TL;DR at bottom I'm going to cut the introductions and jump right in; Halo Reach's campaign was incredibly disappointing. In fact, I was so disappointed; I felt the urge to tell Bungie why(I wouldn't be writing this if I didn't think you could do better). It frustrates a great deal that Reach received a metacritic score of 91/100. Why should Bungie be rewarded when they made such a lacklustre story/campaign? A studio needs criticism to grow and Bungie hardly received any from major media sources. If criticism isn't heard or taken seriously, Bungie's next game will have the same problems that Reach had. Hopefully Bungie is still early in the development process for their next game to consider this criticism. (Spoilers below) Campaign Mission Design: Bungie said Reach gave them room to explore and try new things in the campaign. I can definitely see what ideas Bungie was aiming for. Ideas like plat-forming with the jetpack on Exodus, turret defence in The Package, space combat in Long Night of Solace, and the on-rail shooting segment in Tip of the Spear. They're good ideas, but they weren't fully explored at all. It felt very underdeveloped, short, forgettable and just not that fun (aside from space combat). Perhaps extend these moments or add more pressure/ intensity. There are few (if any) memorable moments or high points in Reach's campaign because of the lack of variety. They all seem to blend together into one big mush. During the first 75% of this game, activating switches seemed to be the main/only objective in Reach. Do you know how boring that is Bungie? Someone should really go back and count how many there are. Do you know just how many levels ended by activating a switch? Four. Four out of nine levels: Winter contingency, Tip of the Spear, Exodus, and The Package. To add to this lack of variety, the majority of switches involved activating/deactivating AA guns. How many freakin AA guns are in this game? Again, the lack of variety hurts the campaign considerably. To add to the lack of objectives, there was also a lack of story through 75% of the game. The story is very, very thin here and I don't need to tell you that. Th-this is just so disappointing. This is absolutely no over-arching story at all. This isn't good Bungie, not good at all. I'm so flabbergasted I don't know what else to say. One thing that really bugged me was the lack of explanation and clarity ranging from character back-story to the planet Reach itself.[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nwuaydvwd0#t=00m40s]Take this clip for example.[/url]Do you think the average Halo fan/casual gamer would have any clue about Dr. Halsey and the relationship she shares with Jorge? Why wasn't this explained to the player? Not only would it have created sympathy toward Jorge, it wouldn't established who Dr. Halsey was and why she's important to this campaign. There are many others, but unfortunately I must move on or I'll run out of space. (As an aside, armour abilities felt like they were shoe-horned into the campaign. It would have been cool if armour abilities had more important roles that are essential in completing a mission. For example, wouldn't it have been cool of an entire battlefield became under bombardment by covenant airships, and the player had to use drop shield to traverse his way across? Or maybe a high octane chase where the player chases an elite using sprint. I don't know...something like that. Something more creative instead of just plopping them in there.) This is kind of nitpick, but did anyone else find it disappointing that the "Defend [insert character name]" sections of the game were just firefight encounters in disguise? I mean if it says "Defend Jun" wouldn't you expect Jun to die (temporarily) if you don't defend him? It came off as very cheap. I thought this would be an added layer to the gameplay but no....it's not. It's just an illusion to give the player the impression that the gameplay has changed without actually changing anything. Untapped Potential: If this is a game about a planet being invaded and being utterly destroyed by the entire covenant armada, wouldn't you expect to witness the mass invasion and the planet's annihilation? It baffles me that these key moments are completely non-existent. Instead of a cut scene or epic level, the player is introduced to the covenant by this simple phrase, "The covenant is on Reach. I repeat the covenant is on Reach". That's it?? It wasn't even that great of a line. In fact, it was an awful line. Bungie, if you want to create an epic game, this isn't the way to do it. The same can be said with the game's ending. The player hardly saw Reach in ruin. Sure Sword Base was in tatters, but that's really the only indication that Reach is going to hell. Jeez Bungie, the game's marketing message was "Remember Reach" and" From the beginning, you know the end" and the player hardly saw any of "the end". How