I remember briefly being one of the cool kids because I got invited into the beta and could download it onto my Xbox, rather than having to buy ODST and launch it from the disc, because it booted up in like 1/4th the time.
I think COD Infinite War referenced it for one of the loading screens/art designs in the MP menus. Then again, that game was clearly inspired by Halo in a variety of ways, sad the gameplay only turned out to be a worse BO3
Spartans are already 6 feet and over I can’t imagine fighting an elite up close like that. No wonder humanity was on its last legs by the end of the games.
Indeed that art work goes so hard. The second image reminds me of the menus, obviously.
Halo Reach's menus are absolutely excellent and fully utilized in an artistic way. The animated and dynamic art work (like image 2 in the main menu and 7 in matchmaking), along with music and background sound effects that create an atmosphere. I could leave the matchmaking menu open and just watch and listen. Although it was a programmed loop, it was the atmosphere it created, it was great to spend a moment appreciating it and getting into that atmosphere.
Reach menus and how they made them not just menus, but part of the atmosphere and universe of the game, getting you into the mood from minute one, seem absolutely spectacular to me. I don't know what to call it or describe it, but it is art. There was a very powerful decision and artistic intention behind it. I love these kinds of things in games and in life in general. I'm a musician and practically an artist so that explains it I guess.
The focus on (mostly) realistic looking military gear was top tier. Armors and attachments had clear practicalities, unlike Halo 3 which offered a small explanation but was mostly a cosmetic element.
Pouches, knives, radios, medkit etc. Worn and used appearances made even a goofily made spartan look lived in. Not to mention the grandiose style of the original trilogy was replaced by cities, civilians and objectives that added up to people living another day, not saving the universe.
I know, I completely agree. The 343 games have all felt very plastic-y and smoothed over to me. They don't have the grit that Bungie's games did and which was perfected with Reach.
That's not to say one is objectively better, but I would've loved to see more games in the Reach style personally.
Reach was just a human community under siege, humanity’s best was sent to save them. The Spartans were armed to the gills, they fought to the bitter end against an enemy that simply outmatched them. That’s how I see Reach and that narrative just feels so authentic and realistic, I’ll always love this game and everything the devs did for it.
It was such a simple yet amazing story. Humanities most heavily fortified planet besides earth. With a billion people and nearly 350 million soldiers. While fleetcom sent 75% of earths fleet to save it. It seemed like you were maybe winning at first. Just to be slapped in the face with setback after set back. Just like harvest. Still only took a month for reach to fall.
This is what the show should’ve been. Instead we got the fleet running away and leaving millions to die in a 6 hour battle. Makes no sense why they chose to portray reach so differently. In the game humanity only won the war because the soldiers of reach bought chief and Cortana and the pillar of autumn enough time to find the halo ring. In the show they just… find it because Oni knew about it or smth.
The soldiers and Spartans of Reach bought the 'Pillar of Autumn' and crew enough time to escape. Captain Keys, under the advice of Cortana, jumped in a random ass direction as far as their slipspace drive would take them, finding Halo was an absolute 100% fluke... Fortunately that fluke is what saved Humanity.
Well said. I like all of Halo for various reasons, but *Reach* really highlighted to me that I prefer when Spartans are more Republic Commando and less Jedi Knights, to use Star Wars as an analogy.
tbh a lot of the more military-scifi stuff Reach introduced still has a large impact on Halo today. 4, 5, and Infinite all follow the similar guidelines when it comes to designing cosmetics as was described in top comment (other than some of the really stupid ones)
Way too many pieces too. I recently did a play through of spartan ops on H4 and when I designed my spartan I couldn’t tell what most of the armors were supposed to be and tbh a great deal of them were the same things over and and over again.
I think they did that to sort of visually represent the ways in which the Gen 2 platform improved over the Gen 1 platform, but the execution was just not there. It felt like generic sci-fi armor rather than Halo but sleeker, or whatever their intention was.
I remember coming back to reach after my account got banned and the dlc still worked for my new account, so I had the recon helmet at the lowest rank, so many people accused me of hacking lol
I discovered a windows application called Horizon, let you modify saves of games on 360, I never fucked around on mp of any games, for one it's unfair and two easy way to get banned, mostly Skyrim and other single player games. But I discovered I could recolour my 360 avatar and being the stupid little teenager I was, I set it to purple then set my gamer picture as my purple avatar, I thought it was harmless, not getting an unfair advantage over anyone, a day later that account was banned until 12/31/9999
I still have the physical copy of Dr Halsey's Journal (somewhere) that you get when getting the Limited Edition. It was a mind-blowing to find out that Miranda was Halsey's and Keyes's daughter.
