![]() Story-wise, Halo: Reach makes its predecessors feel almost amateurish. In terms of look and feel, it is comfortingly familiar but despite that, stops have been pulled out: for example, Bungie created an entire new game engine for Reach and, while that familiar, slightly washed-out colour palette and distinctive art direction remain intact, everything looks sharper and crisper, and feels even slicker than ever. Halo: Reach is easily the best Halo game ever – which means it is also one of the best games ever, full stop. But it also marks the end of the Halo franchise as we know it – developer Bungie has signed a deal with Activision, and will make non-Halo branded games in the future (Microsoft is bound to hand future Haloes to another developer, but that could easily prove to be a poisoned chalice).īungie is bowing out of the first-person shoot-em-up franchise it created with an air not of regret or ruefulness but sheer triumph. As the first of this year's blockbusting games to break cover, it symbolically kicks off the Christmas games rush. Take the wheel, else risk an AI driver launching you off a cliff.F or fanatical Xbox 360 gamers, the release of Halo: Reach positively hums with significance. Listen to me: Take your destiny into your own hands. They’re all bad, and even in 2020, you still can’t trust any of them. The thing is, Kat was a bad driver - but she was no worse than any other AI character in Halo: Reach. A lot of memes back when it was first released in 2010 are centered on Kat, many of which are tinged in the sexist stereotype that women can’t drive. I’m impressed.”ĪI drivers in Halo games have always been pretty bad, but the meme cycle seemed to really kick up with Halo: Reach. To quote Anchorman, “Actually, I’m not even mad. The struggle to mount the staircase continued until the three of us got swarmed by enemies, the Warthog flipped, and we were crushed under its weight. Yay!) Image: 343 Industries/Microsoft Game Studio via PolygonĪs you might have expected, this particular driving maneuver didn’t work. (By the way, Kat eventually caught up and got to experience this moment, too. As the driver was trying to ascend a structure’s staircase with the Warthog, I remembered the rule: You never let Halo: Reach’s AI drive. He drove off before I could think much of it, leaving Kat running behind us and hurtling right into a fight. Thankfully, it just took down her shields. It’s his turn to drive.Īnd drive he did - right into Kat. But something lazy deep within me took over last night I pushed the soldier out of the turret position and forced him into the front seat. Right after you grab the Target Locator and blow up the Wraiths, a Pelican swoops in and plops down a Warthog. Things went swimmingly for the most part, until I reached the ONI: Sword Base level. But this week, I decided to crack into the Halo: Reach campaign. Since Halo: Reach launched on PC in early December, I’ve spent most of my time playing multiplayer. One thing I definitely erased from my memory? Not to let the AI characters drive. I know what angle to toss a grenade to bounce it into the perfect spot. I inherently know where all the power weapons are in Halo: Reach’s multiplayer. Though I struggled a bit with learning the keyboard bindings - my mind was still thinking of a controller - entering Halo: Reach was like transporting back into a certain period of my life, preserved in pixels and beloved characters. To say I’ve played a lot of Halo would be an understatement, yet it’s still surprising to me how easily my brain snapped back into Halo: Reach after all these years. Mostly, whatever version of Halo was the most recent, save Halo Wars. Despite it being one of my favorite Halo games to date, I always moved on when the next title came out - I played Halo: Reach for five years until Halo 5: Guardians was released in 2015.īefore I wrote about video games professionally, I used be the kind of person who regularly played only one game. Before Halo: Reach was released on Steam as part of the Halo: The Master Chief Collection, it had been years since I touched the game.
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