✅ Subscribe: ua-cam.com/users/BenPlaysGames 🖱 Support the channel: www.patreon.com/ben_plays_games It's actually crazy how many times Kat had a driving melty in a single two minute section.
The reason why marines survived the pelican crash in halo 2 outskirts and not the troopers in the falcon in tots is because the marines in halo 2 are tankier than the chief on legendary
This mission had the second best opening behind the covenant from halo 3. This opening thanks to the 360s horsepower and bungies skill development over the years allowed them to FINALLY showcase a war between the UNSC and the Covenant. It was so adrenaline pumping from start to finish
It's so good. As much as I love a lot of Halo 3's cutscenes, this one might top them all. I'd love to see more straight up huge scale battles in the series moving forward, there's actually a surprising lack of them when you think about it.
You can feel the tone of the campaign shift the moment the Grafton was destroyed. Then they give you a glimmer of hope when the Supercarrier was sent to oblivion only to shatter it completely moments later when a dozen more ships arrive at Reach.
Middle section of Reach is probably my favorite part of the game due to how much it toys with you. Tip of the Spear, Long Night of Solace and Exodus come together to form a real emotional rollercoaster.
Reach was a masterpiece. Truly haven’t felt much from many other Halos or other AAA FPS titles. Bungie come back. Finish the greatest game. Finish the fight.
I think really thing that does it is the various colors and light levels within the explosion. Those swirling clouds with bright and dark in all the right places...
I'm kinda disappointed you didn't mention the banshees flying overhead during the Spire at the end, providing an optional way to reach the top. They fly pretty low so its easy to jet pack up or to EMP them as they swoop to take potshots at you and Jorge. There's also a civilian truck that turns into a makeshift warthog if you let Jorge on, letting you have another option to assault the tower.
Yeah, in my last playthrough one of the banshees got stuck against a wall so I was literally able to just jump up and hijack it to skip the entire last part of the mission
Honestly although I love every Bungie Halo game, Reach was the first to make you realise WHY the Covenant were annihilating us in the war. And I think the end of the mission sums it up. No matter how hard the UNSC and Noble Team fight to take down the spire, it’s all reduced to ashes like the Grafton. This and the end of Long Night of Solace just beautifully portrays the tragedy of Reach. Brilliant story telling.
Such a great mission. I’ve played this game so many times since it’s release and always find myself coming back to it even now. This kind of longevity is massively lacking in modern games.
My biggest problem with Tip of the Spear's opening cinematic isn't the two armies clashing into one another like it's 1552 instead of 2552 but rather Bungie not adding a little more variety in the UNSC's vehicles. Including a few Guass and Missile hogs and a few Scorpions would really drive home that this is a major offensive to protect Reach and drive the Covenant off the planet. However, I think that can be forgiven as mission goes on, you get to see Longswords fly overhead as well as a Frigate or two blasting Covenant aircraft and Scarabs away with ease. The short Falcon ride to the spire, and the on foot trek to it, is by far my favorite segment in the game. I enjoy casually blowing away Wraiths and Shade turrets from the sky and giving the marines on the ground a better fighting chance. And then finally, while making your way to the spire on foot, you might be fortunate enough to snag a Banshee from an unsuspecting pilot and continue your airborne assault. The level is absolutely jam packed with everything we all love in a Halo game.
In some larger halo missions, certain assets are loaded and delayed into memory depending on which part of the mission you are. I think they just did not have the memory space to add more variety of vehicles in that opening cutscene, especially considering the army in the distance is a 2d low resolution plane of covenant ghosts. Its really impressive what they managed to pull of in that cutscene and level.
There _were_ a few Scorpions in the opening cinematic, you see them in the initial overhead view, but they disappear when the pov changes. Presumably, because they were clearly falling behind the faster-moving Warthogs.
Reach came out right as my life began to shift into that phase of adulthood where time to game was beginning to be next to impossible to find. The send off they gave Halo with Reach really shows how much the team loved the story, universe, and game that is Halo. That so many left afterwards and the good in Halo has dwindled to next to nothing is testament to the amount of talent that came together for one final hurrah with Reach. #RememberReach
Pillar of Autumn is quality and I love that little Mongoose run, but it's also such a tease as you never get to take one down. Carter does at least, I suppose, but we all know how that ended. With him going splat.
The two wraiths by the second AA gun can be pretty easily baited into boosting off the cliff, in case you thought the UNSC had a monopoly on bad drivers
I never ran across Kat's driving, since I always play this game in co-op with my dad. Having two people opens up so many great vehicle combo possibilities
The sheer scale of the Covenant CSO Class Supercarrier Long Night of Solace never ceases to put me in a state of awe . A class of ship 18 miles long and so powerful as to be nigh unstoppable and such a singular threat to even the UNSC’s Chief military stronghold world that quote “60% of the UNSC fleet has been recalled to Reach from existing deployments” as you hear in the following cutscene and Kat remarks by the end of the the 2 weeks it’ll take for back up to arrive, they’ll be quote “backing up a graveyard.” And that was just ONE ship. When over 300 Covenant capital ships later arrived, the planet’s fate was all but sealed. The UNSC Navy could not possibly withstand such a numerically and technologically superior onslaught. To their credit how ever, a valiant effort was made and rightly one third of that over 300 strong fleet of Covenant warships was taken out. Truly the physical manifestation of the futility of the Human-Covenant war from the UNSC’s perspective.
