Halo Reach: Second opinions.

Second opinions are articles stating other writer's opinions on a game that's already been reviewed. For the official Halo: Reach review, click here

So, the games been out about a month, Dan supplied us with a wonderful review, but i have beef. Yes, BEEF. Not the meat of a cow, but some metaphorical "beef". Yes, Halo Reach is a good game. It's pretty much at the pinnacle of the shooter genre, displaying a vast array of modes and options which make it infinitely playable, and a multiplayer component that will make you drool. In this article i'll mostly be talking campaign beef. Although I do have some more beef with a certain multiplayer map. The map in question? Sword base.


I just have a problem with this map, I'll tell you why... So, i play the "SWAT" game type which means little health, everybody uses a "battle rifle" and no grenades. It's my favorite, and in my opinion, fairest mode in the game. Now, i've been playing Reach for the past week online with no problems, I've had fellow writer Ocarina Of Lime playing alongside the whole time, all through the campaign and through tens and tens of multiplayer matches. Unfortunately, we managed to stumble across these two players we'll call... "The douches", there's a place in the map where a one way "air lift" brings you up into a small rectangular room which only has one exit on the far left upon ascension. Now, the lift fly's you right into the middle of the room, so if someone were hiding directly against the wall of which the air lift came through, you're an open target. This is where the problem lies. The douches sat either side of the air lift opening, not moving, picking off anyone who used the air lift. To make matters worse, they have a clear view of anyone passing by outside, and picked them off too. One of them had their aim on head height on the landing point of the air lift for an instant head-shot there, and the other had their aim focused head height on the door out, essentially, they were un-killable through lack of any grenades to flush them out of these positions. The thing that annoyed us about this was not the fact that they were winning because of this tactic, but because there was certainly no fun involved for those players, they weren't moving, and clearly weren't enjoying playing the game so much that they wanted to put any effort in, and once the games stopped being fun, why keep playing? So you can ruin the fun of other, newer players like me and Lime? I dunno, but it was certainly not something I wish to repeat, as it just sucks the fun out of the game, which is a reason I don't understand camping, but I'll leave that for another time.


The campaign... Eh, i liked the overall feeling of the campaign, and it certainly made me think about and explore the lore of Halo by the end, especially inspiring me to play through Halo: CE again, however, it was "meh". I mean, really "meh". Other Halo campaigns have stuff you remember, stories to tell, set pieces - like in Halo 2, when you're trying to take down the scarab, or in Halo 3, when you're escaping Halo in a warthog whilst the place is collapsing around you. These were moments i would want to play again and again, and Reach is really lacking in this area. The only "set piece" i can really remember was the space segment, but I found that lack-luster, and the end of the level melodramatic. The only moment I'd go back for would be the absolute last level after the credits, but that's essentially the same as a certain other mode. It needs more epic moments, it's lacking them, much like ODST, my least favorite in the series.

As for the narrative... It makes me shudder, i mean, it's cool what they did at the end, and the whole hopelessness of the situation is cool. But the whole story just seems to serve up as each member of the "noble" team sacrificing themselves in a "noble" way as if it's some ironic statement. I mean, one guy who stays behind for the better of his crew is enough for any film, comic, TV show or game, whatever. But... Three!? Come on! The voicework on anybody but the character you play as is also so bad that even if the deaths were sad they'd come off melodramatic. Probably my last gripe would be that nothing actually seems to happen until about mission 6, more than half-way through the game. Me and Lime played a level a day because they were so dull until that level, and then we blasted our way through to the end because we began to actually enjoy the game. Nothing can beat Halo 2 though, in my opinion, Halo campaign wise.

Overall, i agree that this game does get all it deserves, but it's surprisingly poor in some area's, like narrative and voice work. As always, multiplayer douches can, and will, piss you off. However, it's definitely worth the money, and if you still don't own Reach, go get your copy!

Image credit: www.venturebeat.com, www.wedonetwork.com and www.thegate.ca respectively