Halo: Reach Changed Everything

Halo Reach is a game that has changed my life from the Golden Era of gaming in the Xbox 360 Halo Reach was one of the first games I would stay up till 7:00 in the morning for on a school night and just game and make friends that I still talk to to this day and for this video I want to talk about its campaign also Nathaniel who has commented on every video it's happening you could rest now well rest until the next reach video no further Ado let's just hop right into it after the release of the third installment Halo had become the most popular video game franchise in the world bunge going three for three like the Chicago Gos in the '90s had the studio revered as the gift that kept on giving for Microsoft but they were also looking for an exit plan from the thing that they were most known for and what pretty much made the studio what it is today because sadly knp and Marathon weren't the games that made the shadow people at Microsoft multi-millionaires surprising I know in 2007 shortly after Halo 3's success Bungie was split apart from Microsoft becoming its own company they were still making their last two contracted games but now under the independent collaborative Bungie not Microsoft's Bungie they would then split up its team with around 70 people working on a 3 expansion titled Halo 3 Recon soon to be ODST sold as a full-priced game by Microsoft due to them feeling finessed not wanting to sell it for cheaper because this was at the time where Microsoft was being ran by Mr Eugene Krabs Now They're ran by that one smiling friend CEO with the chicken nuggets it's my IP to sit on and do nothing with Microsoft felt slided because Bungie was using an expansion to finish one game on their contract while the rest of the staff worked on their other original contracted game so with the launch of Halo 3 ODST in 2009 was also the beta Bungie's new coming title Halo reach as well as an Easter egg announcement stating Destiny awaits coming soon will be the 10th anniversary of Destiny but in 2009 which was 15 years ago this was the first ever mention of it but as I said earlier Halo Reach was a contract obligation with Microsoft and Bungie's leads were burnt out after the massive crunch that was Halo 2 as well as the smaller but still crunch that was Halo 3 so yeah after getting whipped and forced to sleep in the offices Bungie did not want to make Halo games anymore no matter how successful they were and we already on Rocky Waters with Microsoft after Halo 3 ODST so wanting to make Destiny Bungie tackled Halo Reach in a way that would make the game still feel authentic to the Halo brand while also testing the creative limits of the studio Halo 3 was a game that didn't do anything too risky to piss people off it took what was good about Halo 2 and CE and perfected them to the best of its ability and the foundations of what made Halo enjoyable it's why Halo 3 is so many people's favorite Halo game if this was going to be their last Halo game ever they were going to make a game that was going to both set up the future and be one less hurrah so Halo Reach became the first ever test dummy to what eventually become Destiny at first this was sound like a bad idea to turn a Halo game into a crash dummy but it was actually the opposite instead of making a safe sequel to Halo 3 with more polygons and better graphics they didn't make Halo 4 and instead took on a challenge to make something they've never made before ditching the safe anchored the Master Chief and the Halo identity that Bungie gained over their last three hit games and instead went out of their comfort zone tackling a real creative challenge that Bungie hasn't had to face since Combat Evolved they made a prequel deviating from what made the studio iconic right before making an original Ip the blam engine was was reinvented from the ground up where a lot of the principles and tactics would eventually get used within the tiger engine that was made for Destiny and the game Loop of Halo once again evolved Halo Reach is a controversial title for this it was on paper the first Halo game that changed the Halo format in a way that made some uncomfortable but where some say reach changing was for the worse I see it as for the better and has a lot of game choices that make him more enjoyable to me even more than a game like three and in comparison to games like four five or infinite reach was the most confident in its changes with the best quality and could as well been the Catalyst for 343 chasing the tales of giants that never live up to feeling the pressure to always evolve like Bungie did for the last game but never quite nailing it down in the start the first piece of controversy for Halo Reach was its existence the Fall Of Reach was a book that came out on October 30th 2001 about a month and a quarter before the release of Halo Combat Evolved to explain the game's introduction the book was ordered to be created by Microsoft and was written by Eric nyen going over Bungie's head following the lore Bible of Combat Evolved Halo reached 2010 is Bungie's version of the Fall Of Reach and reccon the book written by Microsoft