Halo: Reach
2010
- shooter
- action
- science fiction
- warfare
- single player
- multiplayer
- co-operative
- split screen
The story
Halo: Reach is a first-person shooter set in 2552, serving as a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved. Players control Noble Six, a member of Noble Team, an elite squad of Spartan supersoldiers defending the human colony world of Reach from a Covenant invasion. The game features campaign gameplay playable solo or cooperatively, with armor abilities replacing single-use equipment from previous entries. Multiplayer includes competitive modes, a Firefight survival mode, and Forge World, a large-scale level editor. The game also introduces space combat dogfight sequences to the series.
What it’s like
Washed-out greens and burnt oranges under a heavy, overcast sky, with the planet's fields and ruined suburbs rendered in the gritty, weathered texture of a military sci-fi shooter. Sound does much of the work: a low, anxious score swells in the quiet stretches between firefights, then gives way to the crack of rifles, the drone of Banshees overhead, and the heavy thud of Covenant plasma. The rhythm is taut and relentless, with long, tense approaches broken by sudden bursts of chaos and a clear sense of being outnumbered. Its mood is grim, sombre and bittersweet, a slow dread built around a doomed last stand that never quite tips into despair. Violence is constant and stylised rather than gory, mostly alien and robot enemies, with brief moments of human loss handled with restraint. It suits an evening of focused, adrenaline-driven play, and it's for players who want a campaign with weight and camaraderie, plus co-op and sprawling multiplayer when they feel like sharing the fight.
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