After a two hour download on Monday, I finally got to dip my toes into the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta. I’ve played about 15 matches and I’ll start with this: It’s Halo, and that’s a good thing. There are a few new bells and whistles though, so don’t just expect Halo 3 with better graphics. It’s a beta and a lot of things are still up in the air, so I figured I’d write about what I love, what I’m not so sure about, and what I’d like to see change.
What I love
Hands down, my favorite aspect of Halo Reach multiplayer is the introduction of new game types – specifically, Stockpile. Stockpile consists of two teams of four trying to bring four neutral flags to their home base. The catch is, flags are only scored at set times during the match (about every minute). The game only counts flags inside your base when a timer finishes, meaning you can throw an enemies flag outside of their zone 2 seconds before time is up and they won’t score it.
There is one word that describes Stockpile for me: genius. It’s an intense game mode that is tons of fun and there is a lot of strategy to boot. You can decide whether to grab your own flags and turtle or whether to put the pressure on the other team. Good teams probably will do both. If Stockpile was the only addition to multiplayer in Reach, I’d probably be pretty happy already.
Luckily, that’s not the only thing. The graphics have been improved (though I don’t really care about that), and I really like the new maps. I’ve heard some complaints about Swordbase, which is kind of like two four story buildings across from each other, but I think it’s fun jumping from floor to floor. Powerhouse is a beautiful outdoor map with tons of different paths and different ways to use the new jetpack.
Oh, did I mention there are jetpacks? Another great addition to Reach is new abilities that different classes of characters can use. You can sprint, use a jetpack, go stealth, or go into a temporary invincible mode (immobile). These different abilities have meters that need to regenerate and really add to some of the tactical aspects of the game. More importantly, all these different abilities are a lot of fun. I definitely love using the jetpack although I’m still not totally used to the physics yet.
The other thing I love about Reach is the introduction of new weapons. I don’t totally get how all of them work yet, but they are a lot of fun and definitely infuse some freshness into the franchise. Oh, and Bungie nailed parties and joining games and stuff like that, so put that on the “love” list too. However, there are some things about the beta the jury’s still out on for me…
What I’m not sure about…
Reach introduces a new class base system. Before you think Call of Duty, let me stop you. You can’t customize your class, but for each gametype you can choose from four class types. Each class comes with two different guns and an ability. Supposedly, as you play more, the starting guns for each class and the names of each class will change, but I haven’t gotten far enough yet.
I definitely enjoy the more personal customization, but I’m still a bit unsure about Halo’s new unlock system. For one thing, it takes quite a long time to level up. Secondly, it seems like most of the unlocks revolve around stuff like tricking out your armor. That stuff is cool and all, but I still like the idea of more personal customization of weapons. It doesn’t look like Halo Reach is going to offer that. I’m in a wait and see mode, but right now it doesn’t seem like there is the type of customization I want in Reach.
The other thing I’m not too sure about is whether Halo is going to have the same addictiveness it once had for me. Back in the day, Halo was the only game in town, but now there are so many good games out there, who knows if I’ll be playing it for a year like I did before. Time will tell for that one though, so I’m not saying Halo will be addictive or not, we’ll just have to see come next fall.
What I am not fond of
Grenades feel overpowered. Like, way overpowered. I don’t know if that was a design choice, but if it was, I don’t like it. Also, something about the gameplay feels a little sloppy to me. Maybe I’m just not used to Halo anymore, but I have a hard time knowing if I’m shooting someone and the targeting reticule gets unclear when I’m firing or something? I don’t know. Something feels a little bit off.
Another thing I’m not fond of in the beta is that they haven’t released the Invasion gametype yet! OK, that’s kind of cheating, but I really want to play it. I love objective based stuff!
Final Thoughts
Overall, my impression of the Reach beta is quite positive. I’m enjoying myself, and it’s fun being back in the Halo universe again. I’m also really looking forward to the single player. The beta’s only going on for two more weeks and I highly recommend checking it out. There are tons of things that I didn’t get to mention here in my short impressions. Sure, Reach is just a lot more Halo, but hey, that’s a good thing!
i’ve only played a couple games in the halo: reach beta so far, but from what i’ve seen, i’m keeping my pre-order.
i’ve never really enjoyed the halo combat mechanics for multiplayer, but i’m a lot happier with the gameplay changes introduced. first of all, i do really like the 4 class types. while the weapons may not change, the abilities are a huge deal for me, since it allows us to play more specialized. i love stealth. it’s just my play style in general, so to be able to just cloak and take out unsuspecting opponents had me really enjoying my short time with the beta. i also like that we get the magnum back, and the needle rifle is also a great touch. being a mid to long range player myself, i like that i don’t have to do the whole “empty assault rifle into opponent and run up and melee him” that i had to do so much in halo 3.
however, the primary thing i’m not too thrilled about is that i honestly couldn’t tell there was a graphics update. maybe because the only two games i played were both in swordbase, but from screenshots of the game, the graphics looked a lot more advanced than what i saw when i played the game. maybe once i play the outdoor map i’ll notice the bump in resolution, but for now i’m disappointed that the graphics engine didn’t get much of an overhaul. it almost felt like i was playing halo 3 with just new abilities. fortunately, the abilities, matchmaking, and new game types will be enough for me to start playing this game day 1.