Did Reach suck? Well, the short answer is no, but I might have a unique perspective on the matter.
My first gaming console was the xbox and the first game I fell in love with was Ninja Gaiden. At the time, I wasn't into first person shooters at all, hating that I never got to see my character. I was so disinterested that, while I do remember watching some friends play Halo, I don't think I ever actually even bought Halo 1 or 2 myself. I just played other games on it. Then, when the 360 came out, I got that and when Halo 3 was launched, I purchased it, and I played through it, and I wasn't impressed and just forgot about it. For like a year, I didn't play it again until one day, for reasons I didn't know, I played it again, and somehow stuff just clicked and I liked it a lot. I was mostly a campaign guy, dabbling in some BTB in multiplayer and that's it, but I became a big Halo fan and went back and played the old ones.
I mention all this because I was never around in the heyday of Halo's MP craze, of either 2 or 3. By the time I started playing Halo 3 MP at all, CoD4 was released and you know how that story goes. So Halo Reach was the only actual Halo game that I was around to get hyped for before the launch, and after, so I was able to see all criticism at the time.
For the campaign, Reach is good, but not as good as Halo 3. The best word to describe it is consistent. The other games have their highs and lows, but Reach has no lows. It's all around solid campaign. It doesn't reach the heights of Halo 3, but having a consistent package is it's own reward. It also has firefight, which is a fun mode to goof off. As for the MP, the bloom complaints were something I have to concede the point of, but the simple truth is that I was too much of a scrub to have it affect me too much. I'd lose half my fights to factors I don't understand either way. I have no defense for armor lock however, and I didn't like a lot of the maps compared to Halo 3. However, both these issues were worked on after Bungie gave up the franchise to 343, though I was gone by the time that happened, having moved onto other games.
One thing I'm really looking forward to playing again, and I don't think this has returned in other modes, is Invasion. 2 sides, one playing Spartans, the other playing Elites, and the Spartans have to attack and take control of 3 junction points on a huge scale map. It's just this cool, epic MP game mode that I really enjoyed playing when Reach was out.
So as a Halo fan, but not as much of a Halo MP fan, Reach satisfied, and where it failed, I tend to give it something of a pass because it was trying something new, you know? Bloom and Armor lock may have been mistakes, but they were trying something new. I'm looking forward to returning to this title as soon as I can.
