Fun story: my brother and I were playing firefight while our mom was sleeping on the couch. She wound up waking up asking why we'd drive a baby into a warzone. By brother promptly replied, "I didn't drive a baby into a warzone, I flew one in!" She left the room half-awake and angry. Turns out that because he had Buck's voice applied to his spartan, our mom wound up having a wacked out dream about Firefly.

The fact that you can have Noble Six as literally your own Spartan in Reach really got me into armor customization. The campaign was really sad, but very engaging. I still play the campaign on my original 360 copy with forcing my connection offline and not reconnecting to replicate the old days, since 343 thought it was funny to sunset the 360 services especially with Infinite's bagfumble.

For what it's worth, I don't think the second half of the game would have hit quite as hard if the first half had the same defeated tone. You feel successful in driving the enemy back, then all of your victories are washed away by overwhelming odds and your team dies off one-by-one. It's a really interesting direction to take the game, especially since the original trilogy was largely about the power fantasy of playing the underdog and winning.

I love the fact that reach cutscenes are filmed as if it’s a war documentary. Coming from helmet cams or satellites. It definitely felt more real than the original trilogy I also especially like how it shows you that even awesomely powerful characters like Spartans are just one bullet to the head away from death. And how completely outclassed humanity is in comparison to the elites

The reason the first half of the game feels like there are no stakes is because there *are* no stakes. The UNSC thought reach was undefeatable. You're just going through the motions of the winter contingency before shit really hits the fan and when it does, no one is ready for it.

“There will be spoilers.” Kat instantly dies 🤣💀

I believe the reason the first half was like that is to lull everyone into a sense of security before pulling the rug right out just to set the tone for the rest of the story.

Really great video. And for anyone that genuinely thought Kats death was dumb or just didn’t understand because her shields, in the scene prior, they start glassing new Alexandria which shoots out an EMP type blast that would kill everyone’s shields for a little bit. So in that moment, Kat didn’t have her shield up, hence why the headshot took her instantly. To prove it further, you don’t see her shields break once she is shot too, unlike Emiles death, his shield breaks as soon as the elites energy sword pierces it. Hope this cleared it up for anyone

Reach is tied with halo 2 for my second favourite halo game.

With how sad and cinematic the campaign is, I think it could make a really really good sci fi movie (with some changes like the covenant first contact) and I really hope that at some point the series gets a lot of funding and a director who loves the lore

I loved reach. It was it’s own story that transitioned perfectly into where CE picks up.

5:07 Fun fact! On XB360, it's not actually too bad on legendary But the upping of the tick rate to 60 in Reach causes the legendary AI in that section to become absolutely BRUTAL

I think the developers wanted us to feel lucky and even confident the first half of the game so the second half struck more deeply and we realized how powerless humanity was against the covenant.

I appreciate your honesty. I was also 10 when Reach came out. It was the first Halo game I actually cared about and was hyped for. It was also my first real experience of Halo multiplayer. I had played all the other Halos prior but my thought process then was just pew pew kill the purple aliens. But at the time Reach came out I was a bit more aware of characters and story. So naturally I have a bias. Reach is definitely my favourite campaign. I’ve played through countless times and still find it highly entertaining. I absolutely agree the second half is a step above the first, but I still think the first half is great fun. Reach was easily one of my best gaming experiences, but maybe that’s just because Reach came out at a simpler time when I was at an even simpler age.

i'm gonna be *that* guy but the ships that show up at the end of long night of solace are regular assault carriers, not to be confused with the much larger supercarrier that jorge blows up

ironically, i absolutely LOVED long night of solace and to this day is my favorite mission in Reach, maybe i just love plane games and Halo space combat so it was a gift from the heavens when i first played it

Reach is hands down my favorite entry in the halo franchise. Halo 2 story beats it for sure but the campaign play, multiplayer, design, look, atmosphere are all superior in reach. Being an ex military guy, reach’s story hits me more in the feels than all the other halo stories did and man, I just love this game. I get emotional playing the story every time from the team, the fighting the dying battle, the weight of the scale and burden you are facing. It’s just so epic it’s beyond words. I wish we get another halo game this epic in our lifetime. I still ply reach out of all the halo games and still enjoy the multiplayer games the best out of all other games.

