courtesy of arstechnica
After finding myself on the receiving end of so many flames after failing to name Halo: Reach as one of our most-anticipated games of 2010, I promised myself I'd deliver some good coverage of the game for our readers. Bungie did one better, and let us simply play the game for an afternoon. As is our policy, Ars Technica paid for 100 percent of our travel and hotel expenses.
The best preview events, the ones where you know the game is going to be good, are the ones where the people behind the game know enough to get out of the way and let you play the game. Last week I flew into Seattle at the invitation of Bungie to sample the multiplayer of Halo: Reach, and the crew gave the assembled press a short presentation of each of the maps and game modes we would be playing. Then they simply stood back and allowed us to play against each other.
The mood was serious at first, as everyone spent time taking notes and murmuring to themselves about this detail or that reveal, but soon the room devolved into a group of hooting, cursing fans playing the game. "This is the first time anyone outside of Bungie has played this," we were told, but the developers were more than happy to allow us to enjoy the game.
"Do you guys want to play a round of Juggernaut?" we were asked. Of course we did. There was some question of how much to reveal to us in our time with the game, and this seemed to create a short internal struggle. "It's in there," one of the developers said, shrugging as he motioned to our builds of the game. Soon he was setting the game type up on one of our stations, and we were playing. In another round of Headhunter, things were extremely tense as a three-way tie finally ended with a victor. After the cheers, those of us in the room took a moment to sink back into our seats and take a breath.
"That was one of the closest rounds of Headhunter I've seen," we were told by the onlookers. I nodded. The game clicked for everyone in the room, and we were lost in the struggle of collecting the flaming skulls and trying to up our own score. It was a delicious assignment: hang out with a dozen or so members of the gaming press and just take the new multiplayer modes of Halo: Reach out for a test drive. Kick the tires a few times. We weren't shown everything, but we were given the run of the content that will be available in the beta when it goes live, with promises that there was a lot from the full game that we wouldn't be seeing.
There is a reason this series is so respected
There is a fair amount of hate for the Halo series, in the way that anything with this level of popularity brings out the haters. What the nay-sayers don't understand is that nothing else in gaming feels like Halo. If you don't enjoy the series, more power to you; taste in games is personal and you should always play what you like. For those who love Halo though, they understand that it's a slower paced, deliberate, slightly insane multiplayer experience.
The fact that you're stuck with only two guns at a time, the reliance on grenades to flush out enemies, the floaty jumps and the love of melee attacks—it doesn't look or play like anything else on the market. Every time Bungie releases a Halo game, the multiplayer is tweaked and refined and improved, but the formula remains consistent. Halo is a game that simply works, and its fans expect a high level of polish when they play.
Matchmaking is set to get a boost in this version of Halo, with a smoother experience that works well even with more players. The new system also allows for impressive granularity: you can make the game prioritize connection speed, skill level, or games in your native language when trying to find a game. You also have social settings to choose from, to make sure you play with people who match your style. Do you talk? Are you quiet? Do you play competitively, or simply to enjoy yourself? Do you go Rambo, or enjoy teamwork? Do you like a polite game, or are you a trash talker? By adjusting all these options you'll be able to filter out people whose play styles may be distasteful, allowing you a better play experience.
There is also a credit system, where you gain virtual currency by playing the game. You use these credits to buy different options for your armor, and your aesthetic choices will be shown in both the single and multiplayer modes. You gain credits by playing the game, and by clearing challenges that will be constantly added to the game. Daily challenges may be easy to accomplish, but the weekly challenges will require a heavier time commitment. Commendations will also be awarded based on your behavior, with seven different Commendations included in the beta. All these things simply serve as your way to gain credits, and the credits are only spent on prestige items to change how you look to other players.
Derek Carroll is the Multiplayer Designer on Halo: Reach, and I asked him if there was ever a temptation to allow players to purchase better weapons or powers with credits."Not for us," he said. He understands that some games have you begin with an underpowered character and make you earn a "good character," but that simply doesn't fit into what they want for their own games. "Halo has always been about everyone having the same bag of tools... when you first start playing it you'll learn and grow, the RPG happens on the inside." You get better with practice, not by earning better weapons and abilities. "It has come up, but internally there has not been the temptation to do that."
The multiplayer isn't class-based, but you'll be making choices
Certain game modes will ask you to choose from a selection of armor powers, which come with a set loadout when you spawn. You'll still be able to pick up any weapon in the battlefield, but these powers will affect your strategy and give you some advantages in certain situations.
