Despite a poorly executed campaign, pointless ranking system and disappointing multiplayer, Reach is a great game.
Let's start with what disappointed me. First of all, the campaign. The campaign starts up with Reach, an important colony for the UNSC that you know will end in flames thanks to the alien coalition known as the Covenant. With a story like this, it should be easy to make a sorrowful heartfelt game, right? It should also, then, be easy to make Spartans act human. This is what Bungie had said prior to release. They also said this was the game they've been wanting to make since Combat Evolved.
The story is set up well with sacrifice after sacrifice, but is all feels like a couple of random battles set on Reach stapled together with no heartfelt sorrow whatsoever. What Bungie forgot is the first thing you should remember in making a story - The characters. The characters are flat and boring. You don't end up actually caring for the characters. Noble Team lack any sort of charm. There is no mysterious back story for each character, save for Noble 6, and character development is lacking. The only heartfelt part is right at the end.
Next up is the voice acting. Voice acting is at its absolute worst here for Halo and is extremely monotone. When one should feel panicked all you hear is boredom. This all dooms the well set up story that Bungie had here.
There is also a pointless ranking system that only shows how long you play the game instead of actually showing your skill.
Now for multiplayer. Multiplayer is weak here with maps copied straight from the campaign, which has not been done before in a Halo game. Armor abilities are not exactly new, fitting the same role as equipment for Halo 3.
Halo Reach's saving grace is the new improved survival mode, Firefight, the improved Forge mode, the fun to use armor abilities, excellent music and excellent level design and gameplay Halo has been known for.
Firefight, where you survive wave after wave, is now highly customizable. You can now edit the player's, or the AI's, abilities and change what type of enemy you'll face. Next, forge mode, a mode where you can edit maps, has been improved with new tools to enable you to make maps faster than before. You can enter coordinates, set the object to "Normal", where gravity affects the object, "Fixed", where gravity does not affect the object, and "Phased", where the object can go through other objects. The map "Forge World" is excellent for map making and is absolutely huge. However, the lack of variety ruins the potential Forge has.
Music is now at its best here in the Halo series, presenting the gritty story Reach had set up. The feel of disaster and hopelessness is presented. The feel of marching into battle. The sacrifice is heard right through the music. The soundtrack is just amazing.
All in all, Reach lacks any sort of new features but is still an excellent game with the same fun game play Halo has been known for. But don't expect a good moving, heartfelt storyline.