and that pissed off a lot of people the Fall Of Reach is enjoyed by many in the old Halo fandom it's a good standalone book and made many not happy with Halo reach's adaptation but let's be honest most people who played Halo Reach were idiots like me in front of the TV at 8 years old are a dad who got home from work cracked open a Guinness and played Invasion a book has a lot of benefits that a game doesn't it can expand a world in its characters heavily over many many hours straight from the thoughts of characters Minds directly where in a game like Halo Reach having the characters speak plain would be jarring and unnatural so you have to use the medium of show don't tell this is a problem with all visual mediums a movie like Dune has to get creative in its presentation to make you understand its World whereas when you read the book you get a more descriptive detail in writing of a setting or the thought processes of characters at the cost of having to use your imagination to interpret the text I like the fall reach as a standalone book getting the origins of the Master Chief and how he killed an ODS which makes me sad now because I like ODSTs but I've always been turned off by outside media having to coexist with in-house media to understand said in house media end of the day Master Chief is a stoic that is really cool and Saves the World and seen as space Jesus to everyone giving hope and happiness but you don't need to know he used to play with worms and has a gluten intolerance you can find that in a book okay that's why they exist so is it really fair to limit Bungie who didn't even have a say in the original Fall Of Reach novel to now limit their telling of the Fall Of Reach and their original game Universe all for a book that 95% of the general fan base didn't read like how the Halo shows now tackled the follow reach the best way to go about these mediums is to see all three things as their own interpretations and take it as it is because at the end of the day the planet Falls and master chief takes over all drains lead to the ocean so with all that being said I love the direction of how Halo is actually displayed from Bungie's Vision in its campaign a drastic change in Halo Reach is the existence of Spartan 3s Spartan 3s are not Spartan 2os like the master chief or the Spartans before him with markv harmer they're instead a more cheaper disposable line of Spartan with the core difference being that they have more Humanity in comparison to a Spartan 2 similar to the Dynamics of ODSTs Spartan 3s benefit heavily from cooperation which is where you come in being the third big change to Halo reach as a Spartan you're not the master chief instead you're the six member of Noble Team which is your new Squad noble 6 is a character I've always had a deep love for in Halo as a kid I thought he was cool and heroic but playing him again for this video and this position of life I'm in has made me appreciate the character way more at a glance noble 6 seems like another self-insert for a main character like you see from any other game but noble 6 is vague enough to still be a vessel for the player while also still being unique enough to be his own independent person this isn't me as a random Spartan or the rookie ODST this is me as noble 6 like the master chief noble 6 is a able Lethal Weapon that could be efficient one alone but unlike the master chief noble 6 isn't so strong that he could take out scarabs single-handedly and give the Covenant back their bomb also noble 6 is nobody and I just said that we're noble 6 so I guess we're nobody as well from the start of the game until reach Falls a feeling of dread and unimportance lingers around you noble 6 in the start is unimportant and by the end when you put the controller down and stop playing as him he's also forgotten after seeing the predetermined outcome at the start of the game with your cracked helmet in the future over grown reach you then start at the beginning when you first leave your warhog and quickly this feeling of uneasiness lurks you're the new guy that no one knows anything about even as a player you don't know anything about yourself you're a ghost replacement for someone that once had chemistry with Noble Team but this isn't unique and this is because everyone besides Noble one and Noble 2 have also replaced Fallen members of Noble Team addressed by your commander he introduces you to your new team seeing you as the last piece that makes Noble up to full strength you're given a quick rundown of your squadmates as they head out the door without even addressing you still Commander Carter EAS es you into being a team player tearing you away from your past now to be a part of something new something better Colonel this is Noble one the Covenant are on reach repeat no two noble 6 Noble 5 do you come the greatest thing Halo Reach does is display hope as this dwindling candle flame from mission to Mission throughout the course of its campaign a subversion to Halo 3 where the tagline for all the marketing was believe the concept of a Spartan is self is to represent hope Spartans never die they just go missing in action this