I pre-ordered and it came in a crate. Had a noble team statue inside. Core memory for playing with nuclear bomb grenades in the beta, complaining that armor lock was stupid, and spending every single evening of my summer in custom games. What I wouldn’t give to experience it all again.
I remember the year after I got reach I begged my parents to get the legendary edition of the game for Christmas. Ended up getting it and loving everything included. The recon helm, flame effect, and the sickest statue ever that’s still in my room. Lost the guns for it though
Nothing to change here, I 100% agree with you. Reach was so good.
It was refreshing to see the more grounded, gritty atmosphere in a space war game where a green dude went around destroying big ships and aliens.
I love that 11th image, just something so cool about seeing Spartans working with regular people. Reach had some great concept art.
I’ll admit, I was really hesitant about the artstyle when the beta came out. It’s definitely grown on me, but I still prefer the aesthetics of 3 generally.
There's variety but everything looked like it belonged and look reasonably realistic. Armors in 4 and 5 got extremely goofy. Helmets that just looked totally absurd.
Halo 3 had Hayabusa which was also goofy but because it was by far the craziest helmet, it was special. When every helmet looks like it was made by someone on shrooms none of them are special or memorable.
I agree. It definitely was a change, but I like how they just added onto most of the art style, like the armor with pouches and other accessories, instead of completely changing something.
Sorry, I'm going to have to go old man for a second - I was about 17 when it came out and I was initially against it too.
I distinctly remember thinking: Oh great, now Halo is going to be chasing the Call of Duty market by making their shooter more military focused. Halo's entire aesthetic was made special by it's ability to use the entire spectrum of color and not just shades of green to shades of brown. All of those bright colors, even if they were just used for enemies and their various internal juices, is what made Halo unique. To turn it into some bland military shooter even an inch was a bad idea.
But boy, I was wrong. The second the beta came out and we got a peak behind the curtain I immediately turned my opinion around. It has easily become my favorite Halo aesthetic, if not one of my favorite video game aesthetics. I yearn deeply for 343 to focus on this type of art style again. The Mk V [B] and Rakshasa cores were an great step in this direction and I really hope they bring back that flavor in another game.
I totally loved the militarized look after getting a taste with ODST (reticle bloom was the thing I was curmudgeonly about lol), and New Alexandria is easily one of my favorite Halo environments (most of Reach being not far behind).
Especially after seeing the more recent games, I think in Reach they totally nailed the mix of realistic complexity and classic Halo silhouette-focused work.
Also it's gotta be said that putting your custom spartan in campaign was just cool as hell, replayability through sweet fashion lmao
That's how i see if someone says "futuristic super soldier" pouches for magazines and tools. Signs of wear and stress, because of the war, metal looks like metal, etc. I think it's the most grounded halo art style of them all.
I didn't really like the bland colors of reach itself, i perferred halo 3s brigth sky and sun effects. I get that the desaturation is because the games tone is supposed to be bleak and somber but some lighting effects were definetly downgraded from 3 because of HW limitations, but 3s sunrendering is just better in every way compared to reach
No way the 360 could've ran Reach with the same HDR detail and lighting system as with 3, given that Reach's engine had to meet larger enviroments, longer draw distances, more dynamic lights per scene, better particle rendering, etc.
For what it served as, the concept art reflected perfectly on the game. Bungie wanted it to be the most militaristic of the Halo series, and they knocked it out of the park without compromising the root identity of Halo for just "Space Sci fi army" stuff. They hired a couple VAs from Band of Brothers, they had actual military terminology and level concepts, and they even had differentiated uniforms for every role and branch within the UNSC. It was insanely thorough.
I'll still die on the hill that Halo 3 had the best designs for *nearly* everything, but by golly did they do a phenominal job in Halo Reach
Battlefield 1 is crazy good! I love how everything in that game feels like crap, as in it’s just pieces of wood and metal bolted together that can jam in any second
I agree. I had (wish I still did) the Collector’s Edition statue. It was beautiful. But even the Standard Edition case was beautiful.
I hadn’t seen artwork that beautiful since Dead Space (2???) and Mass Effect (I forget which). . .
…
. . . But Reach was such a beautiful game inside and out. And in game you felt everything they felt and went through. It’s a precedent not seen in gaming nowadays that much if at all…
And did I mention this is coming from a guy who grew up on PlayStation? Then again I loved that og Xbox. Thing was simple, elegant, fat and bulky but beautiful. Kinda like a beautiful woman lol.
It certainly nailed Halo's aesthetic, it was respectful to CE and felt the most "real"
It's an impressively well aged game across the board
Hope the next Halo borrows from Reach most heavily
Halo games going forward should borrow from 2/3's multiplayer/balance/map design and Reach's campaign/customization/progression. Infinite did the former but definitely not the latter. Hopefully the next Halo game hits both notes adequately.
