Halo Reach beta: A Discussion

The following conversation on the finer points of Halo Reach took place between the hours of 9am and 5pm on May 5th, 2010. It has been posted here, almost entirely unedited, for your perusal. We swear we were doing work in the process...

Tony: So having had a couple days with Halo: Reach, what are your initial impressions?

Nick: One word: awesomeness. The beta is reminding me why I fell in love with Halo in the first place.

Tony: I agree. Bungie really seems to have gone back to their roots a bit more with this one- Health is back, dual-wielding is out, and the pistol (magnum) is actually good again.

Nick: To me this game doesn't feel like Halo 3 or even ODST. It somehow feels more like Halo CE but leaps and bounds ahead of what CE was. And there is nothing wrong with that. I think what Bungie is giving us this time around is a great direction to head in. It takes what people love about Halo and cranks it up a notch in order to get rid of what some consider to be stale gameplay.

Tony: I agree, but to be clear, Reach definitely has that Halo feel to it. In my first few minutes with it, I just kept thinking "Yep, this is Halo." If you already loved the Halo series, you will find more to love with Reach. If you hated the Halo series, this probably won't sway your opinion even with all the new features.

Speaking of new features, what are your thoughts on the new armor abilities? Personally I think they add a strongly-needed layer of strategy to a series that was starting to seem pretty vanilla in the face of games like Call of Duty.

Nick: Couldn't have said it better myself. I love them. Personally I use Armor Lock the most and Sprint when I need to in CTF games. I think they all have there place but I feel like a lot of people will really lean towards using one or two abilities more than the others. What do you think?

Tony: I have yet to find a really solid reason to use the jetpack aside from the "Hey look I'm flying" factor. I admit that could just be due to my limited experience with it but I see it as a big ole' bullseye. Sprint seems pretty useful for chasing down loose flags or getting to a territory but I don't find myself using it that much. Armor Lock and Active Camo (cloaking) are my two go-to armor abilities simply for how good they are in utility. Armor Lock is great for flag defense when you're in a tight spot and Active Camo works wonders when the enemy is busy defending against a rush of your non-cloaked teammates.

Have you gotten to try all of the beta gametypes yet? I'm really digging Stockpile, and SWAT seems to have become much more enjoyable than it was in Halo 3.

Nick: I've tried every mode that is available at this point except for Oddball. Nobody ever wants to play it. I imagine it will work just how it did in previous games though. As far as new gametypes, I feel ya on stockpile. It's a gametype that feels like it should have been a part of Halo matchmaking from the beginning. SWAT definitely has a new feel to it without the presence of the BR. But the DMR and Needle Rifle are a welcomed replacement in this gametype.

This being a beta and all, have you found any glitches or any annoyances with the gameplay at this point?

Tony: Just a few minor issues. The big one that I know Bungie is aware of is the stockpile "bug" in which your teammates can pick up flags you've dropped inside the circle and re-drop them, essentially stealing the point(s) from you. Other than that, I had the game deduct credits from me after a match rather than add them to my total. Only saw that once, though.

Nick: Yeah, and I really hope they fix that stockpile bug. I was betrayed a few times last night while I was on my way to dropping off a flag in our capture spot which doesn't even make sense considering we are in beta and nothing we do here will carry over to the actual game.

The only other thing I've heard some people complain about and I didn't care for at first was 1 Flag CTF on Sword Base. At first it seems that you really have a hike ahead of yourself once you grab the other team's flag but I think once you do it a few times you realize that it really isn't any further than on other maps. It seems longer because you are going uphill instead of straight across.

Tony: I have to say I'm really enjoying the new weapons, namely the DMR and the Plasma Repeater. The former is like a single round Battle Rifle (think FAL from Modern Warfare) and the latter is essentially the Covenant answer to the Assault Rifle. Unlike the original Plasma Rifle the Repeater doesn't overheat, its rate of fire merely slows as it's fired. Instead of reloading, you "vent" it to cool it down. Have you had an opportunity to use all the new weapons?

Nick: I have used all the new weapons and I like them a lot, although I have been using some of the older weapons, such as the needler, more often. In fact, while using the sniper rifle, I noticed it has a new scope which works out pretty nicely. And speaking of older weapons, the frag and plasma grenades are still around but I see they now have weight and damage to them prior to exploding. You can definitely see when you throw a frag grenade that it no longer just flies in a straight line. Plus you can kill an enemy just by hitting them with a grenade if they are hurt enough. All in all I think the new weapons blend well with the old weapons and fit well into the Halo universe.

Tony: Agreed. No weapon really seems out of place, although continuity-wise it does raise some questions as to where these weapons disappeared to following the events of Reach. Oh and did I mention how much I love the Focus Rifle? Because, yeah, I do.

Nick: That's true. I believe I saw a video explaining something about the new weapons and why they aren't around in the later games.

All said, I'm really enjoying the beta and what I've gotten to play so far. Keep in mind there are still some things we have yet to see like vehicles and the Invasion gametype. And personally I am looking forward to Invasion. It will be cool to see how the differences between the Spartans and the Elites will effect the gameplay.

If there is one thing that this beta is accomplishing, it's making me really want to play the rest of the game including campaign.

Tony: Absolutely. It'll be interesting to see what new content comes by way of the beta, but even more interesting to see what the final product will bring.  September 1st, 2010 can't come soon enough!