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* HiroshimaAsAUnitOfMeasurement: From the Deliver Hope page on Halo Nation: When Catherine drops the device (a bomb), the screen shows that 63 Terajoules of energy are released upon detonation. The Atomic bomb that exploded over Hiroshima during World War II released 60 Terajoules of energy.
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That was an unrelated event meant as a prelude to the Halo Legends episode \"The Package\".
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*** The Definitive Edition from 343 explains that a shipmaster captures Halsey and Jun in their ship off Reach. Halsey's "Demon" chose to take his own life in exchange for Halsey's. Oddly enough, the shipmaster actually let's Halsey go, though it might have been just because Halsey looked unable to cause any harm.
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my mistake
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'''Halo: Reach''' is the fifth {{Bungie}}-produced ''{{Halo}}'' FirstPersonShooter, released September 14, 2010. It is a prequel, dealing with the events described in the Expanded Universe novel ''TheFallOfReach''. It follows a group of SPARTAN-[=IIIs=] (and one SPARTAN-II) called Noble Team. You take on the role of the newest addition, Noble Six, as you fight through the fall of the human colony. It is a completely original game (unlike ODST) and is DarkerAndEdgier (700,000,000 people die on Reach, [[DoomedByCanon you can't change that]].) The game is also structured more as a war film instead of featuring the SpaceOpera elements of the main trilogy.
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'''Halo: Reach''' is the fifth final {{Bungie}}-produced ''{{Halo}}'' FirstPersonShooter, released September 14, 2010. It is a prequel, dealing with the events described in the Expanded Universe novel ''TheFallOfReach''. It follows a group of SPARTAN-[=IIIs=] (and one SPARTAN-II) called Noble Team. You take on the role of the newest addition, Noble Six, as you fight through the fall of the human colony. It is a completely original game (unlike ODST) and is DarkerAndEdgier (700,000,000 people die on Reach, [[DoomedByCanon you can't change that]].) The game is also structured more as a war film instead of featuring the SpaceOpera elements of the main trilogy.
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with Halo 4 in production, Reach is not the final game anymore
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'''Halo: Reach''' is the final {{Bungie}}-produced ''{{Halo}}'' FirstPersonShooter, released September 14, 2010. It is a prequel, dealing with the events described in the Expanded Universe novel ''TheFallOfReach''. It follows a group of SPARTAN-[=IIIs=] (and one SPARTAN-II) called Noble Team. You take on the role of the newest addition, Noble Six, as you fight through the fall of the human colony. It is a completely original game (unlike ODST) and is DarkerAndEdgier (700,000,000 people die on Reach, [[DoomedByCanon you can't change that]].) The game is also structured more as a war film instead of featuring the SpaceOpera elements of the main trilogy.
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'''Halo: Reach''' is the final fifth {{Bungie}}-produced ''{{Halo}}'' FirstPersonShooter, released September 14, 2010. It is a prequel, dealing with the events described in the Expanded Universe novel ''TheFallOfReach''. It follows a group of SPARTAN-[=IIIs=] (and one SPARTAN-II) called Noble Team. You take on the role of the newest addition, Noble Six, as you fight through the fall of the human colony. It is a completely original game (unlike ODST) and is DarkerAndEdgier (700,000,000 people die on Reach, [[DoomedByCanon you can't change that]].) The game is also structured more as a war film instead of featuring the SpaceOpera elements of the main trilogy.
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* LonelyPianoPiece: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZViMbs_wrE "There Will Be Another Time..."]]
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That\'s not Jun, that\'s Sheila years earlier.
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* ItGotWorse: All the time. First the missing patrol turns out not to have been captured by rebels, but killed by Covenant troops. Then you find a mysterious structure [[spoiler:that is some kind of teleportation device, so you disable the shields and a frigate is send in to destroy it. While debris is still comming down, the frigate is shot to pieces by a collosal super-carrier that was just decloaked right above it. One level later the carrier is succesffuly destroyed, but not even ten seconds beyond that a massive fleet arrives that starts to completely wipe out all life on the planet...]]
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* ItGotWorse: All the time. First the missing patrol turns out not to have been captured by rebels, but killed by Covenant troops. Then you find a mysterious structure [[spoiler:that is some kind of teleportation and cloaking device, so you disable the shields and a frigate is send in to destroy it. While debris is still comming down, the frigate is shot to pieces by a collosal colossal super-carrier that was just decloaked right above it. One level later the carrier is succesffuly successfully destroyed, but not even ten seconds beyond that a massive fleet arrives that starts to completely wipe out all life on the planet...]]
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That\'s not Jun, that\'s Sheila years earlier.
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**** [[spoiler: 343's definitive version of The Fall of Reach states that Halsey's "protecter" aka Jun killed himself in order to buy Halsey's life. ]]
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* CutsceneIncompetence: [[spoiler: Kat]], with shields inexplicably down, is killed by a shot to the head while running through an open area. A theory that the Covenant glassing going on at the time took out ''everyone's'' shields would turn this into a subversion, though it hasn't been confirmed.
** The theory is pretty much debunked by the description of the [[spoiler: Collar/Breacher variant worn by Kat]]: "Too bad they don't make artificial situational awareness."
** The theory is pretty much debunked by the description of the [[spoiler: Collar/Breacher variant worn by Kat]]: "Too bad they don't make artificial situational awareness."
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* CutsceneIncompetence: [[spoiler: Kat]], Kat, with shields inexplicably down, is killed by a shot to the head while running through an open area. A theory that the Covenant glassing going on at the time took out ''everyone's'' shields would turn this into a subversion, though it hasn't been confirmed.
** The theory is pretty much debunked by the description of the[[spoiler: Collar/Breacher [[spoiler:Collar/Breacher variant worn by Kat]]: Kat: "Too bad they don't make artificial situational awareness."" She simply ''forgot'' and/or wasn't paying attention.]]
** The theory is pretty much debunked by the description of the
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** Armor Lock is quite difficult to master, requiring precise timing, anticipation, and a keen awareness of your surroundings. Skilled armor lockers become immune to grenades, impossible to melee, lethal to charging vehicles, and are able to reflect heavy weapons like rockets back at their opponents.
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* HeroicSacrifice: The team is called ''Noble'' team for a reason. [[ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee Croshaw]] finds this mildly {{Anvilicious}}.
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* HeroicSacrifice: The team is called ''Noble'' team for a reason. [[ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee Croshaw]] finds this mildly {{Anvilicious}}.
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**** [[spoiler: Incorrect. Far from alone, [[LastStand he/she dies with at least four elites.]]]]
**** [[spoiler: Actually, what's ironic is being told you're not supposed to do "lone wolf" stuff, then a good portion of the game forces you to do exactly that, or at best, with 1 other character. [[CompletelyMissingThePoint Unless you play co-op.]]]]
**** [[spoiler: Actually, what's ironic is being told you're not supposed to do "lone wolf" stuff, then a good portion of the game forces you to do exactly that, or at best, with 1 other character. [[CompletelyMissingThePoint Unless you play co-op.]]]]
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** Most of the Daily and Weekly Challenges are shout outs. For instance, the one for killing a certain amount of people with an automatic weapon is [[DieHard I Have A Machine Gun]]. Another, for killing a certain amount of opponents, is [[StarWars Aggressive Negotiations]].
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** Most of the Daily and Weekly Challenges are shout outs. For instance, the one for killing a certain amount of people with an automatic weapon is [[DieHard [[Film/DieHard I Have A Machine Gun]]. Another, for killing a certain amount of opponents, is [[StarWars Aggressive Negotiations]].
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***The Definitive Edition from 343 explains that a shipmaster captures Halsey and Jun in their ship off Reach. Halsey's "Demon" chose to take his own life in exchange for Halsey's. Oddly enough, the shipmaster actually let's Halsey go, though it might have been just because Halsey looked unable to cause any harm.
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It\'s extra info.
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**** [[spoiler: 343's definitive version of The Fall of Reach states that Halsey's "protecter" aka Jun killed himself in order to buy Halsey's life. ]]
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Unneeded Fan Wank.
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* ADayInTheLimelight: When you play co-op campaign, player 2 is absent from cutscenes and technically [[CanonForeigner doesn't exist]] in Halo canon. But [[spoiler: if at the [[LastStand Lone Wolf]] level, player 2 survives longer than the player 1, (s)he gets the [[DyingMomentOfAwesome final death scene]] instead... Of course if you're playing over Live, this is where [[GameBreakingBugs the game glitches out]], picks a white helmet at random, and shows it on everyone else's Xboxes in the final cutscene.]]
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* ADayInTheLimelight: When you play co-op campaign, player 2 is absent from cutscenes and technically [[CanonForeigner doesn't exist]] in Halo canon. But [[spoiler: if at the [[LastStand Lone Wolf]] level, player 2 survives longer than the player 1, (s)he gets the [[DyingMomentOfAwesome final death scene]] instead... Of course if you're playing over Live, this is where [[GameBreakingBugs [[GameBreakingBug the game glitches out]], picks a white helmet at random, and shows it on everyone else's Xboxes in the final cutscene.]]
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Unneeded Fan Wank.
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** Could also be that the books meant that you couldn't tell a SPARTAN-[=II's=] gender by sight alone, as the II iteration was the most commonly used both at the time in the canon and in the books. Six and Kat, however, were SPARTAN-[=IIIs=], which may have meant an entire armour revamp that allowed that visual differentiation. What point there is to attempting to wow an invading alien armada with sexy Earth booty remains to be seen. Though considering what happened when a non-Spartan-II put on only part of the ful MJONIR suit, lighter armor might be understandable for the less-augmented S-III's.
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* TheyChangeditNowItSucks: Many fans complain about the game having reticule bloom.
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* TheyChangeditNowItSucks: TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Many fans complain about the game having reticule bloom. 343 has removed it from most of the multiplayer since taking over.
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* ADayInTheLimelight: When you play co-op campaign, player 2 is absent from cutscenes and technically [[CanonForeigner doesn't exist]] in Halo canon. But [[spoiler: if at the [[LastStand Lone Wolf]] level, player 2 survives longer than the player 1, (s)he gets the [[DyingMomentOfAwesome final death scene]] instead.]]
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* ADayInTheLimelight: When you play co-op campaign, player 2 is absent from cutscenes and technically [[CanonForeigner doesn't exist]] in Halo canon. But [[spoiler: if at the [[LastStand Lone Wolf]] level, player 2 survives longer than the player 1, (s)he gets the [[DyingMomentOfAwesome final death scene]] instead.instead... Of course if you're playing over Live, this is where [[GameBreakingBugs the game glitches out]], picks a white helmet at random, and shows it on everyone else's Xboxes in the final cutscene.]]
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* Fission Mailed: Noble Six's last objective is to [[spoiler: survive. (S)he doesn't.]]
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* WhileRomeBurns: Club Errera in New Alexandria, after you hit a hidden switch, has a DJ playing "Never Surrender" from the ''{{Halo 2}}'' OST, while the city is under siege, and the Grunts dance to it as well. As an additional EasterEgg, there's a switch on the roof that changes the song to "Siege of Madrigal".
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* WhileRomeBurns: Club Errera in New Alexandria, after you hit a hidden switch, has a Brute DJ playing "Never Surrender" from the ''{{Halo 2}}'' OST, while the city is under siege, and the Grunts dance to it as well. As an additional EasterEgg, there's a switch on the roof that changes the song to "Siege of Madrigal".
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* UnwinnableByMistake: A bug with the elevators can cause you to get stuck in a tower in New Alexandria.
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* WhileRomeBurns: Club Errera in New Alexandria, after you hit a hidden switch, has a DJ playing "Never Surrender" from the ''{{Halo 2}}'' OST, while the city is under siege, and the Grunts dance to it as well. As an additional EasterEgg, there's a switch on the roof that changes the song to "Siege of Madrigal".
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*** It works in reverse too; if an enemy has it on, and you kill them when they are out of your sight (such as with a blind-thrown grenade around a wall), you hear it go off and know you got a kill.
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** Could also be that the books meant that you couldn't tell a SPARTAN-[=II's=] gender by sight alone, as the II iteration was the most commonly used both at the time in the canon and in the books. Six and Kat, however, were SPARTAN-[=IIIs=], which may have meant an entire armour revamp that allowed that visual differentiation. What point there is to attempting to wow an invading alien armada with sexy Earth booty remains to be seen.
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** Could also be that the books meant that you couldn't tell a SPARTAN-[=II's=] gender by sight alone, as the II iteration was the most commonly used both at the time in the canon and in the books. Six and Kat, however, were SPARTAN-[=IIIs=], which may have meant an entire armour revamp that allowed that visual differentiation. What point there is to attempting to wow an invading alien armada with sexy Earth booty remains to be seen. Though considering what happened when a non-Spartan-II put on only part of the ful MJONIR suit, lighter armor might be understandable for the less-augmented S-III's.
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* RecurringBoss: The Elite Field Marshal is first fought in a cutscene near the end of the first mission, then briefly fought interactively after Kat's death in New Alexandria, only to escape again, then is finally taken down on The Pillar of Autumn.
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* RecurringBoss: The Elite Field Marshal is first fought in a cutscene near the end of the first mission, then briefly fought interactively fired upon after Kat's death in New Alexandria, only to escape again, then is finally taken down in a proper battle on The Pillar of Autumn.
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* RecurringBoss: The Elite Field Marshal is first fought in a cutscene at the end of the first mission, then fought interactively after Kat's death, only to escape again, then is finally taken down on The Pillar of Autumn.
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* RecurringBoss: The Elite Field Marshal is first fought in a cutscene at near the end of the first mission, then briefly fought interactively after Kat's death, death in New Alexandria, only to escape again, then is finally taken down on The Pillar of Autumn.
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* RecurringBoss: The Elite Field Marshal is first fought in a cutscene at the end of the first mission, then fought interactively after Kat's death, only to escape again, then is finally taken down on The Pillar of Autumn.
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* InformedAbility: Noble Six is said to have the same combat rating as Master Chief. The difference between them? ''Luck.''
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*** Of course none of these compare to the worst and most blatant aspect - the enemies on Heroic and Legendary ''fire their weapons faster than normal''. On Heroic it's noticeable, but on Legendary it's borderline RefugeInAudacity. Watch in horror as the Covenant turret that spots you starts firing about 20-30 shots at you in the span of 2 seconds, and you get hit with every single one of them yet die in 3 shots.
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->''[[ForegoneConclusion From the beginning, you know the end.]]''
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/halo-reach_1608.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[BadassBoast Spartans never die]], they're just [[InsistentTerminology "Missing-In-Action"]]]]
'''Halo: Reach''' is the final {{Bungie}}-produced ''{{Halo}}'' FirstPersonShooter, released September 14, 2010. It is a prequel, dealing with the events described in the Expanded Universe novel ''TheFallOfReach''. It follows a group of SPARTAN-[=IIIs=] (and one SPARTAN-II) called Noble Team. You take on the role of the newest addition, Noble Six, as you fight through the fall of the human colony. It is a completely original game (unlike ODST) and is DarkerAndEdgier (700,000,000 people die on Reach, [[DoomedByCanon you can't change that]].) The game is also structured more as a war film instead of featuring the SpaceOpera elements of the main trilogy.
Weapons have been overhauled throughout the campaign so that there is no need for DualWielding. A major new feature is the Armor Abilities, individual upgrades that allow you to customize towards specific objectives such as [[InvisibilityCloak Active Camouflage]], [[SprintShoes Sprint]], [[UnnecessaryCombatRoll Evade]], [[StoneWall Armor Lock]] and a {{Jetpack}}. There is also a great deal of customization; the cosmetic changes you make to your personal Noble Six will transfer into the campaign and the multiplayer matches allow control over almost every aspect.
----
!''Halo: Reach'' provides examples of:
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: In the books written by Eric Nylund, it is stated that it was impossible for outsiders to tell a female Spartan from a male one in full MJOLNIR armor. Reach comes along, and gives Kat and Female Noble Six HartmanHips and shapely figures. Could be [[HandWave Handwaved]] by the fact that Noble team wore heavily modified MJOLNIR armor. Though, looking at the physiques of Spartans in newer media, it's looking more like a {{Retcon}}.
** Could also be that the books meant that you couldn't tell a SPARTAN-[=II's=] gender by sight alone, as the II iteration was the most commonly used both at the time in the canon and in the books. Six and Kat, however, were SPARTAN-[=IIIs=], which may have meant an entire armour revamp that allowed that visual differentiation. What point there is to attempting to wow an invading alien armada with sexy Earth booty remains to be seen.
* ADayInTheLimelight: When you play co-op campaign, player 2 is absent from cutscenes and technically [[CanonForeigner doesn't exist]] in Halo canon. But [[spoiler: if at the [[LastStand Lone Wolf]] level, player 2 survives longer than the player 1, (s)he gets the [[DyingMomentOfAwesome final death scene]] instead.]]
* {{AFGNCAAP}}: Even on the official records, Noble Six's full name, date of birth, place of birth, and gender are redacted.
* AlienSky: Almost every view from the surface of the planet makes it clear that this is not Earth, making extensive use of a moon or nearby planet with rings and a very hazy blue fog. Because it is a human colony and the place you are trying to defend, it is atypically "friendlier" than most uses of this trope.
* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Averted. This is taken back to ''HaloCombatEvolved'', where the aliens ''don't'' speak English (not even the ComicRelief Grunts) and as a result are much scarier. Even the Grunts are scary little creatures.
* AllThereInTheManual: The Limited and Legendary Editions of the game come with Dr. Halsey's journal, which is a goldmine of information on the specific details and plenty of additional fuel for WildMassGuessing. The evolution of the Mjolnir armor, the progress of the Spartan Program (including the differences between SPARTAN-[=IIs=] and [=IIIs=]), key figures of the modern UNSC meeting for the first time, development of AI technology, newspaper articles on other battles in the Covenant war, examination of Forerunner ruins... the works.
** The journal explains [[spoiler: the Cortana that Six took to the Pillar of Autumn was in fact a fragment of the original Cortana, a sub-divided incarnation who had been spending months translating Forerunner text while the main Cortana was with Master Chief. They were merged back together shortly after the game ends. In addition, it's implied that Cortana had specifically translated information on the location of the first Halo ring and she took them there on purpose.]]
*** [[spoiler: Not implied, confirmed. At the end of Fall of Reach (which is still considered canon for anything not changed by the games), Cortana gets the coordinates for Halo from the Sigma Octanus IV artifact and uses those instead of a blind Slipspace jump to escape Reach.]]
* AndThisIsFor: Emile will say this for [[spoiler: Kat and, less commonly, Jorge.]]
** Soldiers will occasionally say "This is for [[ContactHarvest Harvest]]!" in combat.
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Doing just about anything gets you Credits to spend on armor pieces/effects.
** And new combat commentary in Firefight.
* AntiGrinding: There is a cap on the number of Credits you can earn per day, and the "cR" earned by a specific action go down the more it is done, based mostly on the rank of the Commendation(s) it relates to. The first time the Credit cap was hit (repeatedly by numerous people in the same way), one of the Bungie forum mods implied the guys hitting it were cheaters. Turns out they were playing Gruntpocalypse. Cue rumors of Bungie saying repeatedly playing the same gametype is cheating up until one of the Bungie staff members said that repeatedly playing your favorite gametype '''or checkpoint''' was perfectly legal.