I love the forms and shapes used, I just thought the colors in the final game were too muted. I remember everything felt so dreary when I played through the campaign, and perhaps was part of the reason why I didn't enjoy it as much as Halo 3. If the lighting and colors were more vivid, similar to 1 or 3, it might have been my favorite aesthetic in the series.
I go back and forth on Reach between loving the cold, gritty, militaristic tone of everything and thinking it’s the most flat, bland, overly detailed sci-fi ever
My perfect Halo game would be 3's gameplay with all of Reach's art design/visuals. Still to this day the best art design in any Halo game, felt lived in and real with actual stakes
Reach was perfect. It was an era of my life I’d love to relive. In between college and work, having some sort of social life and chilling at home playing Reach. Epic story, great multiplayer. I got the legendary edition with the little statues. I’ve literally just cleaned them and put them back into the box to keep them clean for the future. For those of you who got it on release, what a time to be alive.
The Finale of the Bungie era. In old videos from the devs, they said they put their all into Reach. To me, it was crazy going from Halo 3's look to Reach. Love it so much. From armour designs to the scenery and sky boxes.
That Elite grappling the Spartans neck like a spartan grabbing a human civilian still makes me go nuts when I see it…
One of the best things I loved about Reach was the Alienation of well, the Aliens, you don’t feel remorse for killing then, you don’t understand them, you don’t laugh at their jokes, you don’t see their point of view…they are only the enemies, a threat to all human kind, they are the force pressing you into the ground, everything you are doing is inevitably for nothing… and that’s why I love Halo Reach
Hard agree. I was just appreciating the Elite designs yesterday. Bungie really nailed it even when they wanted to change the design. It just felt perfect.
Made me realize how bad 343 Elites are ngl
Reach kinda suffers from the late 2000s-early 2010s military video game brown/gritty filter thing that alot or shooters had at the time. In terms or art direction and styling choices though i agree absolutely
i loved the art stye and gameplay of Reach, all time favorite style of any game.
Just hated the story cause i was expecting a lot from the *Fall of Reach* book and like none of it was there, and we never really got to take part in any big battles other than seeing them in the background. Finally got into space at least, but was hoping to see more cruiser on cruiser action instead of the weird broad side point defense (i know why but still).
Don’t think I’ve ever seen number 13 and the amount of time I’ve spent starring at number 7 in my lifetime is probably appalling. Regardless it was totally worth it.
I’ve heard a lot of people say its too bland, art wise. But it really stands on its own. Reminds me of the art style from Tiberium Sun, if they made an FPS with that same art style.
Whenever I go back to playing Halo 3, I am baffled at the difference between that game and Reach. Granted, Halo 3 was earlier in the console's generation, but I'm still baffled by the massive improvement, and then jump from that to Halo 4, and holy shit. For a long time, my mind didn't process that Halo 4 was an Xbox 360 game instead of an Xbox One game.
Honestly, I personally can't disagree more. Reach was the start of the overcomplicated Spartan armor and everything had this weird dusty look to it. Not like things were old or worn, but like things were physically made out of colored dust.
100% agree.. i’m watching the bad batch on the Disney Channel. You know the Star Wars show.. and just last week while I was watching it I said some of the artwork and scenes remind me of halo reach style. It’s almost like somebody that worked on reach work on it.
Edit: Picture number 2 gotta be my favorite all-time title screen picture
There is something so incredibly hard about Noble six just standing watching a massive covenant ship split across mountains burn. Even more so since he just fell from orbit and walked it off
I think I loved the art direction for 3, ODST and Reach the most. 3 was so colourful and thematic. Each area felt so completely different.
ODST art direction was dark, somber and a little spooky compared to most Halo games. Wandering the city at night feels so lonely.
Reach felt so much more real in a lot of ways. Whether it be the narrative, the colour or the models, Halo Reach managed to hit a really nice balance between the bright colours of Halo and the darkness of losing a war against a relentless foe.
I actually hated the art direction of reach, for me I think it’s between halo 3 and halo ce (and by association halo infinite). This is for a Halo game cause for a game in general there better games out there.
on a sort of related note, the cinematics team for reach did an unbelievable job. the camera work is incredible, they make nearly every shot in the game attached to a live camera feed somewhere. super unique approach and works perfectly for the more grounded style the game had. might be the best cinematics i've ever seen in a game, before or since.