I also have to gush for a moment if you'll allow me: It has been a pleasure watching your channel grow and seeing the quality and effort you put in increase along with it!
11:58: Watch Six's leg when the Grafton gets blasted. Notice how he moves it and grips the side of the chair? Nice bit of subtle animation work to show that even this 'hyper-lethal vector' of a man can feel fear. Also, I have a hilarious story relating to that second AA gun. Once, the pelican dropped off all its troops right in front of one of the wraiths, and it just boosted into them like bowling pins and killed them! Needless to say, the resulting laughter lasted for about forty full seconds. 🤣
I believe the opening was explained away (I must’ve read it somewhere, or too much into it) as part of the Winter Contingency, which was to fight head on as a means of funneling the Covenant’s attention so the rest of the planet could evacuate
Yep you're definitely correct. Massive tactical fail on the UNSC's part given what happened to the Grafton at the end. The Covenant was always one step ahead...
Thinking about how Reach showcased Bungie's indoor level design, the scene in Winter Contingency where the Zealots first attack really felt like it kicked that off for me. Something about a ton of elites with energy swords ambushing, running off into a dark hall, then you and Jorge immediately walking over and sealing yourselves in with them made me go "Oh, we're Spartans." Fighting up through waves of Covenant in close quarters together while the guitar rips in the background immediately took me from the sense in other Halo games that you are the true force on the field to being part of a team of proper Spartans. Kat's driving aside, especially when Jorge's massive Spartan-II frame is fighting beside you, the Noble Team makes you feel like you're never fighting totally alone until the very end.
One of my favourite Halo games. This, and Halo 3, are absolute masterpieces of first person shooters. . I can’t wait to revisit these gems when I get my Series X and play the Master Chief Collection. So much to look forward to...Great vid. Thank you! Hope you have a great weekend. 🙏🏻
Cheers dude, you too! I have a Series X hooked up to a 144hz monitor and playing the MCC is amazing. With 4K and HDR as well, they're like different games.
I think Halo 2 and 3 suffer from the trends of their era, in that the lack of a health bar and strawberry jam effect after losing [extremely weak] shields makes it terribly tedious to navigate through the higher difficulties.
Halo Reach is my favourite Halo. Its campaign is awesome. Reach was also the one of the first game I remember playing on an Xbox 360, I use to play for hours with my uncle years ago. The good times.
The thing is (especially with Reach), Bungie knew how to keep Halo military-centric and appropriately themed. Having Noble 6 and Chief focus on the mission. 343 has the mission focused on Chief. I miss when Halo was militaristic.
Actually, in the Spire, two banshees are flying around. One gets bold and flies low when you get in view of the spire base. If you have a jetpack, plasma pistol (or both), you can hijack a banshee and fly to the top.
This was just such a satisfying mission because for every other game, we had always been starting from behind, on the defensive, fighting off a losing battle, or going in under strength. This time we finally got to see a full strength human army with time to prepare stand up, wind up like a championship boxer, and punch the other guy as hard as possible.
Great video and to add to your point at the beginning about future warfare, it should be noted and is referenced in game many times that Reach was caught blindsided and most if not all of it's heavy artillery such as nukes and main navy is off world, so in turn the entire planet has had to mobilize, you even fight with insurectionists in one mission.
I remember playing this mission on Legendary. The opening section is absolutely brutal, the second anti-aircraft gun is a pain in the neck (mostly due to the Revenant being about as effective as the concussion rifle when used by the player, which is to say, butt f***ing *useless*) and the spire is straight up terrifying. I may not like Reach too much from a story perspective (Halo 2 will always be top of the pile), but the gameplay and level design are honestly impressive.
Another thing I like about reach, especially tio of the spear, is just how much scale it shows off. The covenant super carrier at the end is huge, and looks huge too
Lets go, was hoping you would do this. When playing this mission, I managed to snag a Banshee and started flying around and performing air strikes on the enemies by the spire
I wish 343 could fix the subtitles. Jun says "Det charge link is loud and clear!" while the subtitles say something like "Time to bake that cake..." Also that Zealot is the same one that blew past Emile in Winter Contingency.
The best thing about the spire segment is that you can tackle it in an impressive number of ways. My favorite thing to do is grab one of the nearby trucks and put Jorge on the back to make a bootleg warthog.
Regarding the comment in the beginning about how the tactics used by the UNSC don't make sense necessarily, I personally view it as more of an act of desperation. Without knowing about the wider Covenant fleet on its way, the UNSC (in their desperation to destroy the forces already on Reach) decide to throw everything at the landed forces in an attempt to overwhelm the small Covenant on the planet.Of course, the end of the mission shows that this tactic was worthless. Realistically that's just head canon, and Bungie just wanted a neat scene that showed what they could do in engine, but it is fun to think through things like this and imagine a realistic scenario. Also great video!
Man, I really love your videos Ben! Everytime I witness a brand new thumbnail I smile so very wide. Thank you so much for all your work, me and my halo friends appreciate it so much
I kinda wish there was more weapon variety and that you could keep your weapon throughout the mission. Otherwise it's an amazing mission with great viechle and infantry combat
You are the halo community to me now, this is my overall favorite mission in halo. I love reach, more music than dialogue, it says all it needs to, halo always has
Only things missing from the level-as with every Halo since 3-was a Scarab battle In addition the design of the LNOS as a super scaled up assault carrier is lazy, and the idea that such a large ship was not detectable seems like a massive oversight by Bungie
Bungie is such a ridiculous tease with the scarabs in Reach. Would have loved a section where you take one on with joined by all of the rest of Noble Team. That would maybe be a bit too anime though.
