Opinion// Halo Reach: The Multiplayer

”You're a hardcore Halo fan, write about the Halo Reach multiplayer”, that's what SPOnG told me, “Do it how you like... have fun.” Fun? I'm running along, I'm scared. Despite having full health, I have no shield. I can only assume that I've lost the guy who took it away from me, but you can never be too sure so I use my sprint power up and carry on...

...in front of me is a wall about a metre high, running parallel to my vision, on the right hand side are some stairs leading to the lower floor and on the left I notice a guy with his back to me setting up a head shot with his sniper's rifle.

No time to stop so I continue to run. Do I sprint down those stairs to save me time and hopefully regain my shield? Or do I go in for a melee attack and hope this other fella doesn't decide to spin around? “Well”, I think, “if I jump towards him he'll have less chance of seeing me as he spins.” My mind is made up, this dude is getting it.

I reach jumping distance and head for the sky. While in the air, I remember that I have a plasma grenade. What the hell, lets see if something comes of this. I turn towards the stairs and fling the sticky explosive, all the while thinking about how I'm going to spin to the left and bash the oblivious sniper in the back of the skull.

The florescent blue ball leaves my hand and curiosity gets the better of me. I want to see where that bad boy landed. Just before I decide to flick back to my intended foe I see another enemy run around the corner and head for the stairs. It feels like it's all in slow motion as he takes his first step and the explosive lands on his visor, lighting his useless armour in a pretty glaze.

With gravity sucking me closer towards the dirt, I swing to the left. My original target still has his back to me and I look down at him. As I fall, I see the back of his neck. It looks like a dart board, with the bullseye crying out for a spanking. I hit RB and he drops like a sack of grunts. Before his crumbling corpse hits the deck I hear an explosion. The Double Kill symbol flashes up on my screen and I remember why I love this game all over again.

Part of my life
Multiplayer Halo has always been a big part of my life. It was the first Xbox game I had ever played and I remember being completely blown away. When my friends and I were all blown out on playing it between the four of us, we decided that ethernet cables and a hub were needed. We would regularly visit each other with huge rucksacks on our backs loaded with an Xbox, some cables, a few pads and a copy of Halo.

Things started to get serious with TVs being dragged onto trains in order to get them across to the other side of London just so we could play 16-player Hang Em' High. A TV in each room and cables being draped across the house. Shouting demands to your team mates and hearing echoed screams from down the hall because you managed to get the rocket launcher first.

Halo felt more of a hobby than a game. If my friends and I organised to meet up, we wouldn't even have to mention the game. We all knew that by the end of the night we'd have a pad in our hands and insults on our tongue. With the 'Second Coming' fast approaching, we would fantasise about the improvements and tweaks that had been made for us to exploit for the odd cheap kill in a Team Deathmatch.