Halo: The Fall of Reach

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"Legends are back."

- Game Tagline

Halo: The Fall of Reach, also known as Halo: Fall of Reach or for short as TFoR is a first-person tactical shooter game developed by and published by  for the. It is the thirteenth installment in the Halo series and the sixth Halo game to be created by.

It serves as a prequel to  and as an introduction for newcomers to the, just like the novel , on which the game is based upon. Like all other Halo games, it was given an ESRB "Mature 16+" Rating, unlike and, which were given a "Teen" Rating.

Unlike most other Halo games before it which were announced at an E3, TFoR was announced at Gamescom 2015, along with a trailer for the game, on the same day was announced. TFoR's release date was revealed later by a tweet on 343 Industries' twitter page to be January 10, 2016 worldwide. Later, in an interview with IGN, 343 Industries employee and the Executive Producer of TFoR, Dan Ayoub revealed that the game will run on 1080p 60fps.

Just like all the previous FPS games of the Halo series, TFoR consists of multiplayer. It is a mix of 's and 's multiplayer. Just like and, the multiplayer part of the game is officially integrated into canon. Spartan Abilities return. Although there are Spartan Abilities in TFoR, it must be noted that not all of them are same as Halo 5 ' s Spartan Abilities. They can be used both in all game modes. Firefight returns, with options for AI companions or friends or solo.

TFoR features Downloadable Content for Multiplayer and Firefight. It is free for all players. TFoR doesn't consist of any Map Pass, unlike Halo 4 and like most other Halo games. The Downloadable Content features new maps and gamemodes and sometimes, new weapons. A total of 9 DLCs were released for TFoR, over a span of 4 years.

Plot
In 2511, establishes the ORION Project Generation II, more commonly known as. During 2517, along with, she goes to  for observing a child called  who will later be conscripted into the program. She tests him for a final confirmation, and is impressed by the results. Later, after many months, ONI agents enter the boy's home at night and abduct him, replacing with a.

John and the other trainees are subjected to intense training for the next few years. The training teaches them many military things, like disarming a bomb, shooting a rifle, treating a chest wound and many things. They become proficient in studies, too. The holographic classes with are proven to be extremely useful. In 2525, all 75 Spartans are subjected to, the toughest part in their entire training. This ends to be a disaster, as 30 trainees have died, and dozen others crippled, far beyond the limits in which a human could fight. This leaves only 33 Spartans to be alive and fit for combat, although over the years, the number would gradually decrease. Later, In a briefing with Vice Admiral, the Spartans learn about the and their incident near

In 2525, after the partially successful augmentation procedures, the Spartans handle a variety of missions; capturing leader and former UNSC soldier , putting down rebel factions on , removing a black market bazaar near  and other such missions. These missions are arranged in such an order that each mission brings them closer to, the planet on which the was located on. Upon reaching there on the, they spot a Covenant ship, about a third the size of the Commonwealth, at the far edge of the star system. However, the Covenant ship initiates an intra-system and came closer to the Commonwealth and attacked it. After a brief battle, Captain of the Commonwealth agrees to send Dr. Halsey and the Spartans to the Testing Facility on the surface of Chi Ceti IV.

After reaching there, Dr. Halsey reveals to the Spartans that Project MJOLNIR, mistakenly thought by some Spartans to be a weapon, was a set of Powered Armor, called as. She explains the mechanics of the suit, about the gel-layer which doubles the strength of the wearer and multiplies the reaction time by a factor of five, about the reflective coating, which was added recently to disperse the plasma discharges shot by the Covenant ships if they actually use it in small-scale, and other specifications. She attaches the armor first to John, and makes him run through an obstacle course, while attaching it to the rest of the Spartans. After 40-50 minutes, they leave the facility in a Pelican, en route to the Commonwealth.

