It isn't fantastic by any stretch of the word, but it is, especially with friends, fun. Halo, as a social multiplayer experience, is as fun as it was when Halo 2 came out, and Reach raises the benchmark higher with a staggering array of multiplayer, co-op and Forge modes available. The multiplayer is, however, as unbalanced as it has always been, usually devolving to "whoever has the biggest gun or vehicle, wins". Which is, to be honest... sort of refreshing, in a Quake Arena sort of way. Co-op, however, takes a bit of a hit narratively. The whole game is actually pretty retarded in that department, but doubly so on co-op - unlike in Halo 3, where Player 2 was thrust into the role of The Arbiter, in Reach your partner plays as an unexplained replica of your character, Noble 6. Is this second Noble 6 a clone? Brother? Pretender to the throne? Whatever it is, it really doesn't help the immersion any. ...and that's the good stuff out of the way.
