I'm on the 8th mission of the campaign, and I do believe that it's the best of the series. The characters and story have resonated with me more than any other, I love some of the mission designs they've done in the game, the level designs are mostly incredible, and the Armour Abilities add so much to the gameplay. Also, the Elites are absolutely spot on and, on Heroic, I feel like each individual encounter with one is a real challenge - and it's tense!

Heck, I even feel more badass than Master Chief in this game - despite Noble Six's actual character being, well, as one-dimensional as they come (although it's clear to me that Bungie intended Six to be our eyes and ears for the destruction of Reach, rather than a fully developed character). Sprinting towards an Elite and shotgunning him in the face, before taking him down with a melee, feels so awesome.

100% agree. I tend to think HALO CE gets it's defense from being the first of it's kind( sort of). It was so vastly different on console back then that there is zero way you will get that feeling back. Halo CE had a bit of repetitiveness to it while REACH mixes it up quite a bit more. The characters, while not massively deep( they are dedicated life soldiers), but they are still interesting and come across to me as having a bit of history. I also like that they really show the Spartan III suicide thing going as well. The way the story is told( embedded camera/first person) is great and immersive. I like the mission variety and the many angles you can tackle a situation. I really don't need it to be Hugely epic, in fact I like it when it gets "small", especially when it exists in such a huge series of events. There is definitely an ODST vibe and spirit in there. I'm not done yetheaded for Pillar of Autumn now, but I feel the game-play and level variety is easily the best in the series. The only things I'd like personally is an even more real look, and for them to tighten up their lore, and stick to already published events as being part of that lore...

I agree with both of you, i'm loving it!

Got to agree with Blm the more i play it the more i fall in love with the game, everything comes together so well.

It's contained so many great moments, and I believe it's also the most replayable campaign Bungie has ever produced. Plus, it's not been without its fair share of powerful scenes.

A lot of people have criticised the characters and, while they're not the deepest you'll ever find in a video game, I believe they're the most real of the series, and I've taken a liking to them even more than the iconic Master Chief - yeah, I said it. They don't have colourful personalities, and they're not going to spur out dramatic monologues in between battles; they're just doing what they've been trained to do, and I always appreciate those characters. Even Noble Six throughout the story is simply instructed - mostly by Kat - with what to carry out, never saying more than a sentence or two (not like Master Chief though, whose words are short but powerful). It goes back to what I was saying about Noble Six simply being our eyes and ears for the destruction of Reach, which is aided by the incredibly immersive camera work done during cutscenes. It's so blatantly obvious that Bungie took great inspiration from Blomkamp's short live action film that he did for Halo 3, but I welcome that approach and feel that it adds so much more to the cutscenes. As for powerful scenes: when Kat gets snipered out of nowhere, I didn't feel a sense of sadness per se, but genuine shock. Honestly, I was pretty much like 'wow' for a good couple of minutes - plus it is incredibly similar to one powerful scene from Band of Brothers (people who watched that should know exactly what I'm talking about). Furthermore, when Jorge stays behind and pretty much says to Noble Six 'don't make me die in vain', it just resonated with me. I felt like there was genuine sacrifice in that, but it wasn't overplayed or even overthought; he was just doing his duty as a soldier. You can even tell that Noble Six was affected by this somewhat, but knows that he doesn't even have time to think about it. Equally, I feel like Bungie has done the sense of panic and destruction really well, particularly with the initial evacuation levels and, in terms of destruction, the mission with the Falcon.

I'm yet to finish it - I probably will by tomorrow - but I've genuinely been impressed with what Bungie has achieved with Reach's singleplayer campaign. It just feels so real and mature, and has struck a chord with me in ways that, quite frankly, Halo never has before.

So just been having a blast in Theater mode replaying/rec clips/screenshots of all my SP exploits thus far :)

Why does the mulyiplayer have to be so fucking cryptic? You need to fucking turn all the bloody maps over with a fucking rake to find weapons. Are they supposed to be mystical artefacts that can only be unearthed by the true halo masters? Why the bloody hell do they always have to be in the most remote corner and covered in grass!?, And even then 80% of the goddamn modes stick you with the most boring fucking rifle in the entire game with no alternatives. Pro slayer my ass, more like most boring fucking way to play slayer possible. Not to mention how i totally agree with Gabe, who are these goddamn aimbot-sporting cyborgs who seem unable to hit anywhere but the head? The MP is getting real old real fast for me. Feels like if you don't play the shit out opf the game constantly, and really spend time with it, you will just get raped. Over and over. Does no one just play for fun anymore?