During the trip, John finds about 32 in the Pelican and gets an idea that since the Covenant ship's damaged, the crew might remove its shields in order to save power, so if he can get inside the Covenant ship, he can set the timer to the nuke and escape, letting it blow inside the Covenant ship, destroying. . When he expresses this to Dr. Halsey, she objects at first but later approves, since they are out of options. John puts on his thruster pack and then begins his course towards the ship. When he nears the hull, he realizes that the shields are still up and that they drop when the turret fires. He times his impact, and then hits into the hole in the hull just before the turret fires, causing the shields to drop and him to enter.

Inside, John finds only, and. The team of four proceed further into the ship, with Sam claiming the ship itself might be alive, for all he knows. The first encounter was with a, which they finish off quickly. Soon, they find more Kig-Yars and start fighting them, during which Sam quips that the aliens look like Jackals. They soon encounter more Jackals and Grunts, with Sam making jokes on them all. Then they encounter an Elite Zealot, and have a great difficulty. Then more Elites come, and attack the team, during which one plasma bolt hits Sam's chestplate and melts his armor, making a hole. Finally, they go to an empty room, supposedly near the reactor and set the nukes. Sam reveals the hole to the others, and volunteers to stay behind and make sure no one deactivates the nuke. John objects at first but lets him go. Sam sets a three-minute countdown and tells John to hurry. The Spartans run back all the way, ignoring most of the enemies and escape the ship as it explodes, propelling them outwards before they are picked up by the Commonwealth. John now understands what CPO Mendez meant by "a life spent" and "a life wasted" and realizes that humanity has a chance of winning this war, but at a high cost.

In 2535, John's team, now designated as, are tasked with repelling the Covenant invaders on. Blue Team enters the planet using. They are immediately attacked by Grunts and five. They use fougasses set up by the Marines to destroy the Banshees and run away, implying there are Marines somewhere nearby. They start searching and soon reach a human soldier camp with Army and Marine personnel and gather their equipment and weapons. John then reveals his plan to the Marines, that they shall distract the Covenant so that Red Team can slip through the confusion and place a, so that the next Covenant dropship that comes will be blown to smithereens. The Marines reveal that they have buried a spiderweb pattern of Lotus mines earlier that morning, so it should be enough to distract the enemy.

Their conversation is cut short when Kelly detects a huge army of Grunts coming towards them. They all start to move to the extraction point. After walking enough distance away from the camp, John sent the denotation signal to the mines from his, causing huge explosions and killing the Grunts. He then gets word from Red Team's leader that the HAVOK nuke has been placed. John then reports to, who congratulates the Spartan and sends a dropship to immediately escort them, saying "it's happening again", meaning that the Covenant is going to glass Jericho VII too. John and the team board the Pelican and later the, where John watches the Covenant glassing the planet.

Main Menu
The Main Menu is an unique one in all of the Halo series. Unlike the menus of the previous games where you select the options in a table, TFoR introduces the "free selection mode", consisting of a cursor that can be aimed anywhere at the screen, much similar to Destiny ' s main menu cursor. The background is live, of the Orbital Defense Platforms and UNSC ships orbiting around Reach. The options to Campaign, Arena Wars, settings and others are all placed around the screen. The cursor is the "no weapon" reticle the uses when the wearer is not holding any weapon

Controls
*Can be toggled in Options Menu

**Applicable only when Machinima Controls are set to 'On' in the Options Menu

Spartan Abilities
are back in TFoR. There are of them, a reference to 's favorite number. Although even Halo 5 has 7 spartan abilities, it must be noted that not all of them are same as Halo 5 ' s. The Ground Pound and Stabilizer have been removed, since the game takes place pre-2558.
 * Dual Wielding - Wield two dual-wieldable weapons together at once.
 * Boarding - Take over a vehicle piloted by the enemy
 * Sprint - Run much more faster, at the cost of shooting
 * Slide - Now, you can slide while sprinting, perfect for a shotgun kill.
 * Spartan Charge - Dash into your enemies while sprinting
 * Thruster Pack - Thrust yourself in any direction and eject yourself upwards a brief distance to avoid taking fire
 * Free-Run - Clamber over ledges and run off the walls to traverse levels quickly

Cutscenes
Unlike previous games, the cutscenes are made by, but are more realistic and lively than the Terminal cutscenes seen in , and. All of the cutscenes are pre-rendered, and the game consists of no in-game rendered cutscenes.

