Halo: Reach
Robert McLees
- "From the beginning, you know the end."
- —Game tagline[1]
Halo: Reach is a first-person shooter video game set in the Halo universe and direct prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, depicting the Fall of Reach. It was developed by the programing company called Bungie, LLC. and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360 and Xbox 360 S console only.[2][3] It was announced by Joe Staten during Microsoft's Media Briefing at E3 2009; Reach was released on September 14, 2010 in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia with the exclusion of Japan whose release was a day later.[4]
Upon the first day of release, Reach grossed over $200 million, surpassing Halo 3's record of $170 million.[5]
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Synopsis
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Characters and settingEdit
Halo: Reach takes place in late in the year 2552, during the Covenant invasion of the Human colony world Reach, which serves as the main military center of the UNSC. The game follows Noble Team, a six-man special operations unit of one SPARTAN-II and five SPARTAN-III commandos. The player assumes the role of the team's latest member, SPARTAN-B312 or "Noble Six" and will be defending Reach from its ultimate downfall at the hands of the Covenant forces.[6][7]
Over the course of the campaign, the players will visit various locales on and above planet Reach which includes remote civilian homesteads, high-tech ONI facilities such as Sword Base, the metropolitan city of New Alexandria, as well as a segment of space combat in a Sabre fighter.[8] The player will also encounter indigenous creatures such as the Moa and the Gúta.
PlotEdit
Halo: Reach takes place on the UNSC fortress world of Reach in the weeks prior to Halo: Combat Evolved. Noble Team, a squad of SPARTAN supersoldiers, is ordered by Colonel Urban Holland to investigate the sudden loss of transmission from the Visegrad Relay Communications Outpost. Expecting Insurrectionists, the team is baffled to discover that it is the work of the Covenant, and an invasion becomes apparent. As the Covenant begin their assault on the planet, the UNSC begin their heroic yet hopeless attempt to halt the brutal alien invaders. Soon after, Noble Team is deployed to "Sword Base", an installation belonging to the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), for defensive purposes. Dr. Catherine Halsey, mastermind of the SPARTAN-II Program and the MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor worn by all SPARTAN characters, informs Noble Team that the Covenant at the relay were searching for important information pertaining to the Covenant religion.
As the Covenant arrive on the planet in force, Noble Team is dispatched on various defensive missions such as assaulting a Covenant ground base and removing fortified Covenant defenses. One of these defenses was a Spire transporting Covenant forces onto Reach. Noble Five's (Jorge) and Noble Six's mission was to take down the shields protecting the Spire. After Noble Six brought down the shield of the Spire, the UNSC Frigate Grafton destroys the Spire with MAC Rounds. When a massive supercarrier joins the fight and destroys UNSC Frigate Grafton, Kat comes up with a plan to strike back at the Covenant. Her idea is to sneak a Slipspace Bomb unto a Covenant Corvette which they would then send on a refueling run to the Covenant Supercarrier to activate the bomb. Jorge and Six infiltrate the Corvette, intending to dock it with the supercarrier and then detonate a makeshift slipspace bomb, but the detonator malfunctions, Jorge sacrifices himself to destroy the carrier; soon thereafter a larger Covenant fleet arrives to continue the assault. Six is thrown out of the corvette by Jorge to fall back unto the planet Reach. Six lands near New Alexandria, which is already besieged by the Covenant. Noble Six regroups with the rest of the team in assisting with the evacuation of the planet, during which Kat is killed by a sniper and New Alexandria is glassed by the Covenant.
Recalling Noble Team to Sword Base, Halsey shows them an ancient Forerunner artifact that she believes is key to winning the war. Noble Six, Carter, and Emile are entrusted with taking the artificial intelligence, Cortana, and the information she carries, to the UNSC Pillar of Autumn, while Jun is assigned to evacuate Halsey in a Pelican dropship. Charges are detonated in the artifact, ultimately destroying it and any evidence of its information.
During the journey to the Autumn's dry dock, Carter is hit by Banshee fire and is mortally wounded. Six and Emile jump out of the Pelican and slide down to safety. After they fight out of many caves, they encounter a Scarab, which attempts to kill the Spartans. Carter sacrifices himself and the team's Pelican to destroy the mobile assault platform. Finally, Six and Emile reach the ship breaking yards. Emile takes control of a mass driver to defend the Autumn while Captain Jacob Keyes arrives to secure Cortana. Emile is slain by Elite Zealots, and Six opts to remain on Reach and take Emile's place at the gun while the Autumn escapes. The game depicts the opening scene of Halo: Combat Evolved, in which Cortana discovers Installation 04, followed by the credits and a personal message of thanks from Bungie.
