 Halo : Reach is a first @-@ person shooter video game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360 home video game console . The sixth installment in the Halo series , Reach was released worldwide in September 2010 . The game takes place in the year 2552 , where humanity is locked in a war with the alien alliance known as the Covenant . The player controls Noble Six , a soldier in the Noble Team , an elite subsection of the UNSC s military . The team is sent to the planet Reach to investigate the disappearance of the planet's entire population. nobody knows what happened to