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The Halo: Reach Beta has been running for two weeks today and I am shocked, shocked and horrified, that the internet hasn't exploded in a torrent of hilarious 'Halo Reach Around' jokes. What the hell is going on? How could people miss such an obvious pun? Interwebs, you have let me down. Taking my important role as the pitiable Halo fanboy I've spent as much spare time as I could manage wading into the Beta to bring you some impressions, thoughts and accusations. Plus use my own Halo: Reach screenshots in an article, yay me!
First the back story. Halo: Reach is the first 'true' sequel to Halo 3 (it was originally going to be called Halo 4) and is set in the closing days of the planet Reach. If you're unfamiliar with the story of Reach I'm not going to spoil it for you, suffice it to say it's an important historic moment in the Halo time line and happens long before the events of the first Halo game. The Beta can only be accessed if you own a copy of Halo: ODST.
The first thing to take on board is that with Halo: Reach, the more things change, the more they stay the same. If you're worried that your pure Halo multiplayer experience is going to be ripped up and revamped don't be. Your first five minutes impression will be that this is Halo 3, just with some tweaks and nerfs here and there and a few extra bells. As you dig deeper into the game you soon discover that Halo: Reach is a subtle revamp of the experience that may have seasoned players gnashing their teeth (or in my experience of the Beta shrieking expletives) about the changes.
Totally gangsta, of course I'm posing like this because a sniper just shot me in the ass
The obvious major change to multiplayer is the new included armour loadout system. Prior to spawning a player can choose from one of four special armour abilities, sprinting which naturally allows you to run fast, flying with a jetpack for short periods (probably the least useful but most fun ability by far, and largely the reason my kill/death ratio is uniformly poor), a temporary shield that makes you invulnerable and an active camo ability that makes you almost invisible and disrupts nearby radars. These powers change the dynamic of any game type very quickly and you'll be juggling between them quite rapidly as you play. For instance on capture the flag you may have a team relying on camo and shield to defend their precious rag on a stick; then the opposition pull of a successful snatch and grab and the defending team switch to jetpacks and sprint when they spawn to get the flag back. The loadouts keep games mercurial and interesting and provide a lot of opportunity for experimentation, they're not as complicated as the Perks from Modern Warfare, but they're enough to define Halo: Reach and its multiplayer as its own beast, seperate from what has come before it.
Look Wendy I can... and I've been shot again
As for weapons Reach continues the slide of ODST back towards similar weapons as the original Halo: Combat Evolved. Surprisingly the Battle Rifle has been retired and replaced with two functionally similar weapons, the classic pistol and a new mid range zoom capable rifle, headshot experts will want to master both. One of the UNSC's most capable new weapons, and my personal favourite, is the blooper styles grenade launcher that lobs fragtastic fun a huge distance and works extremely well as a vehicle disables as the greandes release an EMP burst on explosion. Covenant weaponry has had a more serious overhaul, gone are the mostly humourous super soaker designed weapons, replaced with bulky, mean and alien looking guns. The Covenant, and the elites in particular, aren't your misunderstood allies this time, they're deadly and genocidal and their weapons reflect this. The lack of Brutes in Reach mean no Brute weapons, or at least none I saw in the Beta, but the gravity hammer is available for smacking people who don't check their corners. Elites remain the only playable Covenant race in Reach, or at least the Beta gives the impression they are. Which quietly I think is a shame, how fun would it be to spawn as a suicidal Grunt and run screaming at the enemy with a grenade in each hand? Plenty of people play the game that way anyway.
I think this is probably my favourite shot of me getting shot, there were a lot to choose from
There are a few subtle changes that alter the game in ways you might not notice. Even casual Halo players would be familiar with the old chestnut of running straight at an enemy, rifle blasting, then leaping forward to seal the deal with a crunching beat down. In Halo; Reach a standard melee attack will only drop your opponents shields, whether they have full shields or a tiny sliver left, that's all the damage it's going to do at first, a second melee attack is needed to do the physical damage and put your mark down. Basically the elbow to the face is way less effective as a quick take down technique than it was. Health has also returned to the Halo: Combat Evolved method of permanent health damage with recharging shields. health units are dotted near spawn points and strategic locations and the accepted wisdom is not to go into battle without full health, back peddle and heal up before the next rush. Another lesson to be learned. Explosions are also bigger now, with grenades and rockets sending you rag dolling in all sorts of directions, the added EMP damage to your shields is what will really undo you though as enterprising enemies will quickly pick you off with a head shot or a few quick body shots. Spartan's have also had running speed and jumping dialled down a notch (put it down to Reach's increased gravity) so you're not quite the spring heeled killing machine you once were. These factors lean the play style of Reach to a more defensive and team focused strategy, or at least tries to by making the game a bit more challenging for the lone wolf player who doesn't work well with others. Interestingly Elites, who can now only be played in certain Covenant Versus UNSC game types, are slightly faster and tougher than marines and have an extra armour ability called Evade which allows them to duck and roll out of the line of fire.
The Elite are back to being nasty, genocidal and formidable in a fight, as they should be
The new game types are one of the stand out features of Reach, especially the Elite versus Spartan escalating battle that is Invasion. Starting of with a simple capture location objective the changing goals and unlocked loadouts, weapons and vehicles as the game progresses makes for frantic and hugely enjoyable gameplay. Another gametype had three Spartan's trying to defend generators from three Elite's out to destroy them with power weapons getting dropped from the sky. Most of the levels in the Beta were enjoyable, but Swordbase was special exception. With three levels and numerous hiding spots, ledges and sneaky ways to get around your opponent the level can easily become a joy for campers and a screaming nightmare for everyone else. I came dangerously close to breaking a controller playing on Swordbase, and I like to think of myself as a calm and conscientious gamer, as I was frequently murdered by an entire team of enemies I hardly even saw.
Holding down the melee button when behind an enemy opens up the delightful execution animation
The Beta has all ready exposed glitches and exploits that Bungie have been quick to comment on, usually stressing that it will be changed or fixed for the the final release. These have ranged from basic issues like hit boxes reacting oddly to certain damage, to bizarre ones such as entire teams turning into the campaign player models and then dropping dead. Sadly I never experienced anything nearly so exciting glitch wise while playing but there was certainly enough else to do to keep me occupied. Armour permutations are now unlocked by spending credits earned through medals and moving up the ranks and the Beta had the full Theater mode from Halo 3 which allowed me to take some of the lovely attached screenshots. While the gametypes and hanfdul of levels only represent a part of the multiplayer and a part of a section of the full game which also has a whole single player campaign, I still feel like the Beta gave me a pretty good idea what the finished product will be like when I can finally get my hairy hands on it later this year. It's still definitely a Halo game and Bungie have certainly not gone out of their way to draw in objectors of their previous games, there's nothing here that screams 'Give us another try, we're new and shiny', its another game made primarily for people who play Halo all ready. People like me. It's nice to feel so loved by Bungie that they'd let us play over ten million games of multiplayer for a game that won't even be released for another six months.
The Beta ends on the 19th of April which is, well today, but thanks to Greenwich Mean Time the servers probably won't get turned of until our time sometime tomorrow so go forth and capture flags and slay and stab in the back in these few hours, because its going to be at least a 100 days before you get to play the game again!
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Comments
Bungie hosts its own screenshot/video file share service using the Theatre mode in the game on their website, a lot of users use that over Youtube for Halo and I imagine only a portion double up by posting their videos on Youtube. So in the case of Halo YouTube videos probably aren't the best indication.
Plus BFBC2, MW2 and RDR all have the advantage of also being PC games making it a lot easier to video capture properly. Xbox 360 Halo games remain console exclusives.