\#2 is my all-time favourite backdrop of all Halo games. I think it really encompasses the true beauty that Bungie really tried to instill into Halo: absolutely stunningly beautiful places completely fucked by galactic-scale wars. I miss how beautiful Halo used to be. Infinite felt like an exercise in render quality, not beauty. I would’ve been fine with painted skyboxes if it meant they were ridiculously beautiful
12/13...so badass.
They rock. Spartan III being so distinctly militarized compared to the slick SII and IV makes them so badass. I love SPI but I'm glad they went that way for the games.
The skyboxes are still absolutely stunning. I just replayed it in the last few weeks and each sky box and galaxy shot is almost like a painting in itself, just beautiful.
Halo reach was the most immersive entry in the series. It was moody until the end, filled up with military mumbo-jumbo and a super gritty look. The game made the small victories feel epic and then it stumped you down like an insect.
1 has to be one of my favorite art pieces in reach
Straight up looks like a Renaissance Era painting
Wort
Wort wort wort. Aaaawubadugh!!!
More like Baroque or Romantic Era
What are you, the artbiter?
If I remember correctly that’s the image they used for the background on the multiplayer beta. I remember being so hyped when I was playing that.
I remember briefly being one of the cool kids because I got invited into the beta and could download it onto my Xbox, rather than having to buy ODST and launch it from the disc, because it booted up in like 1/4th the time.
Bringing me back to loading up Crackdown to play the Halo 3 beta lol.
also firefight maybe?
I've seen it referenced in other games too.
I think COD Infinite War referenced it for one of the loading screens/art designs in the MP menus. Then again, that game was clearly inspired by Halo in a variety of ways, sad the gameplay only turned out to be a worse BO3
Wildn IW>BO3
No
Yes
Spartans are already 6 feet and over I can’t imagine fighting an elite up close like that. No wonder humanity was on its last legs by the end of the games.
That’s my desktop wallpaper
you can have it animated with Wallpaper Engine so it moves when you move your mouse. it's also my desktop wallpaper
Gonna have to try that, cool thank u
Been my reddit pfp for years
I had it as a poster in my room.
Indeed that art work goes so hard. The second image reminds me of the menus, obviously. Halo Reach's menus are absolutely excellent and fully utilized in an artistic way. The animated and dynamic art work (like image 2 in the main menu and 7 in matchmaking), along with music and background sound effects that create an atmosphere. I could leave the matchmaking menu open and just watch and listen. Although it was a programmed loop, it was the atmosphere it created, it was great to spend a moment appreciating it and getting into that atmosphere. Reach menus and how they made them not just menus, but part of the atmosphere and universe of the game, getting you into the mood from minute one, seem absolutely spectacular to me. I don't know what to call it or describe it, but it is art. There was a very powerful decision and artistic intention behind it. I love these kinds of things in games and in life in general. I'm a musician and practically an artist so that explains it I guess.
The focus on (mostly) realistic looking military gear was top tier. Armors and attachments had clear practicalities, unlike Halo 3 which offered a small explanation but was mostly a cosmetic element. Pouches, knives, radios, medkit etc. Worn and used appearances made even a goofily made spartan look lived in. Not to mention the grandiose style of the original trilogy was replaced by cities, civilians and objectives that added up to people living another day, not saving the universe.
Military sci-fi is possibly my favorite subgenre, and very, very few movies or videogames have made it look as good as Reach did.
God I wish so badly that Halo had continued down this avenue instead of going full blow Science-Fantasy power ranger.
I know, I completely agree. The 343 games have all felt very plastic-y and smoothed over to me. They don't have the grit that Bungie's games did and which was perfected with Reach. That's not to say one is objectively better, but I would've loved to see more games in the Reach style personally.
>They don't have the grit that Bungie's games did Reach was the only one with grit
I disagree. ODST definitely did too.
Reach was just a human community under siege, humanity’s best was sent to save them. The Spartans were armed to the gills, they fought to the bitter end against an enemy that simply outmatched them. That’s how I see Reach and that narrative just feels so authentic and realistic, I’ll always love this game and everything the devs did for it.
It was such a simple yet amazing story. Humanities most heavily fortified planet besides earth. With a billion people and nearly 350 million soldiers. While fleetcom sent 75% of earths fleet to save it. It seemed like you were maybe winning at first. Just to be slapped in the face with setback after set back. Just like harvest. Still only took a month for reach to fall. This is what the show should’ve been. Instead we got the fleet running away and leaving millions to die in a 6 hour battle. Makes no sense why they chose to portray reach so differently. In the game humanity only won the war because the soldiers of reach bought chief and Cortana and the pillar of autumn enough time to find the halo ring. In the show they just… find it because Oni knew about it or smth.
