My customized Noble 6
The amount of options available to customize Firefight are amazing, if not, a bit daunting. Players can create a Firefight game that not only has a different number of rounds and goals, but also players have options like gravity, speed, skulls and more PER WAVE. This is in addition to the new generator defense variant as well. Really there's infinite possibilities for Firefight now - including a versus option. Sadly you can’t take these custom modes you create into matchmaking, but you can save and share them with your friends to play.
The new default Firefight type is only one set consisting of numerous waves. The whole thing is streamlined now to only take about 12 minutes a game, no doubt, to accommodate matchmaking. It works well enough but I yearn for the epic feeling of ODST’s Firefight matches. The mode is still available as a built in type, it’s just not available in matchmaking. Perhaps we’ll see it added as a playlist in the future.
Halo Reach is a massive game. I haven’t even touched the game’s new versus modes and options, the scalable enemy AI based for co-op, and the daily and weekly challenges, new epic music, and a revamped Forge level editor. Halo has come a long way since the Master Chief on the original Xbox and LAN games in the college dorms. Reach feels so massive, so social, and so polished - it may not be a perfect experience - but it’s the perfect way to introduce the Halo: Combat Evolved game we love, to end with a game we’ll be playing for a long, long time.
Verdict
Editor's Choice!
Co-Op Score
Overall
The Co-Op Experience: Play through the campaign in four player co-op. More co-op information is coming.
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.