Halo: Reach

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NEW XBOX 360 GAMES

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Since fans lined up at midnight nearly three years ago for the release of the last "Halo" video game, a recession struck the economy, President Barack Obama took office and "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" became the best-selling shooter game of all time. When the prequel "Halo: Reach" debuts Sept. 14, it will land on a very different world.

"Halo" achieved status as a cultural phenomenon in 2007 with Master Chief, the armored hero of the original trilogy, adorning french fry wrappers, soda cans and a race car. The sci-fi shoot-'em-up saga became a cash cow for Microsoft Corp., spawning novels, toys and apparel, and boosting sales of Xboxes, the only consoles where "Halo" can be found.

"It's among the elite video game franchises," said NPD gaming industry analyst Anita Frazier. "It's among the Top 20 of all video game properties with relatively few releases compared to some of the other franchises. 'Halo 2' and 'Halo 3' are both among the Top 20 games ranked on total unit sales, and the original 'Halo' is among the Top 50 games."

However, in the three years since Master Chief was put to bed by Bungie Studios, much has changed along the gaming landscape, especially in the popular shooter genre. "Call of Duty," the aging war simulator from Activision Blizzard Inc., reclaimed hardcore gamers' attention with the contemporary "Modern Warfare" series from developers Infinity Ward.

"The game that's going to suffer from fatigue the most is 'Call of Duty' because everybody played that a year ago," said Wedbush Morgan gaming industry analyst Michael Pachter. "They haven't seen a brand new 'Halo' game in three years. I think three years between iterations is actually just enough time to get people excited about playing 'Halo' again."

It probably won't be enough to gun down the latest chapter in the recharged "Call of Duty" franchise though. Pachter anticipates that over 6 million copies of "Reach" will be sold this year, on par with the 2007 sales of "Halo 3," while he predicts that over 12 million copies of developer Treyarch's "Call of Duty: Black Ops" will be sold by year's end.

"This is the first time we've ever had a 'Halo' game with any real competition," he added.

"Reach" is slated to be the last "Halo" entry developed by Bungie Studios, which signed an exclusive 10-year deal earlier this year with Activision to publish and distribute a series of games for various platforms. The deal marks Bungie Studios' first partnership since breaking off in 2007 from Microsoft, who retains the rights to the "Halo" universe.

"It could've been a game we phoned in," said Marcus Lehto, creative director at Bungie Studios. "It could've been our last game, and we just said, 'OK! This is our last "Halo." Goodbye!' We didn't want to do that. You'd think we're crazy, because we went back and decided that the 'Halo 3' engine wasn't capable of accommodating the vision we had for 'Reach.'"

Lehto and his team have slipped into a different, more personalized direction with "Reach." Instead of personifying genetically enhanced Spartan super-soldier Master Chief, players become Noble Six, a mysterious new member of the Noble Team, a group of hardened Spartans tasked with deterring The Covenant alien force from obliterating the planet Reach.

"One of the things we wanted to do with 'Reach' is to allow players to truly invest themselves in their Spartan character, and make their own unique Spartan," said Lehto. "When you first put in the disc to play 'Reach,' you will be prompted to begin that customization process and continue to customize your character as you continue to play."

Noble Six can be a man or a woman and outfitted with hundreds of different armor, color and emblem combinations, as well as grab special gadgets like jet packs, invisible camouflage and holograms along the way. Lehto hopes that more chances for players to fashion their character means this "Halo" game will reach beyond just young male shooter fans.

The intergalactic protagonist also has a past as a pilot, providing players with the opportunity to take to the skies — and beyond — for the first time in a "Halo" game. Lehto said the team at Bungie Studios packed as many such dramatic moments into the single-player campaign and amped up the multiplayer mode knowing that this would be their last "Halo."

"We really never anticipated it becoming this big," said Lehto. "There was so much responsibility on our shoulders to make sure that 'Reach' is the best of all the 'Halo' games. We put every bit of effort we could into this game. While we're happy that it's done, and we're proud of what we created, we're really sad to say goodbye to the 'Halo' universe."

'Halo: Reach' aims to grab gamers again - Yahoo! News

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We've played a lot of games in the nine years since the original Xbox was released: good games, bad games, mediocre games; the lot. But whether we're celebrating or deriding them, in the end they're still just games. Halo has been different from the very beginning - it's not often you can chuck around terms like 'cultural phenomenon' or 'iconic character' when talking about videogames without sounding like a beard-stroking pseud, but in the Halo series that's exactly what we got.