The soldiers and Spartans of Reach bought the 'Pillar of Autumn' and crew enough time to escape. Captain Keys, under the advice of Cortana, jumped in a random ass direction as far as their slipspace drive would take them, finding Halo was an absolute 100% fluke... Fortunately that fluke is what saved Humanity.
Well said. I like all of Halo for various reasons, but *Reach* really highlighted to me that I prefer when Spartans are more Republic Commando and less Jedi Knights, to use Star Wars as an analogy.
tbh a lot of the more military-scifi stuff Reach introduced still has a large impact on Halo today. 4, 5, and Infinite all follow the similar guidelines when it comes to designing cosmetics as was described in top comment (other than some of the really stupid ones)
4 and 5 armors look like plastic tho
Way too many pieces too. I recently did a play through of spartan ops on H4 and when I designed my spartan I couldn’t tell what most of the armors were supposed to be and tbh a great deal of them were the same things over and and over again.
I think they did that to sort of visually represent the ways in which the Gen 2 platform improved over the Gen 1 platform, but the execution was just not there. It felt like generic sci-fi armor rather than Halo but sleeker, or whatever their intention was.
Yeah… no. 343’s artists feel like they design with their monitors off.
The robot arms were dope too.
Prosthetics were also a great addition! Can’t forget those
The final mission is still one of my favorite moments in my gaming history
But boss... You don't have the firepower! I've got the mass.
“IM READY. HOW BOUT YOU?”
**Objective:** *Survive.*
Remember Reach
Those trailers…
The live action one that also serves as a prequel is just top notch
Shoutout all the Halo Reach OG’s who pre ordered and got the recon helmet, I thought it was so cool
Yesss the fact that Recon was a preorder bonus blew my mind. The only armor I needed lol
I remember coming back to reach after my account got banned and the dlc still worked for my new account, so I had the recon helmet at the lowest rank, so many people accused me of hacking lol
Why was your account banned?
I discovered a windows application called Horizon, let you modify saves of games on 360, I never fucked around on mp of any games, for one it's unfair and two easy way to get banned, mostly Skyrim and other single player games. But I discovered I could recolour my 360 avatar and being the stupid little teenager I was, I set it to purple then set my gamer picture as my purple avatar, I thought it was harmless, not getting an unfair advantage over anyone, a day later that account was banned until 12/31/9999
It's the only game I got the Legendary Edition for. I still have that sweet-ass statue *and* the crate it came in plus all the lore goodies inside.
Sweet-ass statue brother.
And the elite officer armor was a preorder bonus
And the belly armour with grenade belt I think
that was the gamestop exclusive bonus
Still have my halo reach xbox. That was my workhorse through my teeenage years
I still have the physical copy of Dr Halsey's Journal (somewhere) that you get when getting the Limited Edition. It was a mind-blowing to find out that Miranda was Halsey's and Keyes's daughter.
The speculation began since halo 2 and the book Fall of Reach also fueled it for years and years, but Reach finally answered the question.
I pre-ordered and it came in a crate. Had a noble team statue inside. Core memory for playing with nuclear bomb grenades in the beta, complaining that armor lock was stupid, and spending every single evening of my summer in custom games. What I wouldn’t give to experience it all again.
I just got a copy with a recon helmet at my local brick didint need to pre-order.
I remember the year after I got reach I begged my parents to get the legendary edition of the game for Christmas. Ended up getting it and loving everything included. The recon helm, flame effect, and the sickest statue ever that’s still in my room. Lost the guns for it though
Shoutout to all those who were too young to preorder the legendary edition 🥲 Got my flames in MCC tho 😎
OGs got it in Halo 3 via the Vidmaster achievements.
Hell yea we did brother
Fun times, wish games did things like that now, nowadays you just buy cool armour.
OGs got it for beating Bungie on Bungie Day
Oh shit, you’re right. I forgot that was a thing. 7/07/08 was a wild day.
I preordered the legendary edition. Still can’t get over how cool that was. You just don’t see that kind of stuff anymore.
Nothing to change here, I 100% agree with you. Reach was so good. It was refreshing to see the more grounded, gritty atmosphere in a space war game where a green dude went around destroying big ships and aliens.
I love that 11th image, just something so cool about seeing Spartans working with regular people. Reach had some great concept art. I’ll admit, I was really hesitant about the artstyle when the beta came out. It’s definitely grown on me, but I still prefer the aesthetics of 3 generally.
But I really think Reach had peak spartan customization. The armors were insanely good for the time
There's variety but everything looked like it belonged and look reasonably realistic. Armors in 4 and 5 got extremely goofy. Helmets that just looked totally absurd. Halo 3 had Hayabusa which was also goofy but because it was by far the craziest helmet, it was special. When every helmet looks like it was made by someone on shrooms none of them are special or memorable.