Honestly Emile’s death was the most gut wrenching. The man of few words and his most memorable are “keep ‘em, I’ll honor him my own way.” And “I’m ready!! How ‘bout you?!” Emile was the Spartan as a kid that I thought “okay we’re gonna win bc Emile’s got my back.” So when he died, that’s when I truly felt out of hope for the story.

the best thing about this campaign was that I wasn’t playing The Master Chief, I was playing me, 11 year old me was Noble 6, It was me in that armor, It was me who watched my friends die, and it was me that made the last stand, so save humanity, thats the beauty of this game.

You say that you were a green frog but you clearly have a chicken symbol on your armor.🤔

Not super relevent to the game itself but I appreciate that you played through Reach in it's original form. I strongly believe a halo game, menus and load screens included, really help to bring the vibe that the game is going for and in a lot of cases really set the mood for the campaign at least initially

Am also 22, same exact situation as you said. Reach was the absolute shit as a 10-12 year old.

Just started a playthrough today. It's so good

"A story that doesnt involve masterchief" Just like with odst he is in the background vibing.

Carter's death will always be my favorite in any Halo game. What an absolute boss

also to add to my comment, it's rare to see any halo youtubers put effort into videos, just voice over and gameplay of news lmfao. Thank you for adding creativity to this dead space.

For those who never figured it out, the glassing knocked out everyones sheilds

Always look forward to a new video from Frogarchist!

Halo 3 is still my favorite campaign and multiplayer, but Reach has grown on me through the years. When it first came out I just ran around shooting everything and gawking at the graphics. Now that I’m older I can really appreciate what Bungie did, and I still feel dread when my spartan goes into the final fight.

i like to think that kat's death was supposed to be from a beam rifle but it isnt in halo reach so they settled for a shield malfunction and a needle rifle

Great content. I bought MCC recently because your videos would bring back great memories of playing with my brother and sister.

Long Night of Solace on legendary brought out a level of rage I never thought I was capable of. I'd rather run through Gravemind again than try to destroy those corvette engines in the Sabre. It's been almost 4 years since my legendary playthrough, but the nightmares still persist

been on youtube for a long time, i dont sub often, your content is solid man. good narration and I like how you're fairly straight to the point. earned my +1

Your channel is so entertaining, thanks for getting me in to Halo speedrunning. Oh and hell yeah, American Football and bands like it kick so much ass!

Obviously late, but Bungie brilliantly planned the deaths of Noble. Jorge, the heart - Sacrificed himself. Kat, the brains - Was shot in the head. Jun, the long-distance sniper - Stayed away and lived. Carter, the leader - Went down wiith the ship. Emile, the close-combat specialist - Was impaled. Noble Six, the lone wolf - Fought and died alone.

Oh man. Yesterday was when this gem became a year old… This is how I found the channel

I loved Reach too. I think it was the magnum opus. If more halo games focused on spartan 3s and the sad and heroic stories they have, we’d all be more hyped I think.

I just found this channel and for only 5k subs this video is pretty well done. You sir have a new subscriber

7:53 - Kat had the most ironic death; Kat, the team's technology expert, dies to a shield malfunction. Sure, the shield can be turned off, but chances are that was a glitch, not incompetency.

This is still the best halo ever made. I loved loved loved the campaign. It just felt so epic and you felt completely up against it fighting a losing battle.

I absolutely love Emile’s death, my favorite scene for sure. What a giga chad! 😃

Yahoooo! New Frogarchist video!

I always loved it, including campaign, though now that youve brought it up, I usually do replay the latter half levels far more than the early ones. Do have to agree that the early levels feel a bit like filler but the last half was amazing. New Alexandria especially when you exit the first objective and the cruiser flies by shaking the screen before the huge pulse and laser to glass a distant part of the city, its so chilling to me to see that. Makes your little jammer mission seem so insignificant

Halo reach is my favorite campaign and halo game all together purely just from the nostalgia I have with it. I literally grew up playing reach and I have such a strong connection to it and will forever love it

underrated channel

Yeah, I love how the second half of the game feels like the Battle of Thermopylae, Siege of Masada, or the Battle of the Alamo but on a global scale.

Great stuff, I too find it hard to come back to the campaign, but for me itd because the latter half of the story weighs heavy on me. New Alexandria in general, sheesh.

I like the way they use brutes, skirmishers, as well as suicide grunts in the level Exodus, it is known to most players of the other games that covenant are trying to commit a genocide against humanity, and are being brutal about how they pull it off, and I think that enemy use in that level shows us some cool environmental storytelling.

