Thursday 16 September 2010

Halo Reach Review

Halo Reach, one of the most anticipated games of the Autumn releases was finally ready for sale on Tuesday 14th of September. The game, next to CoD : Black Ops, is probably going to be one of the biggest selling games of the autumn months. The campaign of this game is revolutionary for Halo, as this is the prequel to Halo: C.E. There are groups of Spartans changing the game play greatly. The elites are much more powerful, the new graphics giving them a much more frightening look.The multi player of this game is very addictive, the new armour abilities changing the way you play.

The armour abilities that are available for multi player are:
Sprint: Run faster for a short amount of time, giving you the advantage for taking the choke points quickly.

Jet pack: Probably the most used ability, gives you the ability to fly for short amounts of time. You can use it to soften your landings, i.e jumping off of the top of the tower that you would most certainly die from, and using the jet pack at the last few seconds to slow your decent you open up a new way of attack for your team.

Active camo: No longer something you pick up, it is built into your armour. You activate it, and the slower that you walk the better the active camo hides you. It also has a radar jammer built in.

Armour Lockup: This ability gives you a massive boost to your shields, preventing you from taking any damage. When you deactivate it, it sends out a close range EMP blast which effects the enemies around you, taking down their shields. This gives you an advantage in close quarters battles.

Drop Shield: The new bubble shield. You drop a bubble shield which heals anyone inside. There are no more bubble shield pick ups, as this replaces it and in most game types is associated with the medic class.

Evade: The covenant version of sprint, when playing as the Elites you are able to dodge to the left or right. The evade comes in as a roll, and is faster than the Spartan sprint, but is only available for use twice without recharging.

Hologram: When using the hologram ability you can aim the cross hairs anywhere on the map then, by pressing right bumper you give the order to your hologram to go there. This causes an exact image of you, even your weapon is included, walks towards the way point that you chose. To your allies your hologram appears as a white dot on your mini map.

These abilities change the multi player completely, always giving a fresh new game, never the same. When playing the multi player you have to plan your way around the players and their personalised playing style, so you can see that its always a new experience.

On to the campaign. The campaign starts you off the sprint ability to use, changing the game play yet again, but you have the opportunity to pick up different abilities.

There has been many new weapons that have been added to game, as well as the original weapons that have been given a revamp.

The new weapons that have been added are:

The DMR (Designated Marksman Rifle): A single shot weapon that has replaced the battle rifle, and is the weapon used in Swat and many slayer type games. The rifle has a scope, which is 3 times optical zoom.

The .45 Cal Magnum: The magnum has been given a revamp and has even been given a scope. It is a more powerful weapon now, but the dual wield option has been disabled.

The Needle Rifle: The same as the DMR but the covenant version. The only difference is that once a person has been shot with the needle rifle 9 times it explodes like the needler.

The M319 IGL (Grenade Launcher) : The grenade launcher is a good weapon. The weapon contains one grenade at a time. You shoot it using the right trigger and, if you hold down the right trigger you can remotely detonate it when you like.

The Focus Rifle: The new rifle for the covenant. Much like a sentential beam. This weapon provides a solid beam of plasma ray, and also has a scope. The weapon is powerful but is limited by the usual overheating that you get when you use plasma weapons.

The Plasma Launcher: The new weapon that is anti-everything. This weapon charges up to 4 plasma grenade type and launches it at the selected target in your cross hairs.

Concussion Rifle: Much like the grenade launcher for the covenant. Weaker, but able to hold 6 nades at a time. This does not come with the ability to remote detonate though.

This game is a astounding success and I will be posting gameplays of new firefight, forge world, multi player and campaign (Multi player and Single player). I give this game at least a 9 out of ten but maybe even a ten! Its a must buy!

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