When it comes to first-person shooter games for the Xbox 360, the Halo series is a tough act to follow. The original trilogy of Halo games, Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3, have won many awards and received highly positive reviews from videogame critics everywhere. In fact, the series’ original trilogy has been so successful that various spin-off games have been released, with a second trilogy in the wraps.

The most recently released Halo videogame, Halo: Reach, set new sales records for the series. The title grossed $200 million on its first day on sale, with more than 3 million units sold in North America alone on the first month. Halo: Reach has even won various awards since its release, including GameSpy’s Shooter Game of the Year award and Game Revolution’s Best Xbox 360 Game award.

Despite its later release, Halo: Reach is meant to be a prequel to the original Halo trilogy. The game’s backstory takes place before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved. The player takes on the role of Noble Six, the newest addition to Noble Team, a special operations unit comprising supersoldiers. Together with Noble Team, the player tries to prevent the impending invasion of Reach by the Covenant forces.

Two of the most appreciated features of Halo: Reach are the multiplayer and Firefight options. The multiplayer option introduces some new player modes along with the standard Slayer and King of the Hill modes. In the new Stockpile mode, for instance, players team up to collect flags that can be used to accumulate points in designated capture areas. The Invasion mode can accommodate up to six players, divided into three teams of two. In the Invasion mode, the Spartans must prevent the Elites from transferring a guarded navigation core to a dropship.

The Firefight option allows players to fight waves of enemies, with each wave increasing in difficulty. Players can choose what type of enemies they fight, along with the number of enemies they have to contend with.