This went from I hate halo reach to I don't like the first half of halo reach to halo reach is a master piece😂 still had alot of fun watching this video I just subscribed.

Reach forever has a special place in my heart. Top 5 video game I have ever played

yo im a 22 year old who has to pay bills and has a full time job what a coincidence lol

10:34 thank you for pointing this out in triple a titles now days. Also, I’ve never played reach, or at least finished it. I played some of the first level and it was “meh” to me. Literally stopped playing Xbox when I finished odst and switched to PlayStation but tried to give Xbox a shot again with reach. It was nice watching your video and I watched the cutscenes you talked about, they’re really cool

I think reach is my favourite campaign as there are so many ways to play through each mission

Well done Sir!

I can appreciate the idea of a first half where humanity is more hopeful that they might beat back the covenant, and then the tables turning completely to reveal how hopeless it all is. I just think there wasn’t much in the way of meaningful world building or foreshadowing in the first half, which held it back

somehow this guy's opinions are almost entirely opposite of mine to a degree that I liked the video due to the love of differing opinions. screw echo chambers. unless those echo chambers contain my lovely mexican boy

i love u becuase u got me into starting my own channel and playing games!

Reach has an awesome story, mixed bag characters, and level design that could have been a lot better.

Man if there's one thing Reach really succeeded in, it was the overall style and aesthetic. It's one thing I really don't enjoy about the MCC. It feels like it stripped each game of its own unique style, but Reach more-so than any of them. From the way you grind your points to the style of the menus. Everything about it absolutely sucked me in and released all of my feel-good chemicals. As an aside, I remember being able to individually check all of the medals you earned after finishing a mission for that mission. Am I remembering that right? Because in the MCC I can see my totals, or I can see a quick image of my most earned medals, but I have yet to find a way to see all of the different types and quantities of medals I earned in each mission as I complete them. Am I crazy?

This game made mark V mjolnir armor my favorite aesthetic for Spartans, and the tactical look to the armor was the cherry on top

If someone is being spoiled by Reach, they deserve to be spoiled.

Reach is by far my favourite halo in every way

Instant sub from me, really good video

I feel like tip of the spear should’ve been the mission where the scorpion was introduced and not the package it just feels more fitting, add in some marines on warthogs and mongooses and it feels like a missed opportunity

I remember my twin brother and our younger brother and i would play Halo Reach campaign and firefight a shit ton because we didnt have xbox live, we all started with Halo 3 and played all of the Halos but we made the most memories with Reach… good times

Nice video frog

The space section is actually harder than the 360 version because in MCC, since it runs on better hardware, the AI have more room to breathe so they play a lot more aggressive.

Hot take: REACH is my favorite of the Bungie games, I only started playing Halo about a year ago, I grew up as a Battlefront 2 kid and remain a Battlefront 2 fan to this day so I never got that nostalgia for old Halo games and I compare them to modern day games. Halo 1 and 2 are rough for me as they are extremely slow but I was too invested in Halo 2's story to stop playing it. Halo 3 definitely got me more interested in the combat and a little less interested in story. ODST however, I love that game so much, the story is interesting and gameplay feels really good even today. Finally REACH, I really liked it from start to finish, I love the combat personally (except those terrible jetpacks), it was the first Bungie Halo I played and I played it first time on legendary so I was actually from the first time feeling like I was barely achieving success, the midway through I get slapped in the face as everything I did essentially means nothing and it all goes to Hell, I love that shift, I felt like I was here to just get as many people off this damned planet as possible, I save a civilian cruiser, think that there's hope, and again get slapped in the face because for the net few missions it's just losing people until I'm out of people to sacrifice and now, it's my turn. The fact that I played CE for the first time after Reach made me so much more invested knowing all the death it took to get here.

I feel like im the only one who feels like noble team could've been more fleshed out. Like yea we play with them but they dont really have deep character arcs to them. They have personalities and notable traits to them but thats kinda it. Except for Jorge, he has a good arc with his relationship to reach as i think he was born on it and dies for it. Kat i feel was underused as all she does is unlock doors and carter was alright. I feel like Jorge shouldve been the one to die on the mac gun so the player could become more attached to him, instead of emile as emile barely does anything despite how cool he is. Hell when he tries to do something he dies🤷 really only my main complaint campaign wise.

