First review: Halo Reach

Let me say first of all that all my reviews are going to be completely impartial. I hold no prejudice against a game based its platform or developer. I bought Halo Reach expecting an over the top, gripping experience and in some cases I was disappointed, but not totally.

The first thing I noticed when playing the game is that the graphics are quite poor. This comes from an avid pc gamer, but graphics are not the whole package. The visuals of the game can get quite annoying however when the screen tears, and it does a lot. The framerate of the game also jumps about between 10-30 or so fps, slowing to a crawl in later parts of the game. That said, the visuals aren't a complete let down. The aesthetic style of the Halo games are still refreshing compared to othe shooters like Killzone or Call of Duty and the colour palette is incredibly varied.

The single player for me was so-so. I played it on Normal and the damn thing only lasted 4 and a half hours including cutscenes. a lot of people have told me this is because the game focuses heavily on multiplayer content, but in my opinion that just seems like a lazy excuse. While I won't ruin the story it did have its positive points and the plot was better than the previous Halo story of 'there are aliens who don't like us so we shoot at them.' Firefight mode does have a lot of variety to it and there are plenty of maps to enjoy. The multiplayer however feels almost identical to Halo 3.

Gameplay where I personally think that Halo Reach misses the hurdle. Every fight boils down to: Run at the enemy shooting fully auto then either use melee or throw a grenade. That is the entire game summed up in a single sentence. You can use rockets or a sniper rifle to add variety but after about 6 hours of multiplayer  found the aforementioned tactic was the only one people use. The new armour modules are great, jetpack is a bit useless but the armour lock looks awesome and is quite practical too.

Overall I found the game to have some good points but not enough to warrant a good review. I will be giving scores in case people don't want to read the whole review and for Halo Reach I give it a 4/10.