** If you're playing completely offline, you can ignore the above, as you gain around 1.1 Credits per second of gameplay (and nothing you do affects this rate), and it is truncated at the end of a session. When you take your Spartan online, however, you will be ranked down to a predetermined cap (if you're over it).
** The initial online level cap was Lt. Colonel Grade 3, but the cR you earn continues to count towards your next rank despite the fact that you can't see your progress. Players jumped several ranks once the cap was lifted.
* ApocalypticLog: The whole game, to a certain extent. The Legendary Edition presents it exactly as such.
* ArtifactTitle: There isn't a Halo ring in sight, at least for the campaign.
** One does appear in Forge World, [[spoiler: and right before the credits, when the ''Pillar of Autumn'' is flying toward Installation 04.]]
* ArtificialLimbs: Kat's right arm is actually a robotic replacement. You can also get one for your own Spartan, once ranked up enough, by buying a specific chest piece.
* AscendedFanon: It's hard to say if [[IKnewIt this was Bungie's plan from the beginning]], but [[AllThereInTheManual Dr. Halsey's journal]] implies the {{fanon}} theory that [[spoiler:Halsey is Miranda's mother]] is true.
* AscendedMeme: In response to friendly fire, some Marines will yell, "Don't make me teabag you!"
* AwesomeButImpractical: People who paid for the pimped out Legendary Edition of ''Reach'' got a bonus "Flaming Head" armor effect for bragging rights... and to discover how a flaming helmet is synonymous with a bulls-eye.
** All the armor effects have this problem, as running around electrified or announcing your death with birthday confetti does wonders for the enemies' kill scores. Does cheer you up, though. Yay!
*** Actually the birthday party effect is quite practical in many gametypes. In Team Swat you have no radar so dying gives your allies in front of you the warning of "Hey theres a dude behind us!" This troper has saved many lives in this way.
* AxeCrazy: Emile, mildly.
* BackStab: While basic Assassinations remain[[hottip:*: though technically they're now called Beatdowns, which previously referred to ''all'' melee kills; general melees now get you a Pummel award]], if you hold the melee button behind an enemy, [[RuleOfCool a short animation actually shows you stabbing (or otherwise killing) the target]]. You're not invincible while doing so, and other players can kill you to cancel it [[hottip:*:("Showstopper!"), or, alternately, kill your helpless victim mid-animation ("Yoink!")]], which makes successfully performing a fully executed Assassination a bit of a humiliation move.
* {{Badass}}: How badass is Noble Six, even among other [=SPARTANs=]? [[spoiler: When when he/she is run out of ammo during the final scene on Reach, ''he/she is taking on multiple Ultra-class and General Sangheili in hand to hand combat''. He/she is finally killed by a ''Zealot'' Elite from behind with an Energy Dagger.]]
** Noble Six, despite being a SPARTAN-III with fewer physical augmentations and less durable armour than the original SPARTAN-IIs, is the only SPARTAN aside from the Master Chief to have the combat rating 'Hyper-Lethal', and erased entire insurrectionist groups from existence single-handedly. If that doesn't say badass...
** Emile stands out, mostly for his huge knife and skull etched on his helmet.
*** One of Emile's quotes during a round of firefight is: "And you thought ''you'' were the badass."
** Jorge barely edges out Emile, due to his actions during "Long Night of Solace": [[spoiler:With no other way out, Jorge sacrifices himself to active the warp drive smuggled aboard a Covenant ship, annihilating himself and half the cruiser. How does he get you out? By tossing you out of an airlock and letting gravity do the rest.]]
* BeehiveBarrier: The Drop Shield Armor Ability, based on a similar item from ''[[{{Halo3}} Halo 3]]'', except now it recharges your shields and health, but isn't invincible.
* BigDamnHeroes: The entire campaign is about a team of six elite cyborg soldiers running around a doomed planet pulling progressively Bigger and more Damned Heroics until [[spoiler:sacrificing themselves so Master Chief can be the Big Damn Hero for the rest of the war.]]
* BittersweetEnding: The game is DoomedByCanon since it takes place during the Battle of Reach. [[spoiler:Also because no one on Noble Team, except Jun, survives the game. The ''only'' thing that keeps this from being an outright DownerEnding is the fact you got Cortana offworld, and Reach itself becomes a pristine, green world again... 34 years after the events of Halo 3.]]
* BlackSpeech: The Covenant species no longer play the AliensSpeakingEnglish trope straight anymore (not even the Grunts) and this trope is in effect in its place. A canny player might pick out a few recognizable words that are used in other contexts. Particularly, the proper names of various Covenant species and their respective homeworlds can be heard in the enemy combat dialogue. For an example, [[http://downloads.bungie.net/audio/speech.wav this is a]] RousingSpeech given by an Elite commander during the "Deliver Hope" commercial.
* [[spoiler: BlackDudeDiesFirst: Inverted, as Emile is the last of the non-playable members of Noble Team to die.]]
* BlatantLies: Kat uses this, dripping with sarcasm, when she says she wouldn't know anything about where to find the resources necessary for the plan she just thought up, or the secret program denied by three successive administrations, and that Noble Six certainly has no experience in said program. See SuspiciouslySpecificDenial below.
* BookEnds: [[spoiler: The credits sequence is of [[HaloCombatEvolved Captain Keyes talking to Cortana as the Pillar Of Autumn flies towards an alien ring...]] Makes you wish they'd [[UpdatedRerelease re-render the whole game for the 360]], doesn't it? [[http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Halo-Anniversary/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8024d5309b1 Well...]]]]
** [[spoiler: Noble Six's damaged helmet is the first and last thing seen in the campaign.]]
** [[spoiler: The player's control of Noble Six also begins with the donning and removal of his/her helmet.]]
* BorderPatrol: This game introduces boundaries that give you ten seconds to return to the level before killing you. Height boundaries, too, where the warning appears if you fly too high in a Jetpack, and it will also show up while standing on the rooftops of some buildings in multiplayer/Firefight, most likely to stop campers with Sniper Rifles.
* BoringButPractical: The Covenant Plasma Pistol, due to its commonness and a slight retool, gains its greatest affinity with this trope since the first game; see TookALevelInBadass. Most classes of Elite in multiplayer will spawn with one.
** The Assault Rifle has been given a small but nice boost in power and especially accuracy, and an [[RuleOfCool awesome new look]]. At times, you may find yourself turning down the shotgun or magnum for the assault rifle.
** The Sprint armor ability is arguably the default armor ability, as it is the one players always spawn with in campaign mode, and is present in virtually every multiplayer mode, including those which disable other armor abilities. It simply gives a player some additional running speed for a short duration, and recharges in a similar short amount of time. While it might lack the flash and uniqueness of other armor abilities, the option to quickly close to point-blank range, move swiftly between cover, or beat a hasty retreat makes it arguably one of the most versatile and useful abilities.
* BonusMaterial: Gamers who bought the pre-ordered, or bought the Legendary or Limited Editions got differing amounts of extra goodies, ranging from exclusive armor pieces, flaming helmets, avatar items, a real-life replica of Dr. Halsey's journal, or a even a big ol' diorama of Noble Team.
* BossInMookClothing: Elite Generals and Brute Chieftains. The Elite Field Marshall seems to be an outright boss seeing as how he only appears in the final battle.
** Hunters, as usual, count too. Zealots might count as actual bosses since there are only 3 encounters with them in the game (one of which is with the Field Marshall).
* BreakingTheFourthWall: One of the Firefight voices in the Master Chief. If you preview his voice, one of the phrases the Chief says is "Did ya miss me?"
* BreastPlate: Subverted. While the female Mjolnir armor doesn't focus particularly on ''that'' area, comparative to the male model it does emphasize Kat's (and potentially Noble Six's) hips and butt. Understandable, as the Mjolnir armor is really bulky and there's little else Bungie could have done to differentiate the female Spartan model from the males'.
** In fact, the breastplate of the female armor is the same size as the male one. Though the female armor is thinner and there seems to be less of it around the shoulders.
* BrokenBridge: A literal example is in the mission "Tip of the Spear". Once completing the local objective, a [[{{Dropship}} Pelican]] flies by and drops a temporary spanning platform across said bridge, allowing the player to continue with the mission. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that the local objective is to take town a Covenant anti-air cannon that is preventing your air support (like the Pelican that fixes the bridge) from getting close.
* BrokenFaceplate: A few examples.
** [[PlayerCharacter Noble Six]]'s helmet is shown as a InMediasRes opening cutscene, half buried in the dirt, [[ForeShadowing lying alone and abandoned on a charred battlefield]].
** [[spoiler: When Kat gets shot through the head by a Covenant sniper.]]
** [[spoiler: [[InterfaceScrew Seen from first person]] when Noble Six is making a LastStand against the Covenant, and we learn why the helmet was discarded as shown in the opening.]]
* CanonImmigrant: At least in spirit, as Armor Abilities were actually first seen ''years'' ago in ''RedVsBlue'' (the ''[[{{Halo2}} Halo 2]]'' era), of all places, where each Freelancer operative had a unique special ability permanently integrated into their armor. Tex had invisibility, York had regeneration, and Wyoming had the GameBreaker power of space-time manipulation. These Armor Abilities and the [=AIs=] used to run them were what distinguished Project Freelancer from its rival program, the SPARTAN program. However, neither Bungie nor Rooster Teeth have claimed RedVsBlue as the inspiration for the feature.
** Dr. Catherine Halsey features significantly in the ''Halo'' ExpandedUniverse as the creator and director of the [=SPARTAN-II=] program and is one of the leading human experts on the Forerunners. ''Reach'' is the first time she's ever appeared in any of the games.
*** Likewise, the idea that Cortana is an AI clone of Dr. Halsey, never contradicted in-game but first established in a tie-in novel, is finally confirmed by having the same person do voice-acting for both of them.
* CallBack: Most of the achievements reference quotes from the rest of the series.
** Hell, most of the level chapters reference quotes and chapters from other games. For example:
*** The second chapter of "The Silent Cartographer" in ''Halo'' is called "[[ItsQuietTooQuiet It's quiet..." The first chapter of "Nightfall" in Reach is called "...too quiet.]]"
*** Two of the chapters from "Long Night of Solace". The first, "First Floor: Aliens, Beaches, [[spoiler:Secret Launch Stations]]" references "The Library" from ''Halo'', which used a variation of it, "Fourth Floor: Tools, Guns, Keys to Super Weapons". The second, "And The Horse You Flew In On", references the first chapter of "The Maw", "And The Horse You Rode In On".
*** The second chapter of "The Package": "This Cave Is Not a Natural Formation". [[CaptainObvious "... Someone built it,]] [[HaloCombatEvolved so it must lead somewhere."]]
** If you demo Sgt. Johnson's Firefight voice in The Armory, he'll start his infamous "I woulda' been yo' daddy" line before stopping himself.
*** 90 percent of what the old characters' Firefight voices say is callbacks.
** Occasionally, if you are killed by an Elite in Firefight or Campaign, they will let loose their infamous victory yell from Halo 1: "WORT WORT WOOOOORT!"
* CallForward: Allied troopers will sometimes say "[[AndThisIsFor That was]] for [[ContactHarvest Harv]][[HaloWars est!]]" Before Reach, the battle at Harvest was the largest human defeat of the war. In the main trilogy, ODST especially, you can hear characters saying "[[AndThisIsFor That was for Reach!]]"
** Buck from ''Halo3ODST'' needs your help escaping the city. It was established in that game that Buck had fought at Reach.
** [[ImprobableAimingSkills You can now snipe Banshee drivers out from the gap between the cockpit and body]], just like Linda-058 does in ''HaloFirstStrike''.
* {{Cap}}: The initial release had a level cap of Lt. Colonel Grade 3 online, while offline had no limit. Gamers of such rank were teased with armor they couldn't buy until the entire Reach community completed 117 million Challenges. It was partially braggings rights and partially an AntiGrinding test by Bungie, they wanted to become aware of any exploitable credit glitches before offering the whole armory.
** On a more persistent level, there are different limits to how many Credits you can earn in a day, either online or off, to prevent players from abusing the system.
* CaptainObvious: Your NPC allies, especially Noble Team, like pointing out the obvious.
-->'''Rebel''': They're shooting at us!
* CastOfSnowflakes: In terms of equipment permutations, this is much more true in this game compared to other titles in the series. This is not limited to Noble Team either, [=NPC=] allies, despite having nearly the same uniform, have many variations on the basic kit for different battlefield roles and situations, combined in several semi-randomized ways for each instance (though all such things are purely cosmetic in gameplay terms.) Understandably, this is because they use a variation of the same armor permutation system that was developed to allow the player to [[SpecialSnowflakeSyndrome customizer their armor]].
* ChargedAttack: The new Plasma Launcher, in addition to series staples Spartan Laser and Plasma Pistol.
* CherryTapping: The extended Assassination animations work like this: A simple melee attack will kill the enemy instantly, same as it always has, but holding the button slightly longer gives you a full neck snapping / kidney puncturing / Energy Sword impaling / dropkicking kill sequence. You aren't invincible for the 2-3 seconds it takes, and your target can be saved by a teammate (or an opportunistic enemy) by killing you before it's finished. An ally can even steal your kill! "Yoink!"
* ChillyReception: You're informed at the beginning that you're being brought in to replace a well liked member of the team who the others would have preferred to honour by leaving the spot empty. This doesn't have much of an effect on gameplay, but in a couple of cutscenes some characters are dismissive or just ignore you. Except Jorge. By the end of the game this is of course entirely gone.
* CommandRoster:
** TheCaptain: Carter
** NumberTwo / WrenchWench: Kat
** Security Officer: Jorge (He's the team "Tank" and carries excess supplies)
** The Marine: Emile
** ColdSniper: Jun
** SixthRanger: Noble Six
** MissionControl: Kat and Jun (Kat has more of the technical VoiceWithAnInternetConnection while Jun at several times takes a vantage point and surveys the location, relaying information over the comms.)
* ContinuityNod: Because the game takes place in the same timeframe as ''Halo: Combat Evolved'', many of the gameplay elements are a callback to that game.
** Your armor now has separate shield and health meters, and the shield recharges more slowly than in ''Halo 2'' or ''Halo 3''.
** Elites dodge and strafe like crazy, just like they did in the first game.
** Hunters fire explosive bolts instead of a continuous energy beam.
** The pistol functions similar to how it did in the first ''Halo''. In other words, it is ''awesome''.
*** And yet still [[CompetitiveBalance balanced]] by having a smaller magazine and closer range, making it '''doubly''' ''awesome''.
** Allied troopers are no longer MadeOfIron, sadly. [[AndTheFandomRejoiced They can actually drive okay now, though.]]
*** Although some are capable of eating [[MadeOfExplodium fuel rods]] for breakfast!
** Brutes behave like they did in ''Halo 2'' (no shields, but increased health and vulnerable to headshots if you knock off their helmet). Fortunately, they're still not as insanely durable as they were in ''Halo 2'', and their berserker mode from that game hasn't returned either.
** [[spoiler: Cortana]] resembles her appearance in Halo: CE, with short hair and a very *ahem* child-like body.
** In the mission New Alexandria, one of your objectives is to escort [[{{HaloODST}} Sergeant Buck]].
** [[spoiler: In the epilogue, look closely at the bodies on the ground. They're other Spartans.]]
* ContinuitySnarl: This game takes place in the same timeframe as the tie-in novel ''{{The Fall of Reach}}''. The two don't always agree. (The fact that Bungie has [[BroadStrokes deliberately played fast and loose]] with continuity doesn't help things.) The biggest difference is that in ''Fall'' the battle of Reach seemed to take place over the course of maybe a few days, with only two main attack waves. In this game it is about 2 months of fighting, with an intial surprise ground force followed by an out-and-out slug fest for weeks. But Bungie ''has'' stated that any new information [[RetCon overwrites]] any previously-existing information.
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: No matter what weapons the enemy AI fires, they all seem to have some degree of homing capability.
** Dual-wielding was removed for the player, but some Elites will still do it. Not as bad as it sounds; they only dual-wield the Plasma Rifle, two of which is the equivalent of a Plasma Repeater.
** Got those Elite Zealots, Field Marshals, or Generals in your sniper scope? While they're facing the wrong way? Well, they screen-watch. You read that correctly. The higher ranking Elites (on Heroic or Legendary) refused to be sniped, even if they're not "aware" that you are present. Aim at one, and they'll begin to inexplicably strafe and dive for cover, while not attempting to shoot, and while no other enemies react.
** Even the Grunts become psychic at high enough difficulties, vastly preferring to suicide-run you with Plasma Grenades if you even ''think'' about activating Active Camo invisibilty near them.
* CosmeticAward: Takes the customizable armor of ''Halo3'' UpToEleven, with dozens of parts for many different parts of the armor available for Credits earned by doing pretty much anything. Upon launch it was revealed to be even bigger then previously thought. To the point to where you can edit your character's voice in Firefight.
* CosmeticallyDifferentSides: Played straight in Spartan vs. Spartan multiplayer, but averted in the Spartan vs. Elite Invasion gametypes, for the first time in the series. And they aren't identical in base performance either, Elite shields regenerate slightly faster and their health will return to full given time, while the Spartans can take more damage.
* CutscenePowerToTheMax: Noble Teams ability to kill Covenant in cutscenes is remarkably greater than in actual gameplay. Particularly the AI members of Noble Team, who for balance reasons tend to not do more than draw fire.
* CutsceneIncompetence: [[spoiler: Kat]], with shields inexplicably down, is killed by a shot to the head while running through an open area. A theory that the Covenant glassing going on at the time took out ''everyone's'' shields would turn this into a subversion, though it hasn't been confirmed.
** The theory is pretty much debunked by the description of the [[spoiler: Collar/Breacher variant worn by Kat]]: "Too bad they don't make artificial situational awareness."
* DamnYouMuscleMemory: Reach changes the control scheme considerably from Halo 3 to accommodate Armor Abilities and the removal of dual-wielding. Many accidentally used their Armor Abilities instead of switching grenades, or switched their grenades instead of meleeing.
** [[SubvertedTrope Thankfully, the ''Recon'' control scheme is extremely similar to Halo 3's default and Bumper Jumper makes a return, identical to Halo 3's Bumper Jumper.]]
* DarkerAndEdgier: You thought ''Halo 3'' was bleak? You'd be surprised.
* DeathFromAbove: Using a Target Locator you can align [[KillSat orbital bombardment]] into a designated zone, basically the Halo version of the [[GearsOfWar Hammer of Dawn.]]
** The achievement [[ThatOneSidequest "If They Came To Hear Me Beg..."]] is for assassinating an Elite by jumping from a sufficient height to kill you.
** ODST's from the jetpacking "Bullfrog" squad have a tendency to quote the trope verbatim.
* DeathSeeker: From one interpretation, Emile. Officially stated that Emile cares about almost nothing but killing Covenant. His whole life has been nothing ''but'' that, save for watching his parents and homeworld be glassed.
-->'''Emile-A239:''' I'm ready! How 'bout you?!
