Happy Mother's Day, peeps! Well, y'know...to those of you who are mothers, that is.
Anyway, I thoughts I'd drop a little review or two on y'all on this fine, now-sunny, Sunday afternoon. Okay, so, after the trouble I went through to get my twitchy little mitts on my copy of Halo 3: ODST--having left it in Texas with my future brother-in-law several months ago--I was finally able to drop (see what I did there? Eh? Aw, forget it.) into the Halo: Reach Beta this weekend.
First thing's first, I am a huge fan of the Halo universe. I've read almost all of the books (those written by Nylund and the one in between, anyway) and absorbed any other media related to the world in which Master Chief routinely lays the proverbial smack down. This ride through Bungie's world has been anything but smooth, mind you, but in those turbulent times I've clung to whatever bits off awesome I could gain purchase on and ridden out the storm. That is to say, I dug deep and found reasons to actually like Halo 3; at least enough to help ease the wait for ODST (the best in the series since Combat Evolved, thus far).
So, needless to say, I was damned excited when Reach was announced. As well as a little tentative in respects to the inevitable multiplayer mode--we knew it was coming, it's the legacy that started Xbox Live's reign as ruler of the Console Online Realm. Yet, the last iteration of this particularly tasty morsel of social gaming goodness had left me with a fairly sour aftertaste. Simply put, Halo 2's initially strong start fizzled at first and then practically winked out when Halo 3 dropped. Sure, there were some cool features--I absolutely love the Theater, but we'll discuss that further below--but, really, they'd deluded more of the awesome than bolstering it and this fact made tolerating the increasingly rampant swarm of immature racists that make up the "players" of this game completely pointless. Especially when there were games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare--a game where shooting someone's face off did not automatically warrant slandering their mother and dipping your digital testicles in their pixelated mouth--around to satiate my need for Social Murder.
But I digress...
With a cautious excitement, I sat down and prepared to dip my toes in a pond I'd long-since believed stagnated. And, I'm here to say that I have emerged refreshed and ready and anxious to explore every crevice in the unknown depths that await me in June. I am, once more, a Halo Multiplayer fan!
Right from the start, I could see that Bungie is aiming for a complete overhaul of their game. For starters, the matchmaking is vastly improved with what appears to be an outward desire to please the various types of people who seek to pit their skills against thousands of like-minded people. This is evidenced in the ability to filter your matchmaking, setting the engine to look for people who are "Quiet" or like to be "Team Players." Conversely, you can set it up to look for people who are "Rowdy" and play the ol' "Lone Wolf" if that's the kind of foul-mouthed, trashtalking evening you have planned.
As to the game, there are all kinds of goodies here to explore. You have nearly complete customization of your character, albeit with limited choices. This is enough to help you distinguish you from the other guy in the yellow Mark VI armor. These customization options revolved around a credits system which works like experience points. The better you do, the higher your level climbs, the more credits you earn to buy that fancy new helmet visor. Which leads me to my favorite change...the ranking system.
Unlike in Halo 3, you can get your armored arse kicked and still feel like the match was worth playing. Granted, if you were on the opposite side of that whoopin' you'd be rewarded better, but you aren't going to be a Private forever just because you've had a handful of bad games. I agree with rewarding "better" performances accordingly, but I'm a bigger fan of thanking people for buying your product and continuing to come back and get teabagged night after night.
The weapons in Reach are a mixture of slightly-different to completely new. Old faves like the Assault Rifle and Shotgun return but have been tweaked enough to feel fresh and relevant again, while the grenade launcher and Needle Rifle are something completely different while still maintaining a feeling of belonging. Along with the tweak in weapons, I am a huge fan of the "Armor Abilities". These are attached to specific loadouts and each puts a new spin on the same game. With abilities like the Jet Pack and Sprint a game of Slayer feels totally different than the same game played with Active Camo (found on the Recon loadout, I believe) and the overshield ability (for which I can't remember the name). With a simple tap of the left bumper, your character can launch into the air, fade into the background or become an invincible...uh...rock--you can't move while your overshield power is active, but rockets and weapons fire is deflected so, if timed right, you can instantly turn your opponent's attack back on himself.
The most welcome change, though, is the fact that your health doesn't automatically regenerate (with the exception of the Elites but I'm pretty sure they have disadvantages that balance that). This means that when I unload into an enemy he can't duck behind a wall and pop back out as if nothing had happened except the emptying of my magazine. There are health packs that refill your players, uh, health...but these are items they have to acquire rather than simply have happen. This makes the game feel more balanced and fair; if you're a terrible shot and you've spent a magazine to lower your opponent's health, your effort isn't laughed at when he turns around and plugs you in the face.
As I said, earlier, the Theater feature has returned. Now, if you've played Halo 3 or ODST, you're familiar with this. However, if you haven't, the Theater is a feature that allows you to playback previous games, allowing you to take control of a free-floating camera so that you can view that wicked assassination from as many angles as possible. Then you can cut out clips--or take screenshots--and upload them to Bungie's File Share for the whole world to view. Aside from the obvious gloating purposes, I find this feature incredibly cool because it shows Bungie's devotion to their fans, especially those who make Machinema.
That's pretty much all I have for now. I'll review the various gametypes specifically later on, when I've had more time with them. But, for now, I'm running out of time.
I did, however, want to take a second to mention that this is Jennifer's first Mother's Day in which she deserves to be honored. She's still pregnant, but I believe that she is going to make a fantastic mother to our baby boy and thoroughly look forward to this day next year, when I can reward her for efforts that I know will be worthy of praise. I love her and Rowan dearly and cherish the family we are building.
So, if you know her, wish her a Happy Mother's Day...if you don't...uh, well, don't be creepy.
Have a fantastic day!
Later!
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