SHOWCASE: Halo: Reach has lasting appeal due to its unforgettable story and refined mechanics

Since this is our first “Throwback Thursday,” let me give you a proper introduction to the feature! Each month we will pick a backward compatible game to review, and the review will go live the first Thursday of each month!

This month’s Throwback Thursday review is Halo: Reach, so let us dive into one of the greatest Halo games of all time and Bungie’s final masterpiece before they went to work on Destiny, thus handing the mantle down to 343 Industries.

Halo: Reach is one of the best Halo games, if not one of the best Xbox 360 games, of all time! It introduced us to a new group of characters to care about, it showed us a planet filled with rich lore, and, most importantly, it showed us that Halo can work without Master Chief. Not only was the story magnificent, the game was filled to the brim with content. There was a campaign, multiple online modes, a horde mode, and even a robust new forge mode that took the fan favorite Halo 3 mode to the next level.

The story of Halo: Reach introduces us to a new group of Spartans, Noble Team. This elite group is tasked with defending planet Reach after discovering an imminent Covenant invasion. The members of Noble team are a diverse bunch. The leader is Carter, a man who gets right down to business. Then there is Kat, a solider who lost her arm in battle and had it replaced. These two are the only surviving members of the original Noble Team. The newest additions to Noble Team are Jorge, a heavy weapons specialist, Jun, a sniper who never misses, Emile, the quiet and hardened close quarters badass, and the newcomer, Noble Six. Noble Six is a solider who has had most of his file covered up by ONI. He is a lone wolf who gets things done by any means necessary. Noble Team is up there with Delta Squad from Gears of War in terms of a lovable ensemble. They all have a hardened, badass look to them, and they’re all interesting characters. I much prefer Noble Team over Master Chief. Don’t get me wrong, Master Chief is awesome, but I have never really emotionally cared about him, unlike Noble Team!

There are so many amazing key moments in Halo: Reach. Whether it’s in a cutscene or during gameplay, every action set piece is brilliant and thrilling. Without spoiling anything, the final moments of Halo: Reach are absolutely breathtaking. One of the greatest final moments in any video game of all time, it honestly made my jaw drop when I played it for the first time. It shows the strength and will power to survive and the images of those final minutes will stick in my head for the rest of time. The legendary Halo music and the amazing set pieces make this one of the most riveting Halo games of all time. I will never forget hopping into a forklift and driving towards a hunter at full speed in order to knock him off the edge of a cliff while marines and other members of Noble Team rained hell on the Covenant nearby. The cutscenes in this game make the hair on the back of my neck stand up; I feel like I am watching one long summer action blockbuster. There is one specific scene in which you see literally dozens of Warthogs drive across a wide open landscape, charging into battle without any fear. It gives me goosebumps every time I see it!

The gameplay in Halo: Reach was the best in the series at its time. It added armor abilities like armor lock, sprint, and jet packs, which added a whole new layer to the already incredibly popular multiplayer mode. It added new ways to traverse the map and multiple new ways to tackle a situation. One time I jumped off of the highest point on a map. The fall damage should have killed me but I activated my armor lock just in time, docking on top of an enemy Warthog and destroying it while also being rewarded with a triple kill and a safe landing. It was one of the most extreme things I had ever done in any game and I remember it every time I think of Reach.

The game also introduced numerous new weapons and vehicles. The Falcon is my personal favorite of the new additions. It is basically the helicopter of the Halo universe. Nothing beats flying around in that thing with two guys hanging off the sides, unloading lead into the enemies below. The gameplay in Halo: Reach still hasn’t been topped in my personal opinion. 343 Industries has done a phenomenal job of reinventing the way Halo is played, but still hasn’t bested Reach. The gameplay didn’t change drastically except for some additions like the aforementioned armor abilities, but small fundamental tweaks seriously improved the game that we had all come to know and love.

One of the best new implementations that doesn’t directly affect gameplay is the customization of your Spartan. You can customize everything from your helmet to the holster for the pistol on your waist. Basically, if you saw it on your Spartan, you could change it. There were so many helmets, chest pieces, visor colors and special effects to choose from. The only way to unlock these items was to spend in-game credits earned by playing. Once you had saved up enough, you could buy the items that you wanted. Some items cost millions of credits and would take tens of hours of gameplay to unlock, but it felt so satisfying to equip that piece of armor you had been saving for, to know that all of that hard work had finally paid off. Even other players could appreciate the time that you had dedicated towards earning credits. It was something so small yet so big and it really added to the character of Halo: Reach.

The last few things that I really want to touch on are what made Halo: Reach one of the most replayable games on Xbox 360. The maps, Forge, and custom games are some of the best parts of Halo 3, and Bungie really outdid themselves with Reach’s Forge mode. The jump from Halo 3’s Forge to Halo: Reach’s Forge was massive. You had an entire map that was close to the size of five Halo multiplayer maps combined into one, dedicated only to building. Build whatever you want, it doesn’t even have to be a map! Build a statue or a picture and take a screenshot and share it with the world. Build a racetrack or a hide-and-seek map. The possibilities were endless, and people are still creating things as I write this today. You will find some of the most creative people on Halo: Reach. There are so many maps with mind-bending puzzles and creative designs. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the best map creators got hired by game studios, as some of them were pretty spectacular. I honestly don’t even now how people created some of the maps and game modes that I played.

I had so much fun with the custom games people created in Halo: Reach. I would sometimes end up on the floor in tears from laughing so hard due to having so much fun with my friends. Whenever I was feeling down I would gather up a couple buddies and hop into a custom game in Reach, and I would instantly feel better. Game modes like Duck Hunt, Indiana Jones, and other random modes we would find in the file share menu were part of what made Halo: Reach so good. We haven’t had anything like this since Reach. 343 has pretty much abandoned the idea of sharing maps and modes with people online. In Halo 4, The Master Chief Collection, and Halo 5 there is no way to download people’s maps unless the creator is in the game with you. I haven’t even touched the custom games in the new Halo titles because it is impossible to see what the overall community is creating. I used to love partying up and just searching the file share menu to find whatever niche game mode or map I might play. Now it is completely impossible to do that, and it’s really disappointing. You can only imagine how ecstatic I was when I downloaded Reach to my Xbox One and found out that I could download maps and modes again! It felt like I was seeing an old friend for the first time in years.

The maps in Halo: Reach are brilliant. There are a few that are classic Halo maps recreated in the robust Forge mode, and a bunch of new maps that capture the tone of Halo. I will never forget the constant battle for control over the Spire, or the overall chaos of finding a hiding spot in Infection on Sword Base. Each map had so many layers that accompanied multiple multiplayer modes. There was no map that felt out of place or incompatible with a certain mode. It all just worked so perfectly! The maps were so diverse and constructed so well that each individual match felt unique. Every match was incredibly varied, with different outcomes and distinct battles. The maps in Halo: Reach will live forever in my mind due to being some of the most memorable from a competitive first-person shooter ever.

Halo: Reach is a masterpiece. Bungie’s very own swan song, if you will. It is something that will be nearly impossible to top in the near future. It had so much character, so much customization, and it gave you so many options. You could choose to play only one of the many modes and still feel satisfied with your purchase. If you only wanted to build, you could just build. If you only wanted to race, you could just play on racing maps. If you only wanted to snag some headshots in SWAT, you could do that. There was so much freedom! Halo: Reach will always be one of my favorite Xbox 360 games, and probably my favorite Xbox 360 exclusive.