* DeflectorShields: In addition to the traditional recharging shields, one Armor Ability gives you unbreakable shields temporarily, but immobilizes you, while another creates a breakable BeehiveBarrier that recharges the health of anyone inside it.
* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: It's ''Bungie'', what did you expect?
** Since your Spartan is customizable for campaign as well as multiplayer, [[spoiler: the helmet at the beginning and end of the game is the helmet your Spartan wears.]]
*** [[spoiler: Out of all these helmets, by far the craziest looking is the [[http://www.halopedian.com/File:GUNGNIR_helmet.jpg GUNGNIR helmet]], which eschews a visor for a teeny little camera nestled in a massive armor plate. Start a campaign wearing it and you'll realize that the hole in Six's helmet (no matter the make) is where it is because ''that's where the camera is on this one helmet.'']]
** When you first get the Jetpack, you can actually bypass having to use the elevator to get to the top of the building. You can use the Jetpack to get to a point where ''you can hijack in midair one of the ambient Banshees'' and ''fly'' to the top, saving yourself a whole lot of hurt and ammo.
*** And/or you can use a charged shot from a Plasma Pistol to short out a Banshee's engines (one of them will actually try to dive right ''near'' you) to make this much easier.
** Whip out the pistol for the first time, Noble Six will cock it. Pull it out again after that, he/she merely flips the safety off. And this happens until you pick up a new pistol or respawn. The Covenant pistol works similarly, with Noble Six flicking a switch on the side the first time and just pulling it out every time after that.
*** Firing the assault rifle until the magazine's empty will result in Six pushing the firing bolt forward when reloading, chambering a round. Reload before you run dry, and Six will simply stick a new magazine in. A similar thing happens with the pistol and its slide. The sniper rifle has had a mechanic like this since [[HaloCombatEvolved the first game.]]
** Because Forge World is ''one'' map and is only being customized from Forge, it means that Bungie is able to introduce entirely new maps to the online playlist without the need for a DLC update. That's right, new online maps for free!
* DifficultButAwesome: The Grenade Launcher in a nutshell. Most online players completely ignore the weapon due to its very bouncy projectiles, and by doing so, never learn that the grenades can double as EMP bombs ''and'' impromptu trip mines. The regular mode isn't anything to laugh at either; you can become extremely lethal with the launcher if you're already good at bouncing your frags.
** Due the skill required of it, the developers nicknamed it the Pro Pipe.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: One of the live-action commercials features a soldier using a rocketpack to fly up to an enemy command carrier floating above a city and destroying it with a bomb with a visible, beeping digital timer counting down that he had picked up off the ground. Unlike [[GIJoe Duke]] though, [[DyingMomentOfAwesome he doesn't make it out alive]].
* DoingItForTheArt: Even though ''Reach'' was never originally planned, it's clear from the many new features and remarkable polish that Bungie is by no means phoning it in.
* DoomedByCanon: No effort was made to hide the fact that Reach falls before the Halo Trilogy even begins. Even if any character in the game survives, Reach itself is doomed.
* DoppelgangerSpin: The Hologram Armor Ability creates a copy of you that moves in a straight line towards a point (or spot) you designate. It's designed as a decoy and can be a sniper's worst enemy. This creates some funny videos where players behave the same way a hologram does (running in a perfectly straight line, bouncing off of scenery and not firing) and are [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vRxIjntynU ignored by the enemy team while they run behind them...]]
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler: Whereas most of the team go out with epic {{Heroic Sacrifice}}s, Kat gets unceremoniously nailed in the back of the head by a Covenant Sniper.]]
* DualWielding: While the player can no longer do like in previous ''Halo'' games, some Elites can. Cheaters.
** [[spoiler: Noble Six uses this for a moment when holding off Elites in his LastStand with a pistol and an Assault Rifle]]
* DullSurprise: The troopers you are looking for in the first mission don't seem too shocked to encounter the Covenant at all when usually encountering Covenant means you are quite screwed.
* DummiedOut: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] or "dummied-in", as some of the features added into ''Halo: Reach'' were things that Bungie planned to add to previous ''{{Halo}}'' titles, but those features themselves got dummied out of the earlier versions. For example, both low-gravity levels and the sprint feature were [[WordOfGod discussed in a magazine interview]] by Bungie prior to the release of ''{{Halo 2}}'', but they never made it into that game. ''Reach'' eventually comes around, and they get the opportunity to add those features back in.
* DyingMomentOfAwesome: [[spoiler: The player is allowed to give Noble Six a death worthy of any Spartan: having gotten Cortana to the ''Pillar of Autumn'' while watching the rest of Noble Team die, Six stays behind, and finally dies surrounded by dead Elites, fighting first with guns, then with his/her fists, to the very end.]]
** [[spoiler:Jorge, sacrificing himself by activating a UNSC warp drive in the middle of a Covenant ''super-carrier'', tearing it apart.]]
** [[spoiler:Emile, after blowing up a heavy Covenant ship with an AA MAC cannon, getting a sword jammed through him, then turning around and stabbing the Elite in the neck while falling off the sword.]]
** [[spoiler:Carter, ramming the Pelican into a Scarab.]]
* EasterEgg: It's a Bungie game, so there are plenty of them.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxuLOpuKTPw Dance the night away, Covies!]]
** The cowardly Marine seen in WrongGenreSavvy below.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRrv6rcu90Y Hello again for the first time, Master Chief]].
** Then there's the whole business about the [[spoiler:Data Pads, which are strewn about most of the levels, sometimes only on Legendary. Each Pad can be read to shed some... interesting light on the backstory of the Halo series.]]
** There's also a few [[spoiler:hidden switches that do a few neat things, like a pair on "The Package" that spawn four Banshees for the players if pressed simultaneously.]]
*** Another neat switch lets players [[spoiler:fly Pelicans (and Phantoms). Yep, that vehicle that everyone's wanted to fly since Halo 1. Thank you, Bungie.]]
* ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: Noble Team isn't the [[RedshirtArmy average SPARTAN-III group]]; it's comprised of a specially selected few equipped with MJOLNIR armour and counts a SPARTAN-II amongst them. Noble Six him/herself has an impressive pedigree in the backstory.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Near the end of the first level, Noble Squad gets ambushed by Elites with Energy Swords. Your character gets tackled by one (really emphasizing how big they are compared to you), avoids a stab to the stomach and then punches the enemy in the jaw. Of course, it only serves to piss it off and you get saved by Carter, but it does demonstrate Noble Six's DefiantToTheEnd personality.
** Most of Noble Team have their own establishing moments as well within the first two levels; [[CuriosityIsACrapshoot Kat's very possessive attitude toward the data found on Lazlow, seizing it from Six immediately]]; Jorge takes his helmet off to make a civilian feel more secure and comfortable, setting off Emile's moment where he shows his [[WhatMeasureIsANonBadass contempt toward civilians]]; Carter [[TheMenFirst defends Kat against Halsey,]] who gets her own moment by [[JerkAss showing contempt to almost all of the SPARTAN [=IIIs=] of Noble Team in one cutscene,]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold while showing a soft side toward Jorge, one of her SPARTAN [=IIs=].]]
* MrFanservice: While it's a fairly mild example, the amount of [[ShirtlessScene Helmetless scenes]] and varying ethnicities give Noble Team a bit of diversity compared to simply Master Chief. Plus, Jorge is just too cute. He's just asking for fangirls.
** I'm sure the fact that Jorge resembles [[{{Queen}} Freddie Mercury]] and is [[GentleGiant the biggest, yet nicest member of the team]] has nothing to do with this trope.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Noble Six is never referred to by name, only by "Six," "Lieutenant" and the more generic "Spartan." The only thing given in supplementary materials is the Spartan code B-312 (Master Chief is 117, the codes were effectively the person's last name).
* {{Expy}}: The new Concussion Rifle fires explosive shots from a six-round magazine that fall slightly as they travel. [[http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Brute_shot Sound familiar?]]
** The Needle Rifle handles exactly like the Covenant Carbine, save that it shares the Needler's capacity to detonate unshielded foes.
** A badass NPC ally with a skull design on his headgear. [[ModernWarfare Remind you]] [[Halo3ODST of]] [[RedVsBlue anyone?]]
* FamousLastWords: [[spoiler: Carter, just before ramming his Pelican into a Scarab.]]
-->[[spoiler: '''Emile:''' Hit 'em hard, boss.]]
-->[[spoiler: '''Carter:''' You're on your own, Noble. Carter ''out''.]] ''(boom!)''
** [[spoiler: Emile-A239: I'm ready! How 'bout you?!]]
** [[spoiler: Jorge-052: Tell them to make it count.]]
* FanNickname: Or rather, Developer Nickname. The GrenadeLauncher can be used in two modes, both of which require careful aim and timing to use properly. The skill required for effective use has earned it the moniker "Pro Pipe", in contrast to the so-called "Noob Tube" grenade launcher in ''ModernWarfare''.
* FictionalDocument: Halsey's journal, shipped with the Limited and Legendary Editions of the game. Full of juicy tidbits about the Spartans and Halsey herself, including the fact that [[spoiler: ''Miranda is her and Capt. Keyes' love child.'']]
* FiveManBand: Noble Team
** Carter: TheHero
** Kat: TheLancer, TheSmartGuy
** Jun: ColdSniper
** Jorge: TheBigGuy, TeamDad
** Emile: PsychoForHire, TheBigGuy
** Noble Six: TheSixthRanger
* FiveTokenBand: Noble Team, whose members all appear to have different ethnic backgrounds. It's justified given how diverse the UNSC colonies are.
* FlingALightIntoTheFuture: In a small-scale sense, the ending is [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]] because [[spoiler: you successfully got The Package to the Pillar of Autumn, and cleared an escape route for it to leave Reach. That Package, in turn, led to the discovery of Halo, the Covenant Civil War, and humanity's ultimate survival when the war ended with the Battle of the Ark.]]
* ForegoneConclusion: From the beginning, you know the end.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler: Kat when getting hit by enemy fire will sometimes remark that the shields failed for a moment.]]
* GameplayAllyImmortality: Noble Team is invulnerable in gameplay.
* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Several things. Notably Emile, who in promotional background material is portrayed as a particularly bold Spartan (bordering on berserker level aggression) who specializes in close combat assaults. In gameplay, his AI is much more timid. Almost never purposely closing to the effective range of his shotgun and even falling back when the moves into it that range without firing a shot.
* {{Gamebreaker}}: The orbital bombardment designator. It's only really balanced out by the fact it only appears in one mission in the single-player campaign, and it's rare in Firefight. For obvious reasons it's not available in multiplayer. How nasty is it? Point it next to a Phantom as it's about to unload a wave of multiple weak enemies like Grunts, and you're pretty much guaranteed a Killionaire. If you're anywhere close to the designation zone, you will be murdered just from the splash damage.
** Fuel Rod guns in most versions of firefight count too.The weapon's high power, relatively large clip and fast firing rate means it outclasses most other weapons in sheer splash damage.This wouldn't be a problem (the gun can hold about 30 rounds and ammo isn't common), if it wasn't for [[MacrossMissileMassacre Unlimited ammo.]]
* GentleGiant: Jorge, the huge SPARTAN-II member of the team, is also the nicest and most amicable member of the group, especially towards civilians. Played with in that he's still [[BewareTheNiceOnes a killing machine.]]
** Stands also as a commentary on the differences between SPARTAN-[=IIs=] and [=IIIs=]. While Jorge is clearly regarded as the most dangerous and toughest soldier in Noble, he is also the most clearly emotionally stable, and shows the most humanity. The SPARTAN [=IIIs=] are all a little off, especially Emile. It's stated at that he doesn't actually care as much for Reach's survival as he does for killing Covenant.
* GilliganCut:
-->'''Catherine-B320:''' All we need is a green light from Holland.
-->'''Carter-A259:''' Good luck with that.
-->'''Catherine-B320:''' You're the one asking him.
-->'''Carter-A259:''' Oh, there's no way in hell he's gonna go for this.
-->''(later)''
-->'''Jorge-052:''' Still can't believe Holland said yes to this.
* GogglesDoNothing: Armor customization lets you add extra armor, [[BadassBandolier bandoliers]], pouches, and other unusual things that don't affect gameplay in the slightest.
* GoodNewsBadNews: The end of ''Long Night of Solace''.
* GoodScarsEvilScars: All Noble Team members who remove their helmet are shown to have at least one significant scar, evidence that they have had a long career of combat.
* GoombaStomp: Performing an aerial Assassination will sometimes result in this. It doesn't look like much until you remember that a fully-armored SPARTAN weighs about ''1,000 pounds''.
* GoryDiscretionShot: We never explicitly see the killing blow on [[spoiler: Noble Six]].
* GratuitousForeignLanguage: Justified. The majority of Reach's inhabitants are of Magyar descent, explaining why Hungarian is the local lingua franca.
* GravityScrew: So far there are three multiplayer maps that show the Heavy Zone/Light Zone dynamic: Zealot has a low gravity zone above the map, Anchor 9 has one along one side, and Condemned has one in the middle. There is also a section of the campaign mission Long Night of Solace where you fight through a Covenant Corvette in the same low gravity environment.
* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold: Implied by Halsey at the end. While not as anonymous as the Rookie's role in ''Halo3ODST'', Halsey laments that Six never got to see the battle won, and that her/his role is almost forgotten in the grand scheme of history. His/her story is tied to the fall of Reach, and will probably remain a footnote, thus Halsey vows to never forget his/her efforts.
* GreenHillZone: In effect, of all places. Winter Contingency allows you to get used to the controls and fight several of the common enemy types, with a "boss fight" consisting of a few Zealots at the end. The area before the Visegrad Relay is even full of [[SceneryPorn lush vegetation]].
* GuideDangIt: Bungie overhauled the Banshee's controls in addition to its appearance. Tricks have been moved to the left bumper, and the Fuel Rod Cannon is now a separate weapon you have to switch with Y - but good luck figuring this out if you're playing on anything higher than Normal.
** There's a ton of easter eggs hidden in the game, but most are nearly impossible to find without looking them up. The [[spoiler:drivable Pelican and Phantom on New Alexandria are especially tough.]] Of course, none are necessary to finish the game.
* GunsAkimbo: [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard Some higher-ranking Elites]], and [[spoiler: Noble Six during the ending]].
* GunshipRescue: Sometimes you are the one doing the rescuing, other times you're the one being rescued. And it's subverted just as often. In the "Invasion" gametype, if you manage to hold off the enemy from getting your Data Core, the game ends with your faction arriving with air vehicles and killing the enemy team.
* HarderThanHard: According to Bungie, Reach's Legendary difficulty is harder than any other Halo game. And of course, you could always turn on all the "Gold" skulls and go for the semiofficial "Mythic" difficulty.
** Officially, there's also LASO (Legendary All Skulls On), which includes you having to use the Blind skull (no HUD or weapon displayed onscreen). Bungie felt so bad about this one that when they started including the mode in online challenges, they edited the requirements to exclude Blind.
* HartmanHips: It may just be the armor, but still noticeable for female Spartan soldiers.
* HeroicSacrifice: The team is called ''Noble'' team for a reason. [[ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee Croshaw]] finds this mildly {{Anvilicious}}.
** [[spoiler:Jorge. He thought he was saving the planet. He didn't.]]
** [[spoiler: Carter. Crashes his Pelican into a Scarab to allow you to get to the ''Pillar of Autumn''.]]
** [[spoiler: Noble Six, who stays behind on Reach to fire the MAC gun and cover the ''Pillar of Autumn's'' retreat. Of course, you play this all out...]]
** [[spoiler: Emile might qualify for this. Considering that while he was manning the gun he was telling Six to get off the planet, with no mention to him escaping. If not for the backstab from the Zealot, he's likely to have been the one to have gone out in a Blaze of Glory.]]
** [[spoiler: Also heavily implied for Jun (i.e., to get Dr. Halsey to safety) in the dialogue during his last appearance, but ultimately averted due to Bungie's WordOfGod that he lives.]]
* HeyItsThatVoice: [[TheWire Marlo Stanfield]] (Knox to you {{Heroes}} fans) is Emile. Which [[{{Typecasting}} says so much]] about his [[ScaryBlackMan character]].
* HopeSpot: Even though [[DoomedByCanon you know what's going to happen]], the [[spoiler:destruction of the ''Long Night of Solace'']] seems like a major victory for the UNSC that at least slows the covenant invasion down considerably. But mere 30 seconds after the initial detonation the automated orbital sensors report ''*[[SubspaceOrHyperspace Slipspace rupture]] detected.*''
** [[spoiler: *Slipspace rupture detected.* *Slipspace rupture detected.* *Slipspace rupture detected.* [[OhCrap *Slipspace rupture detected.*]] [[BolivianArmyEnding *Slipspace rupture detected.*]]]]
** [[spoiler: At the PlayableEpilogue after the credits roll, when Noble Six is standing alone in the shipbreaking yard as the Covenant move to consolidate their hold on the area. Six seems calmly observant, as though considering what to do. The chapter title reads "There'll be another time..." and the player is assigned a new objective: "Survive" (with the detail text "Spartans never die..."). One might be forgiven for thinking that maybe, just maybe, Noble Six will make it out of this. [[DownerEnding They do not]].]]
* HypocriticalHumor: In [[HaloTheFlood The Flood]], many players disliked Chief's action movie hero-style personality; but if Bungie does it, and you can hear it (in the form of a Firefight voice), it suddenly becomes [[TookALevelInBadass so much better.]]
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Assassinations with the Energy Sword, and thus happens many times throughout the campaign too.
* InsufferableGenius: Halsey is presented like this initially (and she is known to be like this in the EU). But her journal sheds light on her verbal altercation with Carter in the game. She was under the impression that the Spartans she personally trained (the SPARTAN-[=IIs=], which include Jorge and Master Chief) were the only Spartans in the UNSC. It wasn't until after Noble Team's first mission that she discovered the ''existence'' of SPARTAN-[=IIIs=], which means she was actively deceived by her peers for years. By her second interaction with Noble Team they appeared to have earned her respect.
* InterfaceScrew: [[spoiler:In the post-credits game, when you take damage, cracks appear in your visor/HUD. The first time this happens, it also takes away your ammo counter, which makes the fight even more difficult.]]
* InterfaceSpoiler: Some of the achievement names are fairly subtle spoilers to the fact [[spoiler:Noble Six dies at the end of the game. The most egregious one is "Send Me Out...with a Bang," which is Sgt. Johnson's last words from Halo 3.]]
* {{Irony}}: At one point in the level "Long Night of Solace", when you're making your way to the launch facility, the AA guns are shooting at the dozens of Seraphs buzzing overhead. The AA guns' purpose is to protect the building from airborne damages. Well, the guns hit a Seraph, and it goes spinning down out of control in flames... crashing into the facility at high speed. Oops.
** A huge bit of irony is called up when the individual [[spoiler:deaths]] of Noble Team are scrutinized:
*** [[spoiler:Carter, the leader of Noble Team, died by crashing a Pelican into a Scarab; essentially the leader went down with the ship.]]
*** [[spoiler:Kat, the tactician of the group, died from a single Needle Rifle shot through the brain. This is also due in part because she was not paying attention as a Covenant Phantom flew overhead.]]
