Halo Killers Have Very BIG Shoes To Fill

Posted on 14 September, 2010 by GrathiusXR

Last Big Bang By Bungie:

Halo Reach Goes Off With A Bang!

by GrathiusXR

© 2010 Arthur Kotsopoulos

Halo Reach Limited Edition Strategy Guide. Grab one now

What does Halo: Reach mean for Xbox 360 fans? For FPS games in the future? For future Multiplayer titles that wish to cram as much content onto one disc as Halo: Reach has done?

It means that anything from this day forward will have some pretty big shoes to fill if they want to be even remotely labeled as the Halo Killer- a title that has been floating around since Killzone was revealed and released for the Sony Playstation 2.

Regardless of pledging allegiance to Sony or Microsoft or Nintendo there’s no denying that Halo: Reach does for FPS games today what Halo: Combat Evolved did for the FPS genre almost a decade ago.

It brings a solid campaign with up to 4 players on co-op, a multiplayer component that has been in the making since Halo 2 and is now almost pure perfection and a fleshed out Firefight mode that offers more bang for your buck that most titles released today can offer.

It doesn’t re-invent the wheel but does a damn good job in trying to evolve the wheel into something more!

Combining the perfect balance of Single player and Multiplayer action, Halo: Reach is over 10 years worth of hard work by Bungie trying to not only perfect but resurrect the series from previous titles which hindered Halo’s reputation. From a rushed sequel to an expansion pack labeled as a full stand alone game (Halo: ODST), Halo: Reach does Bungie fans justice this time.

It’s going out with a bang, sending off the last Halo title developed by Bungie on a high note, taking names and asking questions later. It’s not only one of the best games of the year but a tribute and a thank you to all the Halo & FPS fans around the world who have been there since the beginning.

From the Halo books, to the viral marketing, to the sequels, midnight launches to Halo 2′s gut wrenching and console smashing cliffhanger, Bungie has given us the greatest gift of all.

A game which combines the pros from the four previous Halos into a masterpiece!

Bungie have done their best with Halo: Reach’s Campaign and as a result it’s a much more grittier and darker toned experience than previous Halos. It feels as if it’s finally catered to a more mature audience. Covenant Elites are finally menacing again as they were in Combat Evolved and don’t speak English anymore; heck even the Grunts look more evil and deadly than they ever have.

The Noble Team all have voices and as the story progresses you’ll come to grow closer to each one of them and whilst the final fate of Reach is known from the beginning that doesn’t stop Bungie from throwing a few twists in just for good measure.

Firefight makes a return from Halo: ODST and is a much more fleshed out and random battlefield with no two rounds ever really being the same. One round may see two drop ships unload Covenant forces on your location whilst the next round may have a drop pod which houses a few Grunts and Elites for a surprise attack.

With the addition of the new weapons and vehicles as well as Matchmaking, Firefight is sure to be a massive success post-release and if Nazi Zombies in World at War is anything to go by, a little developer support will make Firefight go a long way!

Multiplayer-wise, well it takes all the best from Halo 2 and 3 combined and gives players one of the most frantic and always fresh multiplayer experiences you can get in a 360 title to date. Forge Mode, which is even more user friendly this time round, will definitely make for some crazy and unique player created maps.

There’s just so much content, effort, patience, time and care put into Halo: Reach that other First Person Shooters on the PS3 and 360 just don’t seem to come close.

With Killzone 3 coming out for the PS3 which also brings jetpacks to the battlefield it’ll be interesting to see what improvements over Killzone 2 Guerilla games will have made.

As well as Resistance 3 on the PS3 releasing sometime next year it would seem that Microsoft will not be able to rest and need to put the pedal to the metal if they want the 360 to reign in FPS titles. 343 Industries hasn’t produced much other than Halo Waypoint and so have some big shoes to fill when it comes to developing the next Halo game.

Call of Duty: Black Ops which also releases in a mere two months will give us a glimpse at exactly how popular and long-lasting Halo: Reach will be.

Did Bungie gives us enough so that come a few years from now when the 360 has reached the end of its life cycle hundreds of thousands are still playing Firefight, Multiplayer and tinkering around in Forge?

At the moment I sure think so!

xxxxxx