Halo’s Swan Song

When I was 11, a game called Halo: Combat Evolved spearheaded the launch of Microsoft’s new video game console, the Xbox, and it changed everything forever. Well, not really, but it did redefine video gaming.

Never before had a first person shooter so elegantly synthesized a gripping and original story, polished and ridiculously fun gameplay, beautiful sound and music, and, at the time, unbelievable graphics. But, above all else, Halo made gaming a social affair. Wholesale virtual slaughter became a bonding experience, assuming you had four controllers.

Nine years and $1.7 billion in sales later, the franchise which brought us Master Chief, getting “stuck” and double-kills has entered its final iteration: the much anticipated Halo: Reach for the Xbox 360.

For the most part, Reach does not disappoint. The gameplay has been fleshed out, polished, and expanded. Enemies and allies are smarter and deadlier. The graphics are second to none, particularly the particle effects from explosions. The sound effects are fantastic; every noise one could find on the battlefield of the future is represented.

Reach’s soundtrack is another excellent entry in the Halo franchise’s fantastic musical repertoire. Tribal percussion and heavy guitar riffs coalesce beautifully in the game’s “psych-up” tracks while strings and a full choir add a deep element of emotion to the tragedy befalling the planet Reach. All of it resonates with that iconic and unforgettable “Halo” leitmotif, which is as recognizable to many as the sound of their parent’s voice, something which says a lot about where our society is headed.

Major changes to the game include swappable armor abilities, such as temporary invincibility, invisibility, sprint, the bubble shield, and even a jetpack. The classic battle-rifle has been replaced by the semi-automatic Designated Marksman Rifle, or DMR. The assault rifle has received a predominantly visual makeover, while the iconic sniper rifle is more deadly than ever. The game’s best weapons though, are part of the revamped Covenant arsenal which includes the new needle rifle, the plasma repeater, a very loud sniper laser and a bazooka which fires plasma that locks onto enemies.

Additions to combat dynamics include weaker human shields and the return to a health bar system like that of the original Halo. The lack of magically recharging health necessitates a more tactical approach to combat, especially on higher difficulty settings. In fact, Halo’s infamous Legendary difficulty returns in its toughest incarnation yet.

Finally, assassinations have been made more rewarding, as their proper execution now treats viewers to a highly satisfying third-person view of the whole sequence.

Vehicles have always been one of the defining elements of the Halo series. Venerable fan favorites like the Warthog, Mongoose, and Scorpion tank all make a return. As do the classic Covenant Ghost and Wraith. New vehicle additions include the Falcon – a tilt-rotor helicopter which packs an autocannon and can carry a squad of Spartans, a new type of Warthog which fires volleys of missiles, and the Covenant Revenant – a fast moving hovercraft with a plasma cannon that can take out a Warthog in one shot. Until now, vehicle combat in Halo has been limited to inside the stratosphere, but for the first time in the series, players take the fight out of the atmosphere and into space. One of the game’s most entertaining missions is predominantly spent in a human star-fighter blowing up Covenant spacecraft.

The single player campaign is all fine and dandy, but it wouldn’t be Halo without multiplayer, and multiplayer has received some major upgrades. The ability to customize your character, a la Halo 3, has been completely revamped. Reach’s new Armory feature allows players to customize numerous aspects of their character, from their armor parts to the ability to have confetti explode from their head upon being killed. However, unlike shooters such as Call of Duty, character customization has no impact on actual gameplay. The end result is hundreds of thousands of unique, purely aesthetic, character customizations. In addition, there are a plethora of new maps and game modes.

The cooperative firefight mode from Halo 3: ODST is now a matchmaking mode and boasts a number of improvements and additions. Completely new to matchmaking is the Invasion game mode in which a team of six Spartans take on six Covenant elites in slayer or objective gametypes. Player progress is tracked through a revamped ranking system with higher ranks allowing for greater character customization. Halo 3’s Forge feature has been improved in Reach, allowing players to make their own unique maps and game types. Reach even allows players to upload their creations onto the internets where other players can download them onto their own Xbox 360.

Halo: Reach is far from perfect. The game can often suffer from a low framerate, especially when in pitched combat. The ability to dual-wield weapons is conspicuously absent. The new multiplayer maps, for the most part, seem less inspired than those of past iterations. The campaign is too short. One of the original appeals of Halo was the sheer size and seeming vastness of the individual campaign levels. While Halo 3 captured this feeling, Halo: Reach does not. Most of the action takes place either within buildings or noticeably constrained outdoor environments. Finally, despite being told in Reach’s opening cutscene that your character’s ‘lone wolf’ exploits are over, and that Noble team, your new unit, fights as a group, you still spend much of the game, in the immortal words of Sarah Palin, “Going Rogue!”

All in all, Halo: Reach is a fantastic game, a significant source of procrastination from more important things like schoolwork or going to the bathroom, and a fitting swan song for one of video gaming’s most beloved series. And so, Halo: Reach gets nine new aggressive camel mascots out of ten.