*** [[spoiler:Jorge, the heavy weapons expert, died in a giant explosion.]]
*** [[spoiler:Emile, the CQB expert, died from being stabbed in the chest.]]
*** [[spoiler:Jun, the stealthy one, lives.]]
*** [[spoiler:Noble Six was told in the very first level that he/she was to stop acting as a "lone wolf" and be part of a team. He/she dies alone.]]
**** [[spoiler: Incorrect. Far from alone, [[LastStand he/she dies with at least four elites.]]]]
**** [[spoiler: Actually, what's ironic is being told you're not supposed to do "lone wolf" stuff, then a good portion of the game forces you to do exactly that, or at best, with 1 other character. [[CompletelyMissingThePoint Unless you play co-op.]]]]
* ItGotWorse: All the time. First the missing patrol turns out not to have been captured by rebels, but killed by Covenant troops. Then you find a mysterious structure [[spoiler:that is some kind of teleportation device, so you disable the shields and a frigate is send in to destroy it. While debris is still comming down, the frigate is shot to pieces by a collosal super-carrier that was just decloaked right above it. One level later the carrier is succesffuly destroyed, but not even ten seconds beyond that a massive fleet arrives that starts to completely wipe out all life on the planet...]]
* ItHasBeenAnHonor: At the end of the game:
---> [[spoiler:'''Emile:''' It's been an honor, sir.]]
---> [[spoiler:'''Carter:''' Likewise.]]
* JetPack: One of the Armor Abilities.
* TheJimmyHartVersion: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QDl2XTAPvE Ghosts and Glass]] bears more than a passing resemblance to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InvY9JXyVW8 Fairytale]] from ''{{Shrek}}''.
* JokeItem: The forklift is drivable. It's got no weapons and moves too slowly to run over enemies. You can drive it in Firefight... if you feel like messing around and don't mind summarily dying.
** Dont diss the forklift. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA_ij2Kuq-I It can (and does) ''kill'' things.]]
** [[GolfClubbing The golf club]], available by customizing a load out in Firefight. It's essentially the gravity hammer in the shape of a monster golf club.
* KilledMidSentence: [[spoiler:Kat.]]
* KillEmAll: Most of Reach, see DoomedByCanon.
* KillSat: The Covenant and UNSC both have this weapon, though the Covenant's weapon is far more destructive and widespread.
* LampshadeHanging: If you use Emile's voice for firefight, it seems like he's perfectly aware that he was built up to be the team badass in the game. I.E. his quote: "And you thought ''you'' were the badass."
* TheLastDance: [[spoiler: Noble Six remains on Reach and battles an endless horde of Covenant.]]
** [[spoiler: Objective: Survive. Description: ''Spartans never die.'' ]]
* LeeroyJenkins: Thom-293, formerly Noble Six on Noble Team, died prior to the game. The PlayerCharacter is there to replace him. Carter and Kat both feel personally responsible for his death. While [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOKeOYqa8Xw this trailer]] showed the explosive (actually a nuclear weapon) he threw into the Covenant ship ''was'' going to go off in 2 minutes (and you can see him try to run away after he throws it), the official profiles on the main website have their commanding officer consider his death a blatant example of this trope.
* {{Leitmotif}}: While many of the game's themes evoke Halo, it avoids direct call outs to any past themes most of the time given that the game is not galaxy spanning SpaceOpera like the rest of the series and a more narrow MilitaryScienceFiction when taken alone. However, a few snippets of the "Halo" theme can be heard during the large battle at the start of one level, also when [[spoiler:Cortana is introduced, her 'Rescue' theme from Halo 3 is played]], and during the last cut scene [[spoiler:the same music from Halo:CE's opening is heard as the ending is a shot for shot match to the start of the first game]].
* LevelGrinding: Playing Gruntpocolypse on the Score Attack gametype (single player Firefight) was noticed as the most efficient method of credit farming. Assuming you can finish the round in the alloted time, it is almost a guaranteed 2,000 cR for about 10 minutes worth of playing.
** Also averted in a sense: the amount of credits you get scales upwards the higher your rank becomes--while you get around 60 cR max for custom games as a Captain, you get 165 when you're a Colonel.
* LightningBruiser: The highest ranked skirmishers have as much health as Brutes, and move around faster then Drones.
* LuckBasedMission: [[spoiler: The final bit firing the MAC gun]] will, on harder difficulties, be impossible to complete on your first attempt. And if the Mythic Skull is on, the [[spoiler:CCS-class battlecruiser you have to shoot down will gain double health as well, needing '''TWO''' MAC shots to take down]]. Even Tyrant, the legendary Mythic speedrunner, admitted this portion on Mythic difficulty is virtually entirely based on luck.
** And you better finish off that squad of Elite Zealots before you move on, or you will get [[{{Unwinnable}} screwed by the autosave]], getting caught between trying to shoot down incoming enemy ships and Elites shooting you in the back.
* LudicrousGibs: Drones now [[BoomHeadshot explode when headshotted]], and Engineers will erupt into a blue goo when killed, leaving some armor plating behind. YouBastard.
* MaleGaze: The camera angles in cutscenes take particular care to focus on Noble Six and Kat's behinds, made all the better when playing as Female!Six. {{Lampshaded}} in the Legendary Edition Commentary:
-->'''Marcus Lehto:''' "''Another patented butt shot.''"
-->'''Marty O'Donnell:''' "''You see, this is why I think it's more fun to play as the female.''"
* ManlyTears: Evoked by Bungie's love letter to ''Halo'' fans before the credits roll.
* MauveShirt: Your can recruit allied Marines into your squad, and now their names appear right next to your radar.
* MeaningfulName: [[spoiler:Kat is very ''curious''. Guess what happens to her?]]
* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: If you look off into the distance on some maps, you can see battles going on.
* [[MeaningfulName Meaningful Title]]: As stated above, Noble Six is NOBLE team's [[SixthRanger SIXth ranger]].
* {{Mordor}}: Reach itself began to look like this towards the end thanks to the glassing. It was a barren wasteland, dark with no sunlight at all, and a storm was going on all the time.
* MultiMookMelee: Firefight can be this, if you so choose. [[spoiler: The campaign ends like this.]]
* MythologyGag: The Focus Rifle's beam is very similar to the beam [[HaloWars Locusts]] fire due to its range and sound effect.
** Emile bears more than a passing resemblance to ''[[RedVsBlue The Meta]]''. It's not just his EVA helmet, but also the color of his armor and his use of brown CQB shoulder pauldrons. He's also not ''quite'' as [[AxeCrazy sane]] as the other members of Noble Team, and prefers close-range/physical combat over anything.
** Bungie once again loves playing with numbers, especially the number 7. The game begins in 2552 (2+5 = 7, 2+5 = 7, or 7/7, Bungie Day) and ends on July 7 - 7/7 (again, Bungie Day) - 2589; the year is 2+5 (7)-8-9.
** Names of recruitable Marines include not only members of the game's development staff, but, in at least one instance, creators of ''RedVsBlue'' ([[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjh_JQwzWwI "PVT G. Sorola"]] at about 1:00).
*** Geoff has one too,([[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brQnxmoHO_E&feature=relmfu "His Character Ramsey"]] Mentioned around 4:13)
** Watch the Grunt Assassinations. They are identical to the ones used by Cal and Dutch in ''HaloLegends'' during "The Babysitter"
*** Three guesses what happens in the level "The Package". [[spoiler: You rescue Halsey from the Covenant, just like ''HaloLegends'']]
** RedVsBlue fans, admit it, when [[spoiler: you saw the damaged helmet in the opening, you thought of Tex's helmet from ''Revelation'']]. It can't have been coincidence, RoosterTeeth and Bungie must have tied in their development together to deliver a shout out to each other.
*** {{Jossed}}. When Rooster Teeth first saw Reach's opening cutscene, the company immediately changed the series' title card because they thought [[spoiler:Noble Six's damaged helmet]] would become a plot point in Reach (just like [[spoiler:Tex's helmet]] did in ''Revelation'') and wanted to avoid being ''too'' similar to Bungie's magnum opus.
* NeckSnap: A few of the Assassination animations.
* NegatedMomentOfAwesome: The Covenant just love doing this to you, with perhaps the most brutal being when [[spoiler:Jorge [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices himself]] to take out the supercarrier... and less than one minute later, the Covenant reinforcements arrive.]]
* NighInvulnerable: As per tradition, the Hunters. Their armor is invulnerable to nearly any attack (you can see the more visible ammunition like Needlers and Spikers completely bounce off). They only have a few [[AlienBlood orange colored]] weak points in the neck, torso and back where you can deal damage. Armor on their back will break off if you do enough damage to the soft areas but they still have a large amount of health. They can take several rockets and several Plasma Grenades to the face, or upwards of six Needle Rifle supercombines before they go down.
* NintendoHard: '''[[http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game/halo-reach/achievement/42323-A-Monument-To-All-Your-Sins.html A MONUMENT TO ALL YOUR SINS]]'''. You thought Legendary was horrible in Co-Op? '''Try beating it alone'''.
** Additionally, the unofficial Mythic difficulty, which is legendary with all skulls on.
* NoFairCheating: Everyone that deliberately performed the "Challenge Credit exploit" had their cR and unlocks completely reset. Bungie's also set up a system to automate this and perform such resets (and possibly further bans) automatically.
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: [[spoiler: Noble Six staying on Reach.]]
** Occasionally said word for word by [=NPCs=] if the player character dies in gameplay.
* NoSell: The Elites, especially Generals and Zealots, absolutely ''love'' this. Spartan Laser to the face? Nope. Three headshots with a Sniper Rifle? Try again. Shotgun blast to the head? So what?
** Of course, whacking them in the back of the head will make them die quickly, as will stabbing them in the face with a combat knife.
* NoodleIncident: Liberty Ridge
* TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: The hidden Data Pads reveal [[spoiler: that many of the events of the Halo universe were caused indirectly by the [=AIs=], who have been secretly guiding the course of humanity's progress as a species.]]
* OneBulletClips: This trope is in effect, as per usual. Notably, when using some of the game's weapons (like the sniper rifle), the player will actually be punished for reloading from an empty clip with a longer reload animation.
* PaletteSwap: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. Previous titles (excluding the Brutes in ''{{Halo 3}}'') had different ranks of the same Covenant species distinguished only by the color of their uniforms. Now, every different rank and role, even within the same Covenant species, has its own geometry for its uniform.
* PlayableEpilogue: [[spoiler:Although the only point to it is to see how long you can last against the endless waves of Covenant forces.]]
* PrettyLittleHeadshots: As usual for the series, given the absence of gore beyond blood splatters. Parodied with the Grunt Birthday Party skull, which, when active, makes headshots on the weakest enemy species cause their heads to explode... into confetti, accompanied by the sound of a cheer from ''VivaPinata''.
** You can purchase an armor effect for 100,000 Credits that makes ''you'' explode into confetti with cheers when ''you'' get killed in multiplayer. Beware, as this could make you a more attractive target, and give away your nearby teammates' positions.
* PurelyAestheticGender: It doesn't matter what gender you make Noble Six.
* PyrrhicVictory: For the Covenant who lost 2/3 of their massive fleet trying to attack and occupy Reach. And they didn't even [[spoiler: manage to get the Forerunner tech.]]
* RammingAlwaysWorks: [[spoiler:Carter rams his Pelican into a Scarab.]]
* RankInflation: In each of Reach's three playable modes (Campaign, Firefight, and online multiplayer), you can earn "Commendations" for continually doing particular feats, such as murdering leader-class enemies, performing Assassinations, or just driving an ally while he mows down the opposition. Each mode has its own Commendations, all of which can be upgraded to a max of five ranks (Iron to Onyx) and serve no purpose other than to award you some bonus Credits and right to brag.
* RealIsBrown: Poked fun at in Forge; the "next gen" effect lights everything through a distinctly brown filter.
** In the campaign, in keeping with [[DarkerAndEdgier the game's tone]], Reach has a very bleak and washed-out feel compared to previous ''Halo'' games. The color pallete has a hazey look to it, even in space. That said, the game is still much more colorful than most uses of this trope.
* {{Recycled IN SPACE}}: The Battle of Thermopylae IN SPACE! Or the SevenSamurai IN SPACE!.
* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Dr. Halsey says this to the Spartans when Carter says the casualty reports had listed her as K.I.A.
** Deliberately invoked by UNSC propaganda: Spartans are never reported dead. They are only listed as missing in action. Because, [[NeverFoundTheBody you'll never know for sure...]]
* RetCon: The entire game is essentially a rewrite of the latter part of ''TheFallOfReach'', which portrayed the Covenant attack as a complete and utter surprise (no advance attack force as depicted in-game), made no mention of the [[spoiler:Forerunner excavation and had the ''Autumn'' already on its way out of the star system with a complete Cortana well on board when the battle began.]]
** Certain aspects of Covenant tech have gotten revamped as well. Among the most radical changes are the ones to the design of the Elite Zealot armor (now a vibrant maroon instead of gold) and the layout of the Banshee (the characteristic engine pods have been removed or "hidden from view", to avoid the FridgeLogic of how the craft could fly with the pods shot off). Most of these have since been retconned in turn as aesthetic choices specific to the Covenant on Reach.
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Sword Base is sitting on top of a Forerunner structure, and the Covenant want it ''real'' bad.]]
* RuleOfDrama: People have pointed out inconsistencies with [[spoiler: Kat's death]], although justifications have been pointed out as well.
* RunningGag: Almost once every level, Noble Six gets knocked down (via enemy, explosion, atmospheric freefall...) in a cutscene (sometimes with a first person perspective) and has to grab the nearest weapon available.
* SaveThisPersonSaveTheWorld: [[spoiler: Cortana holds all the data the UNSC have on the Forerunners and Halo, Reach ''will'' fall but any chance to survive the Covenant war rests on Noble Team getting her to the Pillar of Autumn and off Reach.]]
* SceneryPorn / SceneryGorn: Reach, before and after. Early in the game, before the Covenant arrives in force, you get a lot of nice-looking scenery. Afterwards (especially in "Exodus", "New Alexandria", "The Package", and "Pillar of Autumn", most of the map is in ruins, there are fires everywhere, and in "The Autumn" there's this really freaky looking black cloud on the left side of where you are, almost like the big cloud in "The Storm" in ''Halo 3''. [[spoiler: Reach returns to its natural beauty in the future, July 7, 2589.]]
** [[spoiler: The Sabre launch scene in "Long Night of Solace" looked ''gorgeous''.]]
* SenselessSacrifice: [[spoiler: Jorge's HeroicSacrifice is turned into this. It is just as depressing as it sounds.]]
* SerialEscalation: Forge World was originally five separate maps designed for Forge mode set in similar environments. During development, one concept artist combined them all into a single map several times the size of any normal map, all seamless, playable, and massively customizable.
** Lampshaded at their Comic-Con panel, where it turns out that the team member building those 5 maps was building them in one file for simplicities sake at the time, as they all used the same resources. When he was nearing the end, he just asked why they were bothering to break it up. The answer? They never even considered the possibility of making a map that big. And neither did the fans.
* ShoutOut:
** Reach wasn't the only planet with an apocalypse dated [[{{Terminator}} August 29]]...
** In the armory, one of the emblems is the [[{{Warhammer}} Star of Chaos]].
** 90 percent of the Achievements are {{Shout Out}}s to dialogue from the previous games. The other 10%...
*** "[[TopGun You can be my wingman anytime!]]"
*** "Cool file, bro".
** One of the Marine taunts to Covenant: "[[{{Predator}} You are one, UGLY mother...]]"
** Watch how the female Noble Six walks [[spoiler: during her last stand]]. It is identical to a motion from the end of ''Firefly'' made by Zoey, gun pose and all. May have been unintentional, but given that Bungie are known fans of the show...
** The frequent use of grainy security footage during cutscenes seems like an homage to Neil Blomkamp, the director whose ''Halo'' short films, and feature-length ''{{District 9}}'' (which evolved out of the [[DevelopmentHell failed attempt at a]] full-length ''Halo'' movie) frequently uses this style.
** Most of the Daily and Weekly Challenges are shout outs. For instance, the one for killing a certain amount of people with an automatic weapon is [[DieHard I Have A Machine Gun]]. Another, for killing a certain amount of opponents, is [[StarWars Aggressive Negotiations]].
** The Office of Naval Intelligence, AKA ''{{ONI}}''. Considering Bungie's habit of referencing previous titles, the odds of this being a coincidence are rather slim.
*** It may be both; the US Navy maintains a RealLife Office of Naval Intelligence, established in 1882.
** The achievement "I See You Favor a .45" is a reference to ''TheWire''. Also Jamie Hector who played the ruthless drug kingpin, [[CompleteMonster Marlo Stanfield]] in ''TheWire'' voices Emile.
** The achievement "That's A Knife" is a reference to of all things, CrocodileDundee
** When fatally wounded, Elites will sometimes clearly yell [[RedVsBlue "Blargh!" or "HONK!"]]
* ShownTheirWork: Possibly overlapping with FridgeBrilliance, in [[spoiler: one mission, the player is thrown out of the Covenant ship by Jorge, into space. He/She seemingly shakes off the re-entry with only a mild sprain or two. One would think "Hey, the Master Chief dropped from in atmosphere, and was messed up for a while! What gives?" Well, if one pays close attention to the cutscenes, you can spot an armored pack on Noble Six's back, just before he/she's flung from the ship, labeled 'Re-Entry Unit'.]]
** It gets better. A lot of people wonder why [[spoiler:Jorge elected to stay behind when it is perfectly possible to have marines along who could have activated the slipspace bomb. When Jorge goes aboard the Pelican holding the bomb, a computer voice warns him that his re-entry pack is disabled. He took it off himself!]]
** Halsey's Journal manage to reference and tie together so much of the extended universe, from the supposed inconsistencies between Reach and ''Fall of Reach'', the Spartan III program from ''Ghosts of Onyx'', the Orion program, etc.
** In the extended "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKRlWLDWhGI Deliver Hope]]" trailer, sharp eyes can spot everyone from Noble team (Carter, Emile, Jorge, etc) in the video.
*** 0:10 Kat (obviously), 0:35 Jorge, 0:36 Emile (Left of explosion), 0:53 Jun (HUD), 1:00 Carter (at bottom) and of course, 1:30 Thom who takes the bomb.
** When ''The Pillar of Autumn'' takes off, look closely. Those booster rockets are just that - booster rockets. After they've expended their thrust, they fall off individually.
* TheSiege: Reach.
* SnipingMission: Nightfall, the third real mission (fourth in literal terms) of the game, is a sniping mission with Jun.
* TheSquad: Noble Team.
* TheSquadette: Kat and, potentially, Noble Six.
* TheStinger: [[spoiler:You fought bravely, Noble Six...]]
* StockScream: Wilhelm variety.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: [[TheSmartGuy Kat]]: "A good place to look might be... I don't know, the nearest nonexistent launch site in the nonexistent Sabre Program, dismissed by three administrations as preposterous rumor... And in which our newest member was certainly never a pilot."
