The Halo: Reach beta has forced me come to terms with the fact that deep down, I love the Halo franchise; I mean I secretly go nuts for a new Halo, but with good reason. Over the last few days, I’ve poured 9 very well spent hours playing the Reach multiplayer as part of an early access to the beta and honestly, I’m sure I will continue to play until the minute the beta ends which will most likely wipe the dumb grin off my face for a few days. For now, the beta consists of 2 maps, Swordbase and Powerhouse and 2 playlists, Grab Bag and Free for All. There will be 2 more maps when the beta officially launches on May 3rd to the public, but over the past day I’ve had the pleasure of delving into the 2 maps available. Swordbase is an indoor, mainly close-quarters map filled with hallways and small rooms fit for some insane and chaotic firefights. In the center of it all, is a courtyard perfect for using your Jet Pack to fly to one of the 3 floors within the map. Swordbase is great for slayer and capture the flag game types, as well as the new Headhunter and Stockpile game types which I’ll touch on later. It is definitely my personal favorite between the 2 maps I played as it is fit for the 8 player playlists that are currently available, whereas Powerhouse would be a great map for a 16 player affair. Powerhouse is a grassy outdoor map with a few key structures to escape the eyes of another or to hold out with the Oddball. It is a medium sized map, with some hectic Team Slayer matches and great for 1-Flag Capture the Flag. Since the map is open, it is common to have firefights in midair with the Jetpack which always gets your adrenaline pumping.
Overall, each map is perfectly balanced with the level of detail that Bungie has always strived to achieve. Both maps are easy to love, so I was pretty torn as far as which one I preferred, which goes to show just how good the maps are. I also have yet to grow tired over either after having played 60 matches spread between each map. Playlists are the typical Halo fare, which is never a bad thing with a few new play types that a highly addictive. Stockpile asks you to collect up to 3 flags and place them within a circle in your base until they are collected every 60 seconds, so you can still stop the opposing team from scoring a point if you take the flag out of their ring before each collection period. It’s a blast, but there always seemed to be one glaring problem for people playing it for the first time, the color scheme. No matter what team you’re on your ring will appear Blue and the opposing is Red, even if you are on red team. I had a few games where the red team was defending OUR ring and won the game for us on accident. Something people will get used to after a few rounds of Stockpile, but often confusing at the start. The other big one I played often was Headhunter and oh god, it’s a blast. Headhunter is a Free-for-All play type that has you kill the opposition and steal the skulls they were carrying. Every player carrying a skull has the number of skulls they are carrying over their head, visible from anywhere are the map so the more you are the carrying, the bigger the target you have on your back. Much like stockpile, you can add the skulls to your total score by dropping them off in a designated ring that changes it location every few minutes.
If you have more than 10 skulls and run into a ring, the game automatically ends similar to the Nuke in COD:MW2. It’s tough to pull off, but if you do it you will piss off the majority of everyone in the game. It’s an extremely intense mode and most likely my new Free-for-All mode. However, the biggest changes to the franchise are instantly noticeable as weapons and gadgets have been completely revamped. The one time use gadgets have been disposed off and replaced with 4 Classes, each with its own power up that recharges after each use along with a weapon set balanced for the specific loadout. You can go with the Jet Pack and carry out your Assault from the air for a short time, the Active Camo allows you to sneak up on your prey, Armor Lock (my personal favorite) locks you in place for 10 seconds with absolute invincibility, and finally the Scout class with the sprint ability. In my opinion, the least original class is the Scout class with a sprint option that can be useful from time to time, but it was my least used class. However, I have played with plenty of people that took great pride in the ability to maximize the Scout class, so I say to each his own. Classes can be easily changed between each death so you’re not by any means stuck with a class. They are almost perfectly balanced, with not one really having a huge advantage over another, but each feels as if it is extremely important for certain occasions.
The classes are one of the best possible changes Bungie has made to the multiplayer; I have quickly grown accustomed to the classes and feel as if they have really added a stellar twist to the chaos. We all know what Halo is all about, blowing people off the face of the map. So the guns in Reach are mainly variations of previous weapons from the series as well as some making a first appearance. The Assault Rifle is back, without much change as well as the Sword, Needler, Shotgun, Rocket Launcher, Plasma Pistol, Gravity Hammer, Sniper Rifle and the Frag and Plasma Grenades. They are tried and true weapons that really didn’t need much a change in the first place, with the only minor changes being design. Some returning weapons with major overhauls include the DMR, the new Battle Rifle which only fires 1 shot instead of a 3 shot burst, I’d take the Battle Rifle over the DMR any day but I’m sure the DMR will be a favorite for many. The Magnum makes it glorious return from Halo 1, with the scope finally being restored to the gun. It’s not near as powerful as the Magnum from Halo:CE but damn does the scope feel so, so good. Finally, the Plasma Repeater is just a much larger Plasma Rifle, with almost no changes to its actual use. The new weapons are a mixed bag, with a few standouts. The Grenade Launcher is just what you would imagine it would be; no comment there. My favorite new weapon is a Covenant version of the Rocket Launcher called the Plasma Launcher. It takes a few seconds to charge, but it locks onto nearby enemies and launches up to 4 rounds at once, usually requiring 2 rounds to put down a foe. The Focus Rifle is the new Covey sniper mixed with the Spartan Laser. It fires a constant beam that doesn’t stop until you release the trigger or run out of ammo.
Finally, we have the Needler Rifle that is just basically the DMR using Needler rounds; great gun and I actually heavily preferred it to the DMR. At the end of the day, Bungie knows how to make a gun, especially a large set of guns that all feel great and are perfectly balanced, with a few minor complaints such as the replacement of my much loved Battle Rifle. The Reach beta is just a few short days away for those with a copy of ODST and let me tell you, if you don’t have a copy of ODST you might want to get pick one up, it’s that good. I’ve already put a lot of time into the beta and I have a feeling it will be all I play until it ends. However, when Reach finally releases I am confident it will take Xbox Live by storm, not a big surprise but I can already say that it will most likely deserve the praise. It’s highly addictive and it’s Halo, no real surprise that just the beta alone will be what everyone plays for 2 weeks. With a few major changes and some minor, it feels and plays like a dream. Overall, Reach feels like heavily polished Halo, the multiplayer that Bungie has been working hard to achieve and they have almost completely nailed it. Halo: Reach is a fan’s wet dream and you can live the dream yourself today as the beta opens up to the public using a copy of Halo 3: ODST. Stay tuned for more on the final Halo game from Bungie, right here at PlanetXbox360.com, as the Fall 2010 release date nears.
Share
Follow our official PlanetXbox360.com Twitter account, by clicking here for updates hourly, 24/7 - 365 days a year. We also started an YouTube page where all the new trailers/gameplay videos will be posted within minutes of release, check it out and subscribe by clicking here.
