My Thoughts on the Halo: Reach beta

Last week, the Halo Reach beta went live, and ever since then, I've been playing almost everyday, and discussing it with a number of players, both of various websites, and via XBOX 360 Live. Here's my thoughts so far.

(When the gametype "Generator Defense" becomes available later this week, I'll update the page with my thoughts on that)

New Gametypes

-Invasion. Very cool game the first few times playing it, and the close games were always heart-racing. But after playing it a few times more, it became very monotonous. "Okay, let's stand here for a few seconds. Okay, next area same thing. Now everyone cover me while I win for us." Or, "Okay their comnig up the steps don't let them get that territory. Oh crap they got that territory. Well let's guard the next one. They got that too? Okay let's all hide inside with shotguns or grenade launchers and hope for the best."
--Invasion Slayer: No complaints whatsoever, with one exception: let's see 8v8. 12 people just aren't enough for a mega-large map such as Boneyard. But if these types of games are the future of big team, the future is looking bright.

-Stockpile: Meh. It's not terrible, but with the hype Bungie was giving it, and with it being one of the first games to play in the beta, I was honestly expecting more. A lot of it has to do with placement of the flags. For example, on Powerhouse I can easily get three flags very close to either base in under a minute, and repeat until I have ten flags total.

-Headhunter: I honestly haven't played enough to comment.

New Weapons

-DMR: Love it. You had me sold when you said "single shot". Only change I would make would be to lessen the recoil just a smidge, to make SWAT go a little faster.

-M6G: Ditto

-Grenade "Pro-Pipe" Launcher: I don't care what anybody says, it's a power weapon, and thus shouldn't be included in Loadouts. Anything that is a one shot kill at any range is a power weapon. It doesn't one shot kill with full health and shields in standard firing, but hold down the trigger and strap on a jetpack and your about to own the game. My suggestion? Reduce the firing power by 1/3, keep same amount of ammo at spawn, boost maximum ammo by 3 grenades, and keep the same reload time and shots per reload.

-Plasma Launcher: DOES NOT BELONG ON SWORD BASE. Other than that, I'm all right with it. I will however say the same thing about it as I did about the Spartan Laser when I was running my blog: keep it out of vehicle heavy maps. It turns what could be an epic vehicular battle into "Avoid the guy with the Laser/Launcher".

-Focus Rifle: Very nice weapon, but again, it doesn't really belong on a smaller map.

-Needle Rifle: Take everything I said about the DMR and copy/paste.

-Plasma Repeater: I honestly don't understand why Bungie couldn't change the Plasma Rifle to be closer the Assault Rifle, but other than that, I love it. My preferred combo is DMR/M6G and Plasma Repeater.

-Gravity Hammer: Not new, but it's worth discussion: the lunging distance is WAY too far. I may just be used to Halo 3's distance, but the Reach distance seems like I could take out anyone inside a small sized room just by standing in the doorway and pulling the trigger.

Vehicles

-Banshee: I honestly don’t like the redesign, but I don’t mind it enough to not use the Banshee. The firing modes are pretty much the same, so no complaints there. I do, however, wish it flew like in ODST, what with the ability to hover and whatnot.

-Warthog: While it makes sense on paper for the chain gun to overheat (especially to balance vehicle vs. on foot encounters), it doesn’t make any difference in game, and it’s just illogical. Those types of guns are designed with three barrels, that way each barrel has time to cool down before being used again, thus preventing overheating. Completely. 100%. Bungie: CHAIN GUNS DON’T OVERHEAT.*

-Ghost: Didn’t notice any differences, no need to comment.

-Wraith: Same as Ghost, but I’ll add that I like how my fireteam-mate will spawn inside the turret (same with Warthog and Scorpion).

-Scorpion: I don’t know if it’s just me, but something doesn’t feel right about the steering.

-Falcon: I really wish Bungie had included this in the beta. Shame on you. But before the game is finalized for fall, let me add this: it would be really nice to also see the Phantom finally make an appearance in multiplayer, and since they are pretty much the same except for whose flag their flying (one gun up front, two on the side, VTOL, and riders enter from the side), it’d be great to see the Phantom/Falcon in an epic, Mega Big Team Battle to the death (with dropships!).

Armor Abilities
-Sprint: Wish it had a little bit longer of running time (no pun intended), but other than that no complaints.

-Jetpack: With it and Sprint being the “transportation” abilities, the speed needs to be a little higher to balance things out. I also wish it would let me go a little higher, but that’s just me.

-Armor Lock: I don’t know if it’s just lag, but a good 70% of the time either a teammate, opponent, or myself used it, there was no EMP at the end. Especially crappy if that’s the only thing to count on.

-Active Camouflage: Completely worthless. The only problem is movement; it’s a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t situation. If you move, you start fading back into visibility, rendering you an easy target, and no defense in the form of running/jetting away/locking down. If you don’t move, your enemies will eventually look at the radar and notice all the blips. They search long enough, and (since the game doesn’t render the user completely invisible, at close range you can see the bent light) kill the poor fella (you!). Oi.

Other
-Bungie’s new attitude towards players and consumers: Even Aisha Tyler’s pretty face can’t hide the fact that Bungie is beginning to treat its fans like dirt. Yes, we know a lot is changing, but I’ll say the same thing I said about Sarah Palin: don’t use the phrase “if you don’t like it, leave.” Because we will. There are a number of things we could spend $60 (or $150 in my case) on, and the first thing that would come to my mind wouldn’t be a video game. Thank you for making another Halo game before finishing the series, and thank you for changing it enough from the last game to warrant the price tag, but honestly, I could do without reading the Friday update every week in utter disgust. Disgust from reading an article by a company that used to be all about the fans but has now become the one to hate.

*And before anyone says “Well maybe the technology in the future is different”, no. If it were going to change significantly, it would still lead to less and less overheating, with innovations in materiel, firing speed, even the size of the round. Any argument trying to support overheating won’t be doing much except condemn it even worse.