The Halo I Was Wrong About – Halo: Reach Retrospective

[Music] if i'm being completely honest with you i wasn't overly enamored by halo reach the first time i played it sure i enjoyed it but it didn't get its hooks into me to anywhere near the same extent as halo combat evolved 2 and 3 did games i couldn't put down for weeks or even months after i'd started playing them and so reach sat on a shelf for a while alone unloved until i decided to give it another try i played it again and i felt myself starting to warm to it so soon after i played it again and again and again now having lost count of how many times i've actually played its campaign in the years since its 2010 release i want to use this video as an opportunity to hold up my hands and say i was wrong it's not a game which deserves to be left on the shelf as it's blooming marvelous and over the course of this video i want to try and better explain what i like what i don't and how it all comes together to create an unforgettable game which i'll never leave to gather dust again and to do that i want to start by talking very briefly about halo 3 odst and reach we'll talk about reach 2. i find odst to be a fascinating experience as in many ways it feels like a proof of concept for the more fully formed reach many of the key pieces which comprise reach are first seen in odst and this makes for a smooth transition especially in tone when playing through the series in release order reach may lack the moody jazz tones accompanied by long periods spent in near darkness which underscored bungie's intentions so beautifully in odst but the idea of a story focused on the squad rather than the soldier on fighting what is ostensibly a losing battle on the impact the war with the covenant had on humanity is one which permeates both it cannot be overstated just how brave a decision it was by bungie to conclude their tenure with the release of two games which are generally much less triumphant in tone than what came prior there would have been huge temptation i'd imagine for bungie to end their time with the series with one more story of master chief's heroism to give fans what they likely clamored for one last time before heading off into the sunset to find a new destiny that is patently not what they decided to do however and i'd argue it was a huge risk for them to finish their era with a pair of stories that do not feature master chief and also include extremely sobering subject matter if they dropped the ball and didn't manage to deliver bungie's legacy could have forever been tarnished by the question why didn't they just play it safe and give us exactly what we wanted but stick to their guns bungie did delivering a pair of games that share all the hallmarks of a halo title from a gameplay perspective while deviating massively in terms of tone and atmosphere amongst the many setbacks there are short-lived moments of joy in both odst and reach but tales of complete unquestionable victory they are not throughout halo's original trilogy there are moments where it looks like all may be lost [Music] however there's also a sense of inevitability to proceedings the feeling that no matter how bleak things may be master chiefs and by extension humanity's triumph will be cemented by the story's end odst and reach 2 share a sense of inevitability but it's very much the inverse of what you may have become accustomed to during your time with halos 1-3 if the original trilogy story is a novel which weaves a grand narrative of eventual success then odst and reach are bleak short stories they are not long-form epics about overpowering an enemy but rather briefer tales about being overpowered you could never get away i don't think with creating a trilogy that functions in a similar manner to reach with the player character's fate sealed and not in a good way by its finish it would be a sour note for such a huge time investment to end on and so it makes perfect sense that reach and odst function almost as one-off tails both have plenty of connections to the wider halo story that cannot be argued but equally they can also be enjoyed by newcomers to the series who have perhaps had less exposure to halo's overarching narrative with regards to this new more somber approach to tone and atmosphere halo reach sets out its stall from minute 1 opening with the now famous shot of noble 6's helmet lying abandoned atop the scorched earth and the game concludes with a similarly framed but far more hopeful scene six's helmet remains a remnant of a conflict which ended nearly 40 years prior and as dr catherine halsey delivers her rousing monologue it becomes clear that reach is a planet which is seemingly risen from the ashes our victory your victory was so close i wish you could have lived to see it but you belong to reach your body your armor all burned and turned to glass everything except your courage that you gave to us and with it we can rebuild these scenes being the first and last you witness creates a wonderful symmetry between the game's beginning and its end they essentially bookend the entire experience but they also serve other functions too in their most practical form they are there to juxtapose the cutscenes and gameplay directly connected to them halo reach is relatively slow to get started with its introduction to six and the rest of noble team followed immediately