“Halo: Reach” a satisfying prequel to the Halo saga

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It’s finally time to finish the series that put Xbox on the map with a trip to the game’s long-storied but never-experienced origins.

Making more than $200 million on the day it launched, “Halo: Reach,” Bungie Studio’s fifth and final contribution to the franchise, is quite possibly the best Halo experience yet.

Reach’s single player campaign is a prequel to 2001’s “Halo: Combat Evolved,” which follows Noble Team, an elite group of futuristic warriors known as Spartans, tasked with defending the human race on its extraterrestrial colonies.

Improvements

“Reach” improves greatly upon the series’ storytelling, shedding traditionally repetitive landscapes and unclear plot progressions.

In addition to gameplay improvements, several new weapons and vehicles have been added to the mix. “Reach” sports a total of 25 weapons, adding several new weapons to the arsenal found in “Halo 3” while removing and revamping others. The battle rifle, for example, now fires in single-round shots instead of three-round bursts, while the pistol received a major damage increase, making it a viable weapon.

Aside from questionable friendly AI, “Reach” offers an intense, fight-to-the-end campaign.

Multiplayer

However, “Reach” would not be a proper Halo game if it didn’t have an awesome multiplayer component (I’m looking at you, “ODST”).

“Reach” includes all the traditional multiplayer features that have made the series so popular, as well as some new game types and modes. It is the ultimate multiplayer package, sporting incredibly refined menus making it easier than ever to join up with your friends online, whether it be to tackle the campaign in a co-op mode, or play ranked matches.

Other new multiplayer modes have also been included, such as invasion: A mix of the team slayer, capture the flag and territories competitive modes.

To breathe new life into the Halo multiplayer experience, a new feature known as “loadouts” has been added to the game, allowing players to customize their play style.

Loadouts provide players with different armor styles, such as a sprint ability, a jet pack or a holographic decoy, which can draw fire from your enemies.

Customization

As with “Halo 3,” players can customize the colors and visualization of their armor sets and emblems. In “Reach,” credits are obtained by completing challenges, achievements, campaign and multiplayer matches, and can be used to purchase new armor pieces and effects.

Unfortunately, four of the 13 multiplayer maps are remakes from past Halo games, but the revamped Forge component of the game allows for more customization than ever. Players have the power to alter existing maps in hundreds of different ways and share their creations with friends through Xbox LIVE.

“Halo: Reach” is a great game in almost every facet. It has the most gripping and genuinely epic single player campaign in the series and is bursting with so many multiplayer modes and features that gamers will be playing it for a long, long time.

Get ready to begin the end.