I have been an avid player of Reach for some time now, having attained rank and knowledge, etc. However, I recently bought another FPS and kinda stopped play it for about 2 months, and didn't really spare a thought for Reach.
However, I have recently come back to Reach, and have started playing both equally. For some reason, and this is something that I have talked to my mates bout and they have been unable to shed any conclusive light on this; they always seem to come back to this game, or rather; this series of games.
The same happened with my mates who play Reach, and bought Black Ops, and now MW3. They came back to Reach. One of my mates suggested that Reach simple does a lot of things right, ad this I can certainly agree with. It has a simple and intuitive interface and lobby system, and is amazing fun to play. Also, you get firefight and custom games that can be played over live for fun or competitively. In essence, it does what you want. But it isn't done there; It also allows you the chance to create maps, game types, screen shots and videos and then to share them through the Reach interface with your mates and the wider audience, and also through the community forums and pages, such as Forge Hub and, of course, these forums.
But that doesn't quite cover it. We're still not there.
Reach has something else about it, yes, it has that feeling of fun and potential silliness that comes from a game that includes the player so much in the multi player design aspect of it, but something there is something else that just makes it fun. Everyone has those games or moments when the game makes them mad, but it has never stopped me, or anyone I know, from leaving it and never coming back. We have never thought, "You know what? This game sucks. Nothing ever goes my way," because it has that indefinable, unmeasurable quality that leads to its huge re-playability. Frequently I have seen people on these forums complaining that the campaign lacked the this or that, whether it was story, continuity from the previous games or books, or just everything in general. Yet we still play the game. It has never stopped us, no has any game made me leave completely Reach in favor of it.
So, this is what I think, it is far from an absolute truth, and I want to know what you think. Do you keep coming back to Reach? And, just as importantly, why? Because I highly doubt that I have given all the reasons. What makes Reach feel so special?
Thank you for your time,
Lizard