by a period of gameplay involving no combat whatsoever and so the opening helmet scene works as both something of a foil to that and as foreshadowing helping raise the stakes and create intrigue before the spell of relative tranquility which comes after conversely the helmet scene at the end of the campaign serves to soften the blow from what is perhaps the game's most brutal sequence just moments before during which nobel 6 makes his final stand before at long last succumbing to the covenant onslaught neither their symmetry nor the juxtapositions they create are what's most important about them however for me it's how succinctly they together visually summarize what the game is all about the effect the conflict had on noble team and reach and the effect noble team and reach had on the conflict indeed it's this combination of people and place which acts as the emotional core around which the entire game is built noble team are of course the stars of the show character-wise to a degree i don't think i'd acknowledged internally until i began working on this video and it would be no exaggeration to say that there is a severe dearth of strong supporting characters in halo reach dr hulsey remains a semi-consistent presence adding moments of intrigue where appropriate professor sorvath's final entry in his field notes made reference to a latchkey discovery latchkey not a word he would use lightly captain keys helps add sufficient gravitas to some of the game's final get scenes we got to get the hell out of here negative i have the gun good luck sir good luck to you spartan and that's about it this is in stark contrast to the original trilogy which features a supporting cast positively overflowing with diverse and engaging characters in halo combat evolved alone you're introduced to master chief cortana keys johnson guilty spark and foe hammer and that list only continues to swell the further the trilogy progresses while i absolutely would consider reach to be a little anemic on this front i'm also not convinced there was really any way around it properly introducing not one but six new spartans is a daunting enough proposition in and of itself especially given the average run time of a halo title and to include many more faces would i think have been detrimental to the overall experience reach's campaign lasts somewhere in the region of 8 to 10 hours and this is around the perfect length any shorter and it begins to feel too much like a side story in the vein of odst too much longer and it would begin to outstay its welcome and with that being the case bungie's decision to focus almost exclusively on noble team was undoubtedly the correct one noble team is made up of a collection of what i'd describe as action movie character archetypes you have carter the heroic leader cat the brains of the operation george the gruff muscle june the stealthy sniper emile the off-kilter close combat specialist and last but not least noble six himself the silent but deadly player character detractors made claim that the squad is wholly unoriginal in terms of its makeup and i'd be inclined to agree but at the same time i do think these baseline character traits were something of a necessity as mentioned introducing six entirely new spartans for one game and one game only is no mean feat and so these familiar foundations upon which each member of noble team was developed helped ease some of the burden in terms of storytelling they were something bungie could build off giving them more freedom to focus their efforts on other areas let's not kid ourselves either many of the characters in halo's original trilogy weren't much different to begin with and it took time and sometimes multiple games for many of them to become more nuanced master chief began life as a stoic space marine sure you wouldn't rather take a seat we'll be fine johnson was introduced as the loudmouthed army sergeant once again it is our job to finish with the fly force starter we are leaving this ship platoon and engaging the covenant on solid ground when we meet the enemy we will rip their skulls from their spine and toss them away laughing and cortana started out to some degree at least as the wisecracking sidekick now would be a very good time to leave they're all characters we know and love after appearances in several games but i never tried to make the claim that every aspect of them was entirely original to begin with either noble six is the star of the show when it comes to halo reach and he is handled brilliantly in fact i find him to be particularly interesting as a lot of his story is told visually as much as it is through dialogue especially during reach's second half he's very much a man in the mould of master chief himself cool calm and collected and with so many other spartans vying for the spotlight his quiet demeanor makes a lot of sense as it allows the other members of noble team as much time as possible to take center stage he begins with the reputation of being a lone wolf just one thing i've seen your file even the parts the oni sensors didn't want you to glad to have your skill set but we're a team that lone wolf stuff stays behind clear got it sir and exudes an air of confidence despite being the newest member of the squad which i suppose is appropriate given his hyper-lethal designation at the start of winter contingency cat has to stop