Halo 3: Reach is the 2014 Xbox One re-release (originally released in 2010), ported across to steam in 2019. It answers the question if one Spartan could accomplish so much during the Halo campaign imagine what a specialist team of them could do. I found the campaign quite enjoyable, it’s a lot more desperate than prior entries, combat is as fluid as ever and being at the chronological start of the series sets a distressed pace. It’s also Bungles last entry in the series, before they were replaced by 343 industries. I’d highly recommend getting the bundle, which has 6 Halo entries for maximum savings. One of the only downsides was having to link my steam account to a Microsoft account in order to play.

Story
Reach is often mentioned in other Halo entries, but now you get to experience its final moments and understand how significant the events during its fall were in becoming the turning point of the war. You play as the newest member of Nobel team, Noble 6. While having the history of a lone wolf assassin, you are often paired up with the other specialist Spartan members of Nobel team or the local militia to investigate Covenant sites or attack their forces. The game does a great job of humanising each of the Spartan’s, they aren’t just super soldiers who obey orders but act like people and have their own goals and thoughts. Six quite often talks with the other team members or chats about their experiences, and this becomes a lot more evident as the tone of the game changes from hopeful to desperate as their options run out. There are also hidden datapads which tell a separate side story of a bunch of hidden AI that are debating how to help humanity survive, but this story isn’t as well integrated as the others and doesn’t seem to really lead anywhere.

Gameplay
Gameplay is largely similar to previous entries with a few new additions. As a stable of the series you have a recharging shield but fixed health that can only be healed by health kits. You are still limited to only 2 weapons, and the single use items from Halo 3 have been removed. The visor mode (from ODST) has also been removed, but you can toggle night vision. Swappable suit abilities offer a freah take on things in Reach, where during missions you can say switch sprinting for a jetpack, a clone or limited invulnerability. Campaign progression has returned back to a structured affair with no free play (though you can choose the starting position\checkpoint), and with that you have collectables (some which can only be found on legendary difficulty) to hunt for in each mission with plenty of Easter eggs hidden as well.

In a first for the Halo series the gender of Six can be chosen, and vehicle combat has been greatly expanded to not only include UNSC ground vehicles, but plenty of airborne missions where you primarily fly around destroying targets and other craft, and even one sequence where you are dogfighting enemies in space. These sequences during the missions Upper cut and New Alexandria were my favourites. There’s also a significant lone wolf mode as the last mission where you are on your own and have to survive as long as you can against the endless hordes of the Covenant army.

Being the precursor of the series the game only has Covenant forces (no flood or installation enemies), but more than ODST, and many of the types found in Halo 3. There is a new type introduced, the skirmishers who zip around the battlefield (but aren’t fliers like the drones). There are multiple ranks of each enemy, and each have different loadouts to keep you on your toes. I found that the elites now dodge in unexpected directions and are abit more fleet footed, but all enemies still seem to suffer from only attacking enemies in a fixed area (it’s still quite possible to snipe enemies that are far enough away in some of the larger firefights and they will just stand around). They do use their abilities fairly often to stay in the fight, and are quite adept at flanking.

The AI of team members (either other Spartans or UNSC marines) seem better, with them actually helping in firefights, taking cover, using abilities and not getting killed instantly, but their driving AI is useless, I had multiple instances of the AI instant killing the squad and causing a restart by driving off cliffs, or straight into incoming fire.

Weapons have been changed around again, with most of the turret style weapons being removed entirely (no more flamethrower), and the same existing combos of weapons working quite well together. The DMR replaces the battle rifle and is great at long distances, the shotgun is more accurate at longer ranges, but seems to do less damage up close and the pistol is great from head shots if you can line up the shot. There are a fair few new weapons, including a grenade launcher with alt firing mode, Covenant versions of most weapons, and a beam weapons that is a mix of a few previous entries.

Graphics
While Reach misses the large open expanses of previous entries that made it feel like the stages were a lot more open than what they were it looks very nice. The cities plazas show the invasion damage and the brutes killing people, though damage isn’t as extensive like it was in ODST where there are crashed cars and crumbling buildings. Some of the backgrounds look amazing like the city being glassed and the skyscrapers on fire and billowing smoke, or even the smoky battlefield as you fight non-stop enemies in the aftermath. It was refreshing seeing all the battle damage on each of the Spartans armour, they obviously aren’t getting repaired to fresh status between missions.

Music
The Voice acting was excellent, Reach does an outstanding job of humanising the team of Spartans and those around them. I’d say the music starts off quite different from other Halo games, with it becoming more sombre and less drum/electronic as the situation worsens around mid-game, which is the opposite of how it feels in the other entries. The music is masterfully composed, though like ODST I didn’t hear any takes of the main theme.

Multiplayer
Multiplayer is a given in Halo games, and Reach doesn’t disappoint. It’s still plenty active, and the PvP has plenty of new modes to play with rather than the standard CTF and slayer. There are now defence missions, or more involved invasion missions where the attackers have a series of tasks to complete and vehicles spawn as the game progresses. If you want more of a PvE experience, then there is still the 4 player co-op for the campaign or firefight where you have to take on a few different waves of enemies. There is also the forge, a level editor where you can make and share maps.