** [[BadAss Emile]]: "You're [[{{Irony}} scary]], you know that?""
* TakeUpMySword: [[spoiler:The ending states this is what happened in spirit. Which means it's implied that Noble Six could have been one of the heroes/heroines of the Halo Trilogy had he/she chosen to evacuate along with everyone else.]]
* TeamDad: Jorge
* TeamMom: Dr. Halsey to Jorge, and eventually the rest of Noble team. Her initial hostility is understandable due to the BackStory, but eventually, she cares for her "adopted" [=SPARTANs=], including and ''especially'' Noble Six.
* TheWarSequence: The Pillar of Autumn, which features you in the middle of a giant human vs. Covenant battle while you blast your way through to get to a shuttle for evacuation, and The Package, which has a sequence at the end where you have to defend Halsey's lab against a bunch of Covenant infantry, tanks, and Banshees. Also, Firefight mode.
* TheyChangeditNowItSucks: Many fans complain about the game having reticule bloom.
** It is worth pointing out that the reticule bloom is only a cosmetic addition. The increase in inaccuracy from rapid fire has been in the series from the begining, the reticule only now directly reflects that.
* TookALevelInBadass: The A.I. and combat skills of the entire Covenant roster has been noticeably improved. Most notably, Elites are now much more agile and intelligent and play a lot like multiplayer opponents — some even use Armor Abilities like Hologram and Armor Lock. Higher ranking Grunts can now fire overcharge shots. And Hunters no longer have any easily exploitable weakness ''at all'' now that they can use the shields on their arms to block attacks. All of Noble Team are [[StoryAndGameplaySegregation invicible during gameplay]], so there is no real need to escort highly trained soldiers.
** The Pistol has been restored to be comparable to its ''Halo: Combat Evolved'' glory. It does the same amount of damage as the DMR, and can fire almost as quickly as its shield-eating ''Halo 2'' counterpart. Fortunately these factors are balanced by a smaller clip and more reticle bloom relative to the DMR.
** Likewise, the Plasma Pistol's power has been significantly increased, even more so than it originally was in ''Halo: Combat Evolved''. Granted, its rate of fire still pales in comparison to the first game's incarnation, but it still does as much raw damage as the DMR or Pistol.
** In ODST, the Spiker was completely useless because you couldn't dual wield it. Now, it has bite. A LOT of bite.
** The Sniper Rifle is ''actually'' an anti-materiel weapon now![[hottip:*:The AM for "anti-materiel" has been in the various rifle models' designations since the first game, but their shots always inexplicably bounced off vehicles.]] Who woulda thunk? You can now take out a tank by shooting it in the treads/thrusters (or its driver by shooting off the cockpit canopy), and the gun can generally three-shot most light vehicles, including Banshees.
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Averted; several members of Noble Team have undergone treatment for PTSD, though Kat refuses it. [[EstablishingCharacterMoment Jorge even recommends]] a full psychatric workup for a civilian survivor of a brutal Covenant attack.
* TragicKeepsake: [[spoiler: Jorge's dogtags.]]
* UnplannedManualDetonation: [[spoiler: The Slipspace drive used to blow up the supercarrier.]]
* UrbanLegendOfZelda: Despite the game only just coming out, the lack of a Legendary ending and apparent confirmation from Bungie in a commentary video that there IS some sort of bonus ending has already lead to massive amounts of speculation on how it may be unlocked.
** A whole mess of rumors surround the [[spoiler:Data Pads littered throughout the levels, as well as hidden switches off the normal paths.]]
** And technically playing on Legendary ''does'' change one thing: [[spoiler:Keyes]] refers to Halsey by her first name when talking to Six in the penultimate level.
* UnexpectedGenreChange: One level has you playing ''VideoGame/WingCommander''.
** To a certain extent, this entire ''game'' (along with ''ODST'') is a genre swerve. The "traditional" ''Halo'' experience has you playing as a HollywoodCyborg, SuperSoldier and OneManArmy surrounded by RedShirt allies; you kick ass while they cheer you on. In the gaiden games, you're finally in the company of equals—in ''ODST'' because you ''are'' a RedShirt (though an [[EliteMook elite one]],) and in ''Reach'' because your allies are [=SPARTANs=].
* UnwinnableByDesign: [[spoiler: The PlayerCharacter's post-credits LastStand against the Covenant.]]
** [[spoiler: Though with some help from co op of a friend running around the level while you fight, you can technically go on forever]]
* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: Killing a civilian results in your character's instantaneous demise (and yet you can still teamkill your fellow troopers as much as you like). Fortunately, civilians have a crazy amount of health and are completely immune to explosives to prevent this from happening by accident during the "Exodus" mission.
** [[spoiler:Unless you accidentally land a headshot.]]
** Averted with regards to your fellow troopers. In all the previous ''Halos'', you took significant extra damage when shot by a marine, which was implemented to make sure you lost if you decided to be a jerk and turn against them. This is no longer the case in ''Reach'', allowing you to slaughter entire platoons of human forces if you choose to.
* VirtualPaperDoll: There are '''lots''' of armor options.
* WarIsHell: Surprisingly, considering the subject matter, the game drives it home without getting {{Anvilicious}} about it.
* WeWinBecauseYouDidNot: [[spoiler: The Covenant never got their hands on the Forerunner artifact Halsey was studying and the information Cortana translated made it to the Pillar Of Autumn.]]
* WeaponOfChoice:
** Carter: [[BoomHeadshot Designated Marksman Rifle]]
** Kat: [[HandCannon Magnum]]
** Jun: SniperRifle
** Emile: [[ShortRangeShotgun Shotgun]], [[KukrisAreKool Kukri]]
** Jorge: [[MoreDakka Heavy Machine Gun]]
** Noble Six: Varies between the Assault Rifle and Designated Marksman Rifle, and for one level, the Pistol.
* WatchingTroyBurn
* WaveMotionGun: You eventually take control of a Mass Driver cannon, which is the most powerful weapon any player can personally control in any Halo game.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Jun? Where'd ya go?
** The book Fall of Reach would imply he died defending CASTLE with Red Team, but WordOfGod says he survived Reach.
** Sara Sorvad, the young woman you rescue at the end of the first mission, has a unique character model and gets just enough screen time that you suspect she could have a role later on in the plot. She's never seen again, and is dismissed as "irrelevant" by Halsey in her only other mention.
** Colonel Urban Holland, Noble Team's C.O. just drops off the face of the planet after ordering Noble Team to revisit and demolish Sword Base at the end of "New Alexandria." No one ever says anything even hinting towards his fate.
* WrongGenreSavvy: In the "New Alexandria" mission, there's a panicking Trooper hiding in a corner (a homage to a similar character seen in ''Halo 1'', ''Halo3'', and ''Halo3ODST''). If you stop to listen to him, he goes on about how he's heard that if a Grunt bites you, you turn into a Grunt.
** The marines in ''Combat Evolved'' and ''3'' at least were referring to the Flood, who ''would'' turn you into one of them if they killed you.
* [[YankTheDogsChain Yank The Entire Dog Pound's Chain]]: Noble Team simply ''can't'' catch a break.
* [[YouAreNumberSix You Are Noble Six]]
* ZergRush: Starting off slowly, the game soon features more and more Covenant arriving on Reach to the point where there is nothing any gamer can do to stop the onslaught. In more than one section all you can do is hold a position for a time and then run away.
----
''Spartans never die...they're just waiting to respawn.''
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/halo-reach_1608.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[BadassBoast Spartans never die]], they're just [[InsistentTerminology "Missing-In-Action"]]]]
'''Halo: Reach''' is the final {{Bungie}}-produced ''{{Halo}}'' FirstPersonShooter, released September 14, 2010. It is a prequel, dealing with the events described in the Expanded Universe novel ''TheFallOfReach''. It follows a group of SPARTAN-[=IIIs=] (and one SPARTAN-II) called Noble Team. You take on the role of the newest addition, Noble Six, as you fight through the fall of the human colony. It is a completely original game (unlike ODST) and is DarkerAndEdgier (700,000,000 people die on Reach, [[DoomedByCanon you can't change that]].) The game is also structured more as a war film instead of featuring the SpaceOpera elements of the main trilogy.
Weapons have been overhauled throughout the campaign so that there is no need for DualWielding. A major new feature is the Armor Abilities, individual upgrades that allow you to customize towards specific objectives such as [[InvisibilityCloak Active Camouflage]], [[SprintShoes Sprint]], [[UnnecessaryCombatRoll Evade]], [[StoneWall Armor Lock]] and a {{Jetpack}}. There is also a great deal of customization; the cosmetic changes you make to your personal Noble Six will transfer into the campaign and the multiplayer matches allow control over almost every aspect.
----
!''Halo: Reach'' provides examples of:
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: In the books written by Eric Nylund, it is stated that it was impossible for outsiders to tell a female Spartan from a male one in full MJOLNIR armor. Reach comes along, and gives Kat and Female Noble Six HartmanHips and shapely figures. Could be [[HandWave Handwaved]] by the fact that Noble team wore heavily modified MJOLNIR armor. Though, looking at the physiques of Spartans in newer media, it's looking more like a {{Retcon}}.
** Could also be that the books meant that you couldn't tell a SPARTAN-[=II's=] gender by sight alone, as the II iteration was the most commonly used both at the time in the canon and in the books. Six and Kat, however, were SPARTAN-[=IIIs=], which may have meant an entire armour revamp that allowed that visual differentiation. What point there is to attempting to wow an invading alien armada with sexy Earth booty remains to be seen.
* ADayInTheLimelight: When you play co-op campaign, player 2 is absent from cutscenes and technically [[CanonForeigner doesn't exist]] in Halo canon. But [[spoiler: if at the [[LastStand Lone Wolf]] level, player 2 survives longer than the player 1, (s)he gets the [[DyingMomentOfAwesome final death scene]] instead.]]
* {{AFGNCAAP}}: Even on the official records, Noble Six's full name, date of birth, place of birth, and gender are redacted.
* AlienSky: Almost every view from the surface of the planet makes it clear that this is not Earth, making extensive use of a moon or nearby planet with rings and a very hazy blue fog. Because it is a human colony and the place you are trying to defend, it is atypically "friendlier" than most uses of this trope.
* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Averted. This is taken back to ''HaloCombatEvolved'', where the aliens ''don't'' speak English (not even the ComicRelief Grunts) and as a result are much scarier. Even the Grunts are scary little creatures.
* AllThereInTheManual: The Limited and Legendary Editions of the game come with Dr. Halsey's journal, which is a goldmine of information on the specific details and plenty of additional fuel for WildMassGuessing. The evolution of the Mjolnir armor, the progress of the Spartan Program (including the differences between SPARTAN-[=IIs=] and [=IIIs=]), key figures of the modern UNSC meeting for the first time, development of AI technology, newspaper articles on other battles in the Covenant war, examination of Forerunner ruins... the works.
** The journal explains [[spoiler: the Cortana that Six took to the Pillar of Autumn was in fact a fragment of the original Cortana, a sub-divided incarnation who had been spending months translating Forerunner text while the main Cortana was with Master Chief. They were merged back together shortly after the game ends. In addition, it's implied that Cortana had specifically translated information on the location of the first Halo ring and she took them there on purpose.]]
*** [[spoiler: Not implied, confirmed. At the end of Fall of Reach (which is still considered canon for anything not changed by the games), Cortana gets the coordinates for Halo from the Sigma Octanus IV artifact and uses those instead of a blind Slipspace jump to escape Reach.]]
* AndThisIsFor: Emile will say this for [[spoiler: Kat and, less commonly, Jorge.]]
** Soldiers will occasionally say "This is for [[ContactHarvest Harvest]]!" in combat.
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Doing just about anything gets you Credits to spend on armor pieces/effects.
** And new combat commentary in Firefight.
* AntiGrinding: There is a cap on the number of Credits you can earn per day, and the "cR" earned by a specific action go down the more it is done, based mostly on the rank of the Commendation(s) it relates to. The first time the Credit cap was hit (repeatedly by numerous people in the same way), one of the Bungie forum mods implied the guys hitting it were cheaters. Turns out they were playing Gruntpocalypse. Cue rumors of Bungie saying repeatedly playing the same gametype is cheating up until one of the Bungie staff members said that repeatedly playing your favorite gametype '''or checkpoint''' was perfectly legal.
** If you're playing completely offline, you can ignore the above, as you gain around 1.1 Credits per second of gameplay (and nothing you do affects this rate), and it is truncated at the end of a session. When you take your Spartan online, however, you will be ranked down to a predetermined cap (if you're over it).
** The initial online level cap was Lt. Colonel Grade 3, but the cR you earn continues to count towards your next rank despite the fact that you can't see your progress. Players jumped several ranks once the cap was lifted.
* ApocalypticLog: The whole game, to a certain extent. The Legendary Edition presents it exactly as such.
* ArtifactTitle: There isn't a Halo ring in sight, at least for the campaign.
** One does appear in Forge World, [[spoiler: and right before the credits, when the ''Pillar of Autumn'' is flying toward Installation 04.]]
* ArtificialLimbs: Kat's right arm is actually a robotic replacement. You can also get one for your own Spartan, once ranked up enough, by buying a specific chest piece.
* AscendedFanon: It's hard to say if [[IKnewIt this was Bungie's plan from the beginning]], but [[AllThereInTheManual Dr. Halsey's journal]] implies the {{fanon}} theory that [[spoiler:Halsey is Miranda's mother]] is true.
* AscendedMeme: In response to friendly fire, some Marines will yell, "Don't make me teabag you!"
* AwesomeButImpractical: People who paid for the pimped out Legendary Edition of ''Reach'' got a bonus "Flaming Head" armor effect for bragging rights... and to discover how a flaming helmet is synonymous with a bulls-eye.
** All the armor effects have this problem, as running around electrified or announcing your death with birthday confetti does wonders for the enemies' kill scores. Does cheer you up, though. Yay!
*** Actually the birthday party effect is quite practical in many gametypes. In Team Swat you have no radar so dying gives your allies in front of you the warning of "Hey theres a dude behind us!" This troper has saved many lives in this way.
* AxeCrazy: Emile, mildly.
* BackStab: While basic Assassinations remain[[hottip:*: though technically they're now called Beatdowns, which previously referred to ''all'' melee kills; general melees now get you a Pummel award]], if you hold the melee button behind an enemy, [[RuleOfCool a short animation actually shows you stabbing (or otherwise killing) the target]]. You're not invincible while doing so, and other players can kill you to cancel it [[hottip:*:("Showstopper!"), or, alternately, kill your helpless victim mid-animation ("Yoink!")]], which makes successfully performing a fully executed Assassination a bit of a humiliation move.
* {{Badass}}: How badass is Noble Six, even among other [=SPARTANs=]? [[spoiler: When when he/she is run out of ammo during the final scene on Reach, ''he/she is taking on multiple Ultra-class and General Sangheili in hand to hand combat''. He/she is finally killed by a ''Zealot'' Elite from behind with an Energy Dagger.]]
** Noble Six, despite being a SPARTAN-III with fewer physical augmentations and less durable armour than the original SPARTAN-IIs, is the only SPARTAN aside from the Master Chief to have the combat rating 'Hyper-Lethal', and erased entire insurrectionist groups from existence single-handedly. If that doesn't say badass...
** Emile stands out, mostly for his huge knife and skull etched on his helmet.
*** One of Emile's quotes during a round of firefight is: "And you thought ''you'' were the badass."
** Jorge barely edges out Emile, due to his actions during "Long Night of Solace": [[spoiler:With no other way out, Jorge sacrifices himself to active the warp drive smuggled aboard a Covenant ship, annihilating himself and half the cruiser. How does he get you out? By tossing you out of an airlock and letting gravity do the rest.]]
* BeehiveBarrier: The Drop Shield Armor Ability, based on a similar item from ''[[{{Halo3}} Halo 3]]'', except now it recharges your shields and health, but isn't invincible.
* BigDamnHeroes: The entire campaign is about a team of six elite cyborg soldiers running around a doomed planet pulling progressively Bigger and more Damned Heroics until [[spoiler:sacrificing themselves so Master Chief can be the Big Damn Hero for the rest of the war.]]
* BittersweetEnding: The game is DoomedByCanon since it takes place during the Battle of Reach. [[spoiler:Also because no one on Noble Team, except Jun, survives the game. The ''only'' thing that keeps this from being an outright DownerEnding is the fact you got Cortana offworld, and Reach itself becomes a pristine, green world again... 34 years after the events of Halo 3.]]
* BlackSpeech: The Covenant species no longer play the AliensSpeakingEnglish trope straight anymore (not even the Grunts) and this trope is in effect in its place. A canny player might pick out a few recognizable words that are used in other contexts. Particularly, the proper names of various Covenant species and their respective homeworlds can be heard in the enemy combat dialogue. For an example, [[http://downloads.bungie.net/audio/speech.wav this is a]] RousingSpeech given by an Elite commander during the "Deliver Hope" commercial.
* [[spoiler: BlackDudeDiesFirst: Inverted, as Emile is the last of the non-playable members of Noble Team to die.]]
* BlatantLies: Kat uses this, dripping with sarcasm, when she says she wouldn't know anything about where to find the resources necessary for the plan she just thought up, or the secret program denied by three successive administrations, and that Noble Six certainly has no experience in said program. See SuspiciouslySpecificDenial below.
* BookEnds: [[spoiler: The credits sequence is of [[HaloCombatEvolved Captain Keyes talking to Cortana as the Pillar Of Autumn flies towards an alien ring...]] Makes you wish they'd [[UpdatedRerelease re-render the whole game for the 360]], doesn't it? [[http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Halo-Anniversary/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8024d5309b1 Well...]]]]
** [[spoiler: Noble Six's damaged helmet is the first and last thing seen in the campaign.]]
** [[spoiler: The player's control of Noble Six also begins with the donning and removal of his/her helmet.]]
* BorderPatrol: This game introduces boundaries that give you ten seconds to return to the level before killing you. Height boundaries, too, where the warning appears if you fly too high in a Jetpack, and it will also show up while standing on the rooftops of some buildings in multiplayer/Firefight, most likely to stop campers with Sniper Rifles.
* BoringButPractical: The Covenant Plasma Pistol, due to its commonness and a slight retool, gains its greatest affinity with this trope since the first game; see TookALevelInBadass. Most classes of Elite in multiplayer will spawn with one.
** The Assault Rifle has been given a small but nice boost in power and especially accuracy, and an [[RuleOfCool awesome new look]]. At times, you may find yourself turning down the shotgun or magnum for the assault rifle.
** The Sprint armor ability is arguably the default armor ability, as it is the one players always spawn with in campaign mode, and is present in virtually every multiplayer mode, including those which disable other armor abilities. It simply gives a player some additional running speed for a short duration, and recharges in a similar short amount of time. While it might lack the flash and uniqueness of other armor abilities, the option to quickly close to point-blank range, move swiftly between cover, or beat a hasty retreat makes it arguably one of the most versatile and useful abilities.
* BonusMaterial: Gamers who bought the pre-ordered, or bought the Legendary or Limited Editions got differing amounts of extra goodies, ranging from exclusive armor pieces, flaming helmets, avatar items, a real-life replica of Dr. Halsey's journal, or a even a big ol' diorama of Noble Team.