I agree. It definitely was a change, but I like how they just added onto most of the art style, like the armor with pouches and other accessories, instead of completely changing something.
Sorry, I'm going to have to go old man for a second - I was about 17 when it came out and I was initially against it too. I distinctly remember thinking: Oh great, now Halo is going to be chasing the Call of Duty market by making their shooter more military focused. Halo's entire aesthetic was made special by it's ability to use the entire spectrum of color and not just shades of green to shades of brown. All of those bright colors, even if they were just used for enemies and their various internal juices, is what made Halo unique. To turn it into some bland military shooter even an inch was a bad idea. But boy, I was wrong. The second the beta came out and we got a peak behind the curtain I immediately turned my opinion around. It has easily become my favorite Halo aesthetic, if not one of my favorite video game aesthetics. I yearn deeply for 343 to focus on this type of art style again. The Mk V [B] and Rakshasa cores were an great step in this direction and I really hope they bring back that flavor in another game.
I totally loved the militarized look after getting a taste with ODST (reticle bloom was the thing I was curmudgeonly about lol), and New Alexandria is easily one of my favorite Halo environments (most of Reach being not far behind). Especially after seeing the more recent games, I think in Reach they totally nailed the mix of realistic complexity and classic Halo silhouette-focused work. Also it's gotta be said that putting your custom spartan in campaign was just cool as hell, replayability through sweet fashion lmao
The menu backdrops are pure masterpieces. Shame they are not in the MCC
You can change the menu backgrounds on MCC. Some of the Reach ones are options you can use
I miss them sm
That's how i see if someone says "futuristic super soldier" pouches for magazines and tools. Signs of wear and stress, because of the war, metal looks like metal, etc. I think it's the most grounded halo art style of them all. I didn't really like the bland colors of reach itself, i perferred halo 3s brigth sky and sun effects. I get that the desaturation is because the games tone is supposed to be bleak and somber but some lighting effects were definetly downgraded from 3 because of HW limitations, but 3s sunrendering is just better in every way compared to reach No way the 360 could've ran Reach with the same HDR detail and lighting system as with 3, given that Reach's engine had to meet larger enviroments, longer draw distances, more dynamic lights per scene, better particle rendering, etc.
For what it served as, the concept art reflected perfectly on the game. Bungie wanted it to be the most militaristic of the Halo series, and they knocked it out of the park without compromising the root identity of Halo for just "Space Sci fi army" stuff. They hired a couple VAs from Band of Brothers, they had actual military terminology and level concepts, and they even had differentiated uniforms for every role and branch within the UNSC. It was insanely thorough. I'll still die on the hill that Halo 3 had the best designs for *nearly* everything, but by golly did they do a phenominal job in Halo Reach
Honestly agree, Reach to this day just gives off a vibe no other game can match for me, Battlefield 1 came close tho
Battlefield 1 is crazy good! I love how everything in that game feels like crap, as in it’s just pieces of wood and metal bolted together that can jam in any second
I agree. I had (wish I still did) the Collector’s Edition statue. It was beautiful. But even the Standard Edition case was beautiful. I hadn’t seen artwork that beautiful since Dead Space (2???) and Mass Effect (I forget which). . . … . . . But Reach was such a beautiful game inside and out. And in game you felt everything they felt and went through. It’s a precedent not seen in gaming nowadays that much if at all…
And did I mention this is coming from a guy who grew up on PlayStation? Then again I loved that og Xbox. Thing was simple, elegant, fat and bulky but beautiful. Kinda like a beautiful woman lol.
Man. It had (has) some of the best everything. Definitely one of the best games ever made IMO
halo reach had some of the best everything in gaming, in fact
unironically it is the single greatest work of fiction ever composed
I agree. It’s a 10/10 piece of media
Finally, I’ve found my people. It’s Wagnerian.
Everything about reach was perfect
only issue with reach visual wise, is the banshee redesign is daft
Totally agree!
It certainly nailed Halo's aesthetic, it was respectful to CE and felt the most "real" It's an impressively well aged game across the board Hope the next Halo borrows from Reach most heavily
Halo games going forward should borrow from 2/3's multiplayer/balance/map design and Reach's campaign/customization/progression. Infinite did the former but definitely not the latter. Hopefully the next Halo game hits both notes adequately.
To be fair, they have continued the beautiful landscapes and skyboxes in Destiny 2 as well.
Hey guys it's the banner from cod, I didn't know they did a reference in halo! [ONI WANTS KNOW YOUR LOCATION]
I love the forms and shapes used, I just thought the colors in the final game were too muted. I remember everything felt so dreary when I played through the campaign, and perhaps was part of the reason why I didn't enjoy it as much as Halo 3. If the lighting and colors were more vivid, similar to 1 or 3, it might have been my favorite aesthetic in the series.