It must be noted that although the game's cutscenes are made by Sequence, will still make the trailers for the game.

Weapons
Unlike previous Halo games where you can wield only two weapons at once, TFoR introduces a new perspective called the Side-Arm mode, which allows to equip three weapons at once. The third weapon is called the sidearm, and includes the pistols. The first two weapons can be switched normally using the 'Y' button, but when you double-tap, the player will wield the side-arm.

The sidearm mode explains why you get a sidearm when you hold a flag, a ball, a skull or a bomb in the multiplayer game modes, , and  respectively.

Setting
The game is set in various locations, but is mostly on Reach. Two of the other places you can play on is the Covenant ship and the.

Levels
The game is played in first person as other Halo Games. Special Editions players get to control UNSC ships in the exclusive level "Deston". Players gets a chance to use many new weapons and vehicles, such as the and the. The player is encouraged to find hidden skulls and secrets throughout the game.

The game consists of 10 main campaign levels, with one bonus level for players having one of the Special editions of the game and many more being added by DLCs.

Arena Wars
TFoR contains multiplayer which is a mix of the multiplayers of and. Just like Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians, multiplayer is officially integrated canon, called Arena Wars. In it, the players are members of the Delta Company of SPARTAN-IIIs in the year 2554, on a training facility located on Earth in the city of Bangalore. Unlike in War Games, where S-IVs train in a simulation, the Arena Wars maps are real, and players use real guns, except they use non-lethal rounds and the plasma effect of Covenant weapons are reduced to remove fatality. This is the first 343i game in which the multiplayer players are SPARTAN-IIIs, instead of the regular SPARTAN-IVs. Playable Elites are back, and their ranking is the same as the Spartan ones. They are members of who train alongside SPARTAN-IIIs in the traning facility

Armors
TFoR introduces the option of using many armor sets. Most of the MJOLNIR armor sets are from Halo: Reach. This is the first game made by 343i to include Mark IV and V armors other than the GEN2 ones. Unlike in Campaign, the Mark IV and all other armors have energy shielding in Arena Wars. Just like in Halo: Reach, the armors can be purchased by. The following armor sets are available for Spartans: Sangheili, although customizable with different armors, cannot be cross-customized with other armors. This is because in the Covenant, the armor indicates the rank and speciality of the Sangheili. The following Sangheili Armors are available:
 * (exclusive to Limited Collector's Edition)
 * MJOLNIR Mark V Sniper Variant
 * (exclusive to Limited Collector's Edition)
 * MJOLNIR Mark V Sniper Variant
 * (exclusive to Limited Collector's Edition)
 * MJOLNIR Mark V Sniper Variant
 * (exclusive to Limited Collector's Edition)
 * MJOLNIR Mark V Sniper Variant
 * (exclusive to Limited Collector's Edition)
 * MJOLNIR Mark V Sniper Variant
 * (exclusive to Limited Collector's Edition)
 * MJOLNIR Mark V Sniper Variant
 * (exclusive to Limited Collector's Edition)
 * MJOLNIR Mark V Sniper Variant
 * MJOLNIR Mark V Sniper Variant
 * (exclusive to Limited Collector's Edition)
 * Nephilim Combat Harness (exclusive to special editions)
 * (exclusive to Limited Collector's Edition)
 * Nephilim Combat Harness (exclusive to special editions)
 * (exclusive to Limited Collector's Edition)
 * Nephilim Combat Harness (exclusive to special editions)
 * (exclusive to Limited Collector's Edition)
 * Nephilim Combat Harness (exclusive to special editions)
 * (exclusive to Limited Collector's Edition)
 * Nephilim Combat Harness (exclusive to special editions)

Ranking
The Ranking in TFoR Multiplayer is same as Halo: Reach, though with some changes. There are no grades and some ranks have been cut. All the ranks are listed below:

Maps
TFoR introduces a lot of maps, with some being the remake of maps from previous games. This list shows all the maps available in TFoR, including the Firefight and Forge ones.

