Halo: Reach Now Available Free for Gold Members

With the Master Chief Collection on the horizon, Microsoft decided to make one of the few games not in the remaster set, Halo: Reach, available for free through Games with Gold. It was announced last month and is now available to download at no extra cost, so long as you’re a Gold subscriber.

Halo: Reach is an odd part of the franchise, not directly connected with the others. Despite that, it managed to get fantastic reviews, and is often mentioned by fans as one of the top two or three games. With an aggregate 91 on Metacritic, both reviewers and fans were impressed by the characters, plot and gameplay enhancements. By comparison, Halo 4 currently has an 87.

A quick glance over user reviews for Halo: Reach shows that some people felt that it was a little short, not a full entry in the franchise, or that the gameplay hadn’t quite come on enough. Most of those complaints are nullified by the fact that you can now download it absolutely free, and while that doesn’t quite make up for the fact that it’s not going to make it into the Master Chief Collection, at least it’s one step closer to having the whole series readily available.