Within the first two minutes of starting Halo: Reach’s single player campaign, you’re treated to the sight of your helmet lying in the middle of a wasteland.

This is probably the first clue that things really aren’t going to work out for you.

After ODST, I probably shouldn’t have jumped directly into another Halo game, but the box was just so convenient and I couldn’t resist.  I was a bit worried that it might be just more of the same, but my fears turn out to have been unfounded.  After having played through the first four levels, I can safely say that while you’re shooting mostly the same aliens and you’re using mostly the same guns to do so and you’re driving mostly the same vehicles and so on and so forth, the two games are actually quite different.  You’re a Spartan in Reach, after all, not a “tough-but-not-quite-a-Spartan” like in ODST.

Oh, and after several games where you don’t fight Elites anymore, having them back in all their bouncy rolly ducking-into–cover-just-as-you-get-a-bead-on-them glory is equal parts joy and frustration.  🙂

I’m taking this game a little slower, though.  I’m at a pace of about a level a night, which turns out to be 30-45 minutes – just enough that I can honestly call it a “break” from homework rather than admit that I’m putting the homework completely aside.  Should have it finished in a week or so at this rate.