* BossInMookClothing: Elite Generals and Brute Chieftains. The Elite Field Marshall seems to be an outright boss seeing as how he only appears in the final battle.
** Hunters, as usual, count too. Zealots might count as actual bosses since there are only 3 encounters with them in the game (one of which is with the Field Marshall).
* BreakingTheFourthWall: One of the Firefight voices in the Master Chief. If you preview his voice, one of the phrases the Chief says is "Did ya miss me?"
* BreastPlate: Subverted. While the female Mjolnir armor doesn't focus particularly on ''that'' area, comparative to the male model it does emphasize Kat's (and potentially Noble Six's) hips and butt. Understandable, as the Mjolnir armor is really bulky and there's little else Bungie could have done to differentiate the female Spartan model from the males'.
** In fact, the breastplate of the female armor is the same size as the male one. Though the female armor is thinner and there seems to be less of it around the shoulders.
* BrokenBridge: A literal example is in the mission "Tip of the Spear". Once completing the local objective, a [[{{Dropship}} Pelican]] flies by and drops a temporary spanning platform across said bridge, allowing the player to continue with the mission. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that the local objective is to take town a Covenant anti-air cannon that is preventing your air support (like the Pelican that fixes the bridge) from getting close.
* BrokenFaceplate: A few examples.
** [[PlayerCharacter Noble Six]]'s helmet is shown as a InMediasRes opening cutscene, half buried in the dirt, [[ForeShadowing lying alone and abandoned on a charred battlefield]].
** [[spoiler: When Kat gets shot through the head by a Covenant sniper.]]
** [[spoiler: [[InterfaceScrew Seen from first person]] when Noble Six is making a LastStand against the Covenant, and we learn why the helmet was discarded as shown in the opening.]]
* CanonImmigrant: At least in spirit, as Armor Abilities were actually first seen ''years'' ago in ''RedVsBlue'' (the ''[[{{Halo2}} Halo 2]]'' era), of all places, where each Freelancer operative had a unique special ability permanently integrated into their armor. Tex had invisibility, York had regeneration, and Wyoming had the GameBreaker power of space-time manipulation. These Armor Abilities and the [=AIs=] used to run them were what distinguished Project Freelancer from its rival program, the SPARTAN program. However, neither Bungie nor Rooster Teeth have claimed RedVsBlue as the inspiration for the feature.
** Dr. Catherine Halsey features significantly in the ''Halo'' ExpandedUniverse as the creator and director of the [=SPARTAN-II=] program and is one of the leading human experts on the Forerunners. ''Reach'' is the first time she's ever appeared in any of the games.
*** Likewise, the idea that Cortana is an AI clone of Dr. Halsey, never contradicted in-game but first established in a tie-in novel, is finally confirmed by having the same person do voice-acting for both of them.
* CallBack: Most of the achievements reference quotes from the rest of the series.
** Hell, most of the level chapters reference quotes and chapters from other games. For example:
*** The second chapter of "The Silent Cartographer" in ''Halo'' is called "[[ItsQuietTooQuiet It's quiet..." The first chapter of "Nightfall" in Reach is called "...too quiet.]]"
*** Two of the chapters from "Long Night of Solace". The first, "First Floor: Aliens, Beaches, [[spoiler:Secret Launch Stations]]" references "The Library" from ''Halo'', which used a variation of it, "Fourth Floor: Tools, Guns, Keys to Super Weapons". The second, "And The Horse You Flew In On", references the first chapter of "The Maw", "And The Horse You Rode In On".
*** The second chapter of "The Package": "This Cave Is Not a Natural Formation". [[CaptainObvious "... Someone built it,]] [[HaloCombatEvolved so it must lead somewhere."]]
** If you demo Sgt. Johnson's Firefight voice in The Armory, he'll start his infamous "I woulda' been yo' daddy" line before stopping himself.
*** 90 percent of what the old characters' Firefight voices say is callbacks.
** Occasionally, if you are killed by an Elite in Firefight or Campaign, they will let loose their infamous victory yell from Halo 1: "WORT WORT WOOOOORT!"
* CallForward: Allied troopers will sometimes say "[[AndThisIsFor That was]] for [[ContactHarvest Harv]][[HaloWars est!]]" Before Reach, the battle at Harvest was the largest human defeat of the war. In the main trilogy, ODST especially, you can hear characters saying "[[AndThisIsFor That was for Reach!]]"
** Buck from ''Halo3ODST'' needs your help escaping the city. It was established in that game that Buck had fought at Reach.
** [[ImprobableAimingSkills You can now snipe Banshee drivers out from the gap between the cockpit and body]], just like Linda-058 does in ''HaloFirstStrike''.
* {{Cap}}: The initial release had a level cap of Lt. Colonel Grade 3 online, while offline had no limit. Gamers of such rank were teased with armor they couldn't buy until the entire Reach community completed 117 million Challenges. It was partially braggings rights and partially an AntiGrinding test by Bungie, they wanted to become aware of any exploitable credit glitches before offering the whole armory.
** On a more persistent level, there are different limits to how many Credits you can earn in a day, either online or off, to prevent players from abusing the system.
* CaptainObvious: Your NPC allies, especially Noble Team, like pointing out the obvious.
-->'''Rebel''': They're shooting at us!
* CastOfSnowflakes: In terms of equipment permutations, this is much more true in this game compared to other titles in the series. This is not limited to Noble Team either, [=NPC=] allies, despite having nearly the same uniform, have many variations on the basic kit for different battlefield roles and situations, combined in several semi-randomized ways for each instance (though all such things are purely cosmetic in gameplay terms.) Understandably, this is because they use a variation of the same armor permutation system that was developed to allow the player to [[SpecialSnowflakeSyndrome customizer their armor]].
* ChargedAttack: The new Plasma Launcher, in addition to series staples Spartan Laser and Plasma Pistol.
* CherryTapping: The extended Assassination animations work like this: A simple melee attack will kill the enemy instantly, same as it always has, but holding the button slightly longer gives you a full neck snapping / kidney puncturing / Energy Sword impaling / dropkicking kill sequence. You aren't invincible for the 2-3 seconds it takes, and your target can be saved by a teammate (or an opportunistic enemy) by killing you before it's finished. An ally can even steal your kill! "Yoink!"
* ChillyReception: You're informed at the beginning that you're being brought in to replace a well liked member of the team who the others would have preferred to honour by leaving the spot empty. This doesn't have much of an effect on gameplay, but in a couple of cutscenes some characters are dismissive or just ignore you. Except Jorge. By the end of the game this is of course entirely gone.
* CommandRoster:
** TheCaptain: Carter
** NumberTwo / WrenchWench: Kat
** Security Officer: Jorge (He's the team "Tank" and carries excess supplies)
** The Marine: Emile
** ColdSniper: Jun
** SixthRanger: Noble Six
** MissionControl: Kat and Jun (Kat has more of the technical VoiceWithAnInternetConnection while Jun at several times takes a vantage point and surveys the location, relaying information over the comms.)
* ContinuityNod: Because the game takes place in the same timeframe as ''Halo: Combat Evolved'', many of the gameplay elements are a callback to that game.
** Your armor now has separate shield and health meters, and the shield recharges more slowly than in ''Halo 2'' or ''Halo 3''.
** Elites dodge and strafe like crazy, just like they did in the first game.
** Hunters fire explosive bolts instead of a continuous energy beam.
** The pistol functions similar to how it did in the first ''Halo''. In other words, it is ''awesome''.
*** And yet still [[CompetitiveBalance balanced]] by having a smaller magazine and closer range, making it '''doubly''' ''awesome''.
** Allied troopers are no longer MadeOfIron, sadly. [[AndTheFandomRejoiced They can actually drive okay now, though.]]
*** Although some are capable of eating [[MadeOfExplodium fuel rods]] for breakfast!
** Brutes behave like they did in ''Halo 2'' (no shields, but increased health and vulnerable to headshots if you knock off their helmet). Fortunately, they're still not as insanely durable as they were in ''Halo 2'', and their berserker mode from that game hasn't returned either.
** [[spoiler: Cortana]] resembles her appearance in Halo: CE, with short hair and a very *ahem* child-like body.
** In the mission New Alexandria, one of your objectives is to escort [[{{HaloODST}} Sergeant Buck]].
** [[spoiler: In the epilogue, look closely at the bodies on the ground. They're other Spartans.]]
* ContinuitySnarl: This game takes place in the same timeframe as the tie-in novel ''{{The Fall of Reach}}''. The two don't always agree. (The fact that Bungie has [[BroadStrokes deliberately played fast and loose]] with continuity doesn't help things.) The biggest difference is that in ''Fall'' the battle of Reach seemed to take place over the course of maybe a few days, with only two main attack waves. In this game it is about 2 months of fighting, with an intial surprise ground force followed by an out-and-out slug fest for weeks. But Bungie ''has'' stated that any new information [[RetCon overwrites]] any previously-existing information.
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: No matter what weapons the enemy AI fires, they all seem to have some degree of homing capability.
** Dual-wielding was removed for the player, but some Elites will still do it. Not as bad as it sounds; they only dual-wield the Plasma Rifle, two of which is the equivalent of a Plasma Repeater.
** Got those Elite Zealots, Field Marshals, or Generals in your sniper scope? While they're facing the wrong way? Well, they screen-watch. You read that correctly. The higher ranking Elites (on Heroic or Legendary) refused to be sniped, even if they're not "aware" that you are present. Aim at one, and they'll begin to inexplicably strafe and dive for cover, while not attempting to shoot, and while no other enemies react.
** Even the Grunts become psychic at high enough difficulties, vastly preferring to suicide-run you with Plasma Grenades if you even ''think'' about activating Active Camo invisibilty near them.
* CosmeticAward: Takes the customizable armor of ''Halo3'' UpToEleven, with dozens of parts for many different parts of the armor available for Credits earned by doing pretty much anything. Upon launch it was revealed to be even bigger then previously thought. To the point to where you can edit your character's voice in Firefight.
* CosmeticallyDifferentSides: Played straight in Spartan vs. Spartan multiplayer, but averted in the Spartan vs. Elite Invasion gametypes, for the first time in the series. And they aren't identical in base performance either, Elite shields regenerate slightly faster and their health will return to full given time, while the Spartans can take more damage.
* CutscenePowerToTheMax: Noble Teams ability to kill Covenant in cutscenes is remarkably greater than in actual gameplay. Particularly the AI members of Noble Team, who for balance reasons tend to not do more than draw fire.
* CutsceneIncompetence: [[spoiler: Kat]], with shields inexplicably down, is killed by a shot to the head while running through an open area. A theory that the Covenant glassing going on at the time took out ''everyone's'' shields would turn this into a subversion, though it hasn't been confirmed.
** The theory is pretty much debunked by the description of the [[spoiler: Collar/Breacher variant worn by Kat]]: "Too bad they don't make artificial situational awareness."
* DamnYouMuscleMemory: Reach changes the control scheme considerably from Halo 3 to accommodate Armor Abilities and the removal of dual-wielding. Many accidentally used their Armor Abilities instead of switching grenades, or switched their grenades instead of meleeing.
** [[SubvertedTrope Thankfully, the ''Recon'' control scheme is extremely similar to Halo 3's default and Bumper Jumper makes a return, identical to Halo 3's Bumper Jumper.]]
* DarkerAndEdgier: You thought ''Halo 3'' was bleak? You'd be surprised.
* DeathFromAbove: Using a Target Locator you can align [[KillSat orbital bombardment]] into a designated zone, basically the Halo version of the [[GearsOfWar Hammer of Dawn.]]
** The achievement [[ThatOneSidequest "If They Came To Hear Me Beg..."]] is for assassinating an Elite by jumping from a sufficient height to kill you.
** ODST's from the jetpacking "Bullfrog" squad have a tendency to quote the trope verbatim.
* DeathSeeker: From one interpretation, Emile. Officially stated that Emile cares about almost nothing but killing Covenant. His whole life has been nothing ''but'' that, save for watching his parents and homeworld be glassed.
-->'''Emile-A239:''' I'm ready! How 'bout you?!
* DeflectorShields: In addition to the traditional recharging shields, one Armor Ability gives you unbreakable shields temporarily, but immobilizes you, while another creates a breakable BeehiveBarrier that recharges the health of anyone inside it.
* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: It's ''Bungie'', what did you expect?
** Since your Spartan is customizable for campaign as well as multiplayer, [[spoiler: the helmet at the beginning and end of the game is the helmet your Spartan wears.]]
*** [[spoiler: Out of all these helmets, by far the craziest looking is the [[http://www.halopedian.com/File:GUNGNIR_helmet.jpg GUNGNIR helmet]], which eschews a visor for a teeny little camera nestled in a massive armor plate. Start a campaign wearing it and you'll realize that the hole in Six's helmet (no matter the make) is where it is because ''that's where the camera is on this one helmet.'']]
** When you first get the Jetpack, you can actually bypass having to use the elevator to get to the top of the building. You can use the Jetpack to get to a point where ''you can hijack in midair one of the ambient Banshees'' and ''fly'' to the top, saving yourself a whole lot of hurt and ammo.
*** And/or you can use a charged shot from a Plasma Pistol to short out a Banshee's engines (one of them will actually try to dive right ''near'' you) to make this much easier.
** Whip out the pistol for the first time, Noble Six will cock it. Pull it out again after that, he/she merely flips the safety off. And this happens until you pick up a new pistol or respawn. The Covenant pistol works similarly, with Noble Six flicking a switch on the side the first time and just pulling it out every time after that.
*** Firing the assault rifle until the magazine's empty will result in Six pushing the firing bolt forward when reloading, chambering a round. Reload before you run dry, and Six will simply stick a new magazine in. A similar thing happens with the pistol and its slide. The sniper rifle has had a mechanic like this since [[HaloCombatEvolved the first game.]]
** Because Forge World is ''one'' map and is only being customized from Forge, it means that Bungie is able to introduce entirely new maps to the online playlist without the need for a DLC update. That's right, new online maps for free!
* DifficultButAwesome: The Grenade Launcher in a nutshell. Most online players completely ignore the weapon due to its very bouncy projectiles, and by doing so, never learn that the grenades can double as EMP bombs ''and'' impromptu trip mines. The regular mode isn't anything to laugh at either; you can become extremely lethal with the launcher if you're already good at bouncing your frags.
** Due the skill required of it, the developers nicknamed it the Pro Pipe.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: One of the live-action commercials features a soldier using a rocketpack to fly up to an enemy command carrier floating above a city and destroying it with a bomb with a visible, beeping digital timer counting down that he had picked up off the ground. Unlike [[GIJoe Duke]] though, [[DyingMomentOfAwesome he doesn't make it out alive]].
* DoingItForTheArt: Even though ''Reach'' was never originally planned, it's clear from the many new features and remarkable polish that Bungie is by no means phoning it in.
* DoomedByCanon: No effort was made to hide the fact that Reach falls before the Halo Trilogy even begins. Even if any character in the game survives, Reach itself is doomed.
* DoppelgangerSpin: The Hologram Armor Ability creates a copy of you that moves in a straight line towards a point (or spot) you designate. It's designed as a decoy and can be a sniper's worst enemy. This creates some funny videos where players behave the same way a hologram does (running in a perfectly straight line, bouncing off of scenery and not firing) and are [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vRxIjntynU ignored by the enemy team while they run behind them...]]
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler: Whereas most of the team go out with epic {{Heroic Sacrifice}}s, Kat gets unceremoniously nailed in the back of the head by a Covenant Sniper.]]
* DualWielding: While the player can no longer do like in previous ''Halo'' games, some Elites can. Cheaters.
** [[spoiler: Noble Six uses this for a moment when holding off Elites in his LastStand with a pistol and an Assault Rifle]]
* DullSurprise: The troopers you are looking for in the first mission don't seem too shocked to encounter the Covenant at all when usually encountering Covenant means you are quite screwed.
* DummiedOut: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] or "dummied-in", as some of the features added into ''Halo: Reach'' were things that Bungie planned to add to previous ''{{Halo}}'' titles, but those features themselves got dummied out of the earlier versions. For example, both low-gravity levels and the sprint feature were [[WordOfGod discussed in a magazine interview]] by Bungie prior to the release of ''{{Halo 2}}'', but they never made it into that game. ''Reach'' eventually comes around, and they get the opportunity to add those features back in.
* DyingMomentOfAwesome: [[spoiler: The player is allowed to give Noble Six a death worthy of any Spartan: having gotten Cortana to the ''Pillar of Autumn'' while watching the rest of Noble Team die, Six stays behind, and finally dies surrounded by dead Elites, fighting first with guns, then with his/her fists, to the very end.]]
** [[spoiler:Jorge, sacrificing himself by activating a UNSC warp drive in the middle of a Covenant ''super-carrier'', tearing it apart.]]
** [[spoiler:Emile, after blowing up a heavy Covenant ship with an AA MAC cannon, getting a sword jammed through him, then turning around and stabbing the Elite in the neck while falling off the sword.]]
** [[spoiler:Carter, ramming the Pelican into a Scarab.]]
* EasterEgg: It's a Bungie game, so there are plenty of them.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxuLOpuKTPw Dance the night away, Covies!]]
** The cowardly Marine seen in WrongGenreSavvy below.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRrv6rcu90Y Hello again for the first time, Master Chief]].
** Then there's the whole business about the [[spoiler:Data Pads, which are strewn about most of the levels, sometimes only on Legendary. Each Pad can be read to shed some... interesting light on the backstory of the Halo series.]]
** There's also a few [[spoiler:hidden switches that do a few neat things, like a pair on "The Package" that spawn four Banshees for the players if pressed simultaneously.]]
*** Another neat switch lets players [[spoiler:fly Pelicans (and Phantoms). Yep, that vehicle that everyone's wanted to fly since Halo 1. Thank you, Bungie.]]
* ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: Noble Team isn't the [[RedshirtArmy average SPARTAN-III group]]; it's comprised of a specially selected few equipped with MJOLNIR armour and counts a SPARTAN-II amongst them. Noble Six him/herself has an impressive pedigree in the backstory.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Near the end of the first level, Noble Squad gets ambushed by Elites with Energy Swords. Your character gets tackled by one (really emphasizing how big they are compared to you), avoids a stab to the stomach and then punches the enemy in the jaw. Of course, it only serves to piss it off and you get saved by Carter, but it does demonstrate Noble Six's DefiantToTheEnd personality.
** Most of Noble Team have their own establishing moments as well within the first two levels; [[CuriosityIsACrapshoot Kat's very possessive attitude toward the data found on Lazlow, seizing it from Six immediately]]; Jorge takes his helmet off to make a civilian feel more secure and comfortable, setting off Emile's moment where he shows his [[WhatMeasureIsANonBadass contempt toward civilians]]; Carter [[TheMenFirst defends Kat against Halsey,]] who gets her own moment by [[JerkAss showing contempt to almost all of the SPARTAN [=IIIs=] of Noble Team in one cutscene,]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold while showing a soft side toward Jorge, one of her SPARTAN [=IIs=].]]
* MrFanservice: While it's a fairly mild example, the amount of [[ShirtlessScene Helmetless scenes]] and varying ethnicities give Noble Team a bit of diversity compared to simply Master Chief. Plus, Jorge is just too cute. He's just asking for fangirls.
