It has been month or two since Halo ODST, many of us gamers have now beaten the campaign and have played Firefight till our eyes and thumbs bleed. So now we have played ODST half to death where do we go from here? Do we go back to Halo 3 Multiplayer and spend hours on playing match after match of Big Team slayer (or whatever takes your fancy). We could do that, or wait for the supposed last title in the Halo Saga, Halo: Reach.
So what is Halo Reach? Well if we look back over the Halo story line as a whole, we know that the Planet Reach was the last standing and the most fortified planet that the Human race had. Reach was the last hope for the Human race to stand a good chance in the Human Covenant intergalactic war. But as fans of the Halo series are fully aware, Reach was taken over by Covenant forces and marks the downfall of the Spartan army.
As you can see this game is not going to be all sunshine and lolly pops. It will be in the same vein as ODST was, in that its going to be dark and gloomy, I hope they will bring back some film noir style cinematography with that too. So you are a part of a squad of spartan soldiers who are stationed on Reach. This squad, known as the Noble Team are the main spartan squad protecting Reach. In true ODST style you will be an un-named character who only answers to the call sign Rook…I mean Nobal 6.
As this is a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved everything in the game is slightly more primitive. Meaning the Covenant will be using more of their Native tongues. It has also been said that the Covenant will be coming across as more of a scarier and creepyier opponent to what we are used to. Sounds pretty interesting to me, but it doesn’t stop there, new enemies have been confirmed, these new enemies are known as Skirmishers, which are close relatives to Jackles, but are more dinosaur like in appearance and only travel in packs, and with new enemies you will get new weapons. The Needle Rifle, which is a souped up needler which can take out three enemies at a time, and the Marksman Rifle, which is a mixture between the sniper rifle and the battle rifle, so FPS gamers out there who like hiding in bushes and getting head shots will be happy with this weapon.
There is a nice selection of new player abilities to get your mitts on. As a spartan in this game you have a special ability. You can choose between active camouflage of sprint. Each of these abilities have a power bar which will deplete when the ability is used, but will re-charge after a short time also. The beauty here though is that these abilities can be changed on the fly. There is also a brand new Melee assassination/one hit kill that has been introduced into the game, I assume its kind of like the assassinations in Aliens Vs Predator, and if so, that would be awesome!
With all character upgrades in the Halo Series there are some downgrades. You will be returning to Halo: Combat Evolved form here, with a health bar and shield combo. Which will be a nice blast from the past, also spike and frag granades are out, but you can’t have everything in a prequel I suppose.
Multiplayer will be making a welcome return with up to 16 player online mode. There will also be Co-Op split screen etc. All the features that we are used too in Halo 3, with also some new features and game types that have not been announced yet, but watch this space because as soon as we know, you will.
Halo Reach looks set to be a great title to round the Halo Saga off with. It also boasts fully motion captured cut scenes and 20 to 40 dynamic lights used at one time. Sounds pretty cool, but I’ll leave you to judge with this Halo Reach trailer.
Garv
