Halo: Reach Review - Giving Sci-fi Prequels a Good Name

It doesn't matter how good the tools are if you use them on boring foes. The Covenant have been tuned and refined to provide even more challenge than in previous games. Slow lumbering Hunters now turn ferociously while being more aggressive with using their own shields and cannons. Elites use Armor Abilities like Jetpack, Armor Lock, and Evade with surprising alacrity. Skimishers, the "new" species of Covenant, use their obscene speed and Hologram ability in devious ways. As a whole, Covenant forces are much better about using flanking and support tactics as a group. Even easy-to-kill Grunts get used in interesting ways.

Already on Heroic difficulty, this interplay of player tools versus crafty combat A.I. results in a harsh, but fair experience. While I died frequently during the campaign, I was usually frustrated more with myself than the game; it reminds me of Demon's Souls of all things, in how pure player skill is usually the cause of death rather than cheapness in the game. While there are still some outright unfair and cheap moments (mostly in the "how did that Grunt manage to nail me right in the face with his plasma grenade") along with some difficulty spikes (I will forever hate the room of three Zealot Elites and two Spec-Ops Grunts), the overall game maintains a great balance. Whenever I'm outright stuck, it takes a change of tactics rather than simple luck for me to persevere through. I'm simply afraid of what Legendary difficulty (even in co-op, where the difficulty scales further in response to additional players) is going to feel like as a result.