I spent a couple of hours playing the Halo Reach beta which was available for some lucky people in advance of the official release this coming Monday. Read on to see what I thought of it.
I am a big Halo fan and while I am very far from being the best at it, I enjoy playing it online with friends and having a laugh. We did move onto the Call of Duty series for a while and more recently on to Bad Company 2 as our ‘multiplayer nights’ game. So now going back to Halo completes the circle. It took a bit of adjusting to get back into the flow and style of the game especially after playing BFBC2!
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Instead of all characters being the same as in Halo 3, you can now choose classes. Depending on the game mode, you will have at least two to choose from, each with their own special ability. For example Scout’s can move faster, the Guard has a shield and then of course there are Jet Packs! The Jet Packs are great fun but not quite as fun as you would think. Bungie were right when they said everything was balanced, as you can just as easily be shot in the air as you can on the ground. The shield was my favourite as you can use it in a variety of situations, in my case it was mainly for protecting myself long enough in the hopes another team mate will kill the shooter. The class system is a great idea, obviously inspired from other games, but what isn’t nowadays?
A new feature is that you can now spawn on your team mates, you do have to choose this very quickly as you only get a few seconds to do it. I think this needs a bit of tweaking as spawning on team mates is great but it is too fiddly to use at the moment. You have to choose your class then scroll through the player names in the space of a few seconds before you automatically spawn.
Another small but very useful addition, and you can miss it if you do not pay attention, can be found at the bottom right of the radar. A short text description of the location you are currently in is displayed. Gone are the days of hurriedly shouting out there are ‘two guys at the broken building’ and receiving replies from your team mates as to ‘which broken building!’.
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Two maps were available to play on; Powerhouse and Sword Base. Powerhouse is a medium sized mostly outside level with a few buildings providing internal cover. If you want to test flight the Jet Pack this is the perfect level as there are plenty of spots to reach at different heights. This was my favourite level of the two as it is more open and allows for varied styles of combat such as up close and personal or long range with the battle rifle.
The second map, Sword Base, is fully internal and is played on multiple levels with a gap in the middle so Jet Pack users can have some fun here. This is a smaller map more suited for close quarters combat, unless you are in the middle where anything can go. The level design is interesting, as to get to the higher levels you have to cross the middle gap which leaves you exposed, make it past the gap and you have the cover of the many rooms and corridors.
I am still learning the layout of the levels, although my map remembering skills have improved after learning BFBC2’s massive maps 🙂 As you would expect with Bungie, the quality of the map designs are very good based on first impressions at least. No doubt I will find some annoyances when I spend more time with the game.
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I did not get a chance to play all the various game types. Maps and game types are now decided by a voting system with all the players in the lobby voting for what they want to play out of a choice of three. This is a double edged sword as it can mean the less popular maps or game types get voted off straight away, but it can also mean your favourite game mode may never be chosen if the majority do not like it. I found this out the hard way last night as I wanted to try different game types but people kept voting for Capture The Flag.
So that is some of my thoughts on the beta so far. I may write a more detailed article on it towards the end of the beta later next month. The few hours I have spent have been great fun and the fun was exactly what I was missing from an online game after playing more ‘serious’ games like BFBC2. All the screenshots in this article were taken from games that I played last night so please take a look through as there are some nice ones, I spent ages trying to get my good side 🙂
The Halo Reach beta will be available to download for Halo: ODST owners on Monday 3rd May. You can find more information on Halo Reach beta here.
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