WIRED Amazing multiplayer, new combat-oriented character customizations, killer space dogfights.
TIRED Weak plot and characters, feels similar to last year’s Halo.

Halo: Reach is a collage of the best parts of the series, a tribute to ten years of development and its loyal followers. Halo: Reach is unlikely to win over any new fans to the franchise, but when your fanbase is as large as Halo’s, that’s a passing concern.

Do you buy Halo mostly for the multiplayer? Then Reach is everything you'd want and expect from Bungie's final contribution to the franchise – perfectly polished familiarity with exactly the right amount of fresh features and bold risk-taking. If you're counting on an epic, sweeping and satisfying campaign story, however, you might want to keep waiting for Halo 4.

If multiplayer is your thing, it's a must-have title. If you're a hardcore Halo fan looking to flesh out the story and really just want more of the same, then pick it up. If you're looking for an innovative FPS that pushes boundaries and helps define the genre, though, you may want to look elsewhere.

As a Halo game it rivals the nostalgia Combat Evolved instilled in us nearly a decade ago due to fully realized online multiplayer components and customizability; as a shooter, however, it feels almost as dated in so much there's little separating the core experience from past iterations.

Reach is an encore, a victory lap, a crowd-pleasing last hurrah for a series that most definitely won't end here, but will just as definitely never be the same again. Halo deserves another game this good, and Reach is a deserving tribute.

Few other games come close to its value and overall functionality. The gameplay tweaks are many and most hit the mark without sacrificing that Halo feeling.

The Campaign is easily the series' best. Bungie has overcome the pacing flaws of past Halo games by not dragging out the familiar on-foot and vehicle shootouts. Firefight reminds us how much fun Halo can be when played together against the best AI in the business. Rest assured, with this fourth [wink] Halo game now ours, we should let Bungie leave the franchise in peace.

Halo: Reach is everything a Halo fan has ever dreamed for. All that was lacking from previous Halo games is here and then some. This is Bungie's love letter to their fans and they've definitely gone out with a bang.

Halo: Reach is bar none the most developed, robust, and downright awe-inspired title in the legendary franchise.

Bungie has finally got the ingredients just right. It has taken one stripped-down step back to make the FPS giant take two massive
leaps forward, but it's worth it. Reach may fall, but its memory will remain for some time to come.

Halo: Reach is without doubt Bungie's finest Halo game, and best of all it has the story and structure to the campaign to finally deliver the Halo experience that some of us have been waiting for since the original Halo: Combat Evolved launched on Xbox back in 2002.

Halo: Reach is unquestionably the best of the Halo games, and that's not a small thing to say. But Bungie doesn't just match the best of every Halo game that came before it, they've improved it, streamlined it, perfected it.

Halo: Reach is a fantastic package, with several core components that on their own can outclass many other games. The campaign is excellent, backed by solid storytelling and a powerful audio-visual experience. The competitive multiplayer is familiar, yet brand new with a lot more options and a faster pacing. And the cooperative Firefight arcade mode has finally met its potential.

Right from 'press start' you can tell this is going to be the most cinematic, visually spectacular Covenant battle you've seen so far.