Halfway through the campaign of "Halo: Reach," you are in the sky behind the controls of a Falcon turret as protagonist Noble 6. As the UNSC ship scurries you around the battlefield, you try your hardest to take out the waves of enemies in an attempt to save friendly forces. No matter how fast your thumbs are or how dead-on your aim is, it's impossible to take out the entire invading Covenant. You get frustrated watching fellow soldiers die, despite performing to the best of your gaming abilities. This feeling of helplessness is a common occurrence throughout the title. Series fans know going in that this game will not have a happy ending, and that gloomy sense of inevitability sticks with you from beginning to end.
"Reach" doesn't waste any time; the opening cinematic features a Spartan helmet with a bullet hole through its visor resting on the ground of a smoldering, war-torn planet. Once you assume control of Noble 6, you plunge right into the first days of the planet's violent downfall. Along with the other five members of Noble Team, you discover slain soldiers on the fields and in the houses of a countryside settlement. It isn't yet apparent that the planet is facing a full-scale invasion, but something is clearly amiss.
Once the action picks up, there's no turning back. Mission by mission, "Reach" delivers battles on a scale never before seen in the immensely popular franchise. Small skirmishes are the exception rather than the rule, as many firefights feature Banshees and Falcons blasting away at one another in the sky, ground vehicles spraying plasma and concussive shells all over the place, and hordes of angry Covenant soldiers. Bungie Studios succeeded in making these invaders scary again, as their numbers are overwhelming and their native grunts and yells are far more frightening than the comical English they spoke in previous titles.
The Covenant is also smarter than ever. Toss a plasma grenade at an Elite and he'll protect himself with the same Armor Lock ability you'd use if the roles were reversed. If you go into Armor Lock to shield yourself against a charging, hammer-wielding Brute, he'll be smart enough to back off before the short-range EMP detonates.
These subtle details are everywhere if you're looking hard enough, but most of the time your attention is focused on the sheer chaos around you. Previous "Halo" titles suffered from repetitive, similar-looking environments, but Reach mixes up the gameplay better than any of its predecessors. One minute you're sniping enemies under the cover of night, the next you're flying from skyscraper to skyscraper in a Falcon or infiltrating a Covenant ship in low-gravity.
The "Halo: Reach" campaign is the best in the series, but it's still shy of perfect. Master Chief may be a gaming icon, but he is an emotionless, almost generic protagonist. Bungie tries to give the individual Noble Team members personalities, but it's equally hard to care about them or their fates.
"Reach" also occasionally screws you over with checkpoints. Some are too far between, and others leave you at a major disadvantage depending on the circumstances when you activated them.
As good as it is, the campaign isn't what will keep gamers glued to their televisions late into the night for the next several years. "Halo's" legacy is built on multiplayer, and "Reach" gives gamers more reason to come back than ever before. Whether you're raking in credits en route to that perfect suit, blasting through Firefight with three friends, experimenting with the great Armor Abilities, creating new maps with the infinitely improved Forge mode or just playing some good old-fashioned Team Slayer, it's one of the more robust multiplayer offerings available. Multiplayer maps have always been one of Bungie's strongest suits, and "Reach" features a fantastic collection.