is constantly echoed throughout the Halo games but this hope is not in reach the tagline for this game's marketing wasn't believe but rather remember reach it's another reason why I prefer noble 6 to the master chief there's something cool about the chosen savior of humanity Trope but maybe I'm just more of a sad person now as I get older or I just really like seeing the realism of things not going the way you want to and stuff just not meeting your expectations and having a guy fueled by hopeless adversity that's just trying his best while being being more human is just really compelling to me can you tell I played Red Dead recently Halo 3 ODST had this feeling displayed in its tone and surroundings when you played as the rookie it was somber and dark but in game you still find your friends all being alive at that ending the game on a positive note but there is nothing uplifting in Halo reach the Lone Wolf is thrown into an unwanted conflict where he plays a rigged game he's unaware of and little by little the daunting truth that he's playing this rig game becomes more apparent the harder he tries to fight against it unlike any other of the Halo games reaches the most most serious in its tone relying on World building as its sole source for storytelling the Covenant are not Whimsical or funny in any interaction like how they were displayed in previous games here they are brutal and intimidating torturing soldiers killing civilians killing Spartans not just random Spartans some are even your own squadmates all while still being intelligent ruthless and mysterious they don't speak English and instead speak in their own unique language to each other feeling truly foreign being even more disconnected from Humanity you don't learn about their purpose like Halo 2 or get the perspective from the other side all you see is the aftermath of their actions from the perspective of a soldier even with Noble Team the UNC Oni your perspective is just as V Noble team is developed by the world around them not by your progression with them you ain't going on fishing trips and hunting to learn about cat in a meal you're just the fly on the wall in a conflict larger than yourself and within the team you're still just the new guy so until the ending you answer to Carter who answers to the higher train of command either it be only defenses are simple un missions and even then he's still in the dark sometimes reach uses its levels to flesh out your teammates as you progress through the Battle of reach you will fight with specific members and missions that make the most sense to their unique skill and through these missions you get to learn about the personalities of whatever member you're hanging out with the first mission you play where you don't even know that the Covenant are on reach yet you're on the ground with your squad looking at trash trying to see what's going on while your Marksman is in the sky avoiding ground conflict and the thing that stuck out to me fast was George's interactions with the locals the heavy gunner who was once a Spartan 2 surprisingly had the most Humanity on the squad and as the game kept going with the little time reach had they sold every character's personality to me one of the best cut scenes is also around the start of the game it's the engage one that split into two parts that one cut scene that has the awesome ass camera movement from a firstperson perspective where you punch in the face the entire cut scene displays the personalities of each Noble Team Member cat is focused but lacks hindsight George is emotional but delusional Emil is prideful and Carter is a great leader that cares for a squad and you noble 6 are the lone wolf and the way these traits are fleshed out is by interactions displayed through the camera and throughout the missions the World building of reach also applies to Noble Team you're not told the origins of each member are what made them stand out to get assigned you're instead shown why they are on the team the uniqueness of noble team is displayed visually from their armor to how they move to how they speak you see it all and this Humanity of noble team is also used to help display reach's Narrative of fading hope slip space ruptor detected are you reading [Music] this s at first Halo Reach kid seem traditional a group of Heroes doing things to save their home then reach decides to pull that rug from under you undermining every action you do at first the planet reach is green and beautiful full of clear skies and Wildlife and shortly after finding out that the Covenant are on reach you go to sword base I point this Mission out specifically because you play on sword base twice once at the start of the campaign and then again at the end and the visual difference from just the environment alone shows you the toll of the War and who is winning reach is visually rotting throughout your playthrough chipping away and away as you are still holding on to hope of saving every way you contribute is just wasting time fighting a fire with nothing but a sand bucket pushing back against the inevitable you enter a battle after a scouting Mission thinking that