Long post abounds. If reading is not your strong suit, or you have a short attention span, you have been warned.
So i tried out Halo:Reach a couple of weeks ago, and there's no real thread about it other than "It's coming out, i'm getting it". Let me start off by saying that i never really found what was so interesting in this series from the very beginning. I have played a little of the first game, and finished the second and third game on co-op, as well as participating in a little Multiplayer, and other than an occasional weapon and graphical improvements, i have never found anything that really different that set it apart from the other games dramatically.
Alright, so from what i understand, this last installment (last, unless they think otherwise that is) is a prequel detailing the fall of Reach, a very, very important strategic point controlled by squishy humans. It was out on a book or something, so anybody that followed the Halo Timeline would know that some bad shit is going to happen in this game.
Structurally to me, most of the single player is the exact same as the rest of the halo series. You are given several mission objectives in a large environment, sometimes not given a clear waypoint on where to go, with a possibility of backtracking, paired with extremely dumb allies, and fighting against pretty aggressive enemies. As an example of "dumb allies", in the second mission, my Spartan ally, KAT...Aside from usually standing around like an idiot while I'm waiting until she gets inside a vehicle... She got herself stuck during a waypoint, forcing me to take on an army of Covenant (As well as a pair of lumbering Hunter enemies) all by my lonesome.
The only big difference i saw was taking control of a space superiority fighter halfway through the campaign. Since i have a hard-on for Space fighting games, i have no complaints about this.
Now, onto the multiplayer, because this is the most important part of an FPS nowadays. What else can i say? It's Halo Multiplayer with improvements. The powerups are a welcome addition to the game, and each are powerful in their own right. Gameplay modes like Fire Fight can be alot of fun, a levelling up system allowing you to make your spartan armor prettier (among other things) ensures the game will have alot of folks playing for a long time.
I'd also like to mention Forge World, and theater modes briefly...Forge World is essentially a map editor you and your friends can screw around with, and i've seen some nice stuff on there. You can also make/see videos and Take/view pictures in the theater mode, but honestly not very many pictures are worthy of note. It's mostly close-ups of KAT's ass, and some guy getting knifed in the testicles.
Other than those neat things, it is still just another Halo game to me. But to anyone that has been a fan of the series, that's not really a bad thing.
PS:There are more annoying, high pitched turds in this game than in Modern Warfare 2, and that is saying a lot. Mute buttons can fix that though.