him from marching directly up to carter and at the beginning of exodus around the game's midpoint you witness him clutching the recently deceased george's dog tags seemingly with thoughts of retribution on his mind but just a single mission later that resolve has clearly been broken to some degree as he sits for lawns slumped in a pelican watching the city of new alexandria burn during one of reach's strongest moments [Music] [Music] soon after however he finds new resolve battling his way to captain keys to deliver cortana and he volunteers his life to ensure the captain makes it back to the pillar of autumn safely thus ensuring the events of halo combat evolved can take place all of the scenes or parts of scenes you've just witnessed during that round up feature no dialogue whatsoever and yet they give great insights into events and six's reaction to them he may have been a man of few words but his character arc remained engaging regardless and by the story's conclusion you really root for him which was incredibly important given his death was the emotional crescendo around which the game's conclusion was structured examining noble six's death in its simplest form there's some irony to the manner in which his story ends considered a lone wolf at the start of reach he becomes a real team player by its conclusion yet ultimately has no choice but to die alone however while his death is that of a lone wolf in its most literal sense in many ways it's quite the opposite noble six died to give humanity a fighting chance and i think it would be fair to say his and by extension noble team's efforts did not go in vain and so he is both lone wolf and quite the opposite a figure who is left to fight alone and yet is also the embodiment of humanity's collective spirit in terms of the rest of noble team george is many people's other favorite spartan featured in halo reach and that's hardly a surprise considering he receives the most attention out of all of them other than noble six of course there's a great scene that gives you better insight into his character towards the beginning of the game when carter asked george to question a woman who witnessed the covenant's attack except george doesn't really do that at all and instead opts for a far more empathetic approach find out what she knows what's your name do you live around here [Music] friend of yours father shaina i'm sorry why would you be is the idea of the big strong soldier also being the most caring a particularly original one much like the character archetypes noble team are based on no it's not but a lack of originality isn't necessarily indicative of a lack of execution and here bungie executes perfectly it's a really tender moment that illustrates his genuine care for the citizens of reach while also alluding to his background through his use of hungarian and understanding of the planet's regional dialects george's death is also handled brilliantly a native who said he would never leave he dies in space above it volunteering his life to destroy a covenant ship so the planet had a fighting chance of survival at current velocity 53 seconds to enter oh yeah news is time is fried i'm gonna have to fire it manually that's a one-way trip we all make it sooner or later better get going six they're gonna need you down there listen reach has been good to me time has come to return don't deny me this [Music] tell her to make it count before his sacrifice is immediately rendered worthless as an entire covenant fleet arrives on the scene to replace it detected he may be a spartan the best humanity has to offer but here again it's his love for his home planet which comes through strongest earlier in the game he was comforting those who had lost their loved ones during the conflict and during long night of solace it's his turn to give his life for the cause at the end of the day he's just another citizen trying to protect his home and there's something very humbling about that which makes the ultimate futility of his actions hit home much harder than they otherwise would have looking at reach's story in retrospect it's hardly a surprise george received the attention he did his death the scene which follows are the climactic moments of the first half of the game and the biggest turning point in its story and so i assume bungie really focused on his character during the first half of the game to help ensure that this unexpected turn of events carried as much emotional weight as possible cat follows closely behind george in the character stakes her text specialism makes her by far the most useful member of noble team and the amount of screen time she's given reflects that she's more willing than any other character to push back on carter and have frank honest conversations with him you didn't answer my question you want to know for losing i know we're losing i want to know if we've lost like george the other well fleshed out spartan her death is also another mission concluding climactic moment we're being redeployed to sword base sword covenant own it now which is why they want us for torch and burn up keep dr halsey's excavation data from falling into enemy hands it hasn't already maybe but according to holland the covenant are still hunting for something where does he get off calling a demolition a priority once [Music] and given that's the case i don't think