On the subject of Kat's driving, I always wished there was a button you could press when you got on the gun of a vehicle to lock it in place, basically override the AI driver and force the warthog to stand still. Just for those times when you needed to use them as a turret.
What’s great about Tip of the Spear is that you have multiple options to destroy the AA turrets. You could take the rocket hog and fire from a distance or close in and kill the power cell on the first one. On the second, there’s a regular hog on the bridge you can jump up to that allows you to shoot the second. You could also steal a Covie tank to shoot the turret. Even the spire portion gives you options. Want to rush in, guns blazing? Go right ahead. Want to highjack a banshee? Do it. I own a copy of the Reach player guide and a majority of the levels have multiple options for the player to use.
I have always been bummed that the opening cinematic wasn't playable Charging across an open plane in a group of warthogs mongs and scorpions headlong into battle felt like it would play so well But given Kats driving it would have been the end of reach right there and then
I wish a halo game would have a fully playable version of this Mission with no cutscenes, just being able to drive a warthog with UNSC around you would be awesome!
I liked Halo Reach, even if it wasn't accurate the The Fall of Reach (Great book). We get introduced to other Spartans besides Chief (I'd say Jorge's death was the saddest), we see humanity is pretty much constantly on the backfoot until the Elites arrive in Halo 3 (though they refuse to give up), good story showing that hope must never be abandoned, it's a fun game overall. And the (I assume) still ongoing theory that 6 survived since his death was *technically* never shown is amusing.
While taking out the second gun where there are the wraiths I fondly remember me and my brother when we were younger would laugh out asses off trying to get the wraith to boost at is and drive off the cliff. It’s such a specific memory but is actually one of my favourite moments I’ve ever had with all of halo
This video has reminded me that this is my personal favourite level in the series and I didn’t realize at the time but just how well it was designed. When you said that you take the spire out on foot I thought it was odd because I never did I always went to highjack a banshee with the jet pack. Another example of how good bungie designed its encounters
A) its an elevated spiral B) halo pathfinding from the limited knowledge I have from modding 2 and 3, is based off of BSPs, basically level terrain and moving scenic objects, I think the bridge might be an object and it has the ridge in the middle making it more difficult for an ai to "see" where to go.
I actually completely disagree with the argument about how futuristic warfare would be fought. This wasn't the Covenant and the UNSC charging at each other, it was the UNSC moving a convoy and being ambushed by Wraith artillery and Banshee strafing runs. The Warthog gunners provided as much AA support as they could. And you have to remember how many Covenant troops there are, a few dozen Banshee's to destroy multiple troop transports and turreted vehicles is a pretty cheap cost.
i had always played halo in coop play with my brother and occassionally my cousin and thankfully i never had to suffer the horrible a.i driving that many before had experienced.
I have to be honest because of how many times I let Kat take the wheel, I laughed when she got domed. I experienced joy because she could no longer drive me other the edge of the map.
1:41 have you never seen a reconnaissance force? It is very aggressive, or a combined arms operation? That is exactly how they go down, and will probably continue to go down for centuries
On this mission, there is thrown away code or dialog that translate to "Destroy Enemy Scarab" which meant on that mission there was supposed to be a battle between you and a scarab.
i am pretty sure kat is supposed to stay back where the first AA gun was and set a comm outpost, she was never supposed to go past the deployable bridge but they dident put a flag on her AI to not get in a warthog or anything after the gun was destroyed.
I believe cats have eyesight that would be terrible for driving, so I suppose it's fitting that Halo's most notorious driver would be the one nicknamed "Kat".
Dunno I felt the mission was too small scale. To go from a massive charge to a single warthog paled in comparison to The Storm or even Tsavo Highway. There you could achieve a convoy of 2-3 hogs
That's a fair point - I think, for me, the scale of everything going on around you helps achieve the same effect. You're almost always in view of some pretty large scale stuff going down from beginning to end. Hopefully one day we'll get to take on three scarabs similar to those seen in the background.