you have the upper hand and you fight your way to a communication Spire to then blow up the Spire thinking you made an impact just have everything be undone and a blink of an eye sending you five steps back from where you just were which was already five steps back doomed in waiting for backup Noble Team still clings on to hope with this hope you do a whole scheme fight to space fight in space and after all this fighting now is the chance to save everyone by blowing up the Covenant Mothership requiring a sacrifice to detonate manually the one with the most Humanity on the squad kills himself to protect his home but like I said earlier George has a lot of humanity but is also delusional this is not only displayed in his interaction with ail but also with Hy thinking Oni cares about anyone but themselves even the rest of Noble Team knows that Onie doesn't give a [ __ ] about them so sacrificing himself to save reach meant nothing because it was undermined in a instant a whole Fleet of the same Mother Ship you just fought to blow up replaces it instantly sending you back 15 Steps from where you just were which was already 10 steps back George died for nothing Landing back on Reach Noble Six is in the aftermath of this Invasion fighting in the results of this pointless sacrifice you still hold on to Hope fighting to save the innocent people of New Alexandria firsthand you get to bask in the brutality of the Covenant slaughtering both civilians and soldiers alike you rescue those you can and watch the city continue to burn and fall you're doing nothing and that hope you had is fading more and more you're making no impact in this war yet you keep fighting and you keep fighting until you regroup with Noble Team you address Georgia sacrifice and brainstorm what to do next well cat brainstorms what to do next everyone else doesn't even know if there's anything to fight for anymore so far in the story cat has been the sole person holding on to hope she sketched out the plan for George's Sacrifice by using classified Oni data she stole earlier in the game and right now she's tapping into higher coms to discover that Spartans are now being told to stop fighting and instead take a defensive stance for evacuation except for Noble Team while being smart and cunning like I said cat is also oblivious and lacks hindsight she's still scheming up plans and strategies holding on to this hope when the war is already lost and you have now been sent on a new Mission cat's death was the most shocking and impactful to me in the game because in comparison to everyone else it was the most realistic she didn't die on a Last Stand or heroic sacrifice like the others she died mid conversation mid strategy abruptly because of human error she died because she was scared and distracted on getting everyone to safety while disagreeing with higher-up commands while still thinking of a new plan and she got caught off guard you even saw this earlier when a combo of distraction and fear made her miss the button on your guys' elevator which was a mistake that made both her and you lag behind everyone else because as I said earlier cat's weakness is hindsight and distraction that focus without awareness got her caught by haly this focus without awareness is how she lost her arm in the promotional trailer and here it's what got her killed the death of cat also marks the turning point of reach hope dies with cat the person who had a plan and was holding on to faith dies while also accomplishing nothing Carter holds her body as you look at the same New Alexandria you fought so hard to defend on both land and Sky collapsing and on fire and as you heard earlier from the radio in the elevator conversation there are no more Trick cards or hidden plants up your sleeve it's over you lost reach and now the plan is to get the people who are still alive off of it heading to sword base the game feels different you are no longer fighting to make an impact or change the war but instead just surviving to complete a mission you know nothing about fighting through a same location that is now thrashed and overrun like I said earlier visually you could see the wars toll on reach the Skybox the environments it's horrible then getting where you need to be you see soldiers dead where you get the two different perspectives of Carter and June we'll talk about this later but it's a nice and subtle example of how they both see situations after fighting and much skepticism of what you're doing it's revealed that the team has been misdirected the mission is not a torch and burn off where you blow up sword base it's not even a standard UNC Mission it's something entirely new I've been going on about how Halo Reach is hopeless and depressing and yeah the game up to this point is pretty miserable but still Halo is a franchise about Hope and reach is no different even though it might not feel this way on the surface Halo reach's hope is just delivered in a different package the hope of Halo Reach is never going to be from saving reach itself we behind the screen already knew that it was going to fall and at some point Noble Team knows this as well but hope in