It would be enough to 'just' redefine what's expected from a first-person shooter, as Halo has systematically done, but the influence of the series and, in particular, the instantly recognisable Master Chief, seeped into the public consciousness in an unprecedented fashion.

More at Feature: The Making of Halo: Reach - Official Xbox 360 Magazine

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Watch G4TV.com's review of Halo: Reach at

Halo: Reach Video Review in High Definition ? G4tv.com

Halo: Reach is a fantastic package, with several core components that on their own can outclass many other games. The campaign is excellent, backed by solid storytelling and a powerful audio-visual experience. The competitive multiplayer is familiar, yet brand new with a lot more options and a faster pacing. And the cooperative Firefight arcade mode has finally met its potential. Whether you like playing with friends like me or you're more of a lone wolf, Halo: Reach has evolved to the point where it'll make everyone happy. It's a fitting end to Bungie's involvement with the franchise, one that both references the past and injects new life into a tried and true formula. Newcomers and Halo fans alike will find plenty to love in Halo: Reach. Even if you've grown tired of the Halo formula through the years, I'd still recommend this game to you. It's just that good.

Halo: Reach Review - Xbox 360 Review at IGN

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An epic story, incredible pacing, and a spot-on mix of old and new elements make Reach’s campaign Halo’s best yet. Oh, and when you’ve finished the story mode, plan on spending a large chunk of your life in the massive online universe. Any way you cut it, Halo: Reach is a fantastic swan song for Bungie, and it leaves behind a Spartan-sized set of boots for 343 Industries to fill.

Shortly before Halo: Combat Evolved landed like a Gravity Hammer on the original Xbox, a novel titled Halo: The Fall of Reach introduced fans to the sci-fi universe that would forever change the face of console first-person shooters. Nearly nine years, five games, and countless action figures, comic books, and yes, even energy drinks later, the video game retelling of the events depicted in that first novel has finally arrived. But Bungie’s final Halo hasn’t come to finish the fight--Master Chief handled that task in Halo 3; on the contrary, Reach is here to start the fight. A prequel to the original Halo, Reach’s narrative conclusion is revealed right in the title of the previously mentioned novel.

More at Halo: Reach Review from GamePro

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It's immediately apparent at the start of Reach how much of a greater focus Bungie has put into the characters. There's more dialogue, cutscenes and story presented than in previous titles, and Reach easily has the most character development ever seen in a Halo title -- to the point that I grew attachments to the characters and genuinely felt sad at a number of events that happened over the course of the campaign. The very last mission will choke you up a bit.

Another remarkable change to Reach is the feeling that you're never alone. Sure, you had the super AI Cortana making smart-ass remarks with Master Chief, but it was typically a one-soldier-against-all-odds scenario. Reach sees you playing alongside at least one other Spartan throughout the story, as well as with UNSC soldiers. While the AI seemed about the same as in past games for regular soldiers, the AI for other Spartans was extremely impressive. A few times, I sat back and let my fellow Spartans clear areas without my assistance.

I was especially impressed with how Reach offers more than just Covenant and human soldiers. Some levels feature wild animals and regular humans. A later part of the game sees you helping with the evacuation of a city, and everyday citizens are running for their lives as Covenant are shooting at anything that moves.

On that note, the enemy AI has been greatly improved. I started playing Halo: Reach on the game's hardest difficulty, Legendary, thinking it would be the same as in previous Halo titles. I couldn't even get past the first level and had go down to Heroic difficulty. The AI is fierce, vicious and no longer a pushover. And no, playing four-player co-op won't help you out in Legendary, either; the game will scale difficulty based on how many people are playing. That is, it gets even harder with additional players. Legendary is so intense that you can now earn two Achievements for beating the game on the hardest difficulty -- one by yourself and one with friends.

More at Review: Halo: Reach- Destructoid

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Watch GameTrailers.com's video review of Halo: Reach at

Halo: Reach Video Game, Review HD | Video Clip | Game Trailers & Videos | GameTrailers.com

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Machinima video review of Halo: Reach

YouTube - Halo Reach: Video Game Review w/ Rob Talbert (9.5/10) S02E55

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IGN video review of Halo: Reach

YouTube - Halo: Reach Review