** I'm sure the fact that Jorge resembles [[{{Queen}} Freddie Mercury]] and is [[GentleGiant the biggest, yet nicest member of the team]] has nothing to do with this trope.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Noble Six is never referred to by name, only by "Six," "Lieutenant" and the more generic "Spartan." The only thing given in supplementary materials is the Spartan code B-312 (Master Chief is 117, the codes were effectively the person's last name).
* {{Expy}}: The new Concussion Rifle fires explosive shots from a six-round magazine that fall slightly as they travel. [[http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Brute_shot Sound familiar?]]
** The Needle Rifle handles exactly like the Covenant Carbine, save that it shares the Needler's capacity to detonate unshielded foes.
** A badass NPC ally with a skull design on his headgear. [[ModernWarfare Remind you]] [[Halo3ODST of]] [[RedVsBlue anyone?]]
* FamousLastWords: [[spoiler: Carter, just before ramming his Pelican into a Scarab.]]
-->[[spoiler: '''Emile:''' Hit 'em hard, boss.]]
-->[[spoiler: '''Carter:''' You're on your own, Noble. Carter ''out''.]] ''(boom!)''
** [[spoiler: Emile-A239: I'm ready! How 'bout you?!]]
** [[spoiler: Jorge-052: Tell them to make it count.]]
* FanNickname: Or rather, Developer Nickname. The GrenadeLauncher can be used in two modes, both of which require careful aim and timing to use properly. The skill required for effective use has earned it the moniker "Pro Pipe", in contrast to the so-called "Noob Tube" grenade launcher in ''ModernWarfare''.
* FictionalDocument: Halsey's journal, shipped with the Limited and Legendary Editions of the game. Full of juicy tidbits about the Spartans and Halsey herself, including the fact that [[spoiler: ''Miranda is her and Capt. Keyes' love child.'']]
* FiveManBand: Noble Team
** Carter: TheHero
** Kat: TheLancer, TheSmartGuy
** Jun: ColdSniper
** Jorge: TheBigGuy, TeamDad
** Emile: PsychoForHire, TheBigGuy
** Noble Six: TheSixthRanger
* FiveTokenBand: Noble Team, whose members all appear to have different ethnic backgrounds. It's justified given how diverse the UNSC colonies are.
* FlingALightIntoTheFuture: In a small-scale sense, the ending is [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]] because [[spoiler: you successfully got The Package to the Pillar of Autumn, and cleared an escape route for it to leave Reach. That Package, in turn, led to the discovery of Halo, the Covenant Civil War, and humanity's ultimate survival when the war ended with the Battle of the Ark.]]
* ForegoneConclusion: From the beginning, you know the end.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler: Kat when getting hit by enemy fire will sometimes remark that the shields failed for a moment.]]
* GameplayAllyImmortality: Noble Team is invulnerable in gameplay.
* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Several things. Notably Emile, who in promotional background material is portrayed as a particularly bold Spartan (bordering on berserker level aggression) who specializes in close combat assaults. In gameplay, his AI is much more timid. Almost never purposely closing to the effective range of his shotgun and even falling back when the moves into it that range without firing a shot.
* {{Gamebreaker}}: The orbital bombardment designator. It's only really balanced out by the fact it only appears in one mission in the single-player campaign, and it's rare in Firefight. For obvious reasons it's not available in multiplayer. How nasty is it? Point it next to a Phantom as it's about to unload a wave of multiple weak enemies like Grunts, and you're pretty much guaranteed a Killionaire. If you're anywhere close to the designation zone, you will be murdered just from the splash damage.
** Fuel Rod guns in most versions of firefight count too.The weapon's high power, relatively large clip and fast firing rate means it outclasses most other weapons in sheer splash damage.This wouldn't be a problem (the gun can hold about 30 rounds and ammo isn't common), if it wasn't for [[MacrossMissileMassacre Unlimited ammo.]]
* GentleGiant: Jorge, the huge SPARTAN-II member of the team, is also the nicest and most amicable member of the group, especially towards civilians. Played with in that he's still [[BewareTheNiceOnes a killing machine.]]
** Stands also as a commentary on the differences between SPARTAN-[=IIs=] and [=IIIs=]. While Jorge is clearly regarded as the most dangerous and toughest soldier in Noble, he is also the most clearly emotionally stable, and shows the most humanity. The SPARTAN [=IIIs=] are all a little off, especially Emile. It's stated at that he doesn't actually care as much for Reach's survival as he does for killing Covenant.
* GilliganCut:
-->'''Catherine-B320:''' All we need is a green light from Holland.
-->'''Carter-A259:''' Good luck with that.
-->'''Catherine-B320:''' You're the one asking him.
-->'''Carter-A259:''' Oh, there's no way in hell he's gonna go for this.
-->''(later)''
-->'''Jorge-052:''' Still can't believe Holland said yes to this.
* GogglesDoNothing: Armor customization lets you add extra armor, [[BadassBandolier bandoliers]], pouches, and other unusual things that don't affect gameplay in the slightest.
* GoodNewsBadNews: The end of ''Long Night of Solace''.
* GoodScarsEvilScars: All Noble Team members who remove their helmet are shown to have at least one significant scar, evidence that they have had a long career of combat.
* GoombaStomp: Performing an aerial Assassination will sometimes result in this. It doesn't look like much until you remember that a fully-armored SPARTAN weighs about ''1,000 pounds''.
* GoryDiscretionShot: We never explicitly see the killing blow on [[spoiler: Noble Six]].
* GratuitousForeignLanguage: Justified. The majority of Reach's inhabitants are of Magyar descent, explaining why Hungarian is the local lingua franca.
* GravityScrew: So far there are three multiplayer maps that show the Heavy Zone/Light Zone dynamic: Zealot has a low gravity zone above the map, Anchor 9 has one along one side, and Condemned has one in the middle. There is also a section of the campaign mission Long Night of Solace where you fight through a Covenant Corvette in the same low gravity environment.
* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold: Implied by Halsey at the end. While not as anonymous as the Rookie's role in ''Halo3ODST'', Halsey laments that Six never got to see the battle won, and that her/his role is almost forgotten in the grand scheme of history. His/her story is tied to the fall of Reach, and will probably remain a footnote, thus Halsey vows to never forget his/her efforts.
* GreenHillZone: In effect, of all places. Winter Contingency allows you to get used to the controls and fight several of the common enemy types, with a "boss fight" consisting of a few Zealots at the end. The area before the Visegrad Relay is even full of [[SceneryPorn lush vegetation]].
* GuideDangIt: Bungie overhauled the Banshee's controls in addition to its appearance. Tricks have been moved to the left bumper, and the Fuel Rod Cannon is now a separate weapon you have to switch with Y - but good luck figuring this out if you're playing on anything higher than Normal.
** There's a ton of easter eggs hidden in the game, but most are nearly impossible to find without looking them up. The [[spoiler:drivable Pelican and Phantom on New Alexandria are especially tough.]] Of course, none are necessary to finish the game.
* GunsAkimbo: [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard Some higher-ranking Elites]], and [[spoiler: Noble Six during the ending]].
* GunshipRescue: Sometimes you are the one doing the rescuing, other times you're the one being rescued. And it's subverted just as often. In the "Invasion" gametype, if you manage to hold off the enemy from getting your Data Core, the game ends with your faction arriving with air vehicles and killing the enemy team.
* HarderThanHard: According to Bungie, Reach's Legendary difficulty is harder than any other Halo game. And of course, you could always turn on all the "Gold" skulls and go for the semiofficial "Mythic" difficulty.
** Officially, there's also LASO (Legendary All Skulls On), which includes you having to use the Blind skull (no HUD or weapon displayed onscreen). Bungie felt so bad about this one that when they started including the mode in online challenges, they edited the requirements to exclude Blind.
* HartmanHips: It may just be the armor, but still noticeable for female Spartan soldiers.
* HeroicSacrifice: The team is called ''Noble'' team for a reason. [[ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee Croshaw]] finds this mildly {{Anvilicious}}.
** [[spoiler:Jorge. He thought he was saving the planet. He didn't.]]
** [[spoiler: Carter. Crashes his Pelican into a Scarab to allow you to get to the ''Pillar of Autumn''.]]
** [[spoiler: Noble Six, who stays behind on Reach to fire the MAC gun and cover the ''Pillar of Autumn's'' retreat. Of course, you play this all out...]]
** [[spoiler: Emile might qualify for this. Considering that while he was manning the gun he was telling Six to get off the planet, with no mention to him escaping. If not for the backstab from the Zealot, he's likely to have been the one to have gone out in a Blaze of Glory.]]
** [[spoiler: Also heavily implied for Jun (i.e., to get Dr. Halsey to safety) in the dialogue during his last appearance, but ultimately averted due to Bungie's WordOfGod that he lives.]]
* HeyItsThatVoice: [[TheWire Marlo Stanfield]] (Knox to you {{Heroes}} fans) is Emile. Which [[{{Typecasting}} says so much]] about his [[ScaryBlackMan character]].
* HopeSpot: Even though [[DoomedByCanon you know what's going to happen]], the [[spoiler:destruction of the ''Long Night of Solace'']] seems like a major victory for the UNSC that at least slows the covenant invasion down considerably. But mere 30 seconds after the initial detonation the automated orbital sensors report ''*[[SubspaceOrHyperspace Slipspace rupture]] detected.*''
** [[spoiler: *Slipspace rupture detected.* *Slipspace rupture detected.* *Slipspace rupture detected.* [[OhCrap *Slipspace rupture detected.*]] [[BolivianArmyEnding *Slipspace rupture detected.*]]]]
** [[spoiler: At the PlayableEpilogue after the credits roll, when Noble Six is standing alone in the shipbreaking yard as the Covenant move to consolidate their hold on the area. Six seems calmly observant, as though considering what to do. The chapter title reads "There'll be another time..." and the player is assigned a new objective: "Survive" (with the detail text "Spartans never die..."). One might be forgiven for thinking that maybe, just maybe, Noble Six will make it out of this. [[DownerEnding They do not]].]]
* HypocriticalHumor: In [[HaloTheFlood The Flood]], many players disliked Chief's action movie hero-style personality; but if Bungie does it, and you can hear it (in the form of a Firefight voice), it suddenly becomes [[TookALevelInBadass so much better.]]
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Assassinations with the Energy Sword, and thus happens many times throughout the campaign too.
* InsufferableGenius: Halsey is presented like this initially (and she is known to be like this in the EU). But her journal sheds light on her verbal altercation with Carter in the game. She was under the impression that the Spartans she personally trained (the SPARTAN-[=IIs=], which include Jorge and Master Chief) were the only Spartans in the UNSC. It wasn't until after Noble Team's first mission that she discovered the ''existence'' of SPARTAN-[=IIIs=], which means she was actively deceived by her peers for years. By her second interaction with Noble Team they appeared to have earned her respect.
* InterfaceScrew: [[spoiler:In the post-credits game, when you take damage, cracks appear in your visor/HUD. The first time this happens, it also takes away your ammo counter, which makes the fight even more difficult.]]
* InterfaceSpoiler: Some of the achievement names are fairly subtle spoilers to the fact [[spoiler:Noble Six dies at the end of the game. The most egregious one is "Send Me Out...with a Bang," which is Sgt. Johnson's last words from Halo 3.]]
* {{Irony}}: At one point in the level "Long Night of Solace", when you're making your way to the launch facility, the AA guns are shooting at the dozens of Seraphs buzzing overhead. The AA guns' purpose is to protect the building from airborne damages. Well, the guns hit a Seraph, and it goes spinning down out of control in flames... crashing into the facility at high speed. Oops.
** A huge bit of irony is called up when the individual [[spoiler:deaths]] of Noble Team are scrutinized:
*** [[spoiler:Carter, the leader of Noble Team, died by crashing a Pelican into a Scarab; essentially the leader went down with the ship.]]
*** [[spoiler:Kat, the tactician of the group, died from a single Needle Rifle shot through the brain. This is also due in part because she was not paying attention as a Covenant Phantom flew overhead.]]
*** [[spoiler:Jorge, the heavy weapons expert, died in a giant explosion.]]
*** [[spoiler:Emile, the CQB expert, died from being stabbed in the chest.]]
*** [[spoiler:Jun, the stealthy one, lives.]]
*** [[spoiler:Noble Six was told in the very first level that he/she was to stop acting as a "lone wolf" and be part of a team. He/she dies alone.]]
**** [[spoiler: Incorrect. Far from alone, [[LastStand he/she dies with at least four elites.]]]]
**** [[spoiler: Actually, what's ironic is being told you're not supposed to do "lone wolf" stuff, then a good portion of the game forces you to do exactly that, or at best, with 1 other character. [[CompletelyMissingThePoint Unless you play co-op.]]]]
* ItGotWorse: All the time. First the missing patrol turns out not to have been captured by rebels, but killed by Covenant troops. Then you find a mysterious structure [[spoiler:that is some kind of teleportation device, so you disable the shields and a frigate is send in to destroy it. While debris is still comming down, the frigate is shot to pieces by a collosal super-carrier that was just decloaked right above it. One level later the carrier is succesffuly destroyed, but not even ten seconds beyond that a massive fleet arrives that starts to completely wipe out all life on the planet...]]
* ItHasBeenAnHonor: At the end of the game:
---> [[spoiler:'''Emile:''' It's been an honor, sir.]]
---> [[spoiler:'''Carter:''' Likewise.]]
* JetPack: One of the Armor Abilities.
* TheJimmyHartVersion: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QDl2XTAPvE Ghosts and Glass]] bears more than a passing resemblance to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InvY9JXyVW8 Fairytale]] from ''{{Shrek}}''.
* JokeItem: The forklift is drivable. It's got no weapons and moves too slowly to run over enemies. You can drive it in Firefight... if you feel like messing around and don't mind summarily dying.
** Dont diss the forklift. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA_ij2Kuq-I It can (and does) ''kill'' things.]]
** [[GolfClubbing The golf club]], available by customizing a load out in Firefight. It's essentially the gravity hammer in the shape of a monster golf club.
* KilledMidSentence: [[spoiler:Kat.]]
* KillEmAll: Most of Reach, see DoomedByCanon.
* KillSat: The Covenant and UNSC both have this weapon, though the Covenant's weapon is far more destructive and widespread.
* LampshadeHanging: If you use Emile's voice for firefight, it seems like he's perfectly aware that he was built up to be the team badass in the game. I.E. his quote: "And you thought ''you'' were the badass."
* TheLastDance: [[spoiler: Noble Six remains on Reach and battles an endless horde of Covenant.]]
** [[spoiler: Objective: Survive. Description: ''Spartans never die.'' ]]
* LeeroyJenkins: Thom-293, formerly Noble Six on Noble Team, died prior to the game. The PlayerCharacter is there to replace him. Carter and Kat both feel personally responsible for his death. While [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOKeOYqa8Xw this trailer]] showed the explosive (actually a nuclear weapon) he threw into the Covenant ship ''was'' going to go off in 2 minutes (and you can see him try to run away after he throws it), the official profiles on the main website have their commanding officer consider his death a blatant example of this trope.
* {{Leitmotif}}: While many of the game's themes evoke Halo, it avoids direct call outs to any past themes most of the time given that the game is not galaxy spanning SpaceOpera like the rest of the series and a more narrow MilitaryScienceFiction when taken alone. However, a few snippets of the "Halo" theme can be heard during the large battle at the start of one level, also when [[spoiler:Cortana is introduced, her 'Rescue' theme from Halo 3 is played]], and during the last cut scene [[spoiler:the same music from Halo:CE's opening is heard as the ending is a shot for shot match to the start of the first game]].
* LevelGrinding: Playing Gruntpocolypse on the Score Attack gametype (single player Firefight) was noticed as the most efficient method of credit farming. Assuming you can finish the round in the alloted time, it is almost a guaranteed 2,000 cR for about 10 minutes worth of playing.
** Also averted in a sense: the amount of credits you get scales upwards the higher your rank becomes--while you get around 60 cR max for custom games as a Captain, you get 165 when you're a Colonel.
* LightningBruiser: The highest ranked skirmishers have as much health as Brutes, and move around faster then Drones.
* LuckBasedMission: [[spoiler: The final bit firing the MAC gun]] will, on harder difficulties, be impossible to complete on your first attempt. And if the Mythic Skull is on, the [[spoiler:CCS-class battlecruiser you have to shoot down will gain double health as well, needing '''TWO''' MAC shots to take down]]. Even Tyrant, the legendary Mythic speedrunner, admitted this portion on Mythic difficulty is virtually entirely based on luck.
** And you better finish off that squad of Elite Zealots before you move on, or you will get [[{{Unwinnable}} screwed by the autosave]], getting caught between trying to shoot down incoming enemy ships and Elites shooting you in the back.
* LudicrousGibs: Drones now [[BoomHeadshot explode when headshotted]], and Engineers will erupt into a blue goo when killed, leaving some armor plating behind. YouBastard.
* MaleGaze: The camera angles in cutscenes take particular care to focus on Noble Six and Kat's behinds, made all the better when playing as Female!Six. {{Lampshaded}} in the Legendary Edition Commentary:
-->'''Marcus Lehto:''' "''Another patented butt shot.''"
-->'''Marty O'Donnell:''' "''You see, this is why I think it's more fun to play as the female.''"
* ManlyTears: Evoked by Bungie's love letter to ''Halo'' fans before the credits roll.
* MauveShirt: Your can recruit allied Marines into your squad, and now their names appear right next to your radar.
* MeaningfulName: [[spoiler:Kat is very ''curious''. Guess what happens to her?]]
* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: If you look off into the distance on some maps, you can see battles going on.
* [[MeaningfulName Meaningful Title]]: As stated above, Noble Six is NOBLE team's [[SixthRanger SIXth ranger]].
* {{Mordor}}: Reach itself began to look like this towards the end thanks to the glassing. It was a barren wasteland, dark with no sunlight at all, and a storm was going on all the time.
* MultiMookMelee: Firefight can be this, if you so choose. [[spoiler: The campaign ends like this.]]
* MythologyGag: The Focus Rifle's beam is very similar to the beam [[HaloWars Locusts]] fire due to its range and sound effect.
** Emile bears more than a passing resemblance to ''[[RedVsBlue The Meta]]''. It's not just his EVA helmet, but also the color of his armor and his use of brown CQB shoulder pauldrons. He's also not ''quite'' as [[AxeCrazy sane]] as the other members of Noble Team, and prefers close-range/physical combat over anything.
** Bungie once again loves playing with numbers, especially the number 7. The game begins in 2552 (2+5 = 7, 2+5 = 7, or 7/7, Bungie Day) and ends on July 7 - 7/7 (again, Bungie Day) - 2589; the year is 2+5 (7)-8-9.
** Names of recruitable Marines include not only members of the game's development staff, but, in at least one instance, creators of ''RedVsBlue'' ([[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjh_JQwzWwI "PVT G. Sorola"]] at about 1:00).