this game comes in a different way not from saving reach but rather saving the people who can then save everyone later in the dark still Carter is told by Hy the importance of what they have been called for for and after defending Hy you are shown what this New Hope is no one's death was for nothing even cat stolen data from earlier has helped contribute you all were chosen for something greater to help all of humanity by putting your last bit of Hope and getting this tool to the guy who could save everyone and then after all that Cortana chooses you noble 6 to specifically deliver her so now you have an attainable goal to fight for again you need to get off reach with this package and Noble te needs to help you get there no matter the cost June doesn't assist Noble on the suicide mission being the most evasive and cold of the group he sent to make sure Hy doesn't get into enemy hands not get to safety like the package but not get into enemy hands the road to the pillar of autumn is brutal with only three Noble team members left Carter is injured in near death making himself a distraction as you take the rest of the journey on foot with the Scarab in the way of you and a meal the journey once again feels hopeless you're not the master chief you're not going to single-handedly take down the Scarab so Carter sacrifices himself to save a squad like the good leader he is resparking that hope again you and Emil then fight your way to The Landing Pad now at the retrieval Point Emil s sacrifices his life offering to stay on reach by taking the turret to kill all Covenant flying vehicles that could interfere with package pickup he will die with the planet to make sure you get to safety almost at the hands of Victory the hands of safety the Zealot that has stalked you the whole game the one from the start the one that killed cat is now here for a final strike a surprise attack on Emil has him striking down the Zealot after winning and getting boastful Emil is then surprise attacked and as prideful as he is he takes that same Zealot to the Grave with him dying for a cause dying to save you and everyone else now with no no one toand that gun you give Admiral Keys the package and Pay It Forward staying on reach giving up your salvation also everyone could have a chance so everyone could later have hope and with the sacrifice it's over you're left behind with all the other Spartans dying for the same cause no Trick cards no salvation you did your job and you still don't get peace you fight till your last breath and die like how you started this journey alone the hope of reach is showing this to you it's not just the reality of being a Spartan but the reality of being a hero a good person a truly selfless person each member of Noble Team fell into situations of Valor none were cowards are people looking out for their best interest if June had to jump on a grenade he would as well to save everyone that's the humanity of Spartan 3s these are characters who do nothing and lose and fight through adversity to not win but give someone else a chance to and when they have the opportunity to go out loud it's not to save the day but rather fail with honor and purpose noble 6 is not important he's not memorable and he has no Legacy but even without the light shining on him he still did what needed to be done Noble Team tried they tried their best knowing there was no light at the end of the tunnel but rather Hope on the other side of it and that's why reach is my favorite Halo campaign because to me it's a true display of Hope contact with vizrad relay was lost last night I responded with Trooper fire teams which have since been declared Mia and now you're sending us that's cat Noble 2 me and George 4 and 5 neighbors were attacked last night he heard screams gunfire stopped around Sunrise says something in the fields killed his son command be advised I'm reading heat signatures and that structure directly east of your position barely getting you what's your situation over Colonel this is Noble one the Covenant are on reach Come Again Noble one did you say Covenant can't be not on reach as per the winter contingency we are cing on I know we're losing I want to know if we've lost we all make it sooner or later reach has been good to me time has come to return the favor slip space ruptor detected are you reading this sign repeat this is [Music] two can't be happening CL the doors faster I've got the M I'm ready how about you when reach Falls and it will fall our Annihilation is all but certain good luck to you Spartan they'll be remembered your body your Armor All burned turned and turned to Glass everything except your courage

Channel: Doktor Skipper

Views: 45,200

Keywords: Doktor Skipper, Dr Skipper, doctor skipper, skipper, halo reach cutscenes, halo reach lone wolf, halo reach gameplay, halo reach theme, halo video essay, halo lore, halo reach, halocene, halo season 2, halo infinite, video essay, dallas mavericks, halo reach deaths, halo reach emile, halo reach jorge, halo reach kat, halo reach carter, master chief, noble six

Id: FrGTFROzaRs

Length: 21min 22sec (1282 seconds)

Published: Fri May 31 2024