@@BenPlaysGames I don’t know I generally felt that Reach underutilised its scale and sandbox. It tried everything once and I feel that really limited the experience. For example, the Scorpion was criminally under-utilised. Also the back of the game box says “take on the Covenant with the might of the UNSC”, yet even before humanity was outnumbered and outgunned in the later levels, you’re given only a single warthog to defend Sword Base whereas in the same point in Halo 2 you’re rolling over a bridge massacring Covies with a Scorpion and hog. I get that Reach was trying to avoid the cliched feeling of being heroic, but I feel that would have been very appropriate for early levels like Sword Base and Tip of the Spear. Finally, I really struggle to understand how the narrative of Reach works with the book… like no way the 20 orbital defence platforms wouldn’t instantly shoot the 3 Corvettes discovered in Nightfall (in fact using a target locator on those ships for an orbital strike would have been a great end to that mission). Also, they absolutely would have targeted the Supercarrier as soon as it decloaked. I also feel there should have been a level defending an ODP ground generators. Sorry Ben, rant over…
Halo reach first half of the campaign makes you forget that reach falls I only realized this when DOT detectes the fleet of particular justice joins the invasion where reach was truly lost, it went from victories to stalling to losing
For all of Halo’s (and espescially Reach’) grounded feel, it’s always been extremely far removed for realism in almost every way. Hard sci-fi (which *is* realistic sci-fi) is a tiny niche within a niche in literature for a reason. Halo follow rule of cool for very good reasons! This is no exception. As for not being able to play said cutscene. What is fun to watch as a cut scene isn’t always fun to play. I imagine playing something like that would feel a lot less cool. In fact I think the Sabre gameplay in the next mission kinda demonstrates my point. It’s kinda cool (and very cool in concept), but eventually large parts of it get’s kinda boring and doesn’t feel anywhere near as cool as it would have done in a cut scene. As for Kat’s driving, I’m kinda surprised they enabled it at all. My guess is that they tried to make her *too smart*, instead of just giving the ai a set path to blindly follow (as was more common in Halo 2). Goes to show you gotta be careful with ambition in games. Either case, I agree with you, fantastic level with lot’s of variety. Thanks for another video (if you actually read this Ben, please, don’t feel like you actully have to read all the comments. You really don’t! You get so many so it’s entirely reasonable to ignore well… most of them!)
I read every single comment, have a bit of probably unreasonable guilt about people taking the time to leave their thoughts without me ever seeing them haha.
@@BenPlaysGames Well even if you don't see them (or interact with them) the rest of the community might. There's value in comment sections on UA-cam beyond the creator interacting with viewers. So while I really do appreciate the interaction, please don't overwork yourself trying to read every comment.
Bungie did a fantastic Job convincing the player they were in fact apart of a massive interstellar war, and you were just a cog in the larger war machine. But in halo infinite youre just kind of alone... it's depressing (in a bad way) and just isnt what Halo games are meant to be.
@@BenPlaysGames I just feel like In halo ce they forgot about the Scorpion and just shoved it into AOTCR for a quick 10 minute section and it feels like they did the same in reach.
As bad as her driving is Kat used the revenant when I had to get out because I kept getting stunned by jackals and destroyed by the hunters on legendary
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It's actually crazy how many times Kat had a driving melty in a single two minute section.
Bless Your Perfection
Praise the true creators 🙌
Jorge: "Lock your armor spartan!"
The other marines in the falcon: 👁👄👁
😂
The reason why marines survived the pelican crash in halo 2 outskirts and not the troopers in the falcon in tots is because the marines in halo 2 are tankier than the chief on legendary
@halinaqui2194 Hilariously, the game where the player is tankiest is... ODST. You have 80 shields and health in that game, for a total 160 HP.
@@KopperNeoman Unless you’re on heroic, in that case, I can’t get past the second level of the game. I guess I just didn’t try hard enough.
This mission had the second best opening behind the covenant from halo 3. This opening thanks to the 360s horsepower and bungies skill development over the years allowed them to FINALLY showcase a war between the UNSC and the Covenant. It was so adrenaline pumping from start to finish
It's so good. As much as I love a lot of Halo 3's cutscenes, this one might top them all. I'd love to see more straight up huge scale battles in the series moving forward, there's actually a surprising lack of them when you think about it.
You can feel the tone of the campaign shift the moment the Grafton was destroyed. Then they give you a glimmer of hope when the Supercarrier was sent to oblivion only to shatter it completely moments later when a dozen more ships arrive at Reach.
Middle section of Reach is probably my favorite part of the game due to how much it toys with you. Tip of the Spear, Long Night of Solace and Exodus come together to form a real emotional rollercoaster.
Reach was a masterpiece. Truly haven’t felt much from many other Halos or other AAA FPS titles. Bungie come back. Finish the greatest game. Finish the fight.
That's why I support starting with Reach. You can always replay it after knowing more about the series.
It's also the first in the series chronologically, which helps a lot.
Slipspace rupture detected! Slipspace rupture detected! Slipspace rupture detected!
These words were the prelude to nightmares...
Baffling that after all these years Reach has the best explosions in the series. So punchy and satisfying.
I think really thing that does it is the various colors and light levels within the explosion. Those swirling clouds with bright and dark in all the right places...
I'm kinda disappointed you didn't mention the banshees flying overhead during the Spire at the end, providing an optional way to reach the top. They fly pretty low so its easy to jet pack up or to EMP them as they swoop to take potshots at you and Jorge. There's also a civilian truck that turns into a makeshift warthog if you let Jorge on, letting you have another option to assault the tower.
I use that and then trickshot the sword elite with the assasination that throws the corpse to the side..being close enough to toss em off the spire.
Yeah, in my last playthrough one of the banshees got stuck against a wall so I was literally able to just jump up and hijack it to skip the entire last part of the mission
Honestly although I love every Bungie Halo game, Reach was the first to make you realise WHY the Covenant were annihilating us in the war. And I think the end of the mission sums it up. No matter how hard the UNSC and Noble Team fight to take down the spire, it’s all reduced to ashes like the Grafton. This and the end of Long Night of Solace just beautifully portrays the tragedy of Reach. Brilliant story telling.
Such a great mission. I’ve played this game so many times since it’s release and always find myself coming back to it even now. This kind of longevity is massively lacking in modern games.
I dread to think how many times I've played it, especially now that I've been doing all these videos covering it!