Default
 * Multiplayer
 * Dawn
 * Collision
 * Contact
 * Bifrost (Remake of )
 * Revelation (Remake of )
 * Dusk
 * Woodburn (Remake of )
 * Frozen (Remake of )
 * Deepwind
 * Standpoint (Remake of )
 * Resistance
 * Bridged (Remake of )
 * Silo
 * Railroad (Remake of )
 * Twisted
 * Eclipse
 * Overload
 * Wasteland
 * Borderline
 * Collision
 * Roll Out
 * Velocity


 * Firefight
 * Fusion Array
 * Cliffhanger
 * Shade
 * Argon
 * Resistance
 * Repulsion


 * Forge
 * Forge World
 * Spring
 * Crystal

Co-operative Gameplay
Just like the previous Halo games, co-op is available for 2 members on same console and 4 members over Xbox LIVE. Unlike, TFoR re-introduces slpitscreen. In some levels, co-op players have different characters, in some, the 4th player is a copy of either the 1st, 2nd or 3rd player's character depending on the 4th's wish and in some levels, all the players have the same character. There is no co-op available in the level "...Or the beginning?" and if playing on a same console, the 1st player will have control and if playing on XBOX Live, each player play the level on their own. However, it will be counted as played on co-op.

Weapon Skins
Just like Halo 4, TFoR features weapon skins for use in Firefight and Multiplayer. The difference between Weapon Skins of Halo 4 and TFoR is that in Halo 4, weapon skins are unlocked only by DLC while in TFoR, they are unlocked in both DLC and Legendary/Heroic Unlocks

Skulls
Just like the previous games, skulls are easter eggs that add special content to the gameplay and make it more challenging or fun.
 * 1) Iron - Death on solo restarts to the mission start, death of one player on co-op causes all players to revert to last checkpoint.
 * 2) Black Eye - Shields recharge only if you melee enemies.
 * 3) Acrobatic - Enemies evade grenades more easily, vehicles and explosive projectiles (similar to Tough Luck from previous games).
 * 4) Catch - Enemies throw grenades more frequently.
 * 5) Fog - Motion Sensor is disabled.
 * 6) Promotion - All enemy are increased to the highest ranks (similar to Thunderstorm from previous games).
 * 7) Mythic - Enemies have twice health.
 * 8) Glitched - The HUD disappears.
 * 9) Explosive - The mass of all objects in the game is reduced (similar to Sputnik from Halo 2)
 * 10) Grunt Birthday Party - Confetti and children cheers are produced when you headshot Grunts.
 * 11) Grunt Funeral - Grunts explode like Plasma Grenades when killed.
 * 12) IWHYBD - Rare combat dialogue is more frequent.

