The Halo I Was Wrong About – Halo: Reach Retrospective

If I’m being completely honest with you, I wasn’t overly enamoured by Halo Reach, released on Xbox 360 by Bungie in 2010, the first time I played it.

Sure, I enjoyed it, but Halo Reach didn’t get its hooks into me to anywhere near the same extent as Halo Combat Evolved, 2 and 3 did – Halo titles I couldn’t put down for weeks or even months after I’d started playing with them.

Now, having lost count of how many times I’ve actually played Halo Reach's campaign in the years since bungie released it in 2010, I want to use this video as an opportunity to hold my hands up and say: “I was wrong about Halo Reach.”

And during this video, I'm going to try and explain why, looking at Halo Reach's campaign and its individual missions, as well as the story, gameplay, setting and music they're comprised of.

If you enjoy the video, do consider subscribing, and thanks for watching!

#Halo #HaloReach #Bungie

Contents:
00:00 - Intro
01:18 - A Bleak Short Story
04:15 - Openings and Endings
06:12 - Meet Noble Team
09:34 - Best Of The Bunch
21:54 - Story Structure
24:04 - The Planet Of Reach
26:22 - An Innovative Campaign
34:12 - Moment To Moment Gameplay
35:29 - Musical Brilliance
38:55 - Uniquely Wonderful Halo

[BenPlaysGames]

My first retrospective covering one of my favourite games - I hope you enjoy it!

[rookie]

There are few games that are as a full of a package as Reach. Amazing story, PVE modes, full matchmaking, custom/Forge, customizable, the color white, file sharing, playable elites. All for the price of $60, or $15, depending where you bought the game. Incredible times.

[ghostlead]

Reach was ahead of it’s time yet misjudged because it was out of our comfort zone, little did we know that’s what we needed.

[a_demon]

Halo Reach is an absolute masterpiece and it suplexes me into my feels every single time lol.

[ErikLosLobos]

I thought reach was a poor brother of the original trilogy. Looking back in the context of today's games it has a richness and polish that we just don't see anymore. I love it more now than when it came out. It outshines much of what we see today.

[ihatemegatron]

I never noticed this before but at 9:48 noble 6 goes out of their way to touch the vertical stabilizer of the falcon, to most people that's nothing, but to an avgeek like myself that's extremely subtle character development. I've seen people in real life do that, heck even I've done that. Noble touches the falcon because they feel an emotional connection to the machine, put simply he loves flying, and as we learn later in the story during long night of solace, 6 is a very accomplished pilot, it's entirely possible that noble 6 in this moment is showing some appreciation to an aircraft model they have flown before. Beautiful little detail.

[infinitebrave]

Unlike most of the community, I loved Halo Reach from day one. I enjoy it even more as time passes, it’s like wine. The total definitive Halo package.

[BlueTeam-John-Fred-Linda-Kelly]

If you think about it Carter and Emile are two sides of the same coin, one is coping with loss and hardship through bloodlust and disregard while the other is limiting himself and relying on orders and regs for decision making while trying everything he can to keep his team safe in the immediate future. In the end Carter had nothing left to live for besides completing the mission, and Emile was probably relieved to finally stop the pain and loss of losing 4 familys.

[Alifewithmax]

Man, if there's one thing that Reach did for me, it made me care about a made up planet in a fictional universe. All I wanted while playing the game was to save Reach, and fight for Reach. And I'm pretty sure no game has ever done that before, it's usually about Earth, or the feeling is slightly different. But the music, the aesthetics... Just everything made me care about Reach in such a profound way that I still think about it to this day.
(Also, great video!)

[quindarius_bingleton]

I always believe that the look Keyes gives after he turns away in the pelican with his look of confusion is him comparing six and chief like "Seems familiar..."

[tomcat]

I think there's an additional level of irony of Jorge's death that you didn't mention here. Jorge said that he'd never leave Reach, but the slipspace bomb teleports him and half of the Supercarrier to oblivion.

EDIT: Corrected the spelling of Jorge's name.

[jadedsilverlining]

The part of Halsey's speech at the end that gets me is when she corrects herself. "Our victory- *your* victory- was so close."

[michaelguernsey]

Also something else about the music I love is how the main theme almost inspires awe in the planet of reach itself, which adds to getting emotionally attached to the planet and watching it get demolished.

[michaelguernsey]

Something I absolutely love about Kay’s death, and I don’t even know if it was intentional, is how the music pauses for a moment before going into the piano. It’s like the music/game is taking a second to gasp with you.

[russian_knight]

Reach was my introduction to halo and it holds a special place on my heart, it really was a great introduction to the series and I'm truly grateful it was my first halo game, it's absolutely wonderful

[indie]

One thing I love about The Package is how it sends you through the same area you went through with Kat in Sword Base, now destroyed, immediately after her death. The entire area has been decimated to the point where I didn't even notice it was the same village in the first area, but it really shows how both Noble Team and the planet are beginning to take heavier losses.

[vanilla]

Reach was a really bold game for Bungie to bow out with and it's campaign only gets better with age. A sobering and sombre look at the events that led to CE and beyond... Also that soundtrack just hits hard. Exodus, Overture, Tip of the Spear, and Epilogue are probably my favourite tracks.

[Josh-gmbe]

reach is genuinely one of those games that when I play it I never skip cut scenes and I always feel sad at the end

[clintbustwood]

The biggest thing for Reach for me (aside from the tone obviously) was that it was MY spartan in the campaign. I’d grind out multiplayer games just to get the perfect outfit and play through the campaign again and again

[sightlessblood]

my little sister took her life in October of 22 and we got to finish Reach together two weeks before she left. Noble Team and the Spartan IIIs were always important to me, however, after she left they are forever in my heart. In fact I just got my memorial tattoo finish. It is the emblem of the Spartan IIIs with her id tag in the same manner of the Spartan IIIs. Evaluna-A608.