Within REACH

This is going to be a review of Halo: Reach. It's somewhat ironic, considering that I've never played it beyond the beta (natural forces, i.e. school, has diverted my resources). Still, I am hoping to straighten out what I've seen and heard. I do warn ahead of time that they may/will be spoilers.

Campaign

The campaign looks adequately lengthy, significantly longer than Halo 3 and certainly longer than ODST. The presence of invincible AIs at your assistance seems to dumb down some difficult firefights, but not so much that you don't have to contribute your fair share of bullets/plasma. The difficulty settings do intrigue me, in that the difficulties do represent numerous challenges to the player, from extra enemies and higher ranks to longer burst fire and demonic accuracy. The campaign looks like it encompasses every piece of equipment that is seen on the multiplayer aspects of Reach, and more. From light and heavy weapons and armor abilities, to a low-orbit battle in space and a large cannon comparable to a magnetic acceleration cannon, it's got everything. I am looking forward to getting acquainted with the target locator.

A grim campaign, but the tragedy really brings out the heroism of the characters.

Firefight

This time around, firefight has come with a few more switches and knobs. Of course, the prospect of infinite ammunition, health and shields has made "cheesing" a fairly common idea, not to mention an obviously easy way to get the firefight achievements, among others. Still, for anyone who is actually up to the challenge, or perhaps for anyone who wants to make up their own challenge, firefight provides a nice platform to duke it out with wave after wave of Covenant uglies. It is worth noting that Drones, also infamously known as buggers, do not exist in the confines of firefight. Perhaps I may intend to fight unlimited Hunters with a shotty-sniper configuration. Who knows?

If you're gonna play gruntocalypse on Legendary, bring an extra set of underwear. You'll face grunts like they've never grunted before.

Multiplayer

And here is the crown jewel. Halo multiplayer has remained largely unchanged since the days of spawn-killing in an arid box canyon in the middle of nowhere. Of course, a few changes have been administered for the sake of enjoyable gameplay. Spawn-killing is more or less nonexistent (though I will have to see if that is the case on Hemorrhage); maps are significantly smaller than the Halo 1 maps, though slightly larger than the claustrophobic terrain of Halo 3; several new gametypes have emerged, including Arena and Invasion, while many older gametypes still persist, such as ol'-fashioned slayer and CTF, assault and race, infection and Grifball, oddball and KOTH.

Invasion was an exquisite work of large maps that is simply unparalleled for a game that only allows 16 players. Based on several gametypes, including KOTH and CTF, normal invasion requires the attacking team to take certain checkpoints before taking a core item and returning it to an extraction point. The teams are 6v6, although technically people work in tag teams. Although, for the most part people enjoy killing the opposing team. This is where Invasion Slayer comes in. Certain checkpoints can be taken, which, after a small amount of time, will reward anyone still standing there some equipment or vehicles, depending on what race you are, human or elites. The game is to 100 kills, and you better be prepared to make those kills and drag your own weight.

Headhunter is a nice new gametype, something like holding a rocket launcher you can't use. You kill others, and they drop a skull. You pick it up, and you have to bring it/them to a designated area, that periodically moves. You get killed, you drop a skull, and you also drop any skulls you were holding. It's essentially Halo-hoarding, which, oddly enough I find fun. It's one of those gametypes where YOU choose whether you want to win or not, whether you want to kill or go for an objective, more like oddball than slayer.

Frankly, I would post a more detailed review for Reach; it has many nooks and crannies that I havn't been able to spell out in this blog alone, but I cannot at the moment. Perhaps in the morn I will further detail my opinions of Reach.