When video game fans bought Halo 3 ODST, a single player expansion to the wildly popular Halo 3, they were also promised access to Halo Reach. At the time that ODST came out owners knew what reach was and what the access to it would mean. Much to the excitement of Halo fans it was later announced Reach would be the next installment in the Halo series and that ODST owners would be able be part of the multiplayer beta.
A beta is a pre-release of a game to a select group of gamers that will help to test it before the final product is shipped. Usually beta’s are for games that use the Internet to see how they react to network stress.
The Halo Reach beta is one of the largest beta’s in console history.
This is why it should have been no surprise that when the beta became open, things didn’t work perfectly. Some players complained that it took them up to three hours to download the game and then it didn’t work. It only took me around 20 minutes to download it Monday afternoon but I was only able to play one game before the server refused to work again. However, when I got back on late Monday night there were no problems even when playing with friends all over the state and more than half a million people online.
Now, the game. With different armor options that players choose after every death it may seem like the developers wanted to make the game more like Call of Duty, the other popular first-person shooter, but Reach still maintains the quintessential Halo feel while moving the game-play forward.
The armor abilities are, a jet pack, invisibility, sprinting and armor lock, which makes you temporarily invulnerable but also immobile. These abilities are not only surprisingly well balanced but versatile enough that you aren’t just going to pick one and stick to it over the course of a game. This is more evident in capture the flag when your distance away from the flag and your comparative altitude changes.
The ranking has also changed, there seems to be a system in which you can trade your experience points for different armor improvements. Also, in the “Arena,” which offers solely team slayer matches, players are ranked in comparison to the rest of the population broken up by divisions. The game is seasons-based, lasting around a month and a half until rankings are reset.
A new game type, called Invasion, was added a week after the release and pits Spartans against Elites to try and capture and defend territories.
Despite just having two maps to play and limited game types, the beta gives a great indication of what the full game will hold. And I for one am looking forward to it.