Red vs. Blue

Hey gang, just wanted to give you guys my impressions of the Halo: Reach Multiplayer that has engulfed over a million people. There's a lot to talk about here, so I may cuts this into two parts.

First off, let me say I was very skeptical about this new Halo. Health, fall damage, and no more veto power had me a little edgy when it came to the game. But my fears were washed I way when I popped in Halo 3: ODST for the first time in a long time to play the beta. I can say that this exceeds my expectations in every way, is ten times better than Modern Warfare 2 and more fun to play than Halo 3. Now to tell you why.

Gameplay: Pop into the fight and you can tell right away this is a whole new Halo. Welcome to Reach, the greatest and farthest UNSC outpost. You're not Master Chief in this puppy. You're a Spartan III, and with that come big changes to the game. For starters, you have health underneath your shields. You may remember this if you played Halo: Combat Evolved or ODST. You're not the One Man Army you were in Halo 3. If you fall from too great a height, you take some damage. If you fall from an impossible height, you take some death. You don't hit as hard as you did, so no more Halo 3 type battles. Let me explain. A classic Halo 3 scenario: Two combatants rush each other, Assault Rifles blazing. When they meet, they melee. One, or both, die. In Reach, one hit will only deplete the remainder of the shield, another is needed to kill. So in the game I've found myself shooting my AR until shields are completely depleted, then using my sidearm to finish off an enemy, rather than get mixed up in the melee.
One of the BIG changes that I love is that of Armor Abilities. Each Spartan gets one, and each brings something new to the table. Sprint is great for people who don't want to deal with confusing techniques and just want to rush and make quick escapes. Jetpacks allow for quick manueverability around maps. Guard allows you to lockdown yourself in a last ditch effort to survive the deadliest attacks. Stalker lets you become invisible and jam your enemies radar, the slower you move, the harder you are to see. Each works well if you play the "class" right, especially on the new gametypes.
The new gametypes are awesome. Stockpile is a CTF game that requires timing and defense rather than speed and transport. Cap flags in your area and defend them until they're counted toward you score. Headhunter is Free For All Territories. Grab skulls and deposit them in an area to score. But the one I really LOVE is Invasion. In my honest opinion, this is Bungie's 9th Symphony. Elites vs. Spartans. The way God intended. Some will be happy to know that Elites are badasses once again, having more shields, regenerative health, and a powerful "Evade" armor ability. Both are paired in three teams of two, allowing for teamwork and partner-spawning. The Elites must infilitrate a fortified Spartan stronghold and deposit a "Core" into a designated extraction zone over the course of three stages. The one map the beta has for this is Boneyard, the biggest map Bungie has ever done. As the Elites tear away at Spartan defenses, new parts of the map open up, new vehicles appear, and new Armor abilities are unlocked. By the final stage, it's an all-out war. The thing that baffled me was how balanced the game type was. There were games when Elites rolled through the whole game in minutes, some when Spartans kept the Core just inches away from the extraction zone and won, and others still when Spartans didn't even let Elites past the first stage. It's big, it's bad, it's glorious.
Finally, the weapons have been tuned up a bit to suit the action, with crosshairs actually expanding if the weapon is fired too long. The AR is much tougher, with better range, more damage, and more kick. Grenades have a bigger blast radius, making them much more lethal. The BR is gone, replaced by the single-shot DMR, which could be a little more powerful but still is a lot of fun to use. The Halo 1 pistol is back and still lethal when shields are gone. The new needle rifle is a long range beast, causing targets to explode when shields are down. But I would say the only overpowered weapon in the game is the plasma launcher, which fires FOUR LOCK-ON Plasma grenades and almost always gets multiple kills on vehicles. Could be better tuned, but other than that, it's the classic Halo weapons you know and love.

That's it for part 1. Stay tuned for part 2, where I'll talk about some other tidbits about the new game.