it's a stretch to make the claim that the amount of care and attention paid to each character directly correlates to how dramatic their death is cat's death comes out of nowhere and is wonderfully shocking you could liken it to a horror movie jump scare in that it's designed to surprise by occurring when least expected during a period of relative calm but at the same time it is in keeping with the idea reach so often pushes that not all spartans are master chief and that even humanity's strongest have an air of fragility about them it's the only death of its kind in the series and most other characters demises tend to be accompanied by at least some fanfare or one last act of heroism and so i think it hits the mark both within the context of the franchise and reach itself as an unexpected gut punch remaining on this topic for a moment we must also not forget that like noble 6 there's no small amount of irony in the ways the rest of noble team meet their makers and their deaths are some of my favorite parts of the entire game as discussed noble 6 dies a lone wolf despite becoming a team player during the campaign george the demolitions expert quoted as saying he'd never leave reach is killed by an explosion in space above the planet cat an expert in technology is shot dead due to a shield malfunction possibly caused by the covenant's glassing of reach june was a sniper used on reconnaissance and stealth missions and he disappears alongside dr hulsey his fate left unclear although it is later confirmed in the expanded universe that he lived to fight another day carter is the leader who goes down with his ship and he's soon followed by close quarters combat expert emil who was killed by an elite wielding a sword each suffers a fate in keeping with the archetype they represent and they are the best example in reach of bungie taking the relatively unoriginal and adding a really clever twist to proceedings clever deaths or not there are unfortunately three characters who are given fairly short shrift by bungie compared to noble six george and cat and they are carter june and emile carter and june suffer most with both given very little to do in the grand scheme of things ever present until the very end of the story carter certainly doesn't want for exposure but bungie also seemingly thought that was more than enough he does all the things the leaders should do but little beyond that and i never got the sense that there's a real person backing everything up june may as well be a blank slate and he is in a way the character i mourn most long night of solace in your time spent with george proved that missions teaming you up with another member of noble team could help add real narrative weight but unfortunately nightfall is one of the weaker missions in reach's campaign and by the time it reaches its close you've no better sense of who june really is than you did at its beginning emil at least gets a little more time in the sun he's the final member of noble team to meet his maker other than noble six and his sarcastic often pessimistic comments do add flavor to squad dialogue which is always well written but at times can be very to the point big man forgets what he is sometimes she just lost her father she needs a full psychiatric workup she's not the only one lock it down both of you get her on her feet the body stays here thank you sir it's also worth noting george's body language and the way he reacts to a meal during the scene you've just witnessed while i would have enjoyed more moments showcasing each member of noble team's personality and their relationships with other characters bungie does succeed in at least telling some of that story through body language and the way cutscenes are blocked it's not necessarily enough to replace real and genuine character development but every so often if you're paying attention you might notice a detail or two which gives you further insight into a member of the team through their physicality rather than their words i've already highlighted george squaring up to a meal and earlier cat stopping noble six from approaching carter but there's plenty more besides it's very impressive work by the team at bungie responsible for creating reach's cutscenes and no other game in the series even comes close to matching them in this regard everything i've talked about so far character-wise is mostly wonderful but i'd be remiss if i didn't mention the one issue reach suffers from in this area which as you might have guessed is depth when thinking about how much bungie had to pack into the game's run time it's not overly surprising that something had to give somewhere in fact with six spartans having to be introduced and the story of an entire planet needing to be told over the course of one campaign i'd argue it was almost inevitable that compromises would need to be made when bungie gets it right they get it really right with examples i've just highlighted such as the more intimate moments ironic deaths and fantastically blocked scenes being real standouts yet i can't help but feel like bungie didn't manage to expand upon the characters to quite the extent i would have liked using familiar archetypes allowed bungie to spend less time building each character from a completely blank slate but because reach's plot moves at such a pace there wasn't time to explore each member of