To me reach is my favorite campaign as it feels like it’s my Spartans story

Im 22 as well dang felt that taxes line. Miss when my concerns were the next game id play.

Reach campaign is peak.

while not a speedrunner, i did the MCC achievement to beat the campaign, legendary, in under 3 hours and i HIGHLY recommend, i think reach on legendary is pretty easy, until you have to do that so its a great change of pace

I also made my Spartan green, because green is my favorite color.

Great review! I thought the campaign was too short to get me invested in the squad (most of which feel like cliche/stereotypes anyway), so when they died, it mostly fell flat for me. Also Kat's death was almost funny from how sudden and random it was. The gameplay is pretty alright, but the characters and story pale compared to the trilogy.

Personally I loved reach as a kid my favourite campaigns from best to least good - Halo 3 , Halo 3 ODST , Halo reach , Halo CE , Halo 2 , Halo Infinite , Halo 4 , Halo 5

The thing about the bunjie games is their campaigns (and by extension, entire games), are so well made and equally good, that you can’t really blame someone for liking a different one more than then one you like.

Reach is my baby I love it

I had just got out of the Marine Corps a few months prior to this releasing and my high school best friend was huge Halo fan so he asked me to get it since I hadn't done anything with the dude in years. He recommended 2 right before I went to boot camp and it didn't take. I liked the Arbiter and that's it. I gave this a try and to this day this is the only one I like out of them all. Something about this one just seems so much better as far as plot goes. I do agree with you about the introduction on the Covenant though. They are introduced at the very beginning. I'm not well versed in the lore so I assumed they were there to begin with so I didn't know about the rebels.

My main complaint about this video is the part where you say “noble 6 inevitably got killed” Because that didn’t happen.

Agree on your opinions on level 1. Very underwhelming but game gets gradually more amazing.

I listen to why people "dislike" this game but for me it's GREAT. Especially the way you can have your own customized Spartan in the campaign, really makes you feel like Noble 6 But what really made me love 6 is the fact that HE and CHIEF are the only two lethal-hyper-vectors EVER!!! AND ITS LIKE... OMYGOD WE'RE ON THE SAME LEVEL AS JOHN HALO!!! AND I GUSH EVERYTIME I HEAR IT. God I LOVE REACH. I'm a hundred percent on the Noble 6 is alive train.

If they came to hear mr beg...

I started a reach replay about a week ago and found your Channel a couple days ago. Going through it, I feel the same as you. First half of levels are boring, second half is way more fun, way more cinematic, and Lone Wolf is a effect FPS campaign ending.

Bro gave a spoiler warning and then immediately cut to the most pivotal death in the game 😂💀

DID THAT TIME STAMP SAY 2589?!?!@?!? Wait what? I never noticed that. That does work at all with the lore.

the reason you never felt like playing the reach campaign again is because it traumatized all of us the first time we played it. the campaign as a whole is like an 8/10 at best but the story will always be an 11/10. mia in peace noble team 🕊️🕊️🕊️🕊️🕊️🕊️

It takes way too long to start fighting in the Campaign. But I concur, the second half of the Campaign is fantastic.

I’ve been doing somewhat honest opinions on halo games, but reach I liked the most, because it introduced me to my favorite color scheme and the story and noble teams death made it feel so somber but not halo 4 somber

what if the opening cutscene for winter contingency started with the elite ambush scene, and then it ends with the zealot that's almost about to stab six and then cuts back to the actual opening scene for winter contingency

Kat lost her shield cause of the glassing

7:52 I think its the nuclear bomb that made the shileds of her armor malfunction.

You should try the Mythic Overhaul for Reach, it elevates it so much and addresses a lot of your complaints.

If I remember correctly the Sabre section remains broken in MCC as part of the AI is tied to the frame rate.

7:54 Since they were being glassed - their shields were all EMPed. The elite found them by tracing Hollands call

I love halo reach

The sabre mission on Legendary is one of the worst things I’ve experienced in gaming…

You should have been one of them blue & orange ultra poisonous exotic jungle frogs. Next time

I still think it's weird they made odst. I don't remember if i asked for it when I was a kid or if I just got it for christmas unasked for, I really don't remember. I mean I know why they actually made it but the premise is: "ok we have a franchise where you play as a super soldier with cool armor and guns and epic objectives and abilities to do things, now lets make a game where you play as a slightly more able than regular soldier soldier, like the difference between an army grunt and a marine". Like what?? why?

Oh.