Leveling Down

After more time with Reach, I’m starting to really appreciate armor abilities

The Halo Reach Beta is pretty much over, but Bungie released two more game types last week that I wanted to talk about a bit. When Bungie started releasing information about the beta, Invasion and Generator Defense were the two gametypes I was most interested in, for two reasons. First, they are new objective based games, which I generally prefer to slayer. Secondly, they pit Spartans vs. Elites, which I thought could lead to some excellent gameplay nuances. How do the two modes end up stacking up? Hit the jump for my impressions, and some final thoughts on the beta.

Invasion Mode

If you asked me what I was most excited for before the beta dropped, it was Invasion. Spartans defending changing objectives against Elites, similar to Gold Rush in BFBC, except Halo style – what could go wrong? Unfortunately, a lot of things. I haven’t really read other reviews so I don’t know if I’m in the minority, but I really, really, REALLY dislike the way Bungie did Invasion mode. Let me count the ways.

1 – It is an objective based game where you don’t switch sides. So if you spawn as Spartans, you play through the game as Spartans, once, and when the game is over it’s over. After that you’re spit back into the lobby, but unless all 12 players decide to stick around, you can’t run it back on opposite sides. I cannot for the life of me think of the rationale behind this.

2 – Your team of six is split up into three squads of 2, which makes teamwork pretty difficult. I guess ideally everyone works together in pairs, but since everyone is partied up there isn’t much cross communication going on, and teamwork is pretty important. What’s worse is I joined a game with a party of 4 and they put us on separate teams. Seriously?

3 – The game is more chaotic than fun. In my 6 or 7 games, I mainly found myself running long, long distances to get to the objective, only to get killed in a spray of gun or plasma fire. The map Invasion is being played on is so expansive that you spend a lot of time running, and that’s no fun. Oh, and by the way, the objectives are pretty unclear too. The first couple games you really have no idea what’s going on.

4 – Tons of frustration, very little fun. Maybe I’m stupid.

Anyway, there are a couple of cool things, like evolving armor ability choices as the game goes on, and Invasion Slayer is actually pretty fun (although the scoring system makes no sense to me), but overall, Invasion is a major disappointment. Man, I’m still upset at how badly it failed to meet my expectations. It’s like sports teams I root for, expectations always = disappointment.

Generator Defense Mode

Well, if you can’t tell, I hate Invasion mode. But if you take all the hatred I feel for Invasion mode, flip it on its head, and call it love – that’s how I feel about Generator Defense mode! If that’s too unclear, know this: Generator Defense is awesoooomeeee. It’s another objective game, 3 Spartans vs. 3 Elites, except it makes sense. The 3 Spartans are tasked with guarding three generators, which the Elites need to destroy by shooting them, punching them, grenading them, whatever. The strategy comes into play when Spartans “lock down” the generators, making them invincible for a short amount of time. You can do this an unlimited number of times in the game after a brief cooldown. To win a round the Elites need to destroy all three generators. Generator Defense, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Generator Defense is awesome!

1 – It is an objective based game with tons of strategy involved. Three players defend three generators. Three attackers are trying to take out those generators. Which generator do you rush first? Do you split up or stick together? Do you send a two person diversionary team while a third player sneaks in and destroys a generator? Do you station one Spartan at each generator or just let them take two and hold out for the final one? These are the questions that you need to answer in the span of seconds, and it’s tons of fun trying to figure out the strategy that works best for your team.

2 – In Invasion you get to choose where you respawn, but it isn’t very useful. Plus the map is so big it barely matters. In Generator Defense, choosing your respawn point is very strategic. Generator Charlie is under attack? Spawn by the yard. You want to rush Alpha? Spawn by the waterfall. It is a subtle layer of strategy added on top of the game that rewards players who want to take the time to figure out the nuances.

3 – Generator Defense features random weapon drops which are completely random. In one game I found a sniper rifle, in another a rocket launcher. These random drops ensure that you can’t get totally locked in to one strategy. For example, let’s say the Elites love going stealth, and sneakily are trying to creep up on a generator in stealth mode. Well, if there is a random rocket launcher on the playing field, that is a triple kill waiting to be had. The random weapon drops keep things fresh.

4 – Tons of fun, little frustration! This game mode is like the exact opposite of Invasion for me. I dropped into the game, knew exactly what was going on (because it’s designed so well), and knew exactly how I wanted to play things. Objectives are clear, spawn points are clear, and strategy is fun to figure out. This is everything that a multiplayer mode should be, and Bungie absolutely knocked this one out of the park. For me, Generator Defense and Stockpile totally make the beta worthwhile.

Beta Final Thoughts

I’d like to make one thing clear. If you’ve read my thoughts on the beta, you may think I am being overly critical of it. Hopefully readers can understand that I am critical because I have such high expectations for Bungie and the Halo franchise – after all, it is the reason I own a 360 and not a PS3. Despite my criticisms, I still think Reach will turn out to be a fine game and I’m looking forward to it. I’m also pleased that Bungie took some risks on innovating the classic Halo multiplayer experience, and even if everything doesn’t pan out, I respect the attempt to try something new.

I’ve been flipping back and forth in my mind about how I feel about armor abilities over the last two weeks. On the one hand, I’m still disappointed that the player doesn’t have more control over their personal loadouts. On the other hand, after more time with the beta, I am starting to see how armor abilities really open up the gameplay. Tycho from Penny Arcade first got me thinking about it, and I encourage you to check out his post here. I’ve excerpted my favorite part, focusing specifically on the Armor Lock ability (temporary invincibility):

“What [armor lock] does do – what it excels at doing – is making people look. Look, damn you! Over here! It drives them nuts when they can’t have you, there in your hermetic shell, it feels like a hostile act. Maybe they didn’t care before, but they care now. It’s like the Tanking dynamic that exists in online role-playing games: it draws focus, and in a team mode (particularly if an associate happens to be invisible) you can often pick up these rubberneckers for points. Essentially, it makes people behave irrationally, often against their own interests. Who wouldn’t want such sorceries at the press of a button?”

Tycho makes a great point – armor abilities not only change the strategy for a player, but also for his/her opponents. Since Halo isn’t designed like Modern Warfare, where the hundreds of combinations of perks and loadouts aren’t major game changers but more like subtle tweaks, correct usage of armor abilities becomes paramount. As players learn how to utilize the jetpack more effectively, or the perfect amount of time to stay in Armor Lock, etc., Halo is going to get very competitive as people learn to use armor abilities to gain an advantage. I think this could be a great thing for the series, since it’s not only going to be about how many bullets you can spray into your opponents, but also how effectively you outTHINK them.

Since Bungie is only dealing with 6 or 7 armor abilities, the trick will be in balancing them, which is what the beta was for. When you have tons of perks, they kind of naturally balance each other out, and there are multiple counters to different strategies. When you are only dealing with 6 or 7 variables, you’re generally looking at one solid counter or strategy for overcoming the advantage given by any one armor ability, so it needs to be perfectly balanced. I’m confident that Bungie will be able to figure that out.

What does that mean for the end user? It means that we can’t just approach Reach like any old Halo game, even though it feels that way at first. To maximize our results, we are going to have to learn all the subtleties that are hidden from us on first view. It definitely will take a lot of commitment, so the question is whether Bungie can create a system around the multiplayer suite that brings me back for more. In Modern Warfare, it’s leveling up that serves as the main draw. What will Halo Reach bring to the table? Is armor personalization going to be enough to bring people back for more? Or is the inherent fun of the game going to be the major motivator? I’m not sure, but I can’t wait to find out.

Be Sociable, Share!

•