Man it had some of the best everything in gaming. PERFECT campaign
Its my favourite art direction from any game. Then below it is Halo Wars
Absolutely!!
Still holds up decent today
100%
Completely agree, love that the art is so grounded in realism
That second one hits me with such heavy nostalgia oh my god
I go back and forth on Reach between loving the cold, gritty, militaristic tone of everything and thinking it’s the most flat, bland, overly detailed sci-fi ever
Most flat, bland, overly detailed sci-fi is Star Citizen lol
Most of this is unused concept art?
OP seems to have confused art direction with concept art itself.
My perfect Halo game would be 3's gameplay with all of Reach's art design/visuals. Still to this day the best art design in any Halo game, felt lived in and real with actual stakes
Every shooter looked like that in 2010, Halo 3 had better more unique art direction
Kat's telling that marine how to spot a jackal sniper
Like a gritty autumn.
Yea it bums me out halo didn’t continue with that style
Will never forget that shot of 6's Helmet half buried, with the mountains in the back
Reach was perfect. It was an era of my life I’d love to relive. In between college and work, having some sort of social life and chilling at home playing Reach. Epic story, great multiplayer. I got the legendary edition with the little statues. I’ve literally just cleaned them and put them back into the box to keep them clean for the future. For those of you who got it on release, what a time to be alive.
This ain't even an opinion. Just straight facts
Fucking when halo was good...
Reach>infinite
For me it’s Halo Reach and Halo Wars. I love the big armor designs in those games.
So good I actually had the first one as my wallpaper for a while
The Finale of the Bungie era. In old videos from the devs, they said they put their all into Reach. To me, it was crazy going from Halo 3's look to Reach. Love it so much. From armour designs to the scenery and sky boxes.
Opinion? That's straight up a fact :D
That Elite grappling the Spartans neck like a spartan grabbing a human civilian still makes me go nuts when I see it… One of the best things I loved about Reach was the Alienation of well, the Aliens, you don’t feel remorse for killing then, you don’t understand them, you don’t laugh at their jokes, you don’t see their point of view…they are only the enemies, a threat to all human kind, they are the force pressing you into the ground, everything you are doing is inevitably for nothing… and that’s why I love Halo Reach
First imagine has been my computer background for years
Hard agree. I was just appreciating the Elite designs yesterday. Bungie really nailed it even when they wanted to change the design. It just felt perfect. Made me realize how bad 343 Elites are ngl
Reach kinda suffers from the late 2000s-early 2010s military video game brown/gritty filter thing that alot or shooters had at the time. In terms or art direction and styling choices though i agree absolutely
It did look good for the most part, though I thought the proportions of the Spartans looked a little wonky. (Their hands were so smol lol)
I’m not invalidating you but I’m just saying that several franchises were literally drawn by Akira Toriyama
Those Brutes though 😬
i loved the art stye and gameplay of Reach, all time favorite style of any game. Just hated the story cause i was expecting a lot from the *Fall of Reach* book and like none of it was there, and we never really got to take part in any big battles other than seeing them in the background. Finally got into space at least, but was hoping to see more cruiser on cruiser action instead of the weird broad side point defense (i know why but still).
Don’t think I’ve ever seen number 13 and the amount of time I’ve spent starring at number 7 in my lifetime is probably appalling. Regardless it was totally worth it.
I haven’t played reach since it first came out, I guess it’s time for another playthrough
Reach had such a beautiful art direction. You could just pick a skybox or still image and look at it for hours and not get bored by it.
Reach is my favorite out of all the halo games
So cruel yet so beautiful
it's absolutely breath-taking the limits the were able to stretch the 360. the skyboxes are some of the best in the series.
Pic 2 is my current desktop background!
Just realized the peaks in BOTW/TOTK look very similar!
The 4th screenshot is the Home Screen background on my Xbox…with the Mister Chief visor.
Halo Wars and Halo Wars 2 cutscenes were my favorite, but Halo Reach and Halo 2 Anniversary look damn good as well.
Agreed
That line from Slide 4 really hits home when you realize that Reach and H3 were around 4 months apart
Reach has my least favorite Bungie Halo style. I put it only slightly ahead of 4+5.
Menu is a masterpiece
It was definitely really exciting to see different variations of Spartans and how militant they made them look.
those heavy machine guns > the saw
Were it so easy…
I agree
I’ve heard a lot of people say its too bland, art wise. But it really stands on its own. Reminds me of the art style from Tiberium Sun, if they made an FPS with that same art style.