Achievements
No. Just no. you would have to be some sort of masochist to try and get 100%. It requires multiple runs including runs on legendary and plenty of multiplayer achievements, as well as co-op to get some of the fiddly single player ones

For more reviews please visit https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/curator/31327216/

Halo 3: Reach is the 2014 Xbox One re-release (originally released in 2010), ported across to steam in 2019. It answers the question if one Spartan could accomplish so much during the Halo campaign imagine what a specialist team of them could do. I found the campaign quite enjoyable, it’s a lot more desperate than prior entries, combat is as fluid as ever and being at the chronological start of the series sets a distressed pace. It’s also Bungles last entry in the series, before they were replaced by 343 industries. I’d highly recommend getting the bundle, which has 6 Halo entries for maximum savings. One of the only downsides was having to link my steam account to a Microsoft account in order to play. [b]Story[/b] Reach is often mentioned in other Halo entries, but now you get to experience its final moments and understand how significant the events during its fall were in becoming the turning point of the war. You play as the newest member of Nobel team, Noble 6. While having the history of a lone wolf assassin, you are often paired up with the other specialist Spartan members of Nobel team or the local militia to investigate Covenant sites or attack their forces. The game does a great job of humanising each of the Spartan’s, they aren’t just super soldiers who obey orders but act like people and have their own goals and thoughts. Six quite often talks with the other team members or chats about their experiences, and this becomes a lot more evident as the tone of the game changes from hopeful to desperate as their options run out. There are also hidden datapads which tell a separate side story of a bunch of hidden AI that are debating how to help humanity survive, but this story isn’t as well integrated as the others and doesn’t seem to really lead anywhere. [b]Gameplay[/b] Gameplay is largely similar to previous entries with a few new additions. As a stable of the series you have a recharging shield but fixed health that can only be healed by health kits. You are still limited to only 2 weapons, and the single use items from Halo 3 have been removed. The visor mode (from ODST) has also been removed, but you can toggle night vision. Swappable suit abilities offer a freah take on things in Reach, where during missions you can say switch sprinting for a jetpack, a clone or limited invulnerability. Campaign progression has returned back to a structured affair with no free play (though you can choose the starting position\checkpoint), and with that you have collectables (some which can only be found on legendary difficulty) to hunt for in each mission with plenty of Easter eggs hidden as well. In a first for the Halo series the gender of Six can be chosen, and vehicle combat has been greatly expanded to not only include UNSC ground vehicles, but plenty of airborne missions where you primarily fly around destroying targets and other craft, and even one sequence where you are dogfighting enemies in space. These sequences during the missions Upper cut and New Alexandria were my favourites. There’s also a significant lone wolf mode as the last mission where you are on your own and have to survive as long as you can against the endless hordes of the Covenant army. Being the precursor of the series the game only has Covenant forces (no flood or installation enemies), but more than ODST, and many of the types found in Halo 3. There is a new type introduced, the skirmishers who zip around the battlefield (but aren’t fliers like the drones). There are multiple ranks of each enemy, and each have different loadouts to keep you on your toes. I found that the elites now dodge in unexpected directions and are abit more fleet footed, but all enemies still seem to suffer from only attacking enemies in a fixed area (it’s still quite possible to snipe enemies that are far enough away in some of the larger firefights and they will just stand around). They do use their abilities fairly often to stay in the fight, and are quite adept at flanking. The AI of team members (either other Spartans or UNSC marines) seem better, with them actually helping in firefights, taking cover, using abilities and not getting killed instantly, but their driving AI is useless, I had multiple instances of the AI instant killing the squad and causing a restart by driving off cliffs, or straight into incoming fire. Weapons have been changed around again, with most of the turret style weapons being removed entirely (no more flamethrower), and the same existing combos of weapons working quite well together. The DMR replaces the battle rifle and is great at long distances, the shotgun is more accurate at longer ranges, but seems to do less damage up close and the pistol is great from head shots if you can line up the shot. There are a fair few new weapons, including a grenade launcher with alt firing mode, Covenant versions of most weapons, and a beam weapons that is a mix of a few previous entries. [b]Graphics[/b] While Reach misses the large open expanses of previous entries that made it feel like the stages were a lot more open than what they were it looks very nice. The cities plazas show the invasion damage and the brutes killing people, though damage isn’t as extensive like it was in ODST where there are crashed cars and crumbling buildings. Some of the backgrounds look amazing like the city being glassed and the skyscrapers on fire and billowing smoke, or even the smoky battlefield as you fight non-stop enemies in the aftermath. It was refreshing seeing all the battle damage on each of the Spartans armour, they obviously aren’t getting repaired to fresh status between missions. [b]Music[/b] The Voice acting was excellent, Reach does an outstanding job of humanising the team of Spartans and those around them. I’d say the music starts off quite different from other Halo games, with it becoming more sombre and less drum/electronic as the situation worsens around mid-game, which is the opposite of how it feels in the other entries. The music is masterfully composed, though like ODST I didn’t hear any takes of the main theme. [b]Multiplayer[/b] Multiplayer is a given in Halo games, and Reach doesn’t disappoint. It’s still plenty active, and the PvP has plenty of new modes to play with rather than the standard CTF and slayer. There are now defence missions, or more involved invasion missions where the attackers have a series of tasks to complete and vehicles spawn as the game progresses. If you want more of a PvE experience, then there is still the 4 player co-op for the campaign or firefight where you have to take on a few different waves of enemies. There is also the forge, a level editor where you can make and share maps. [b]Achievements[/b] No. Just no. you would have to be some sort of masochist to try and get 100%. It requires multiple runs including runs on legendary and plenty of multiplayer achievements, as well as co-op to get some of the fiddly single player ones For more reviews please visit https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/curator/31327216/