noble team as much as they could have done as mentioned when talking about george you do get moments which shed light on the individual every now and then but especially later on in the campaign they're few and far between and i would have loved to have seen a lot more of them as they definitely add to the reach experience an extra mission or two i think would have worked wonders giving bungie a little more wiggle room when it came to fleshing out noble team outside of the conflict the conflict often dictates the pace of exposition and so including a little more story prior to the covenants attack i believe would have given bungie the breathing room they needed to give us better insight into each character's aspirations backstory and relationships with other members of the team noble team is present as much as anything else to add colour to the story but it's when its members are given the opportunity to show real and genuine depth that they perhaps shine brightest and during these moments which are less frequent than they could have been they do shine very brightly indeed something i just touched on is the story's pace and it perhaps negatively affecting character development and i think this is a good moment to clarify that a plot which moves rapidly isn't necessarily a bad thing reach's story certainly progresses very quickly which makes sense given it centers on an invasion where speed pays dividends but because it's so well structured it never feels like too much this is because it adheres to a storytelling model some of you may be familiar with known as the three-act structure which consists of the setup the confrontation and the resolution the setup is covered by the mission's winter contingency only sword base and nightfall you come face to face with the covenant during winter contingency you learn of the mysterious latchkey discovery during only sword base and at the end of the act during nightfall discover that the covenant threat is a far larger one than you may have first assumed tip of the spear long night of solace and exodus deal with the confrontation you take the fight to the enemy and tip of the spear you head into space with george to destroy a corvette before a larger fleet arrives the game's midpoint twist and the act concludes with noble six battling his way through the city of new alexandria as the covenant begin to take control of the planet last but not least new alexandria the package the pillar of autumn and lone wolf provide the resolution new alexandria establishes that the battle for reach is one that can no longer be won the package wraps up the mystery surrounding what halsey's been up to and the pillar of autumn concludes the story as cortana is safely collected by keys leading into the start of halo combat evolved [Music] with lone wolf then providing reach with its final somber but extremely memorable moments as noble six's fate is revealed bungie uses the three-act structure incredibly successfully across the nine main missions and lone wolf the playable epilogue although the story does take a while to really get going with reach's second half in my view the stronger of the two there's never really any real lull in proceedings something the second halves of halo combat evolved and halo 2 do in my view suffer from each of the story's three acts only lasts for around three missions or so and until the very end of the campaign the stakes are constantly being raised which makes for a series of very smooth transitions between the trio what makes reach's very traditional structure work even better than it has any right to is how the planet is used as a setting both it and the game's characters are used as tools to drive home the story's themes such as hope despair and fragility but it's the planet of reach in particular which i believe does most of the heavy lifting it's the story of the conflict itself which keeps things moving forward it is absolutely not a setting-driven plot and its characters have their moments within it but ultimately it's one that wouldn't be anywhere near as effective without bungie using reach as a backdrop as brilliantly as it so often does bungie uses an extraordinary number of panning shots and the further the game progresses the bleaker a picture they paint up until the end of long night of solace they mostly depict beauty you're shown the sweeping green fields of reach at the game's very beginning the mountains surrounding farkas lake at the start of long night of solace and similar they primarily focus on the planet's undisturbed landscapes and the colours used are predominantly cool or neutral in tone from exodus onwards however that all changes as reds oranges and browns start to become more prominent drawing your attention more and more to the scars reach itself bears as humanity's grip on the planet begins to slip combined with an increase in more brutal shots featuring man-made landscapes they provide stark contrast at first they are mostly confined to cut scenes for example at the start of the mission exodus or the beginning of new alexandria but not long after they begin to be used more and more during gameplay as well your time spent flying above new alexandria signals the beginning of this transition as the covenant's glassing of the city creates an eerie orange glow amongst the rapidly crumbling buildings that at times completely