Yeah I couldn't bring myself to buy Reach for some of the reasons you're mentioning

So, I just finished the campaign...

I was about to come on here and start a massive rant about how the ending left me feeling very cold indeed, and how the rest of the game had practically been spoiled by this anti-climatic ending. But then the credits ended, and I was left with honouring Noble Six's heroic last stand.

Such a great way to end - or begin? - the series.

My favourite Halo campaign, for sure.

Another thing I liked is that all the members of Noble Team went out in a pretty awesome way - with the exception of Jun, who apparently remains on Reach with Halsey? Jorge sacrificed his own life in a noble (tee hee) manner; Carter did the same; Kat's death was quite a shock at the time; Emile went out like a champ; and Noble Six's death was a great way to end the series.

I can't wait to replay it again, actually. But first some multiplayer goodness. :P

You should read the books man. It takes 2 days because thats how long it takes to travel there. The UNSC never expected the Covenant to know where Reach was. The Covenant's Technology is vastly superior to Human tech, but they are more immitative that innovative. All their tech is derived from Forrunner technology found on various planets(which is the reason they went to Reach in the first place). The humans abibilty to innovate is where the Spartan shield comes from( by adapting the tech from aquired jackal shields). I always thought it was cool that the Humans had the overshield first, and then the covies adapted it( if I remember correctly). Cool stuff, and some pretty damn good sci-fi( expcept for the novel based on the first games' events, I didn't like that author at all)...

Played some custom Firefight lastnight with some friends, man this game is to much fun!!!!!!, any FPS fan not playing this is missing out big time!!

Seems someone is having a similar experience to me. Just don't go to big team battle (these maps NEEEEEEEED 16 players or more ffs), your blood pressure will go through the roof, or at least mine did. I'll probably end up trading it in quickly, spawn rape is what made me fall out of love with halo 3, it's even worse here.

Amen!

Slayer Pro is imo the best mode in Reach. Same weapons, same AA and no radar, I love it. If you want to just have loads of action go into Multiteam, you'll get lots of it. Played it yesterday with a friend on splitscreen and even he racked up a sizeable amont of kills and had a blast (he never plays Halo).

Really there is something for everyone. I understand if someone doesn't like Arena, I rarely play it myself. But really there is lot of variety, much more than there was in any Halo before despite the lack of maps.

I'm not sure what my favourite game mode is, really.

I'm pretty good with the DMR, so I'm having a lot of fun with SWAT; the intensity of knowing that one headshot and you're a gonner is really awesome. And, like Viginti, I'm a big fan of Slayer Pro - the lack of a radar really changes the way you play the game.

As for maps, Countdown and Reflection are my favourites. Not only are they great in terms of design/layout, but they're absolutely gorgeous.

In all honesty this sounds like you are complaining because you are not good at the game. What is your definition of fun? Because I bet those people shooting you in the head are having a ton of it.. :P

I ususally end up in the middle, i've only ended up dead last like one time. It's just that the game punishes you really ahrd for not knowing the maps by heart, it's not like they plot out the weapons so that you easily find them, no they go out of their way to HIDE them and that's just stupid. But yeah, i'm not that good...but isn't that what the goddamn trueskill system is for? Why do i get paired up with these genetically altered headshot-cyborgs when my stats are shitty? Geting molested constantly neither gives me oportunity to get better nor is it fun.

Also, is there a list somewhere that explains the difference between the modes? Like what's the difference between Pro Slayer and Pro Slayer DMR? I just go in to game types hoping that i'll figure it out :P

I played some Halo 3 but not that much and this game is doing very little to welcome me as somewhat of a newbie it seems to me. It just assumes that you know how everything works and explains nothing.

Difference between Pro Slayer and Pro Slayer DMR is you start with a DMR instead of AR in, you guessed it, Pro Slayer DMR.

Excellent tech readup by the Digital Foundry guys.read all 4 pages here.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-h...

So...the DMR is the scoped rifle? I don't know what the weapons are called or how they are abbreviated.

The DMR is the Designated Marksman Rifle. So yeah, the 'scoped rifle'. :P

Yeah sorry for not having the omniscience to automatically understand that DMR means designated marksman rifle, i mean it's just SO obvious. The game never shurts up about the Designated Marksman Rifle.