All that is Holy - Call it...Halo

There is a nasty cold bug going around. I know - got it, turned into a snotty mess of misery, got rid of it, got it again, finally demolished it! The only reason I point this out is because it interupted my Halo Reach experience. That got me mean and determined.

I started Halo Reach when I was sick, so I put it on "Easy" because I couldn't think with a fuzzy cold-drug induced brain but I wanted to peek at it and get a feel for the story in the solo campaign. Then I realized "Easy" was far too easy so as soon as I was feeling better I set it to "Normal" and...it made me start completely over. Which was...awesome actually. I played Six female. I don't think it has any effect on the game experience...except I was called 'girl' a few times but...better as a female then if I'd play male, no?

And in a sort time into this beautiful game I remembered all that I loved about solo campaigning Halo...and Reach in particular:

1. Patience. Take your time, kick it back, hump it mean...it will all pay off. No reason to get stressed in Halo. Thank you Bungie for bringing back the fun in gaming and not complicating it with bouts of frustration and stress angst.

2. Glitches do not need to be annoying - they can be downright hilarious so chill out and laugh your head off.

3. Death has no sting - however, in the case of Reach, it can have confetti (if you want it to). Well...that is kinda unusual...did I miss this option in earlier versions?...but really, if you die it is a pretty good respawn and you grunt it down and get it done. Put your neck out there, engage. You'll own it the less you fear it.

4. Warthogs have always, will always, be a pain to drive. Even the NPCs can't drive it in style - don't believe me? Uh-huh, okay, try it. Let Kat drive and count the many ways your helmet gets scratched in the dirt...or glanced off rocks...and if you think its her female driving...yeah....try it, let one of the boys drive...is that sparks flying off your visor?

5. Falcons and Banshees, however are fun to drive or...um, fly. Insane-ingly fun. Banshees more so if you steal them.

6. Halo = EMO. Halo comes with emotional baggage...all of them. Why else the magnificient heroic music score? (More lovin' on that in a minute) Yea, well, I think that sociopaths could be thinned from the population by measuring their emotional response while playing Halo. Reach stands up to the emo Halo challenge and delivers...a lump in the throat...on more than one occasion.

7. That after all these Halo games and how many years(?) Bungie still can't make a game that is tight. See # 2 above regarding glitches. Hahahahaha. But sticky gernades? C'mon, bro', they rule and I never get tired of the surprise they generate amongst the enemy...or the panic. Good times, fun times, need to get me some!

8. I simply can't believe its over...or is it...I can barely believe it but want to believe it - that Microsoft won't ruin it. Halo should be back. But if Bungie gets mired down with this - they will never have the opportunity to creatively fly and create another game like it. Which is exciting in itself.
Sidenote: Reach contains opportunities for Bungie to pimp you to the dark side of the XBox Live Halo experience. I don't need to hear it. Don't have Live but it isn't for a lack of wishing or comprehending that the Halo triumphs the multiplaying online gaming universe. Thanks, thanks for the salt in the wounds Bungie. I hope that advertising does NOT catch on, but likely it will, I could watch TV for commercials if I was that sick...

9. The music scoring is and always has been excellent. It makes you feel...inspired and proud. Music is an international language, it needs no translation and incites the thousands. I like the score in Halo because it heightens the game experience and always falls right in line with where you're at ingame.

10. BUT!!! The absolute thing I love about solo campaigning Halo - and Reach fed this love - is that it is heroic. So many games today let you be bad, good or inbetween. Black, white, grey. Yawn. Isn't it getting tired? NOT SO with Halo. You are a hero, you will step up, you will get done what needs to be done and you will do it with a sense of honour, brutal nobility and it will speak to something deep within us all, that we are capable of immense courage and sacrificing. In Reach, I am a Spartan, I am a warrior and I will not only do what is expected of me but what I expect of myself. That is powerful. Being a bully or an a-hole takes little or no balls. Having valor, being committed to the ultimate sacrifice in the face of the worst of odds...that takes guts. That is Halo. That is what you are made to be. No choice. You will be a saviour, even if you don't survive it. And in a world that has become self-absorbed, self-indulgent...it is excellent for a game to remind us of what we can be at our very root.

Halo, is all that is Holy.

My only bitch: the solo campaign just seemed too short, man. Now I will shutup. Oooo, Legendary. That sounds like fun...see yah...keep it real, Spartan.