I’m really glad I’m not the only one who has forgotten the amount of times I’ve played Reach’s campaign
Same reach is so nostalgic and great even today
Kat: good at fighting? No question.
Good with electronics? Undoubtedly!
Good at driving? ........we’ve all got our weaknesses.
She also sucks at not getting shot in the head.
@@BenPlaysGames that’s so harsh! D’:
@BenPlaysGames By an Elite no less. If it were a Jackal, I would forgive her.
My biggest problem with Tip of the Spear's opening cinematic isn't the two armies clashing into one another like it's 1552 instead of 2552 but rather Bungie not adding a little more variety in the UNSC's vehicles. Including a few Guass and Missile hogs and a few Scorpions would really drive home that this is a major offensive to protect Reach and drive the Covenant off the planet. However, I think that can be forgiven as mission goes on, you get to see Longswords fly overhead as well as a Frigate or two blasting Covenant aircraft and Scarabs away with ease.
The short Falcon ride to the spire, and the on foot trek to it, is by far my favorite segment in the game. I enjoy casually blowing away Wraiths and Shade turrets from the sky and giving the marines on the ground a better fighting chance. And then finally, while making your way to the spire on foot, you might be fortunate enough to snag a Banshee from an unsuspecting pilot and continue your airborne assault. The level is absolutely jam packed with everything we all love in a Halo game.
In some larger halo missions, certain assets are loaded and delayed into memory depending on which part of the mission you are. I think they just did not have the memory space to add more variety of vehicles in that opening cutscene, especially considering the army in the distance is a 2d low resolution plane of covenant ghosts. Its really impressive what they managed to pull of in that cutscene and level.
There _were_ a few Scorpions in the opening cinematic, you see them in the initial overhead view, but they disappear when the pov changes.
Presumably, because they were clearly falling behind the faster-moving Warthogs.
I loved Tip of the Spear, it showed the beginning of Reach’s fall perfectly.
My sentiments exactly mate.
The jetpack option at the end is great, I love using the plasma pistol on the banshee and jetpacking up to hijack it.
Jetpack is the best powerup by far.
Reach came out right as my life began to shift into that phase of adulthood where time to game was beginning to be next to impossible to find.
The send off they gave Halo with Reach really shows how much the team loved the story, universe, and game that is Halo.
That so many left afterwards and the good in Halo has dwindled to next to nothing is testament to the amount of talent that came together for one final hurrah with Reach.
#RememberReach
After considering it, I’d have to say this is my favorite level in reach, only narrowly beating out Pillar of Autumn and those epic Scarabs
Pillar of Autumn is quality and I love that little Mongoose run, but it's also such a tease as you never get to take one down. Carter does at least, I suppose, but we all know how that ended. With him going splat.
@@BenPlaysGames like a chad
The two wraiths by the second AA gun can be pretty easily baited into boosting off the cliff, in case you thought the UNSC had a monopoly on bad drivers
I never ran across Kat's driving, since I always play this game in co-op with my dad. Having two people opens up so many great vehicle combo possibilities
The sheer scale of the Covenant CSO Class Supercarrier Long Night of Solace never ceases to put me in a state of awe .
A class of ship 18 miles long and so powerful as to be nigh unstoppable and such a singular threat to even the UNSC’s Chief military stronghold world that quote “60% of the UNSC fleet has been recalled to Reach from existing deployments” as you hear in the following cutscene and Kat remarks by the end of the the 2 weeks it’ll take for back up to arrive, they’ll be quote “backing up a graveyard.” And that was just ONE ship.
When over 300 Covenant capital ships later arrived, the planet’s fate was all but sealed. The UNSC Navy could not possibly withstand such a numerically and technologically superior onslaught. To their credit how ever, a valiant effort was made and rightly one third of that over 300 strong fleet of Covenant warships was taken out.
Truly the physical manifestation of the futility of the Human-Covenant war from the UNSC’s perspective.
I also have to gush for a moment if you'll allow me: It has been a pleasure watching your channel grow and seeing the quality and effort you put in increase along with it!
Thanks a ton Gabe mate! I couldn't do it without you and everyone else supporting me either to be fair.
This was the level that made me fall in love with halo. Glad to see you cover it in such detail.
Happy to oblige David mate!
11:58: Watch Six's leg when the Grafton gets blasted. Notice how he moves it and grips the side of the chair? Nice bit of subtle animation work to show that even this 'hyper-lethal vector' of a man can feel fear.
Also, I have a hilarious story relating to that second AA gun. Once, the pelican dropped off all its troops right in front of one of the wraiths, and it just boosted into them like bowling pins and killed them! Needless to say, the resulting laughter lasted for about forty full seconds. 🤣
I believe the opening was explained away (I must’ve read it somewhere, or too much into it) as part of the Winter Contingency, which was to fight head on as a means of funneling the Covenant’s attention so the rest of the planet could evacuate
Yep you're definitely correct. Massive tactical fail on the UNSC's part given what happened to the Grafton at the end. The Covenant was always one step ahead...
I also liked to see it as the unsc is this close to extinction that they’re desperate enough to throw any and everything at the covenant
@@BenPlaysGamesnone of this was a strategic fail.
The contingency makes sense, but you can't plan for what you don't know.
My favorite mission in Reach, and the best soundtrack overall in my humble opinion.
Agree 100% mate.
