Hmm. That simple thought struck me as I played through the opening levels of Halo: Reach, hearing the same sounds of gunfire, witnessing the same good-but-not-great graphics, and lobbing the same plasma grenades as I had in Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo Wars and Halo 3: ODST before it. But do you know what? Despite all that, all the niggling criticisms that I could level at Reach throughout my game-play time, there wasn't a single moment when I wasn't loving it just as much as, make that more than the other Halo titles. If you didn't know by now, the planet Reach's take-over by the Covenant opened the original trilogy of Xbox titles, and so this prequel sheds some light on just how Reach was invaded and how the Master Chief managed to survive the conflict. But, in essence, it's the story of Noble Team, some of the most developed characters ever in the Haloverse, and their struggle to hold off the defence that bit longer, to save as many civilians as they can, and ultimately to lay down their lives in the name of humanity. The story truly is Bungie's franchise at its absolute best, proving the ultimate swan-song before the team leaves for a different series, and culminating in the most nostalgic way ever- I'm not kidding. The campaign will last you around 10 hours-20 depending on the difficulty level (I played on Normal and didn't find it too hard, but Heroic and Legendary kick up the difficulty insanely), but there's Firefight (much better than ODST) and Online to keep you going. Simply put, there's a ton of life-span here for gamers, fans and newcomers, and while it may not look the prettiest, or be the most original Halo ever (though romps in space, Falcons and MAC Cannons easily shake things up), it's the FPS you've known and loved for ten years, and doesn't get any better.
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