Today is probably the biggest video game release date of 2010, for the team over at Microsoft, the Xbox 360 video game console, and the fan-favorite developer Bungie Studios. Halo: Reach, the final iteration in the series from Bungie, releases today exclusively for the Xbox 360. Reviews have been hitting the internet for the past few days and the current Metacritic score is above 90%, simply fantastic for a game being reviewed by so many different gamers
(read our official review by clicking here). Bungie will however continue to develop video games for Microsoft's console, in a massive partnership with mega-publisher Activision-Blizzard. In honor of today's release PlanetXbox360.com sat down with Brian Jarrard, the Community Manager at Bungie, to discuss the changes in Reach and why fans should run out to their local game retailer to purchase a copy. Our questions with him, and the answers, are below:
PlanetXbox360: Halo: Reach is, for now, the last Halo game coming from Bungie. It's a swan song of sorts, so what do you think it represents for Microsoft, Bungie, and for gamers?
Brian Jarrard: Well for Bungie, Reach represents the culmination of a decade of Halo and in our minds, the definitive title in the series. It also represents a lot of fan service to our community - we've put everything we have into Reach to make sure it lives up to fans expectations and to leave something lasting behind as a show of thanks for the support we've received over the years. For gamers, I'd hope that Reach represents fun and awesomeness. There's a lot to do and a lot to experience within the game and hopefully it takes Halo fans full circle and closes out our era on a high note. For Microsoft, Reach represents the last chapter for Bungie's Halo and the opportunity to carry the franchise forward with 343 Industries at the helm.
PlanetXbox360: Reach once again offers the most flexibility for multiplayer for almost any other game. How important is it to make this balanced with so many variables?
Brian Jarrard: Well the most important aspect to balance is the core 'default' gametypes and experiences that are built into the disc and featured prominently online in matchmaking. These gametypes have to be solid, fun and balanced or people won't want to play them anymore. But really, if someone wants to make a crazy custom gametype where they move at 300% speed and have low gravity and can use Evade to fly a few kilometers across Forge World, well, they can do that and they can balance it themselves within the context of their target experience. Really it's all a testament to the core workings and interactions of the Reach "sandbox" - the weapons, vehicles and armor abilities are inherently balanced so you can take that and run with it.
PlanetXbox360: There is at once many new things to the franchise, such as equipment, that mix things up, and things that are gone, such as dual wielding and incendiary grenades. How do these additions and subtractions impact the game? Will we see a return of dual wielding and incendiaries?
Brian Jarrard: The Bungie team spent a lot of time in pre-production looking back at all of our prior Halo games and dissecting what worked great and what didn't work as well as we'd hoped. We tried to carry all the best parts forward for Reach and build upon them, all the while being very careful not to 'break' what makes a Halo game a Halo game. In the case of Armor Abilities, it was a natural evolution of the Equipment that was introduced in Halo 3 - the general premise is the same but the team wanted to move away from the single-use model that often caused unneeded stress and anxiety amongst players. Do you use that Bubble Shield you just picked up or should you save it? What is the exact right moment to use it effectively and not waste it? We wanted to encourage players to use these abilities as often as they like and not be penalized for doing so.
Dual Wielding is gone because of core changes that have been made to the sandbox. When you remove something like the SMG and add back a revamped Magnum that packs quite a punch, suddenly things get really unbalanced very quickly if you could wield two of those. The design team has refined all of the weapons to fit into distinct role and uses and you won't find something like the SMG that frankly was pretty useless unless you happened to be carrying two of them. As for incendiary grenades, they're out as well. Most of the Brute "sandbox" was reconfigured for Reach based in part on the diminished and specific role the Brutes now play in the story. The Elites are back at the top and the majority of the Covenant arsenal in Reach reflects that.
PlanetXbox360: First person shooters have come a long way in the nearly ten years since Halo: Combat Evolved released. Since then, heavily personalized loadouts, RPG elements, experience points, co-op versus computer and more game types have come out. The Halo franchise has incorporated many of these elements, but has remained distinctly Halo. How do developers strike this balance?
Brian Jarrard: Bungie is always looking back at our past and the games that have come before to stay true to those roots while also learning from areas the team feels could be improved upon. We're also all gamers and everyone on the team genuinely wants to make games and features that they themselves would want to play. It helps that we have many people at Bungie who have been around a long time and have worked on all of the Halo games to date - that perspective and insight further helps ensure that we are still staying true to the Halo "formula" we established ten years ago.
PlanetXbox360: Reach's narrative is much like ODST, in which a team works together to face the Covenant threat. Master Chief is a very popular figure, yet quite undefined. How were these new characters designed in response?
Brian Jarrard: Reach, like ODST, is definitely designed to feature more of an intimate, character driven story than the original Halo trilogy. Chief was great and we love him but as you say, he was ultimately pretty shallow and hollow unless you managed to read some of the extended fiction in novels. By moving to a prequel our team had the opportunity to move away from the lone wolf protagonist and build out a squad of unique Spartans with distinct personalities. The most challenging aspect of this was having to re-build most of our content systems and tools so these virtual actors would give believable performances in game. This includes new facial animation and lip synch technology as well as employing motion capture for the first time in the series to help deliver a more natural and lifelike nuance to their onscreen movements. By the end we really want players to connect to their fellow Spartans and share in their fights, heroism and sometimes tragedy.
PlanetXbox360: Bungie has always been receptive to fans, with the inclusion of dlc maps and game modes. How has Bungie been working to respond to fans with Reach?
Brian Jarrard: Bungie has a team of people that are dedicated to supporting Reach and the online community beyond launch. We don't have any official announcements to make just yet but it's safe to assume some type of DLC similar to prior Halo titles. Beyond that, we'll be very active with the community to help drive the creation and adoption of brand new multiplayer maps and gametypes via Forge. We've empowered our fans to really take ownership of the future of Reach and it's our job to foster that and feed it back to the community at large.
PlanetXbox360: Reach is a place many fans are already aware of, considering the book, Halo: Fall of Reach. How does the game and the book compare to each other?
Brian Jarrard: Both the book and the game focus on the Covenant invasion and ultimate destruction of the planet Reach. The general timeframe and outcome are the same but that's about where the similarities end. Halo: Reach, the game, is a brand new story that's going to offer fans a totally fresh perspective on the events that transpired during the UNSCs most significant battle in the Human-Covenant war.
PlanetXbox360: Forge was already a powerful tool. How has it been updated for Reach?
Brian Jarrard: One of the primary goals with Forge 2.0 was to look at all the things the community was doing for Halo 3 - many of which relied on clever 'hacks' or cumbersome techniques - and build all that in from the ground up. For example, you can set the status of any object you're holding now to be "Phased" which will allow you to merge it into the environment or other objects. You can also set an object to be "Fixed" which means it will stay floating and locked exactly where you leave it. (previously fans had to go to great lengths just to make a suspended platform float in the air). Our team also looked at ways to make the Forge editor more user friendly and less tedious to work with. Many of the things fans have been begging for are now part of Forge 2.0 - a 'snap to' function, undo, delete-all, etc... will all make building complex structures a lot less frustrating and time consuming than it was in Halo 3. These functional upgrades are awesome but Forge really shines in the new dedicated environment, "Forge World." This is a vast landscape offering tons of real estate to work with whether you want to build a several-kilometer long race track or an intimate symmetrical arena. All of these maps can be saved and uploaded to your file share and enjoyed by the entire Reach community.