Thinking about how Reach showcased Bungie's indoor level design, the scene in Winter Contingency where the Zealots first attack really felt like it kicked that off for me. Something about a ton of elites with energy swords ambushing, running off into a dark hall, then you and Jorge immediately walking over and sealing yourselves in with them made me go "Oh, we're Spartans." Fighting up through waves of Covenant in close quarters together while the guitar rips in the background immediately took me from the sense in other Halo games that you are the true force on the field to being part of a team of proper Spartans. Kat's driving aside, especially when Jorge's massive Spartan-II frame is fighting beside you, the Noble Team makes you feel like you're never fighting totally alone until the very end.
Kat: "why are there 6 pedals when theres only 4 directions!?"
One of my favourite Halo games. This, and Halo 3, are absolute masterpieces of first person shooters. . I can’t wait to revisit these gems when I get my Series X and play the Master Chief Collection. So much to look forward to...Great vid. Thank you! Hope you have a great weekend. 🙏🏻
Cheers dude, you too! I have a Series X hooked up to a 144hz monitor and playing the MCC is amazing. With 4K and HDR as well, they're like different games.
I think Halo 2 and 3 suffer from the trends of their era, in that the lack of a health bar and strawberry jam effect after losing [extremely weak] shields makes it terribly tedious to navigate through the higher difficulties.
I love that you have an entrie section for Kats driving
Had to be done! She's a menace.
Halo Reach is my favourite Halo. Its campaign is awesome. Reach was also the one of the first game I remember playing on an Xbox 360, I use to play for hours with my uncle years ago. The good times.
The thing is (especially with Reach), Bungie knew how to keep Halo military-centric and appropriately themed. Having Noble 6 and Chief focus on the mission. 343 has the mission focused on Chief. I miss when Halo was militaristic.
The Kat can't drive part cracked me up
Woman's an absolute terror!
Actually, in the Spire, two banshees are flying around. One gets bold and flies low when you get in view of the spire base. If you have a jetpack, plasma pistol (or both), you can hijack a banshee and fly to the top.
This was just such a satisfying mission because for every other game, we had always been starting from behind, on the defensive, fighting off a losing battle, or going in under strength. This time we finally got to see a full strength human army with time to prepare stand up, wind up like a championship boxer, and punch the other guy as hard as possible.
Tip of the spear intro is simply magnificent, the track and Dot talking it's an amazing combination
Great video and to add to your point at the beginning about future warfare, it should be noted and is referenced in game many times that Reach was caught blindsided and most if not all of it's heavy artillery such as nukes and main navy is off world, so in turn the entire planet has had to mobilize, you even fight with insurectionists in one mission.
Nice one mate! And yeh that makes sense too.
I remember playing this mission on Legendary. The opening section is absolutely brutal, the second anti-aircraft gun is a pain in the neck (mostly due to the Revenant being about as effective as the concussion rifle when used by the player, which is to say, butt f***ing *useless*) and the spire is straight up terrifying. I may not like Reach too much from a story perspective (Halo 2 will always be top of the pile), but the gameplay and level design are honestly impressive.
Another thing I like about reach, especially tio of the spear, is just how much scale it shows off. The covenant super carrier at the end is huge, and looks huge too
Lets go, was hoping you would do this. When playing this mission, I managed to snag a Banshee and started flying around and performing air strikes on the enemies by the spire
Hope you enjoy dude!
I wish 343 could fix the subtitles. Jun says "Det charge link is loud and clear!" while the subtitles say something like "Time to bake that cake..."
Also that Zealot is the same one that blew past Emile in Winter Contingency.
It's odd they've never fixed that subtitle when you think about it. I guess it's just part of the level now.
The best thing about the spire segment is that you can tackle it in an impressive number of ways. My favorite thing to do is grab one of the nearby trucks and put Jorge on the back to make a bootleg warthog.
Regarding the comment in the beginning about how the tactics used by the UNSC don't make sense necessarily, I personally view it as more of an act of desperation. Without knowing about the wider Covenant fleet on its way, the UNSC (in their desperation to destroy the forces already on Reach) decide to throw everything at the landed forces in an attempt to overwhelm the small Covenant on the planet.Of course, the end of the mission shows that this tactic was worthless.
Realistically that's just head canon, and Bungie just wanted a neat scene that showed what they could do in engine, but it is fun to think through things like this and imagine a realistic scenario.
Also great video!
Man, I really love your videos Ben! Everytime I witness a brand new thumbnail I smile so very wide.
Thank you so much for all your work, me and my halo friends appreciate it so much
Great video! Thanks for the content!
No wozzas pchurch, thanks as always for the support my dude!
If only the UNSC could weaponize Kat’s driving for good.
😂
I kinda wish there was more weapon variety and that you could keep your weapon throughout the mission. Otherwise it's an amazing mission with great viechle and infantry combat
It's weird it changes your weapons, never understood why it does that...
Underrated UA-camr right here
Appreciate that Tim!
You are the halo community to me now, this is my overall favorite mission in halo. I love reach, more music than dialogue, it says all it needs to, halo always has
Another great upload, as always ❤️
Cheers Jonathan, always appreciate the support dude!
Only things missing from the level-as with every Halo since 3-was a Scarab battle
In addition the design of the LNOS as a super scaled up assault carrier is lazy, and the idea that such a large ship was not detectable seems like a massive oversight by Bungie
Bungie is such a ridiculous tease with the scarabs in Reach. Would have loved a section where you take one on with joined by all of the rest of Noble Team. That would maybe be a bit too anime though.