fills your vision the first half of the package is dominated by brown and orange tones as is much of the pillar of autumn and by the time you arrive at lone wolf they're pretty much all you can see as a thick layer of smoke obscures proceedings at ground level little more than the wreckage of buildings remain and the sky looks almost as if it's on fire throughout the entirety of reach's campaign the evocative surroundings you find yourself in do so much to drive home the themes of hope and despair in particular certain character beats such as george and cat's deaths may do similar but it's the way bungie so effortlessly adds emotion through setting that is in my view the real star of the show when it comes to how the game is presented whether that's through the landscape featured the changes to the colour palette or even reach's wonderful sky boxes i can think of few other games that combine story and setting as wonderfully as reach does we must not forget however that underneath the incredible presentation is also an actual game needing to be played and in my view bungie hit the mark in nearly every way possible in this regard because of that reach remains one of my favorite halo titles to replay to this very day earlier i mentioned how well the game is paced and structured story-wise and this is just as true in how its campaign is laid out from a gameplay perspective the beginning of reach's campaign is very reminiscent of halo combat evolved reach includes a pair of exploratory missions in the form of winter contingency and nightfall and it's hard not to think of halo and truth and reconciliation as being their equivalent included alongside them in the first half of the game are some excellent vehicle sections in the form of the entirety of tip of the spear and only sword base's earlier stages a little like the silent cartographer and assault on the control room and i'd even go so far as to say that tip of the spear is one of my favorite missions in the entire series its fantastic on foot and engaging vehicle sections are expertly woven together and it's without doubt halo in its purest most unadulterated form [Music] it's during reach's second half however the bungie gets a little more avant-garde than you might have expected from a halo title and i want to highlight a few examples as in my view only halo combat evolves first half and possibly halo 3 second rival it in terms of quality and variety long night of solace includes its very own opening beach scene reminiscent of the silent cartographer's classic set piece or the covenants take on it in halo 3 but it's your time spent flying above the planets of reach that is most notable i've never been the biggest advocate of flight sequences or on this occasion space sequences in halo as i think they often lack the impact more down-to-earth battles deliver in abundance but i have to admire bungie for taking a risk and including it nonetheless it goes on far too long for my liking and doesn't feature enough variety that it ever had a chance of changing my opinion but during a first playthrough at least it's certainly an unexpected inclusion long night of solace also serves as a beautiful in mission summation for where the game's story is at as a whole you're flying high above reach and achieve your biggest victory but the them bought crashing back down to earth first metaphorically and then quite literally immediately after which is executed very well indeed the mission which follows exodus is another which really stands out as being something a tad different from the halo norm prior to reach there had been plenty of missions set in human cities or in odst's case an entire game but none of them had ever managed to scratch the itch i had for an urban level in the vein of halo 2's e3 2003 gameplay trailer but with reach their last hurrah with halo bungie delivered in abundance human bodies litter the streets the covenant demonstrate their brutality through their willingness to sacrifice themselves for the cause and soon after the aptly named brutes make their first appearance it's an all-out brawl from beginning to end and barely a moment passes without something exciting happening my favorite example being the short-lived sequence involving the bullfrogs and then towards the end of the mission you take to the skies to continue the fight during the second sequence of its type in the game one i think is far more effective than that featured in tip of the spear due to the unique perspective it gives you of a city that is truly in crisis [Music] there may have been a nine year long wait for bungie to perfect this type of mission but given how gritty and engaging the end product ended up being i'd say it was certainly worth the wait what makes exodus even better is that it's followed by new alexandria a mission which includes another new concept in that its objectives are given to you in a random order with its side quests changing entirely each time you replay it reach was the fifth halo title bungie developed and i find it remarkable that they were still able to introduce new ideas to the extent they did and new alexandria is perhaps the best example it always makes me wonder what they could have come up with had they stayed at the series helm into the eighth generation of consoles i also want to use this mission to quickly acknowledge bungie's use of