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Games of the Decade #26/Blog a Day #05

Hello gamers™, how are you?

For this post we are going back to the year 2010 yet again. I remember 2010 being a really great year for gaming. All the consoles at the time had great games whether they were first-party or third-party games. No matter what you were into, there was something for everyone. One of of my favorite games that released that year was not on the Wii, nor the PS3. It was an Xbox 360 exclusive from a very well known franchise. That game is known as Halo: Reach.

                 Music in this game is really good so you now what to do ♥

Story time children: I've never played a Halo game before, I was well aware of the franchise, but never played the games myself. On 2011 however I was surprised with an Xbox 360 courtesy of a good friend and thanks to that I was able to get into games I could only get there. Sometime around April 2012 I got myself a copy of the game with some birthday money I had and I couldn't wait to see how this game was.

This game takes place before the events of the first Halo game on planet Reach. You assume the role of Noble Six or sometimes just Six, basically your created character for the game, a new member of Team Noble which is a UNSC spec-ops Spartan Fireteam. If you've played a Halo game, then you will be familiar on what you have to do and what to expect. But if you haven't, this one has humanity locked in a war between an army comprised of different alien races known as the Covenant fighting on the titular planet Reach. I don't want to give out too much of the story.

Gameplay in Halo: Reach is quite similar to the games that came before this one, you play in a first-person perspective fighting enemies using a range of weapons and vehicles. Weapons and vehicles can include either standard firearms and weapons that you are already familiar with if you are a veteran of the series, to Covenant weapons and vehicles as well. You also have special abilities too like you can have the ability to sprint to move around quicker for a number of seconds and my personal favorite, the jetpack. Jetpacks makes games so much better.

Some missions will have you take command of turrets and aircrafts as well adding variety to the gameplay. When in command of certain equipment or vehicles, the game switches into a third-person perspective. One of my favorite vehicles is the Sabre which is an aircraft and definitely love the levels associated with them because it's the closest thing they have to Rogue Squadron. They are a blast to use.

                            This level was such a bast to play due to the Sabre

The levels you go to are really fun too. In some missions you have to kill enemies obviously but in others you have to rely on stealth and on others you need to use vehicles to advance. There's also pretty good variety to the environments you go to and they look pretty amazing for a game from 2010. I think this is probably the best looking 360 game I've ever played in terms of graphical fidelity. The music is also really good too and it matches the tone of the game so well, especially with the story going on.

One of my favorite parts of the game is the story. With every passing minute, be it during a fight or during a cutscene, you can definitely feel the sense of urgency going on. Humanity has fallen on Reach and every minute counts or the Covenant gets the upper hand. I also loved the members of Noble Team, you don't know them that well or for that long but you come to rely and care for them during the course of the game. When something happens to one of them, you definitely feel that impact in the story.

"But Captain N, where can I play this game?" Well you can still most likely get it on the 360. But they added it to The Master Chief Collection on Xbox One and Windows, so if you have an XB1 or favor the PC instead, I would recommend getting the game in either of those 2 formats. One thing I will say is that I unfortunately never got to try out the online for Reach, but the bread-and-butter of the Halo games has always been its gameplay and multiplayer so no doubt it is good. And yes, you can play this game solo or co-op it with a friend from beginning to end, that's how I played the game the first time

              I really loved seeing moments like this showing how dire the situation was

Final Thoughts: I remember I played the entirety of Reach with a friend, same friend that gifted me the 360, and I was told about the beginning of the game and what do I think that was. I said I don't know but he said to remember that. What I didn't know is that the beginning cleverly foreshadows the ending of the game. That was such a clever twist that it definitely one of my most favorite moments in gaming. It definitely made the game much more emotional and it's definitely a moment I won't be forgetting.

Halo Reach is also one of the few games games where I tried beating the game in the Hardest Mode. You unlock an achievement for completing the campaign in the hardest difficulty, all by yourself. No Co-op or anything. It was super satisfying doing that on your own. I've played a few games in this series but I can say Reach is definitely my favorite one in the series.

Reach wasn't quite the very first Halo game I played. The very first one I played was 3 which came included in the 360 I was gifted and I really enjoyed it. We did co-op from start to finish and it was quite a ride. However it released in 2007 so I obviously can't put it on this list. But I definitely feel like Reach was a worthy game of being on my list due to it's solid gameplay and its emotional story. Not many fps games can claim that they have both since most of them are just for the gameplay. Reach was also Bungie's final Halo game so there is also some emotional weight to it as it being their send-off game to the series. If you've never played any of the games, definitely start with this one.

                         Spartans Never Die, They're Just Missing in Action...

So that's it for this one. Next post coming soon after this mission to help humanity. See you then.