Halo Reach acts as a prequel to the first Halo game, giving fans a look at the events that lead to the fall of Reach, and their link to the events of the first game.
This also marks the final time Bungie would work an Halo game.
It's kinda sad to see them go, but the seeds were already planted since Halo 2, and both Microsoft and Bungie had very different ideologies, so I'm surprised they stuck around for this long.

I'll start off by saying that even though the premise is very interesting... I think the story was pretty weak. It was hard for me to care about many of the main cast, since I don't think their characteristics got explored too much. I think Jorge was the character I enjoyed the most, but only by a small bit compared to the others.
Like I said previously, it does connect to Halo 1, and seeing that connection was really cool, but it was cool because it connected to another game, and not because it stood on its own merits, if you catch my drift.

However, the gameplay of Halo Reach is really good! It plays pretty similarly to before, but now you access to one extra ability. It can either be a drop shield, active camouflage or a jet-pack! But by default, the one you'll always get at the start of each mission is... sprinting! They finally gave the Halo series a run button, and it feels good!
It's very comparable to the Stamina meters of recent Zelda games, but without the drawback of you becoming tired after you waste your run meter, which I appreciate.

The missions themselves were also pretty good! I really liked seeing the diverse environments of Planet Reach, many of them being locations we hadn't seen before in the series, like bars inside of buildings, for example.
Although some of the missions got a bit long, but they were still fun.

The graphics haven't that big of an update since last time, but the backgrounds really pop in this one, and facial animations are really good!
The soundtrack... I'll be honest, I only caught a bit of it. It was generally well composed, with it also being the last time Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori composed for a Halo game, but I couldn't remember much of it. That is with the exception of a theme that gets referenced towards the end of the game.

Overall, Halo Reach feels like it ends Bungie's run with the series on a high note. Its gameplay is probably the most fun in the series so far, but its story felt a bit lacking. While it didn't end on a note as high as Halo 3, at least it was high enough to make it satisfactory in my eyes.