height or verticality during the game as it's an aspect of reach that i think should be given more attention during long night of solace you reach your highest point as you travel far above reach and manage to destroy the corvette before subsequently finding yourself back at ground level with little hope bungie elevates you and then slaps you back down without a moment's hesitation and it works brilliantly and that it fills you with a certain sense of despair you're then forced to witness how bad things have become from ground level during exodus after which bungie again does the opposite forcing you to look down upon the city you failed to save during you alexandria again playing with your perspective to drive home how desperate the situation actually is i've no idea if it's intentional or not but given i can't think of any other examples of bungie doing similar in the series i like to think it was it's incredibly effective too as new alexandria is both the brightest and least colorful level in the game the city's aesthetic is bleak and industrial but the covenant's ever-increasing glassing of the city lights up the sky more and more the further you progress it's both awe-inspiring and horrifying in equal measure last but definitely not least the game concludes with playable epilogue lone wolf [Music] its opening is truly depressing as noble 6 looks upon the barren wasteland reach has become before you're given a one-word objective survive as i'm sure you're all aware by now there is no chance of that happening and during this final section you're forced to fight until you can no longer do so the action takes place in an environment which is the definition of the word baron with smoke obscuring your view the remains of buildings scattered across the wasteland and dead spartans littering the area it quickly becomes clear that there's no escape and rather than show you that in a cut scene bungie wanted you to be part of the action to step into noble six's shoes and share his emotions the amount of covenant you face constantly increases and your helmet begins to crack until eventually the ending cutscene kicks in and you watch six make his last stand it without doubt drives home the theme of despair so prevalent during reach's campaign but it's also hopeful in a way with halsey's monologue and visions of a renewed reach confirming that six's actions were not in vain it didn't take long for reach to fall our enemy was ruthless efficient but they weren't nearly fast enough for you had already passed the torch and because of you we found halo unlocked its secrets shattered our enemies resolve our victory your victory was so close i wish you could have lived to see it it's the best ending sequence featured in any halo game and it's one which still tugs at my heartstrings no matter how many times i've seen it what i hope i've managed to draw attention to during this section is how solid reach is during its first half and how genuinely innovative it is during its second it's a great combination as the two come together to create a campaign that when viewing it as a collection of missions doesn't really have any bad moments there are some levels which are better than others granted but it doesn't have any missions like the library cortana or similar and bungie manages to constantly mix things up and introduce new ideas without there ever being any real lull and when a campaign is at its worst dependable and at its best uniquely surprising i don't think there can be any argument that it's one of the best bungie managed to produce i also can't talk about reach without mentioning its moment-to-moment gameplay and while it is a halo game and so you know what you're going to get by and large there are a few things in particular i wanted to point out the return of the health bar rather than simply a shield meter is a most welcome one which fits perfectly within the context of the game bungie goes to great efforts to show how vulnerable even spartans can be during the campaign and the reintroduction of health packs really helps that idea stand out unfortunately the same cannot be said of reach's brutes who definitely do not stand out in fact i don't think they have anywhere near the impact that they have had in some other halo titles they have a very plastic look and in general don't feel too different from the elites in terms of how they fight and i would have liked to have seen bungie differentiate them a little more from those featured in previous entries on the plus side the brutes and the rest of the covenant speak entirely their own language which gives them a more alien feel than in any other game it makes a lot of sense too in that it's still early in the conflict and it definitely makes them feel much more intimidating as a result i'm somewhat on the fence however when it comes to armor abilities they're not too dissimilar from halo 3's equipment and bungie does a good job of offering up those which most suit the various encounters you find yourself in but i think on balance i would have preferred a limited use pickup system like three to make you think a little more about what's needed to do the job and when exactly they should be used whether we're talking about gameplay story or everything in between what underscores reach as a whole is its music the standard of music across bungie's halo titles is