Halo: Reach is officially launched on Tuesday, so I thought I’d take a look back at my time with the franchise – I can hardly believe it’s been ten years!
Halo
It all started way back in the days of working at Game, and the launch of the original Xbox. Halo was the big game of the launch and my manager at the time raved about it. I admit, I was unimpressed when he was telling me how the Pistol was the best weapon, and there were grenades that stuck to your enemies, and that one melee attack to the back of an opponent was an instant kill… But then I played it. Campaign at first, it was immense. I never really got on with other console First Person Shooters such as Goldeneye, Quake II or Perfect Dark on the N64 as they never quite felt right, but this did – the controls were sublime. Lugging an Xbox and TV to Craig’s flat was so worth it. Our Halo LAN sessions were never frequent, and there were only a few of them, but they remain a fondly remembered highlight of my life so far. Given that there were only eight of us playing, Sidewinder and Blood Gulch were probably not the best maps to choose, but man, those CTF games were epic, and it was incredible hearing the shouting and swearing come from the other room when we thwarted an attack and recovered our flag.
Halo 2
Kills: 14,357 – Deaths: 16,231
This was it. The big one. This entire website wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for this game, and the guys and gals of Random Fury. I’m not sure what I can say about it that I’ve not said already to be honest. I was underwhelmed by the first video showing Master Chief getting a gun and then flinging himself out of a spaceship onto a Covenant cruiser, but the real-time demo of Campaign mode set in New Mombasa was amazing. Looking back now I do kinda fail to understand why him whipping two SMGs out was so amazing, but there you go. Then there was the big multiplayer reveal thing at E3, you know the one, the video where the Sword was unveiled. “EAT IT!”, etc. I remember going to Gamestars Live in London way back in 2004, solely to have a sneak peak at Zanzibar and have a quick blast on Halo 2 multiplayer. Queuing up for four hours for ten minutes of gameplay was totally worth it. And of course, this game spawned Random Fury.
Halo 3
Kills: 5,703 – Deaths: 4,584
I think I was probably too quick to judge Halo 3. I was well into Phantasy Star Universe at the time, and was probably too used to the sedate pace and relaxed chatting that PSU provided. You can tell I never played it as much as Halo 2 just by looking at my kill/death count. I was more than enamoured with the multiplayer Beta, it’s just that at launch, Jane and I were pre-occupied with PSU. I didn’t really feel that the maps were that great to begin with, but now, a few years down the line, I can appreciate that they were actually quite good. It’s quite scary how good people got with the Battle Rifle, go one on one with an expert and you’re dead in 5 bursts. My average is about 7 bursts – which is not good enough most of the time. I hope Reach balances the weapons a bit, and makes some of the non-power weapons a bit more useful against the Battle Rifle experts (whose skills will no doubt translate to the Designated Marksman Rifle, or DMR for short).
Halo 3: ODST
Kills: 17,505 – Deaths: 435
Erm, the Kills/Deaths thing is a bit skewed on this because it’s based off the Campaign and Firefight modes. What a revelation Firefight was! I had thought it would be a superb addition to the series since the encounter in the square room on the Covenant cruiser in the original Halo game. Just waves and waves of enemies, progressively getting tougher, coming at you and all you can do is survive for as long as you can.
The Campaign mode was pretty good too, a very different take on the traditional Halo game. Dark and moody, balancing your weaknesses by being stealthily, and running from confrontation was often the best strategy. Loved it.
Halo: Reach
It’s only two days away, I can’t believe it. I’m sure much of this blog will be devoted to it over the coming months. Will I play this more than I played Halo 2? Given that I’m no longer addicted to Phantasy Star Universe, and that it’ll pretty much be the only game I’ll own that I’ve not finished, I reckon so.
I realise there’s a game missing there, I never got around to playing Halo Wars. I recently tried the demo and thought it was ok – I may pick it up in the future if my Halo Gamerscore needs a bit of a boost, they may add more unlockable armour to Halo: Waypoint, you never know.
Congratulations if you’re still reading. You are entitled to discover what “Halos and Goblins” means. Well, my good old friend Hussain used to think Spartans were called “Halos” and he somehow decided “Goblins” was a good name for Elites. He was forever asking when we were going round to Craig’s for the next Halos and Goblins session.
