Halo Reach Beta Impressions - Day I

Well, thanks to my position as a part-time employee with an unamed video game retailer, I was able to score a Halo Reach Beta code today. As some of you who follow my Twitter feed may know, I refused to succumb to the pressure to purchase ODST as a means of participation in the Beta as a matter of principle. I strongly feel that requiring fans of a genre to buy a (substandard) game at a cost of $60 just to be able to participate in a highly anticipated beta program is not only misuses the enthusiasm of the community, but it sets the a very dangerous precedent. I realize that Bungie did this the last time around for Halo 3 as well. However, my impression is that were many more opportunities outside of buying crackdown where a fan could get a chance to participate. I myself was able to score a Halo 3 beta code via the random drawing process. Even though some codes are being given away in support of the Reach beta, it seems that the availabilty of such codes is much more limited this time around.

But enough of my belly aching about crappy marketing tactics and the intentional missuse of the public trust. What do I think about Halo Reach thus far? First, the graphics are pretty, but do not seem that much better than Halo 3 IMHO. The gameplay however, has been tweaked substantially, and for the better. I liked Halo 3 (as much as I considered it more Halo 2.5), but it didn't really give me much in the way of new innovatins and game variants to sink my teeth into. The Halo Reach Beta seems to hint at a much greater variability than we have seen in the Halo genre to date. I like the fact that you can use credits (in essence experience points) earned during gameplay to purchase visual upgrades for your player character. I also like the fact that weapon availability is NOT tied to the earning of credits. As someone who has limited time to play online these days, the trend of rewarding more hours spent within a game with better, more powerful weaponry is one of which I am no fan. To the extent that I only purchased MW2 a few weeks ago (new, but at a serious discount) and have yet to unwrap that game. I think it is a good thing that Bungie has decided to reward players who can invest numerous hours into thier game, but not at the expense of the average adult gamer who must fit in work, family and other responsibilties along side gaming time.

The 3 maps that are available thus far are ok, but rather uninspired. The new weapon load-outs and character classes take a bit of getting used to, but add a depth to the game that creates variability in one's experience. even adding a bit of strategy as your choice of class may be affected by how your team is curretnly fairing in battle. If you are in the midst of a CTF game and your team is ahead with time running out, you might choose the guard class and work to protect your own flag. However, if you are on a map with considerable variability in vertical distribution, you might opt for the air assault load-out. I like this new aspect of the Halo experience and look forward to playing around with the various load-outs within different game type to see what works best for my style of gameplay.

Despite some bitching from the (mostly non-2old2play) players in the rooms that I was in tonight, I also really enjoyed the new Stockpile game mode in which you basically try to be the first team to collect (and keep) ten randomly placed flags withn a given time period. I found this combination of CTF and Base Defense gameply quite enjoyable. At least when the players on my team understood and acted on the objectives of the game mode. On a few occasions, I had teammates who would remove flags from our "stockpile" thinking that they had to take them elsewhere. As you would guess, bitching and hilarity were soon to follow.

Bottom line, as someone who has always enjoyed the Halo franchise, but never drank the Kool-Aid to the point of rabid fanboyism, I am really enjoying the Halo Reach Beta thus far. I look forward to digging into the latest chapter in the Halo Saga more in the coming weeks and hope to see some of you online as I do.

My Halo Reach Stats So Far - Not Bad for a Gears Guy