incredibly high and reach more than meets it even if in some ways it's somewhat different to what you might have become accustomed to okay it maybe isn't that different reach certainly sounds like a halo title through and through but marty o'donnell and michael salvatore did an excellent job of setting it apart enough that it still feels unique when compared to the rest of the series we must also remember that like with odst they had a tough job on their hands halo combat evolved two and three all had fantastic soundtracks and because they were part of a trilogy a lot of the tracks included within them gained emotional weight when listened to in retrospect and many even evolved the further the series progressed marty and michael didn't have that luxury with reach and with that being the case what they managed to achieve is really rather impressive each mission has its own track containing multiple very different sections and i love that you can work your way through the soundtrack in the same way you play through reach's campaign supported by amazing standalone tracks such as the overture and epilogue ashes and we remember it's an absolute treat to listen to oh and of course as a die-hard fan of combat evolved i have to mention its own rendition of my favorite track from that game a walk in the woods on this occasion named walking away as well as the lovely little nod to the original trilogy's score when you finally locate cortana this ai is its custodian and she has chosen you as her couriers chosen mine ai by this ai yes her measure of you carries as much weight as my own perhaps more you are to take her to the unsc shipbreaking yard in azad there you'll find a halcyon class cruiser waiting to get her off planet i understand do you however unlike combat evolved or perhaps any other soundtrack in the series other than odst reaches is in general far more somber it does include the classic percussion or guitar-based riffs to complement action sequences but it's at its best when featured alongside some of the game's more emotional moments with many of the trinity's greatest scenes i remember both the soundtrack and the cinematography in equal measure with reach often the first thing that pops into my head is the music rather than the scene itself that's testament to just how well its music emphasizes the game's tone and atmosphere as well as what's happening on screen carter carrying cat's body against the backdrop of the ruined new alexandria is a prime example [Music] [Music] and who can forget noble 6 watching the pillar of autumn fly off into the distance [Applause] this is the pillar of autumn we're away [Applause] [Music] the soundtrack works with what's on screen perfectly to create some very gloomy moments but when it comes to reach i often find those to be the most effective of them all i think that's a nice thought to end on the idea of being effective bungie set out to tell a very specific tale a tale of hope and hopelessness we all knew the ending to prior to playing halo reach and they succeeded in their mission magnificently well in gameplay terms reach doesn't deviate much from the established halo formula but it's when you look at how its development team managed to structure everything around that that you begin to realize what a special title it actually is they took a big risk introducing six new main characters as part of a story which was never going to have a happy ending but by expertly combining them with a number of shocking but also very sobering character moments the incredible vistas of reach itself and an extremely well-paced campaign as well as a soundtrack that is both traditional and haunting at the same time they created something uniquely wonderful reach may not have been bungie's final run-outs with master chief nor the start of a trilogy of its very own however it never needed to be what it needed to do was build further on the idea that the halo series is strong enough to flourish without master chief necessarily being involved through a game that is both connected to the franchise but very much its own thing in terms of overall tone and atmosphere it may have received mixed opinions because of that at the time of its release but hopefully in the present some 12 years later we can all agree that halo reach deserves to be held in as high regard as some of the best the halo series has to offer thanks for taking the time to watch the video boys girls and spartans this video was a real labor of love and the first retrospective i've created so i'd love to hear your thoughts on what you liked or indeed didn't like and i'd be happy as a clam if you'd also consider subscribing to the channel if you'd like to see more and hopefully i'll see you all again soon

Channel: Ben Plays Games

Views: 134,768

Keywords: halo reach, halo reach pc, halo reach mcc, halo reach xbox, halo reach retrospective, halo reach reveiw, halo reach gameplay, halo reach story, halo, halo review, halo retrospective, halo gameplay, halo explained, halo reach explained, ben plays games, halo 3 odst, halo odst, bungie, noble six, halo reach music, halo reach ending, halo campaign, halo mission, halo story, halo music, halo reach campaign, halo reach mission, halo 3, halo reach review, noble team, halo 2

Id: ofKLYRNIl4g

Length: 40min 32sec (2432 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 12 2022