Halo: Reach

I know, it’s been forever. I told myself at the beginning of December, “Trevor, this is the month. Regardless of how busy you think you are, we’re getting shit done! End of story.”

Hardly.

Joining the mainstream here, I have recently completed Halo: Reach. Having only beaten two of the previous (following?) four games, Halo and Halo 3, I won’t praise myself as a Halo expert, but I didn’t understand lick of what was going on in this game. Ok, prior knowledge of this epic tells me of the war between the Covenant and humans as they race across the galaxy to activate the Halo rings, which are in turn suppose to be a weapon used to destroy the Flood - those damn pesky parasite-creatures that can apparently wipe out the whole world if not properly contained. So after playing most of the trilogy I think I’ve got a fair grasp on this storyline, but Bungie and Microsoft can’t leave well-enough alone. Not when there’s money to be made.

Let’s rewind the clock. Before the discovery of Halo. Before Master Chief is awoken. A simpler time. We enter Reach.

What is Reach? I have no fucking clue. Once again, regardless of what I knew from the trilogy, none of this seemed to apply. The only thing I’m sure of is that the human’s are losing this war against the Covenant... and the Spartans’ suits looked a lot cooler in the past. But wait, why is there a war against the Covenants? I find myself pondering. Who knows? Once again, no idea of what’s going on.

Now, I realize there are answers to these questions. That there is a coherent storyline that - I’m sure - many people were able to follow, easily. But I guess my lack of understanding doesn’t strain from a convoluted plot, it’s from a boring plot. I could barely keep my attention through half of the cut scenes in the game. Oh, we’re getting chase from point A to point B again? Oh, we have to destroy this _________ to make another stand against the Covenant? This is all new and refreshing. How innovated, I can’t imaging my brain wandering away from these captivating dilemmas that all mirror each other.

The Halo franchise is a great FPS, and I have just as much fun with it as the next guy, but do you have to beat the story to death. What was wrong with the trilogy? The story was over, wasn’t it? Did we have to reopen it again for just another few million dollars?

Oh, wait. I see your point.

Ok, well... if there’s anything else I have to say about the game is that the ending sucked. I can’t say anything for Halo II, but the first and third games all have incredible endings where you drove out on your Warthog as disaster nipped at your exhaust pipe. It was awesome, both times. However, the ending with this guy was pretty anti-climatic. Jumped into a big gun and shot down shit. Wasn’t even that hard and it was over in the blink of an eye. You’d figure if the makers were going to recycle the same damn game again, they would at least make sure to include the best part. Guess not. Eh, lame.

Well, at least Bungie claimed - while the credit scene begins to roll - that this is the end to the franchise. I don’t know that I necessarily believe them, but I am somewhat relieve. Let’s see something new. I know you guys can do it... I think? At least think of it like this: You’ve done your big blockbuster and made heaping globs of cash. Now it’s time to do something risky, avant-garde. Sure, you may fall flat on your face and disgrace yourself totally, but at least you’ll be making a stab at trying to bring something new and fresh into the world - something that and can captivate audiences as they bare witness to your stunning creation.

And if all else fails, I’m sure a prequel to the prequel is long overdue.