Last night I completed the Halo: Reach campaign. After predicting that the campaign would be boring and that Reach’s online multiplayer would be the focal point, I’ve found myself enjoying the campaign more than online matchmaking.

!! SPOILERS AHEAD !!

First, I thought that Reach’s campaign environment felt massive. Just being in the game was entertaining. I tend to do a little exploring in the environment while playing and in Reach there was plenty to look at. Sprawling landscapes, beautifully complex terrain, and futuristic human-built structures were everywhere.

Specific examples of what I liked in the campaign environment include: the giant hills and unique-looking windmills in the first mission; the futuristic indoor and outdoor civilian office spaces of New Alexandria; the massive view of the Pillar of Autumn and surrounding shipbreaking area - all becoming larger as you get closer during the last mission.

Second, I was wrong in predicting that fighting the Covenant would be boring. At least that’s what I feel like today… The AI of the enemy aliens seemed smart enough to keep me interested. They hid behind cover and flanked me to keep me sufficiently annoyed. That’s a good thing. Reach also brought back the Brutes, which I didn’t expect. The giant pack of Brutes you had to fight at the end of the last mission was… very satisfying.

I think what really kept the campaign interesting for me has been Reach’s credit system, commendations, and daily challenges. I’ve played campaign missions over and over so that I could beat challenges and earn commendations - all in the name of credits and promoting my rank. What can I say - I’m a sucker for the custom armor and trying to reach the rank of Captain. Thus, style points count. I found myself motivated to complete campaign missions in different ways depending on the daily challenge or commendation I was working on. The campaign is fun in a way that Halo 2 and Halo 3 never were.

Commendations view on bungie.net

Third, since I focused on the multiplayer aspects of Reach first when I bought the game, I was surprised and pleased to see every multiplayer map integrated in the campaign (or was the campaign integrated in to multiplayer??). Boardwalk, Powerhouse, Reflection (to name a few) - they are all real places in the campaign. While a part of me thinks this is a slight cop-out by Bungie to make the multiplayer environment design easier (I’m sure it was very hard work), I thought it was cool to get some back-story to these multiplayer locations.

Reflection is kind of a weird one - it is a remake of a Halo 2 multiplayer map, and it is an environment in the Reach campaign. In a way, this makes it feel like Bungie really forced the cross-gametype environment design. They pull it off though and I still think it’s cool. Reflection’s appearance in the campaign (evacuating New Alexandria) was one of my favorite parts. Specifically, when you are trying to escape the Reflection office area and take the elevator back down - there is some sweet country elevator music that plays. It’s a humorous contrast from the flee-and-escape-while-taking-alien-plasma-fire mood moments before entering the elevator.

Bungie tried to integrate campaign environments into multiplayer maps in Halo 3 (e.g. Construct), but they were never exact replicas. In Reach, they are identical - save for a few closed doors or barriers to where you’re not allowed to go.

Last, I thought the campaign’s storyline was much more compelling than Halo 2’s or Halo 3’s story. In Halo 2/3, I had a hard time caring about the story. I’m no expert in understanding why the stories weren’t interesting before. Maybe Gravemind was just too corny to me. Granted, the entire Halo story is science fiction, but in 2/3 the whole Halo/Prophets/Flood thing just wasn’t believable and engaging.

Big, smart, talking octopus thing!

In Reach, you’re defending a planet, humanity, Cortana, and Forerunner intelligence from complete extinction. It feels like you’re always behind the 8-ball in the plot and like you’re struggling. Marty did an excellent job with the musical score too. The last couple of campaign missions felt like you were building up to something big… and sure enough there at the end you’re handing off Cortana to Keyes and watching the Pillar of Autumn launch. Well, at least I thought that was cool.

The Pillar of Autumn launches

One of the best parts about the campaign is the very end: the Lone Wolf mission. As far as I can tell, it’s a symbolic mission where you play to the death. Your only objective is to survive. The mission symbolizes the final moment when Reach falls. When you die, the campaign ends and the final cinematic starts to play.

The mission is downright eerie. I loved it.

Reach Falls

One criticism that still holds up is that the game is “cartoony”. However, what else can you expect from a video game in the year 2010? Reach admittedly looks more polished than its predecessors though.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the Reach campaign. At this point I’m planning on going back and playing through the campaign again to try and complete it on Heroic (yes, I’ve only completed it on Normal), earn more achievements, and earn more credits and rank. I’d love to partner up with some friends and try to complete the game on Legendary too. Before that, I’m going to dig back in to multiplayer. I’m betting this game will keep my attention for a long time before I put it down.