3. Halo Reach

Zack: I’ll admit that, even in 2021, I’m not the biggest fan of Halo Reach’s visuals. Something about the game seems too grainy and washed out. I get Bungie was going for a look and nailed it, but I just miss the old designs. That aside, Reach contains one of the best campaigns in the franchise and brings back firefight, now with more features and modes. I never loved its multiplayer as much as Halo 3, but it was still a blast. I enjoyed spawning on my bro, co-op style

Ari: Reach had a top-tier campaign and a solid firefight mode, plus an impressively robust creative canvas in Forge World. But Reach stands out not for what it had but for what it represented. I still recall the delirious excitement with which Halo fans approached Reach. Not only were we getting a new Halo game from Bungie, but we were getting it, like, a year after the immediately preceding one, and we could test out its multiplayer mode early (in beta) on two balanced, lastingly memorable maps. That it turned out to have all those things Zack pointed out was just a delightful bonus—and a fitting swansong for Bungie’s stewardship over the series it created.