*** Geoff has one too,([[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brQnxmoHO_E&feature=relmfu "His Character Ramsey"]] Mentioned around 4:13)
** Watch the Grunt Assassinations. They are identical to the ones used by Cal and Dutch in ''HaloLegends'' during "The Babysitter"
*** Three guesses what happens in the level "The Package". [[spoiler: You rescue Halsey from the Covenant, just like ''HaloLegends'']]
** RedVsBlue fans, admit it, when [[spoiler: you saw the damaged helmet in the opening, you thought of Tex's helmet from ''Revelation'']]. It can't have been coincidence, RoosterTeeth and Bungie must have tied in their development together to deliver a shout out to each other.
*** {{Jossed}}. When Rooster Teeth first saw Reach's opening cutscene, the company immediately changed the series' title card because they thought [[spoiler:Noble Six's damaged helmet]] would become a plot point in Reach (just like [[spoiler:Tex's helmet]] did in ''Revelation'') and wanted to avoid being ''too'' similar to Bungie's magnum opus.
* NeckSnap: A few of the Assassination animations.
* NegatedMomentOfAwesome: The Covenant just love doing this to you, with perhaps the most brutal being when [[spoiler:Jorge [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices himself]] to take out the supercarrier... and less than one minute later, the Covenant reinforcements arrive.]]
* NighInvulnerable: As per tradition, the Hunters. Their armor is invulnerable to nearly any attack (you can see the more visible ammunition like Needlers and Spikers completely bounce off). They only have a few [[AlienBlood orange colored]] weak points in the neck, torso and back where you can deal damage. Armor on their back will break off if you do enough damage to the soft areas but they still have a large amount of health. They can take several rockets and several Plasma Grenades to the face, or upwards of six Needle Rifle supercombines before they go down.
* NintendoHard: '''[[http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game/halo-reach/achievement/42323-A-Monument-To-All-Your-Sins.html A MONUMENT TO ALL YOUR SINS]]'''. You thought Legendary was horrible in Co-Op? '''Try beating it alone'''.
** Additionally, the unofficial Mythic difficulty, which is legendary with all skulls on.
* NoFairCheating: Everyone that deliberately performed the "Challenge Credit exploit" had their cR and unlocks completely reset. Bungie's also set up a system to automate this and perform such resets (and possibly further bans) automatically.
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: [[spoiler: Noble Six staying on Reach.]]
** Occasionally said word for word by [=NPCs=] if the player character dies in gameplay.
* NoSell: The Elites, especially Generals and Zealots, absolutely ''love'' this. Spartan Laser to the face? Nope. Three headshots with a Sniper Rifle? Try again. Shotgun blast to the head? So what?
** Of course, whacking them in the back of the head will make them die quickly, as will stabbing them in the face with a combat knife.
* NoodleIncident: Liberty Ridge
* TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: The hidden Data Pads reveal [[spoiler: that many of the events of the Halo universe were caused indirectly by the [=AIs=], who have been secretly guiding the course of humanity's progress as a species.]]
* OneBulletClips: This trope is in effect, as per usual. Notably, when using some of the game's weapons (like the sniper rifle), the player will actually be punished for reloading from an empty clip with a longer reload animation.
* PaletteSwap: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. Previous titles (excluding the Brutes in ''{{Halo 3}}'') had different ranks of the same Covenant species distinguished only by the color of their uniforms. Now, every different rank and role, even within the same Covenant species, has its own geometry for its uniform.
* PlayableEpilogue: [[spoiler:Although the only point to it is to see how long you can last against the endless waves of Covenant forces.]]
* PrettyLittleHeadshots: As usual for the series, given the absence of gore beyond blood splatters. Parodied with the Grunt Birthday Party skull, which, when active, makes headshots on the weakest enemy species cause their heads to explode... into confetti, accompanied by the sound of a cheer from ''VivaPinata''.
** You can purchase an armor effect for 100,000 Credits that makes ''you'' explode into confetti with cheers when ''you'' get killed in multiplayer. Beware, as this could make you a more attractive target, and give away your nearby teammates' positions.
* PurelyAestheticGender: It doesn't matter what gender you make Noble Six.
* PyrrhicVictory: For the Covenant who lost 2/3 of their massive fleet trying to attack and occupy Reach. And they didn't even [[spoiler: manage to get the Forerunner tech.]]
* RammingAlwaysWorks: [[spoiler:Carter rams his Pelican into a Scarab.]]
* RankInflation: In each of Reach's three playable modes (Campaign, Firefight, and online multiplayer), you can earn "Commendations" for continually doing particular feats, such as murdering leader-class enemies, performing Assassinations, or just driving an ally while he mows down the opposition. Each mode has its own Commendations, all of which can be upgraded to a max of five ranks (Iron to Onyx) and serve no purpose other than to award you some bonus Credits and right to brag.
* RealIsBrown: Poked fun at in Forge; the "next gen" effect lights everything through a distinctly brown filter.
** In the campaign, in keeping with [[DarkerAndEdgier the game's tone]], Reach has a very bleak and washed-out feel compared to previous ''Halo'' games. The color pallete has a hazey look to it, even in space. That said, the game is still much more colorful than most uses of this trope.
* {{Recycled IN SPACE}}: The Battle of Thermopylae IN SPACE! Or the SevenSamurai IN SPACE!.
* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Dr. Halsey says this to the Spartans when Carter says the casualty reports had listed her as K.I.A.
** Deliberately invoked by UNSC propaganda: Spartans are never reported dead. They are only listed as missing in action. Because, [[NeverFoundTheBody you'll never know for sure...]]
* RetCon: The entire game is essentially a rewrite of the latter part of ''TheFallOfReach'', which portrayed the Covenant attack as a complete and utter surprise (no advance attack force as depicted in-game), made no mention of the [[spoiler:Forerunner excavation and had the ''Autumn'' already on its way out of the star system with a complete Cortana well on board when the battle began.]]
** Certain aspects of Covenant tech have gotten revamped as well. Among the most radical changes are the ones to the design of the Elite Zealot armor (now a vibrant maroon instead of gold) and the layout of the Banshee (the characteristic engine pods have been removed or "hidden from view", to avoid the FridgeLogic of how the craft could fly with the pods shot off). Most of these have since been retconned in turn as aesthetic choices specific to the Covenant on Reach.
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Sword Base is sitting on top of a Forerunner structure, and the Covenant want it ''real'' bad.]]
* RuleOfDrama: People have pointed out inconsistencies with [[spoiler: Kat's death]], although justifications have been pointed out as well.
* RunningGag: Almost once every level, Noble Six gets knocked down (via enemy, explosion, atmospheric freefall...) in a cutscene (sometimes with a first person perspective) and has to grab the nearest weapon available.
* SaveThisPersonSaveTheWorld: [[spoiler: Cortana holds all the data the UNSC have on the Forerunners and Halo, Reach ''will'' fall but any chance to survive the Covenant war rests on Noble Team getting her to the Pillar of Autumn and off Reach.]]
* SceneryPorn / SceneryGorn: Reach, before and after. Early in the game, before the Covenant arrives in force, you get a lot of nice-looking scenery. Afterwards (especially in "Exodus", "New Alexandria", "The Package", and "Pillar of Autumn", most of the map is in ruins, there are fires everywhere, and in "The Autumn" there's this really freaky looking black cloud on the left side of where you are, almost like the big cloud in "The Storm" in ''Halo 3''. [[spoiler: Reach returns to its natural beauty in the future, July 7, 2589.]]
** [[spoiler: The Sabre launch scene in "Long Night of Solace" looked ''gorgeous''.]]
* SenselessSacrifice: [[spoiler: Jorge's HeroicSacrifice is turned into this. It is just as depressing as it sounds.]]
* SerialEscalation: Forge World was originally five separate maps designed for Forge mode set in similar environments. During development, one concept artist combined them all into a single map several times the size of any normal map, all seamless, playable, and massively customizable.
** Lampshaded at their Comic-Con panel, where it turns out that the team member building those 5 maps was building them in one file for simplicities sake at the time, as they all used the same resources. When he was nearing the end, he just asked why they were bothering to break it up. The answer? They never even considered the possibility of making a map that big. And neither did the fans.
* ShoutOut:
** Reach wasn't the only planet with an apocalypse dated [[{{Terminator}} August 29]]...
** In the armory, one of the emblems is the [[{{Warhammer}} Star of Chaos]].
** 90 percent of the Achievements are {{Shout Out}}s to dialogue from the previous games. The other 10%...
*** "[[TopGun You can be my wingman anytime!]]"
*** "Cool file, bro".
** One of the Marine taunts to Covenant: "[[{{Predator}} You are one, UGLY mother...]]"
** Watch how the female Noble Six walks [[spoiler: during her last stand]]. It is identical to a motion from the end of ''Firefly'' made by Zoey, gun pose and all. May have been unintentional, but given that Bungie are known fans of the show...
** The frequent use of grainy security footage during cutscenes seems like an homage to Neil Blomkamp, the director whose ''Halo'' short films, and feature-length ''{{District 9}}'' (which evolved out of the [[DevelopmentHell failed attempt at a]] full-length ''Halo'' movie) frequently uses this style.
** Most of the Daily and Weekly Challenges are shout outs. For instance, the one for killing a certain amount of people with an automatic weapon is [[DieHard I Have A Machine Gun]]. Another, for killing a certain amount of opponents, is [[StarWars Aggressive Negotiations]].
** The Office of Naval Intelligence, AKA ''{{ONI}}''. Considering Bungie's habit of referencing previous titles, the odds of this being a coincidence are rather slim.
*** It may be both; the US Navy maintains a RealLife Office of Naval Intelligence, established in 1882.
** The achievement "I See You Favor a .45" is a reference to ''TheWire''. Also Jamie Hector who played the ruthless drug kingpin, [[CompleteMonster Marlo Stanfield]] in ''TheWire'' voices Emile.
** The achievement "That's A Knife" is a reference to of all things, CrocodileDundee
** When fatally wounded, Elites will sometimes clearly yell [[RedVsBlue "Blargh!" or "HONK!"]]
* ShownTheirWork: Possibly overlapping with FridgeBrilliance, in [[spoiler: one mission, the player is thrown out of the Covenant ship by Jorge, into space. He/She seemingly shakes off the re-entry with only a mild sprain or two. One would think "Hey, the Master Chief dropped from in atmosphere, and was messed up for a while! What gives?" Well, if one pays close attention to the cutscenes, you can spot an armored pack on Noble Six's back, just before he/she's flung from the ship, labeled 'Re-Entry Unit'.]]
** It gets better. A lot of people wonder why [[spoiler:Jorge elected to stay behind when it is perfectly possible to have marines along who could have activated the slipspace bomb. When Jorge goes aboard the Pelican holding the bomb, a computer voice warns him that his re-entry pack is disabled. He took it off himself!]]
** Halsey's Journal manage to reference and tie together so much of the extended universe, from the supposed inconsistencies between Reach and ''Fall of Reach'', the Spartan III program from ''Ghosts of Onyx'', the Orion program, etc.
** In the extended "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKRlWLDWhGI Deliver Hope]]" trailer, sharp eyes can spot everyone from Noble team (Carter, Emile, Jorge, etc) in the video.
*** 0:10 Kat (obviously), 0:35 Jorge, 0:36 Emile (Left of explosion), 0:53 Jun (HUD), 1:00 Carter (at bottom) and of course, 1:30 Thom who takes the bomb.
** When ''The Pillar of Autumn'' takes off, look closely. Those booster rockets are just that - booster rockets. After they've expended their thrust, they fall off individually.
* TheSiege: Reach.
* SnipingMission: Nightfall, the third real mission (fourth in literal terms) of the game, is a sniping mission with Jun.
* TheSquad: Noble Team.
* TheSquadette: Kat and, potentially, Noble Six.
* TheStinger: [[spoiler:You fought bravely, Noble Six...]]
* StockScream: Wilhelm variety.
* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: [[TheSmartGuy Kat]]: "A good place to look might be... I don't know, the nearest nonexistent launch site in the nonexistent Sabre Program, dismissed by three administrations as preposterous rumor... And in which our newest member was certainly never a pilot."
** [[BadAss Emile]]: "You're [[{{Irony}} scary]], you know that?""
* TakeUpMySword: [[spoiler:The ending states this is what happened in spirit. Which means it's implied that Noble Six could have been one of the heroes/heroines of the Halo Trilogy had he/she chosen to evacuate along with everyone else.]]
* TeamDad: Jorge
* TeamMom: Dr. Halsey to Jorge, and eventually the rest of Noble team. Her initial hostility is understandable due to the BackStory, but eventually, she cares for her "adopted" [=SPARTANs=], including and ''especially'' Noble Six.
* TheWarSequence: The Pillar of Autumn, which features you in the middle of a giant human vs. Covenant battle while you blast your way through to get to a shuttle for evacuation, and The Package, which has a sequence at the end where you have to defend Halsey's lab against a bunch of Covenant infantry, tanks, and Banshees. Also, Firefight mode.
* TheyChangeditNowItSucks: Many fans complain about the game having reticule bloom.
** It is worth pointing out that the reticule bloom is only a cosmetic addition. The increase in inaccuracy from rapid fire has been in the series from the begining, the reticule only now directly reflects that.
* TookALevelInBadass: The A.I. and combat skills of the entire Covenant roster has been noticeably improved. Most notably, Elites are now much more agile and intelligent and play a lot like multiplayer opponents — some even use Armor Abilities like Hologram and Armor Lock. Higher ranking Grunts can now fire overcharge shots. And Hunters no longer have any easily exploitable weakness ''at all'' now that they can use the shields on their arms to block attacks. All of Noble Team are [[StoryAndGameplaySegregation invicible during gameplay]], so there is no real need to escort highly trained soldiers.
** The Pistol has been restored to be comparable to its ''Halo: Combat Evolved'' glory. It does the same amount of damage as the DMR, and can fire almost as quickly as its shield-eating ''Halo 2'' counterpart. Fortunately these factors are balanced by a smaller clip and more reticle bloom relative to the DMR.
** Likewise, the Plasma Pistol's power has been significantly increased, even more so than it originally was in ''Halo: Combat Evolved''. Granted, its rate of fire still pales in comparison to the first game's incarnation, but it still does as much raw damage as the DMR or Pistol.
** In ODST, the Spiker was completely useless because you couldn't dual wield it. Now, it has bite. A LOT of bite.
** The Sniper Rifle is ''actually'' an anti-materiel weapon now![[hottip:*:The AM for "anti-materiel" has been in the various rifle models' designations since the first game, but their shots always inexplicably bounced off vehicles.]] Who woulda thunk? You can now take out a tank by shooting it in the treads/thrusters (or its driver by shooting off the cockpit canopy), and the gun can generally three-shot most light vehicles, including Banshees.
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Averted; several members of Noble Team have undergone treatment for PTSD, though Kat refuses it. [[EstablishingCharacterMoment Jorge even recommends]] a full psychatric workup for a civilian survivor of a brutal Covenant attack.
* TragicKeepsake: [[spoiler: Jorge's dogtags.]]
* UnplannedManualDetonation: [[spoiler: The Slipspace drive used to blow up the supercarrier.]]
* UrbanLegendOfZelda: Despite the game only just coming out, the lack of a Legendary ending and apparent confirmation from Bungie in a commentary video that there IS some sort of bonus ending has already lead to massive amounts of speculation on how it may be unlocked.
** A whole mess of rumors surround the [[spoiler:Data Pads littered throughout the levels, as well as hidden switches off the normal paths.]]
** And technically playing on Legendary ''does'' change one thing: [[spoiler:Keyes]] refers to Halsey by her first name when talking to Six in the penultimate level.
* UnexpectedGenreChange: One level has you playing ''VideoGame/WingCommander''.
** To a certain extent, this entire ''game'' (along with ''ODST'') is a genre swerve. The "traditional" ''Halo'' experience has you playing as a HollywoodCyborg, SuperSoldier and OneManArmy surrounded by RedShirt allies; you kick ass while they cheer you on. In the gaiden games, you're finally in the company of equals—in ''ODST'' because you ''are'' a RedShirt (though an [[EliteMook elite one]],) and in ''Reach'' because your allies are [=SPARTANs=].
* UnwinnableByDesign: [[spoiler: The PlayerCharacter's post-credits LastStand against the Covenant.]]
** [[spoiler: Though with some help from co op of a friend running around the level while you fight, you can technically go on forever]]
* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: Killing a civilian results in your character's instantaneous demise (and yet you can still teamkill your fellow troopers as much as you like). Fortunately, civilians have a crazy amount of health and are completely immune to explosives to prevent this from happening by accident during the "Exodus" mission.
** [[spoiler:Unless you accidentally land a headshot.]]
** Averted with regards to your fellow troopers. In all the previous ''Halos'', you took significant extra damage when shot by a marine, which was implemented to make sure you lost if you decided to be a jerk and turn against them. This is no longer the case in ''Reach'', allowing you to slaughter entire platoons of human forces if you choose to.
* VirtualPaperDoll: There are '''lots''' of armor options.
* WarIsHell: Surprisingly, considering the subject matter, the game drives it home without getting {{Anvilicious}} about it.
* WeWinBecauseYouDidNot: [[spoiler: The Covenant never got their hands on the Forerunner artifact Halsey was studying and the information Cortana translated made it to the Pillar Of Autumn.]]
* WeaponOfChoice:
** Carter: [[BoomHeadshot Designated Marksman Rifle]]
** Kat: [[HandCannon Magnum]]
** Jun: SniperRifle
** Emile: [[ShortRangeShotgun Shotgun]], [[KukrisAreKool Kukri]]
** Jorge: [[MoreDakka Heavy Machine Gun]]
** Noble Six: Varies between the Assault Rifle and Designated Marksman Rifle, and for one level, the Pistol.
* WatchingTroyBurn
* WaveMotionGun: You eventually take control of a Mass Driver cannon, which is the most powerful weapon any player can personally control in any Halo game.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Jun? Where'd ya go?
** The book Fall of Reach would imply he died defending CASTLE with Red Team, but WordOfGod says he survived Reach.
** Sara Sorvad, the young woman you rescue at the end of the first mission, has a unique character model and gets just enough screen time that you suspect she could have a role later on in the plot. She's never seen again, and is dismissed as "irrelevant" by Halsey in her only other mention.
** Colonel Urban Holland, Noble Team's C.O. just drops off the face of the planet after ordering Noble Team to revisit and demolish Sword Base at the end of "New Alexandria." No one ever says anything even hinting towards his fate.
* WrongGenreSavvy: In the "New Alexandria" mission, there's a panicking Trooper hiding in a corner (a homage to a similar character seen in ''Halo 1'', ''Halo3'', and ''Halo3ODST''). If you stop to listen to him, he goes on about how he's heard that if a Grunt bites you, you turn into a Grunt.
** The marines in ''Combat Evolved'' and ''3'' at least were referring to the Flood, who ''would'' turn you into one of them if they killed you.
* [[YankTheDogsChain Yank The Entire Dog Pound's Chain]]: Noble Team simply ''can't'' catch a break.
* [[YouAreNumberSix You Are Noble Six]]
* ZergRush: Starting off slowly, the game soon features more and more Covenant arriving on Reach to the point where there is nothing any gamer can do to stop the onslaught. In more than one section all you can do is hold a position for a time and then run away.
----
''Spartans never die...they're just waiting to respawn.''
