GOTY 2010: Best First Person Shooter – Halo: Reach

I admit that there's some nostalgia already at work in choosing Halo: Reach as the Best First Person Shooter of the Year, but that's just a small percentage of what makes the latest Spartan-powered adventure a great game.

Both ODST and Halo 3 were more of the same and, while they had the universe and the narrative that defines the series, lacked some of its soul.

Halo: Reach is a return to form where all the elements of the game manage to come together and create a solid, brave experience which has a place in the overarching story, delivering some impressive combat-focused set pieces, introduces a space sim like sequence that is unusual and innovative for the series, and delivers the sort of fan-oriented content that players were expecting from the last Halo outing of developer Bungie.

There are more ambitious video games launched in 2010 in terms of narrative and innovation, but Reach is a perfect example of what a big developer can put together when they have resources and an extended backstory to work with.

The combat system in Halo: Reach is very fluid and while the enemies and the weapons are mostly familiar the developers manage to throw a lot of different challenges at the gamer, mixing tough Elite duels with vehicle-based sections and moving the action to deep space and zero gravity for a bit before bringing players back to Reach for ever desperate engagements with Covenant forces.

It's the most polished experience in the universe since the days of Combat Evolved.

The game also gains something from the absence of Master Chief and manages to sketch some interesting characters for the Noble team.

It would have been interesting to see more backstory for some of them or a more serious attempt at actual drama linked to their deaths, but probably any attempt at more interaction between the team outside of battles would have infuriated those who picked up Reach for the action and nothing else.

Earlier during this Game of the Year series Halo: Reach also took home the award for the first person shooter category.