Halo: Reach

The last Halo effort coming from Bungie before they move on to other things, Halo Reach is a prequel that according to most reviews righted all the wrongs of the maligned ODST. I thought ODST was decent if not overpriced, so I went into Reach with high hopes. And to be honest, they weren't really met (in the campaign only!). Reach tells the story of some major sacrafice that allowed Master Chief to do what he did in the first three games, something really brave and noble. The thing is, the game couldn't keep me interested long enough to actually know what that sacrafice was. The game's fantastic from a technical standpoint- it looks amazing, excellent voice talent, and probably my favorite music of the entire series. The shooting gameplay is as great as ever. But when it came to running through the actual missions, it just seemed like more of the same. "Run to point A! Kill everyone there until we tell you to move on! Now shoot this random thing til it explodes! Run away!" Nothing I felt like I hadn't done before. Aside from a surprise mission half-way through that introduces a fun new vehicle, only the graphics made it feel like anything new. However, that's not to say this is a bad game. A mediocre campaign to me was saved by the best online multi-player yet. I've only played it a few times at Stan's house, but the introduction of upgrades like sprint, jetpack, and my personal favorite hologram, all add a fresh new twist to the same great gameplay Halo's had all this time. And honestly, online play is what most people are going to buy this game for anyway. So yeah, single-player didn't do much for me, but don't let that scare you off.