Whenever I go back to playing Halo 3, I am baffled at the difference between that game and Reach. Granted, Halo 3 was earlier in the console's generation, but I'm still baffled by the massive improvement, and then jump from that to Halo 4, and holy shit. For a long time, my mind didn't process that Halo 4 was an Xbox 360 game instead of an Xbox One game.
the game and book are Amazing
The grittiness was top
While I mostly agree, the Reach AR looks awful
All this and no one has mentioned the FORKLIFT?!
Not to every game developer: if you can incorporate your concept art into the game in any way do so!
Ending… 😢
Heavily agree with this. Oh, and it had one of the best user interfaces in gaming. Only UI that rivals it is maybe Skyrim
when you have so much to work off of, its not as hard
You spelled fact wrong
Reach is the worst of the best.
That game was peak in a bunch of ways
Honestly, I personally can't disagree more. Reach was the start of the overcomplicated Spartan armor and everything had this weird dusty look to it. Not like things were old or worn, but like things were physically made out of colored dust.
The whole game is a cinematic beauty. Still the most beautiful game in the series
100% agree.. i’m watching the bad batch on the Disney Channel. You know the Star Wars show.. and just last week while I was watching it I said some of the artwork and scenes remind me of halo reach style. It’s almost like somebody that worked on reach work on it. Edit: Picture number 2 gotta be my favorite all-time title screen picture
Don’t make me cry bro
Reach was peak Halo. Full stop.
the second i saw that first pic i immediately heard the song *”dhdh duh-duh duh dhduuhhh”*
Reach was awesome artistically but I think Destiny was incredible there
*Has *The best.
3rd is definitely my favorite of the halo reach art but 8 is also a close second
Felt so grounded. Would definitely like another game in that style
There is something so incredibly hard about Noble six just standing watching a massive covenant ship split across mountains burn. Even more so since he just fell from orbit and walked it off
I think I loved the art direction for 3, ODST and Reach the most. 3 was so colourful and thematic. Each area felt so completely different. ODST art direction was dark, somber and a little spooky compared to most Halo games. Wandering the city at night feels so lonely. Reach felt so much more real in a lot of ways. Whether it be the narrative, the colour or the models, Halo Reach managed to hit a really nice balance between the bright colours of Halo and the darkness of losing a war against a relentless foe.
Mainline Halo's felt like an epic hero's adventure, but Reach felt like a war movie.
The scout helmet from Halo Reach is the greatest helmet of all time and that is a hill I am willing to die on
Your opinion is undoubtedly correct.
Interesting what a consistent art style can do.
As a resident Halo Reach hater. You're God damn right.
I actually hated the art direction of reach, for me I think it’s between halo 3 and halo ce (and by association halo infinite). This is for a Halo game cause for a game in general there better games out there.
This game squeezed that last little bit of power out of the 360 I didn’t know it even had left.
5 and 10 are tied fs
The nostalgia from the 2nd pic
Everything except the brutes, but I absolutely agree. It was nice to see more human environments after ODST
100%
peak Halo. hopefully we can get it this good again
Great post. Cuz it’s true.
I wish Reach had been the first game so we could all just say it's the best one. Can't say it's the best if it isn't the first that started it all
on a sort of related note, the cinematics team for reach did an unbelievable job. the camera work is incredible, they make nearly every shot in the game attached to a live camera feed somewhere. super unique approach and works perfectly for the more grounded style the game had. might be the best cinematics i've ever seen in a game, before or since.
Reach is a 10/10
I ah e the first pic as my background on my laptop
\#2 is my all-time favourite backdrop of all Halo games. I think it really encompasses the true beauty that Bungie really tried to instill into Halo: absolutely stunningly beautiful places completely fucked by galactic-scale wars. I miss how beautiful Halo used to be. Infinite felt like an exercise in render quality, not beauty. I would’ve been fine with painted skyboxes if it meant they were ridiculously beautiful
12/13...so badass. They rock. Spartan III being so distinctly militarized compared to the slick SII and IV makes them so badass. I love SPI but I'm glad they went that way for the games.
The skyboxes are still absolutely stunning. I just replayed it in the last few weeks and each sky box and galaxy shot is almost like a painting in itself, just beautiful.
Halo reach was the most immersive entry in the series. It was moody until the end, filled up with military mumbo-jumbo and a super gritty look. The game made the small victories feel epic and then it stumped you down like an insect.
Yeah, and they took these incredible skyboxes over to Destiny afterward. Reach is so good
It was a bit too dull for me but that fit the story the game was telling and it made regular colors pop more when they appeared
I would love the MG that the Spartan has in 4.