You can see where Bungie might’ve picked up a few tricks from other developers, too. They do more to create a sense of place and embed humor in the environment. Civilian life is being disrupted right before your very eyes, which drives home the stakes of the battles. But, then, Latin-infected muzak starts playing during an elevator ride to yet another fateful encounter, and you can’t help but laugh. It’s definitely gallows humor, since the Fall of Reach has been a well-established fact of Halo lore. It’s been foretold for years that the planet succumbs to the Covenant assault. So, from a story perspective, Reach surprises because you’re watching a planet die. What’s more, for all your extraordinary efforts as a cyborg super-soldier, you can’t do anything about it.
If the single-player portion of Reach is structured to evoke different moods, then the multiplayer is piled high with catalysts for different kinds of chaos. Reach’s multiplayer homes in on players’ reptilian pleasure centers expertly, as in the Rocketfight mode where players can unleash unlimited missile launcher ammo at waves of Covenant troops with joyful abandon. The frantic crabs-in-a-barrel play of the Headhunter mode pits you against one another, as people grab collectible skulls and take out each other to acquire others’ loot.
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Reach delivers superb doses of moment-to-moment tension, ones where you don’t feel like a one-man juggernaut. After the bravado of the opening levels, even your fellow Spartans get morose as the odds continue to mount against them. For a series that’s made its bones on letting players save the day over and over again, this last Halo game by Bungie feels positively funereal. And that’s a pretty brave move for a medium stereotyped as being all about shallow adolescent power fantasies. The game’s a strong sign of maturation for Bungie, with considered pacing for the story-centric Campaign mode and a smorgasbord of destruction in its online multiplayer offerings. Halo: Reach might be said to be a forward-looking farewell, then, one that encourages fans to appreciate where the studio’s been while ensuring that they follow Bungie’s next steps.
Official Techland Score: 9.8 out of 10