The jetpack was the most remarked upon addition to multiplayer, and it adds a very welcome sense of the vertical to the game. It's also wonderful to simply fly over the head of an opponent stalking you with the energy sword. You have a limited amount of thrust, and you can take falling damage if you fly too high and don't have the energy left to break your fall. Spartans can also take the Sprint ability, which is simply a flat run to increase your speed, while taking away your ability to shoot. The Elites can take the Evade power, which allows them to dodge and roll away from attacks, just like they do in the single-player game. Throwing a well-aimed grenade, only to have your prey tuck and roll to the side and continue to come after you is unsettling, to say the least.
Active Camo is now an Armor Ability as well, giving the player a limited time to be less visible. Standing completely still makes you completely invisible, while walking, running, and shooting makes you easier to pick out. Armor Lock is an interesting ability: when activated the Spartan crouches and becomes completely invincible, but cannot shoot or move. It's an easy way to soak even the most powerful weapon shots, and if you stay down for long enough, you throw off an EMP charge when you get up, killing the shields of nearby enemies and allowing you to quickly turn the tables. It's a risk/reward move, but when used well it's a very effective tactic.
You choose your Armor Power when you spawn, and can change from one to the other as many times as you'd like in a single round. Don't worry: there are still plenty of game modes that don't allow these powers if you like a more classical experience. Each game mode offers different loadouts, with a combination of weapons and Armor Abilities to choose from, and those will be specific to different game modes and maps. In the final version you may also be able to customize these yourself.
Invasion ups the scale of Halo multiplayerThe largest change in the multiplayer of Halo: Reach is the Invasion game mode. Maps with multiple objectives, played with Spartans against the Elites, will make this mode a hit among fans of a more tactical and team-based experience. The map we played was Boneyard, a large graveyard for decommissioned ships. The Elites have to climb onto a vessel being held by the Spartans, and stand inside set areas for twenty seconds to unlock the next area. The second area features vehicles, upping the scale of the battle, and each progressive step allows both sides to choose from more powerful loadouts and Armor Abilities.
After opening the second set of doors, the Elites have to steal a power core and walk it to an extraction point to win. At this point in the round there will be Scorpions and Scarab tanks fighting; there is a Warthog available, as well as Wraiths, and all the loadouts are available. The last push, with the Elite running the power core to safety, can be incredibly chaotic, and team play is essential to win. The round ends either when time runs out or the Elites steal the power core, and then roles are reversed.
We played this mode for a few hours, and quite simply, it's brilliant. There are many ways to win the objectives, and it was amusing to see an Elite turn on his active camo and stand stock still inside one of the objectives while the defending Spartans seemed confused by the alarms telling them an enemy was attacking the objective. Once jetpacks are unlocked, both sides begin to swarm the skies. It's quite the sight.
Generator Defense
Generator Defense also pits the Elites against the Spartans, with the Spartans defending a series of generators from the invading aliens. Played on the scenic Overlook map, the Spartans have the ability to "lock down" the generators and make them invulnerable for short amounts of time. Grenades take down the power of the generators very quickly, as do melee attacks. The problem with melee attacks? When the generators are destroyed, they erupt, as I found out painfully the first time I played and my body was blasted across the level.
You'll see the power level for each generator, and alarms tell the defenders when one is under attack. It's a difficult game of locking down the generators and trying to be at all places at once while the attacking forces harass the Spartans and take pot shots at the generators. Again, team play is essential to success in this game mode, so be sure you have voice chat on (as scary as that can be in public games of Halo).
Other new game modes
In Headhunter, fallen players drop a flaming skull, which can be picked up and deposited in set scoring areas for points. You can carry up to ten skulls at once, although when you die you drop all your skulls, while adding your own. If someone is able to deposit ten skulls at once, it's an automatic win. The number of skulls you're carrying is shown above your character, so the more you carry, the more of a target you'll become.
In Stockpile, a set number of neutral flags are scattered around the level, and those can be picked up and placed in your team's scoring area. Here's the catch: the point only counts when the timer counts down to zero, so before that time enemies can raid your scoring area to steal your flags, or simply remove them so you don't score.
As we stated above, we were also able to play Juggernaut, with a few changes. Now, when the Juggernaut changes between players there will be a small interval when the Juggernaut is invulnerable, causing the players fighting the last Juggernaut to scatter as the invincible player slams everyone he sees with the hammer. The stat for becoming the Juggernaut was listed in our builds as "Jugg time," which we were assured was simply placeholder. It's a shame, that. Who doesn't love Jugg time?
New Weapons
The weapons will be familiar to fans of the series, with a few nice additions. The Plasma Repeater is the Covenant version of the assault rifle, but instead of reloading you'll vent the gun to cool it down. When you pull the trigger the rate of fire is impressive, but it drops as the gun collects heat. Vent often.
