Halo Reach Review

I'm a bit late getting around to writing this but better late than never eh?

The story follows Noble team who are posted on the Planet Reach who are sent to investigate a disabled communications tower and end up finding the Covenant preparing to invade the planet. The story is fairly simple from beginning to end and there aren't really any twists or surprises. One thing that really did stick out was that the story's only real focus was that it put the events of Halo: CE into action and as such, the characters aren't very deep and their only purpose was to fulfil their destiny (which it turns out, was to die for no good reason at all.)

Another glaring issue with the story is the continuity of the characters. Some of the them had already been introduced through the series of novels and their fates seem to be different to that of the game. Dr. Halsey, George and Kat are the three that spring to mind. In the books they fight off hordes of Covenant troops and get transported somewhere by the forerunners yet in the game, George dies setting off a bomb and Kat gets sniped and god knows what happens to Halsey. Maybe they're different characters to those in the books or maybe Bungie just decided to use them differently in the game which would mean the novels aren't canon. I plan on reading through the books again so I can be 100% sure, maybe I missed something but I don't think I did.

Bungie decided to revamp some of the mechanics in the gameplay, I guess to compete with the likes of Battlefield and Modern Warfare. Guns now an area reticule which means that the more you shoot in succession, the larger the spray area. This really only effects longer ranger weapons, the likes of the assault rifle or the needler don't see any difference.

They've also upgraded the HUD and UI quite a bit. They are both visually similar to previous iterations seen in Halo 3 and ODST but are streamlined now. It was nice to see Bungie using concept art as the background images of the menus instead of being wasted and never seen.

The multiplayer is where the majority of the game really is and it's what is going to keep bringing people back to play for a long time to come. Bungie completely redeveloped their ranking system this time around, you earn credits which acts as currency to buy new armour and as experience points to level up your characters rank. This effectively means that it's only a matter of time before you hit the top ranks, I've been playing all weekend now and I'm only inching up very slowly so I can only imagine what the higher ranks is going to take.

At the moment the multiplayer is fun, but there is only 9 maps on the disc, a few of which are actually remakes of Halo 2 maps. I can see myself burning out very quickly here unless Bungie (or 342 Industries) start releasing map packs. Another problem I've found is that the original maps are copy and pasted from the campaign which I think is very lazy, it doesn't look like any of the maps were specifically made for the multiplayer this time around.

Another small thing worth mentioning is the music. Marty O'Donnell never ceases to amaze me with some of the scores he puts together for the Halo games, there's always at least 1 song which blows me away. Reach wasn't any different. I just hope he continues this trend with the next franchise that they're are building with Activision.

Bungie have gone on record to say that this is their swan song to the Halo franchise and that they'll be moving on to greener pastures as an independent studio. While the game might have it's problems, anyone who is a fan of the series is going to overlook these shortcomings and enjoy the experience. Microsoft would be fools not to expand this game further with new maps, armour and game types, it won't take much to convince people to keep coming back.

Improvements I'd like to see in Borderlands 2

Borderlands is just over a year out at this stage and Gearbox have released 3 DLC packs with another one to be released in a few weeks. I originally played it on PC at launch and I got bored of it very quickly. It's only in the last few weeks that my cousin decided to buy it for the 360 and I ended up playing it with him too and for some reason I enjoyed it a lot more the second time around.

We're currently working through the Secret Armoury DLC pack and should be finished soon.

Gearbox have said that the next pack is to be the last which brings up a lot of speculations and rumours that they might be working on a sequel. As much as I'm enjoying the game it definitely does have it's faults. So what would I like to see added/removed/changed?

• Ammo and cash should automatically be picked up if it can be used instead of having to pick up each clip individually.
  
• Better collision detection for vehicles. So many times I've nudged a wall and gotten stuck in the scenery.
• Make it easier to distinguish between gun types.
• Instead of having set characters, let the player create their avatar and then choose a class.
  
• Bigger variety and more distinct differences in classes. (Healer/Gunner/Engineer/Ranged etc)
  
• Ability for players to be in different zones in the same game.
  
• Better level scaling.
• Player pets. (Claptrap, Rakk or Skag could have different pros/cons)
• Better overall story.
• Add an auction house or trading post system to swap equipment with different players
  
• Add a crafting system.
• Add a World Map and a personal waypoint system.

People might argue that what I'm really looking for is an MMO but I think Gearbox are really on to something with this sub-genre FPS-RPG and this would be a good way forward for them.

It probably won't be long until we find out if they truly are working on the sequel, my bets are that we will get an announcement at E3 next year at the latest (or maybe even PAX this year?) We have the next DLC to look forward to first anyway!