels like an expansion of expected Halo mechanics. The much-hyped spaceflight mission is arguably the high point of the game, and Bungie even throws jetpacks into the mix, just often enough to mix up the usual Halo gunplay without morphing the face of the campaign altogether. As with the vehicles, the jetpacks are incorporated seamlessly – and frequently – enough into the design that the concept never feels like a novelty.
This is all to be expected, but Reach is perhaps most notable for what it avoids, rather than what it accomplishes. There’s no repetitive Forerunner architecture to be found, no sermons delivered by elderly aliens atop floating thrones, and for once, the Flood are nowhere in sight. Nearly everything that previously held the series back from perfection has been pulled, while the elements that have consistently worked have been expanded upon. It’s incredibly easy to overlook the few things Bungie still hasn’t quite nailed – such as the underwhelming visuals or the shoddy friendly AI – in light of everything they’ve done right. For once, here’s a Halo game that’s consistently fun from beginning to end, with no asterisks. It’s vintage Halo, stripped of all the fat.
Of course, most people are in this for the multiplayer side of the equation, and I suspect they won’t be let down, either. The endurance-style Firefight, which debuted in last year’s Halo 3: ODST and has players fighting off waves of Covenant, is once again the star of the show. The remainder of the multiplayer options are as expansive as ever, including the return of the Forge, a modding tool with which players can edit existing maps. Little additions, like weekly challenges set up by Bungie or the ability to purchase upgrades for your character (which affects how he or she looks in the campaign, too), are a real treat for those looking to get the most out of this experience. It really is a delightfully complete package.
Personally, I’m not much of a fan of shooter multiplayer, but the point is that whatever your reasons are for being a series fan, Reach is the definitive Halo experience. If you anticipated the release of Reach as the multiplayer event of the year, it absolutely will be. If, like me, you’ve been waiting nearly a decade for the series to deliver on its potential as a solo experience, you’ll get that, too. Bungie wisely made no attempts to broaden its audience, instead writing a love letter to its fans, none of whom I can imagine being disappointed by this package. Those who steer clear of this game will be right to do so, but if you shiver when you hear Martin O’Donnell’s unmistakable drums kick in after booting up Reach for the first time, you can be guaranteed that you’ve made a smart investment.
Rating: A