The Grenade Launcher sends out a bouncing, hard-to-aim grenade. By holding the trigger button you can control when the grenade detonates, allowing you to set traps for your prey. The Plasma Launcher is my personal favorite: a Covenant weapon that can fire up to four plasma grenades that stick to your opponents. The grenades even track your opponents to a limited degree, making this a wonderful weapon to use against vehicles.
The Focus Rifle is the update to the Covenant Sniper Rifle, but it now fires a continuous beam. The DMR is the updated Battle Rifle, good for headshots and medium- to long-range fighting. The Needle Rifle is a longer-range Needler.
These weapons are welcome additions, but there isn't anything here that will come as a shock. Learning how and when to use each may take a little bit of time, but the new weapons seem to be mostly evolutions of what we were already used to.
Derek Carroll
I had a chance to sit down with Derek Carroll, who is the Multiplayer Designer for Halo: Reach. The first thing I asked was, "How do you make sure something that's as much of a game-changer as a jet pack doesn't change the game for the worse."
"We playtest every single day," he told Ars. They add something new, playtest it over and over, let their team find exploits, sand down the exploits, and finally arrive at something that works.
An example of that level of polish: during a game of Headhunter, someone noticed that skulls dropped inside the scoring area simply disappeared. That was a conscious decision, as it became a popular strategy to simply wait in the box and kill those trying to score. As we played, we were talked through many of these tiny tweaks that made the gameplay smoother, and kept the competition heavy but fair. These things may seem idiosyncratic at first, but it became clear that every decision was made to keep the game as balanced as possible. It's an impressive amount of care.
So what's something that didn't work? Carroll talks about one dropped feature. "Invasion at one time had an economy where you got money and spent it on weapons and vehicles. That level of complexity, where you add another layer to the basic Halo gameplay—it was interesting, but you spend so much time worrying about money and these other things that you don't have enough time to worry about tactics and keeping the team completing your objective," he explained. "Everyone worrying about making money for themselves took away from the point of just capturing [the objective]. So we had that for a while, tried it out, and that additional complexity... it's not better."
Being in a beta, back in the proverbial day, meant dealing with an unfinished game, writing out bug reports, and working for the right to play the game early. Has the role of the beta changed? "Absolutely. The thing with betas is, everyone wants to get into the beta. If it's a game you're excited about, of course you want it sooner. Do you want to be part of the process? Yeah."
While Carroll is open about the publicity factor inherent in offering a beta for a game of this popularity, he stresses that they'll still be learning. "This is a working beta for us, we're going to get some good data out of it. We wouldn't do it just for fun, or just for marketing. But recognizing that there is a marketing upside, people are excited and want to see it and play it, it's a way to give them a slice and get a lot of information for ourselves. It's great."
Everyone is looking at something different once the beta goes live: Are there exploits? How does the game feel? Is the back-end working? Where are the player populations gathering? Everyone at Bungie has something they're going to learn from. At one point Carroll called the beta a "demo" before correcting himself.
Carroll doesn't worry about any ideas being completely rejected, however. "Because we internally playtest so much, because we're own biggest critics—maybe not according to the forums (laughs)—I'd be very surprised if the entire universe said, 'This is stupid' by the time we show it to them. Reach Multiplayer is so big I really think there is something for everybody, there are so many kinds of game in the game."
The most important question: how was it?
We played the game for about six hours, with a break for lunch and for interviews. The new multiplayer modes are already tuned very tightly, and the maps are filled with surprises and tactical opportunity. Learning how to use the Armor Abilities and to remember to look above you for jetpack attacks took time, but it also opened the game up wonderfully.
The game won't convince you to play if you don't care for the Halo style of play, but for fans of console-style multiplayer, this is one of the best experiences you'll find. The different game modes offer something for team players, for lone wolves, and the ability to tweak the game settings and set up your own games means that you can stick to the modes and style you like the best.
This is a significant improvement in both scope and execution from Halo 3, with plenty of new things to see and do. You'll be able to play for yourself when the beta goes live on May 3, and I think you'll be just as excited as we were last week. Halo is one of the most popular franchises in gaming, and that didn't happen by luck: even while playing unfinished code the content felt polished, tweaked, and well designed.
Invasion is going to be fun to play online, and Headhunter is a riot if you don't mind a little bit of anarchy. Swordbase is a wonder with the jetpacks—it feels like Boarding Action, but now you have even more power to move vertically. The options here are impressive, and so many play styles and options are presented that it can be slightly overwhelming. Even just looking at the content included in the beta, this is an impressive suite of multiplayer offerings, and the office was filled with the groans, cheers, and good-natured curses as the gaming press learned the game modes and tried out the new weapons. No razzle-dazzle from Bungie—we just sat down and played.
See you online very soon.