Achievements
There are about 49 achievements in TFoR, with a total gamerscore of 1,000 G. New Achievements will be later released through DLCs, making it a total of 57 achievements and 1,200 G.
 * It's happening! - Complete "Inception"
 * Alright, I'm good to go - Finish the tutorial
 * Buckle up: Complete "Suit Up"
 * Never Relenting - Complete "First Contact"
 * Locke's alive? - Complete "Glassed"
 * Court of Dazur - Complete "Attack on Côte d'Azur"
 * Double Radius - Complete "Retrieval"
 * Aw.. no power? - Complete "Power Outage"
 * What is that..... thing? - Complete "The End...?"
 * Hell - Complete "...Or the beginning?"
 * Alright, I've done it - Kill your first enemy
 * Good shot - Get a headshot
 * Expert Shots - Get 100 Headshots
 * A true Marine - Kill 50 Covenant Enemies in Campaign or Firefight
 * Feet first into hell - Kill 100 Covenant Enemies in Campaign or Firefight
 * Yo, hi there! - Kill an enemy with one Melee in Campaign or Multiplayer or Firefight
 * Whoa! Take it easy - Play Firefight for the first time
 * Customization - Change your armor for the first time
 * I've done it - Change your armor fully
 * Wait, Mark V? - Unlock the Mark V Armor
 * ...And now there's a Mark VI - Unlock the Mark VI Armor
 * An ODST - Finish the game on Easy
 * A SPARTAN-I ODST - Finish the game on Normal
 * Space Robocop - Finish the game on Heroic
 * A Spartan - Complete the game on Legendary
 * Humanity's Savior - Complete the game on Legendary with all skulls on
 * Interesting.. - Find your first skull
 * Biology Lover - Find half of the skulls
 * Skull Hunter - Find all of the skulls
 * Recruit - Reach the rank of Recruit
 * Private - Reach the rank of Private
 * Corporal - Reach the rank of Corporal
 * Sergeant - Reach the rank of Sergeant
 * Warrant Officer - Reach the rank of Warrant Officer
 * Captain - Reach the rank of Captain
 * Major - Reach the rank of Major
 * Lt. Colonel - Reach the rank of Lt.Colonel
 * Commander - Reach the rank of Commander
 * Colonel - Reach the rank of Colonel
 * Brigadier - Reach the rank of Brigadier
 * General - Reach the rank of General
 * Field Marshall - Reach the rank of Field Marshall
 * Growing up - Win a multiplayer match for the first time
 * Catch! - Throw a grenade at a fallen weapon and catch it while in the air in Campaign or Multiplayer or Firefight
 * Wasted Grenade - Shoot an activated grenade while it is in the air
 * Timing - Capture the flag or take the bomb and return it to your base/opposing base within 2 minutes
 * I'm okay - Survive an almost-fatal shot from a power weapon in Multiplayer

Legendary Unlocks
Just like in other games, the player unlocks many things when he completes the game on Legendary.TFoR, however, introduces them in Heroic too. This is because Legendary in TFoR is as hard as in and in some cases, even harder. But however, some of them are meant to be unlocked in Legendary only. The following things are available when one finishes the game on Heroic and Legendary.
 * "Space Robocop" Achievement
 * "A Spartan" Achievement (Legendary only)
 * "Humanity's Savior" Achievement (Legendary Only)
 * Grunt Funeral Skull
 * Weapon Skins
 * (Legendary Only)
 * (Legendary Only)

Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Just like, TFoR was added as a DLC to . Unlike Halo 3: ODST which contained only Campaign at start, TFoR came with sll Campaign, Multiplayer and Firefight. Armor cross-customization was removed, and players could no longer cross-customize different armors. 343i, however assured that cross-customization would be added to all the games in a later update.

Official Game Guide
The Halo: The Fall of Reach Official Guide was released on February 7, one week afer the release of the game, by PRIMA Games. It is designed to flesh out the entire game's secrets, including campaign walkthrough, multiplayer tips, firefight tips, skull locations, terminals and much more. However, it did not include the DLCs. The DLCs will be included in another game guide to be published by PRIMA Games, with release date either in late 2017 or early 2018.

The Art of Halo: The Fall of Reach
The Art of Halo: The Fall of Reach is an artbook published by 343 Industries. It showcases the art created by 343i's artists during the development of TFoR. A special version of the Artbook is included in the physical Special Editions of the game, with a few extra arts. The standalone version costs about USD $30.04.

Official Sountrack
The Official Soundtrack of TFoR was composed together by and, unlike previous 343i Halo games, with a single main composer It was released on January 30, 2016, the same release date as the game itself. Like the artbook, the soundtrack was also included in the physical Special Editions of the game, though it contained no extra tracks.

Species

 * (Ruuhtian)
 * (T'vaoan)
 * (Ruuhtian)
 * (T'vaoan)
 * (Ruuhtian)
 * (T'vaoan)
 * (Ruuhtian)
 * (T'vaoan)
 * (Ruuhtian)
 * (T'vaoan)
 * (T'vaoan)
 * (T'vaoan)
 * (T'vaoan)
 * (T'vaoan)



Trivia

 * It is the second Halo game to be a game version of a novel, the first one being Halo: First Strike.
 * It is the first Halo game to use the "Captured" font on its logo. It was used because the Captured font gives a battered and broken look, indicating wars and specially referring to the Fall of Reach.
 * It is the first Halo game to contain a remake of both and

Firefight

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