As the clock struck midnight on Tuesday 14^th September, millions of people all over the world were queued outside their nearest game shop or supermarket to get their hands on the most anticipated game of the year : Halo: Reach.

Halo: Reach is the 5^th game in the franchise, but takes you back to where it all began. Before Master Chief, before Arbiter and before Nathan Fillion filled the boots of an ODST. Halo: Reach is a prequel, where all Spartans are at full strength and ready to take on the unrelenting force of the Covenant race. It takes place before Halo: Combat Evolved and gives a greater prospective on the book, Halo: The Fall Of Reach.

You play one of these Spartans as Lieutenant Noble Six. A very shady character who has a classified ONI file, and acts mostly as a Lone Wolf. You are part of a elite strike force “Noble Team”, made up of hard hitting Commander Carter, Jun, Emile, Jorge and  Kat. The characters in this game are interesting, they take their helmets off and let you see their faces, unlike previous Halo games where you were always left to guess what Master Chief looks like.

The jist of the story is that Reach, the Spartan home, has been invaded by the Covenant. The whole planet goes into chaos and you get to see the Spartans in all their glory shoot, throw grenades and use vehicles to fight what is a losing battle for them.

The Campaign mode, depending on what setting you have it on, and whether you are familiar with shooters and the Halo franchise, should take you no more than 15 hours. There are 9 missions in total with many twists, and new weapons and vehicles to keep even the newest person to Halo happy.

Something else that is new in Reach is the use of Armor abilities. These abilities help a lot in Campaign and Online. There is nothing sweeter than turning on Active Camo, sneaking up behind a enemy and plunging your knife into its back to get a pretty awesome assassination. Assassinations are now animated, if you hold down the melee button behind a enemy, you will go into a short animation that shows your true strength as a Spartan.

Another mode is Firefight. First introduced in ODST, this mode sees you face wave after wave of increasing difficulty against Covenant. Bungie has made a big improvement on this, by having better weapons and easier co-op game play to get you through firefights. Survival is key here, you and three other players can get your helmet on and shoot to kill. Good for practise or just for seeing the capabilties of the new weapons.

Multiplayer is now one of the best online experiences going. Reach now has a full customisation system – whenever you play online, win or lose. You will earn credits which can be used to buy new pieces of armor for your online character which will also appear in Campaign. The newest mode to online is that of  “Invasion”, a team objective-based game where you must get the core to your relevant dropship for extraction. There is a lot of map variety as well as matchmaking variety.

Annoying players getting to you online? You can change that and pick people who are less chatty than others. With the new “Psych Profile” you can look for players who have a similar mindset to you to get the job done. As with previous Halo games there is a ranking system, and you gain experience and climb the ladder by playing and winning more matches.

Every day, and week, Bungie puts up new challenges for players to try and do to get bonus credits. These could range from gaining 100 kills in multiplayer to getting a assassination. These challenges are perfect for the player who gets bored with the constant grinding trying to get up to the higher tiers.

As soon as you put Halo: Reach into your Xbox 360 console, you will be amazed by its visually stunning colours and animations. The story is better than expected and replayable with the same satisfaction as the first time round. The soundtrack is one of the best in the business and never fails to impress when in Campaign mode.

As this is Bungie’s last game of the franchise, it was only fair of them to give the fans the best Halo experience possible. My hat is off to you Bungie - well done. A brilliant game, fantastic online experience and some great achievements and challenges to boost it. Overall, the most anticipated game of the year has lived up to its hype.