wasn't this in the game? Why wasn't the ending more dramatic? Why was the entire game lacking in dramatic and climatic effect? For a story that was supposed to be emotionally investing, removing the most dramatic moments was a huge mistake. The cut scenes were flat, characters were flat, and environments were flat. Honestly, there's just no uniqueness here. Nothing stands out. Secondly, I thought that the campaign should've explored more interesting locations on Reach. Space, New Alexandria, and the mountainous areas were all neat, but it would've been better if you added to this collection. I mean, you had a whole world to work with. What about a snow, desert, or forest level? During the campaign, the player was always around the same terrain. After awhile, it got...kind of boring. It all looked the same. It definitely looks pretty, but the same mountainous areas just don't hold up after 2 levels. Again, lack of variety is your main problem. Emotional Investment As mentioned above, lack of dramatic effect and bonding with the planet hamper the emotional investment in Reach. They're all important, but it's the cast of characters that create and drive emotional investment the most. Unfortunately, I wasn't really emotionally attached to any of the characters. But if I had to choose, the character I cared for the most was Kat. This is probably because the majority of the missions heavily involved her. The more time I was with her, the more I cared about her. I didn't really care for any of the others because I didn't spend much time with them and there are too god damn many of them. Noble Team should've consisted of only 4 members: Kat, Carter, and Jun because they were the most interesting, and Noble 6 (well...Noble 4 now) . That way, it would've been easier to create a bond between the player and other characters. 5 Characters to care for is just way too much for an 8 hour campaign. Having a very thin story means little emotional investment. Relationships are created when going through tough hardships, solving problems, and struggling to meet a common goal (and don't tell me "defending reach" is the common goal; that's just pathetic). Reach's "Destroy this", "Defend that" design gave me little reason or opportunity to form a bond. It was just a bunch of generic missions without any underlying purpose. For a Halo game, the campaign really disappointed. Where were the epic, large-scale battles? where were the moments where the player felt like a hero? Where's the sense of accomplishment? Where the hell is the story? I'm glad Bungie's starting a new project because now -for the first time in 10 years- they'll actually have to prove themselves again. They'll actually have to take risks and put thought into what they're doing. [b]*Update* Just some clarification on things people have mentioned...[/b] [quote][b][/b] [i]"Halo: Reach was not supposed to have a feeling of accomplishment, it was about hopelessness and defeat."[/i][/quote] What most people don't understand is that to evoke a feeling of hopelessness and defeat (moods Halo Reach wanted to create), players need to have something of value taken away from them. How can one feel defeat/loss when nothing they care about has been taken away? Halo Reach immediately threw the player into the thick of the battle without trying to make the player feel connected with Reach or its characters. As a result, the player doesn't have a reason to care for Noble team or Reach. If Bungie attempted to make the player feel like they had a purpose (which ties to accomplishment) and feel emotionally invested, the player would hopefully feel hopelessness when these are taken away(ie. when Reach gets destroyed/noble team dying). But unfortunately, how can you take something away when your given nothing to begin with? Bungie assumed we cared about the planet and characters and didn't even try make the player's decide for themselves. This is one of the biggest problems Reach suffers from. If Bungie made the players care, the campaign would've felt drastically different. [quote][i]"Ahzuzu said Reach lacked a feeling of accomplishment. But the last two levels felt pretty accomplishing to me. We brought Cortana to the Pillar of Autumn for goodness sake!" [/i][/quote] Reach lacked a feeling of purpose/accomplishment on the whole. 2/9 levels is just not good enough. That's 22%. And 22% is a failing grade. The last two levels worked because the player was striving to reach an overall goal; get Cortana to the Pillar of Autumn. If you're trying to reach an overall objective, you-the player- has a purpose. The same cannot be applied to any of the other levels. Did the missions ONI: Sword Base and Nightfall connect to each other and progress an overall story? No, they did not. TL;DR: Reach's campaign was a failure because it lacked variety, story, emotional investment and feeling of accomplishment. [Edited on 01.22.2011 11:22 PM PST]