The first Halo Reach review scores will be available this Sunday morning including CVG’s own review. The official Microsoft embargo for Halo Reach review write-ups lifts at 5am UK time
Bungie, the studio that created the blockbuster franchise, says Halo: Reach will be its last game in the series. Microsoft may keep making more Halo games after Bungie moves on to other projects. But Reach will be something of a closure for the seminal first-person shooter. And because of this, anticipation is fervent.
“Reach” is slated to be the last “Halo” entry developed by Bungie Studios, which signed an exclusive 10-year deal earlier this year with Activision to publish and distribute a series of games for various platforms. The deal marks Bungie Studios’ first partnership since breaking off in 2007 from Microsoft, who retains the rights to the “Halo” universe.
Some publishers allow reviews to go online weeks before the game’s release. An early timeline can build last-minute hype. Other companies withhold everything until the last possible moment. This is often a bad sign – a signal that the game is terrible and the publisher knows it.
The intergalactic protagonist also has a past as a pilot, providing players with the opportunity to take to the skies — and beyond — for the first time in a “Halo” game. Lehto said the team at Bungie Studios packed as many such dramatic moments into the single-player campaign and amped up the multiplayer mode knowing that this would be their last “Halo.”
“We really never anticipated it becoming this big,” said Lehto. “There was so much responsibility on our shoulders to make sure that ‘Reach’ is the best of all the ‘Halo’ games. We put every bit of effort we could into this game. While we’re happy that it’s done, and we’re proud of what we created, we’re really sad to say goodbye to the ‘Halo’ universe.”
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