On the subject of Kat's driving, I always wished there was a button you could press when you got on the gun of a vehicle to lock it in place, basically override the AI driver and force the warthog to stand still. Just for those times when you needed to use them as a turret.
What’s great about Tip of the Spear is that you have multiple options to destroy the AA turrets. You could take the rocket hog and fire from a distance or close in and kill the power cell on the first one. On the second, there’s a regular hog on the bridge you can jump up to that allows you to shoot the second. You could also steal a Covie tank to shoot the turret. Even the spire portion gives you options. Want to rush in, guns blazing? Go right ahead. Want to highjack a banshee? Do it.
I own a copy of the Reach player guide and a majority of the levels have multiple options for the player to use.
Two massive armies clash! Time to go to war against the Covenant.
I have always been bummed that the opening cinematic wasn't playable
Charging across an open plane in a group of warthogs mongs and scorpions headlong into battle felt like it would play so well
But given Kats driving it would have been the end of reach right there and then
'Tip of the spear is the best mission in Halo Reach'.
Exodus: Am I a joke to you?
Honestly, I’m really interested to see what your custom spartan looks like instead of the default armor, think it could be cool
A new video from Ben? In atmosphere?!
"One way to get their attention, hang on to your teeth people!"
No somebody tell me this ain’t happening
Been trying to get it finished for days!
I wish a halo game would have a fully playable version of this Mission with no cutscenes, just being able to drive a warthog with UNSC around you would be awesome!
I genuinely never saw the frigates show up after the AA gun section. o.0
So good right? I'm surprised they made it so easy to miss as the whole things with the three scarabs being taken down is awesome.
I liked Halo Reach, even if it wasn't accurate the The Fall of Reach (Great book). We get introduced to other Spartans besides Chief (I'd say Jorge's death was the saddest), we see humanity is pretty much constantly on the backfoot until the Elites arrive in Halo 3 (though they refuse to give up), good story showing that hope must never be abandoned, it's a fun game overall. And the (I assume) still ongoing theory that 6 survived since his death was *technically* never shown is amusing.
While taking out the second gun where there are the wraiths I fondly remember me and my brother when we were younger would laugh out asses off trying to get the wraith to boost at is and drive off the cliff. It’s such a specific memory but is actually one of my favourite moments I’ve ever had with all of halo
This video has reminded me that this is my personal favourite level in the series and I didn’t realize at the time but just how well it was designed.
When you said that you take the spire out on foot I thought it was odd because I never did I always went to highjack a banshee with the jet pack. Another example of how good bungie designed its encounters
Kat was too busy doing Spartan stuff to get a drivers license, I guess lol
The soundtrack is an absolute banger. I’ve spent many hours listening to it
I honestly never knew about Kats bad driving. I always drive.
Keep it that way I'd say haha.
I wonder if the bridge being dropped off by the Pelican has something to do with Kat's AI struggling to traverse it?
Interesting thought and wouldn't surprise me honestly - she has real problems in that area in particular.
A) its an elevated spiral
B) halo pathfinding from the limited knowledge I have from modding 2 and 3, is based off of BSPs, basically level terrain and moving scenic objects, I think the bridge might be an object and it has the ridge in the middle making it more difficult for an ai to "see" where to go.
I actually completely disagree with the argument about how futuristic warfare would be fought. This wasn't the Covenant and the UNSC charging at each other, it was the UNSC moving a convoy and being ambushed by Wraith artillery and Banshee strafing runs. The Warthog gunners provided as much AA support as they could. And you have to remember how many Covenant troops there are, a few dozen Banshee's to destroy multiple troop transports and turreted vehicles is a pretty cheap cost.
i had always played halo in coop play with my brother and occassionally my cousin and thankfully i never had to suffer the horrible a.i driving that many before had experienced.
I have to be honest because of how many times I let Kat take the wheel, I laughed when she got domed. I experienced joy because she could no longer drive me other the edge of the map.
1:41 have you never seen a reconnaissance force? It is very aggressive, or a combined arms operation? That is exactly how they go down, and will probably continue to go down for centuries
great video as always
edit: my favorite level, easily the most played when I revisit reach.
This is my fav mission in Reach. So much fun.
On this mission, there is thrown away code or dialog that translate to "Destroy Enemy Scarab" which meant on that mission there was supposed to be a battle between you and a scarab.
Fun Fact, the Tyrant Guns are a reference to Mythic Tyrant who was the gorse to beat Halo 3 LASO
First, lol spelling
the refinery halfway through the level would have been a cool MP map
i am pretty sure kat is supposed to stay back where the first AA gun was and set a comm outpost, she was never supposed to go past the deployable bridge but they dident put a flag on her AI to not get in a warthog or anything after the gun was destroyed.
I believe cats have eyesight that would be terrible for driving, so I suppose it's fitting that Halo's most notorious driver would be the one nicknamed "Kat".
6:53 Pfc chips dubbo!!!
Dunno I felt the mission was too small scale. To go from a massive charge to a single warthog paled in comparison to The Storm or even Tsavo Highway. There you could achieve a convoy of 2-3 hogs
That's a fair point - I think, for me, the scale of everything going on around you helps achieve the same effect. You're almost always in view of some pretty large scale stuff going down from beginning to end. Hopefully one day we'll get to take on three scarabs similar to those seen in the background.
