Ever since I made the trek from my shitty college apartment in Caldwell, Idaho, alllll the way into the big city—Boise!—to buy that ugly hunk of black plastic that was the first Xbox, I've been happily coming back, time and time again, for more Halo.
I'm not alone in this dedication. (Hello, this guy.) What was once intended as a third-person action game for the PC and the Mac has instead grown into the Xbox's flagship franchise—one that's spread across nine years, four ridiculously successful first-person shooters, a stab at an RTS, a failed attempt at a movie, as well as DVDs, comics, and god knows what else. When Halo: Reach came out earlier this week, it racked up $200 million in 24 hours; like Mario and Sonic, Master Chief has become an embedded part of the pop consciousness.
Which makes it all the more significant that Reach is, in some ways, a "final" Halo game. True, Microsoft will never, ever let this franchise die—but Reach is the final Halo title the games' creators and original developers, Bungie, are overseeing. Fittingly, it feels conclusive and complete—a powerhouse of a game that's incredibly fun to play and impressively refined. Halo: Reach focuses and polishes everything its predecessors have done so well; it feels as if Bungie set out to make the definitive Halo game, and I'm pretty sure they succeeded.