Of the levels I can talk about, Nightfall–the fourth mission of the game–came up first. As it opens, Noble Team gets orders to investigate Covenant activity in a tucked-away location. The mission opens with gameplay that’s almost stealth-like and the tone of the early part of the mission is creepy and foreboding. You’re sneaking along, using the new Assassinate moves to silently take out a few Covenant guards along a mountain ridge. The Armor Abilities added to Halo: Reach come in handy, too. The Active Camo ability turns you invisible and enhances your radar, populating it every Covenant lifesign in the vicinity. Active Camo also gave me one of my favorite moments of the playthrough, where I was cloaked and picking off enemies at a vast distance with a sniper rifle. Sudden, invisible death by an unknowable enemy. But things quickly shifted when my Noble partner and I came upon giant, bi-pedal lifeforms stomping through a clearing. I learned later that these creatures–with long tusks, elongated trunks and sloping, knuckle-dragging gaits that looked like a towering mash-up of ape and elephant–were called Guetas. I sat there stunned for a few seconds, unprerpared to fight anything that wasn’t wearing armor and pointing a gun at me. My AI partner and I put them down, but that moment of astonished discovery is another way that Reach feels different than any other Halo game so far. As we come upon the Covenant base, a big firefight ensues. During a battle in the Campaign Mode, you’ll find Armor Abilities sprinkled throughout the environment. You’ll be able to swap from Armor Lock which makes you temporary indestructible to Hologram, which generates a decoy that you can use to lure enemies . This flexibility means that you can change up the Campaign play experience more than any other Halo to date. The mission ends with two Hunters showing up and the biggest, burliest members of the Covenant are nastier than ever. Their laser cannon fire faster than before and can take you out with one direct hit and they dodge and evade surprisingly well for creatures as big as they are. The mission ends with a confirmation of the imminent full-scale invasion of Reach.
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Tip of the Spear was the mission that followed and it felt like the exact opposite of Nightfall. Just as the sun’s coming up, huge waves of Covenant drop ships and ground troops storm across a field as human forces do the same. It’s one of the first times that a Halo game felt like a full-on war. The fighting is hot and heavy and the level features lots of vehicular combat. One of the vehicles was a Warthog with some sort of energy turret that fired automatic bursts of missiles. It’s a super-fun vehicle and I manned the turret while Noble Team member Kat drove, using it to take out three or four Revenant tanks. I also notched an Achievement during Tip of the Spear. “Your Heresy Will Stay Your Feet” popped up informing me that I got it for killing an Elite Zealot before he escaped. Further along the mission objectives switched and I was tasked to take out Covenant anti-aircraft emplacements. These locations were heavily guarded by Ghost vehicles, turrets and tons of troops. Blowing up the AA guns meant destroying the power cores and once I died in the explosion that followed. Durrr.