The post-credits scene puts the player in control of Noble Six's last stand against overwhelming Covenant forces. After sustaining more and more damage, Six's helmet cracks. Then before Noble Six dies, he takes off his helmet and continues to fight, but is overwhelmed by Elites and is killed. Six's shattered helmet is left discarded on the ground in a shot that mirrors the game's opening scene. Over thirty years later, the same helmet rests on the grassy plains of a now-rejuvenated Reach. Life has returned, and recolonization has begun. A narration by Halsey eulogizes Noble Team's sacrifice, which enabled the victory over the Covenant.
GameplayEdit
Halo: Reach features many new additions to the Halo sandbox while still retaining the core gameplay. The player damage system is similar to that of Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 3: ODST. The HUD highlights environmental features and overlay information about them, and the motion sensor display is three-dimensional. Halo: Reach also introduces a refined equipment system known as "Armor Abilities." Pieces of equipment can now be selected upon respawning (or picked up off the ground for certain gametypes and campaign); armor abilities are reusable with a recharge time between uses. A new assassination system is also featured, in which holding down the melee button will trigger a context-sensitive, third-person assassination animation. Simply hitting the melee button allows for the old-instant-kill assassination.
The weapon selection has been streamlined from that of Halo 3, so that every weapon has a specific role. The number of different grenade types has also been reduced from that of Halo 3, and incendiary grenades and spike grenades did not return. Human weapons all hit more or less instantly after pulling the trigger, giving them a more powerful feel. There is no longer dual-wielding available in Halo: Reach, following the same path as Halo 3: ODST. Compensating for this, the weapons that were known as dual weapons in Halo 3 that are now in Halo: Reach became drastically stronger. The M6G Magnum, for example, is now almost as powerful as the M6D Pistol in Halo: CE, and has an even higher rate of fire.
Players are able to personalize their character's armor with a greater variety of customization options, and the appearance will be consistent across campaign and multiplayer, unlike in Halo 3 where it would only be seen during multiplayer matches. Like in Halo 3, the armor permutations are only to be cosmetic and will not affect gameplay. The design of multiplayer models in Halo: Reach differs than those previously used in Halo 3; players are limited to a SPARTAN multiplayer model but given the option of changing their character's gender. Players are given the option to play as an Elite multiplayer model, though only in specific gametypes such as Firefight Versus, Invasion and other Elite-specific gametypes. Both multiplayer models have different gameplay properties; the Elite multiplayer model is physically superior, has a fully recharging health and faster shield regeneration than their SPARTAN counterpart. Overall, their only disadvantage is their massive size which makes them much more noticeable targets. This gives the SPARTANs the advantage of being more nimble and tougher to hit, especially with headshots.
While the rest of Noble Team accompany the player for most of the game, Halo: Reach will not feature any kind of tactical squad mechanic. Much like the Arbiter Thel 'Vadam in Halo 3, the rest of the squad will fight alongside the player, but will not interact with the player, other than certain scripted actions and dialogue. The levels will be more open and teleportation in co-op will be far less strict.[9][10]
As seen in the E3 2010 trailer, a small section of the Halo: Reach campaign level Long Night of Solace involves space combat, a new element to the game. This space battle above Reach is the first and only space combat level played in the saga.[11][12]
CampaignEdit
The campaign in Halo: Reach consists of eleven levels, ten of which are playable.
- Noble Actual - "Welcome to Reach." (Only cutscene)
- Winter Contingency - "There's a disturbance on the frontier."
- ONI: Sword Base - "Covenant are attacking a vital ONI base. Drive the bastards off."
- Nightfall - "Move in behind enemy lines and evaluate the opposition."
- Tip of The Spear - "Two massive armies clash! Time to go to war against the Covenant."
- Long Night of Solace - "Move up the beach and secure the launch facility. Take the battle to the Covenant Super Carrier."
- Exodus - "All is not lost. Evacuate civilians from an occupied city."
- New Alexandria - "Provide air support in a forest of crumbling skyscrapers."
- The Package - "Your orders are to destroy Sword Base... Or are they?"
- The Pillar of Autumn - "Deliver Halsey's data package to the Pillar of Autumn."
- Lone Wolf - "Spartans never die. They're just missing in action..."
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