@@BenPlaysGames I don’t know I generally felt that Reach underutilised its scale and sandbox. It tried everything once and I feel that really limited the experience. For example, the Scorpion was criminally under-utilised. Also the back of the game box says “take on the Covenant with the might of the UNSC”, yet even before humanity was outnumbered and outgunned in the later levels, you’re given only a single warthog to defend Sword Base whereas in the same point in Halo 2 you’re rolling over a bridge massacring Covies with a Scorpion and hog. I get that Reach was trying to avoid the cliched feeling of being heroic, but I feel that would have been very appropriate for early levels like Sword Base and Tip of the Spear. Finally, I really struggle to understand how the narrative of Reach works with the book… like no way the 20 orbital defence platforms wouldn’t instantly shoot the 3 Corvettes discovered in Nightfall (in fact using a target locator on those ships for an orbital strike would have been a great end to that mission). Also, they absolutely would have targeted the Supercarrier as soon as it decloaked. I also feel there should have been a level defending an ODP ground generators. Sorry Ben, rant over…
Can never tell if they meant the Spartan 3’s to be giant or if they meant for them to be average height in this game.
I’ve always driven Kat around myself, didn’t even know she could drive, btw she’s not a bad shooter
I will always hate the whelhelm scream at 2:05, come on Marty.
LASO on Tip of the Spear was such a *bastard* I would be lying if I didn't say it coloured my opinion of it slightly.
The most interesting part of this video for me is the part where you imply that you’ve seen a drunk toddler drive before
Plot twist - I was the toddler.
Halo reach first half of the campaign makes you forget that reach falls I only realized this when DOT detectes the fleet of particular justice joins the invasion where reach was truly lost, it went from victories to stalling to losing
The poor army trooper who was on Noble 6's warthog turret. That man disappeared. Also RIP to the army troopers who tried to jump the bridge and failed
Kat can't drive a Warthog to save her life!
It's always between this mission and Pillar Of Autumn when I have to pick a favorite mission in this game.
For all of Halo’s (and espescially Reach’) grounded feel, it’s always been extremely far removed for realism in almost every way. Hard sci-fi (which *is* realistic sci-fi) is a tiny niche within a niche in literature for a reason. Halo follow rule of cool for very good reasons! This is no exception.
As for not being able to play said cutscene. What is fun to watch as a cut scene isn’t always fun to play. I imagine playing something like that would feel a lot less cool. In fact I think the Sabre gameplay in the next mission kinda demonstrates my point. It’s kinda cool (and very cool in concept), but eventually large parts of it get’s kinda boring and doesn’t feel anywhere near as cool as it would have done in a cut scene.
As for Kat’s driving, I’m kinda surprised they enabled it at all. My guess is that they tried to make her *too smart*, instead of just giving the ai a set path to blindly follow (as was more common in Halo 2). Goes to show you gotta be careful with ambition in games.
Either case, I agree with you, fantastic level with lot’s of variety.
Thanks for another video (if you actually read this Ben, please, don’t feel like you actully have to read all the comments. You really don’t! You get so many so it’s entirely reasonable to ignore well… most of them!)
I read every single comment, have a bit of probably unreasonable guilt about people taking the time to leave their thoughts without me ever seeing them haha.
@@BenPlaysGames Well even if you don't see them (or interact with them) the rest of the community might. There's value in comment sections on UA-cam beyond the creator interacting with viewers.
So while I really do appreciate the interaction, please don't overwork yourself trying to read every comment.
It’s a shame The Revenant does it show up much in other intstallments!
You can actually set up the jury rigged warthog with Jorge and a spade (civilian truck) in the spire section
Bungie did a fantastic Job convincing the player they were in fact apart of a massive interstellar war, and you were just a cog in the larger war machine. But in halo infinite youre just kind of alone... it's depressing (in a bad way) and just isnt what Halo games are meant to be.
Anyone else hear the stock scream when that warthog crashed into the bridge
Oh cool! Oh wait, this isn't Oni: Sword Base.
Ha it'll come soon enough, promise! Aiming to have at least two more games finished by the end of the year.
Actually with advanced future technologies cancelling each others targeting aiming and auto correct etc... combat will return to close medieval styles
This mission should of been a tank mission. With the same kind of level pacing as Assault on the control room.
Hey, I'm always down for some hot and sweaty Scorpion action.
@@BenPlaysGames I just feel like In halo ce they forgot about the Scorpion and just shoved it into AOTCR for a quick 10 minute section and it feels like they did the same in reach.
The beginning of this mission had me more hype than all of Halo 5
As bad as her driving is Kat used the revenant when I had to get out because I kept getting stunned by jackals and destroyed by the hunters on legendary
Let her have a Revenant. It hovers, and the AI is reasonably competent at handling hovercars.
Apparently these may be UNSC army rangers In this mission??
3:00 you forgot two scarabs i repeat two scarabs
13:05 More "pointless" than "worthless", but well said.
Anyone else take the rocket hog through the building every time they play?
I've actually never even thought to try that...
@@BenPlaysGames The NPCs will even jump back in once you cross the barriers you aren't supposed to take the warthog past.
5:30 I swear they drive better on higher difficulties
kats one of the reasons i played with my brother