Halo Reach Preview

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We love halo, we can’t deny it. Every console gamer secretly loves halo, it’s in our blood to have a relationship with a robot human which has saved the galaxy so many times we can’t count. Like magiva It’s just fascinating to watch what will happen next, will it consume a planet to a colony of insects? Or will it cause the entire world to spontaneously combust, ‘pop’.

Recently we got a chance to go and play the improved firefight and forge modes at the Churchill War Rooms in London. Fittingly the location was made to control huge battles in Europe, kind of like firefight but not really. That was a failed analogy. We also got a chance to speak to 2 minds of Bungie: Niles Sankey and Brian Jarrad to ask them the all important questions about what will make Halo Reach what it is.

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Released: 14 September 2010
Category: First Person Shooter
Age: 16 Years and above
Publisher: Microsoft

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Firefight 2.0

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Firefight was originally introduced in Halo: ODST, it was something new that the Halo franchise had never seen before. It allowed you with 3 of your mates to team up and take on waves and waves on covenant which slowly but surely became more badass each and every round, It was quite hard. The mode was fixed to the certain amount of enemies in each round, wave and match. So after you played it the first time, you were pretty much done with Firefight, which was a real shame. You couldn’t even take it online to do some matchmaking, you had to have friends to play with, so if Jayson, Tedd and Steve weren’t online you’d have to bode alone! Good luck with that.

Reach’s firefight brings a hell of a lot more. The bungie guys have allowed you to go in and fiddle with as many of the game parameters as you wish, hell, go to work soldier! It’s mental. The menu system to do all these changes is around 6 pages long and varies from changing what you will encounter in each/which wave, the player’s game effects and the opportunity to create your own skull effects (Effecting either your team or the enemy). With so many options our minds boggle, what will those crazy Halo fans come up with? Someone clever geezer will create a game mode which will allow the game’s  longevity to last the century.

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We got to play a handful of  brand new maps which were taken straight out of the environments which you will encounter in the singleplayer game, some of the areas were quaint little spoilers which to some might just nag the player to finish the singleplayer campaign. This time round you can actually play as the covenant and team up against fellow friendly Spartans. Obviously human players are better equipped and will blow you out the sky but you still have the advantage of sneaking up behind them and doing a swift assassination attempt. Whilst playing as the covenant you do have an a.i team with you to help you out but they are just mostly cannon fodder to annoy the humans. You could even call them a well placed distraction.

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All of the custom game modes we played were created using the firefight editor and can be created by you guys at home! It was Bungie’s way of saying “This is what we made earlier in the office”. We played game types which might of as well been called: Rocketfight (Everyone had rocket launchers, KA-BOOM), Gruntactualar (only grunts in the wave) and Mentai (Super human powers, Spartans are practically unstoppable, for a bunch of laughs) . As well as playing against the covenant we did try out some of the versus modes which put you head to head with your fellow friends. Like we explained earlier, It does work, then again It doesn’t. We felt that the versus mode needs a slight ironing out, although that said, we may just be too good for our own good.

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One last thing to add about Firefight (as well as the overall game), you can now drive human civilian vehicles. In one of the maps we could take to the wheel of a forklift truck. It was comedy gold seeing a covenant elite driving past in a forklift. A little bit of wee came out. Sadly the forklift was useless as it was the same speed as a snail attempting to slime down your front garden. We’ve been told that you can expect to man random vehicles that have been left to die after years of civilian use. These can create some hilarity in the gameplay but sadly not make it any better. Everything we found was completely useless. It just caused you to get shot at, constantly.

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Forge Mode

There was many a complaint when Halo 3 came out. People making comment that consoles will never be able to have a ‘proper‘ map editor on board. Even the guy’s over at Epic Games made a statement saying that Forge mode isn’t a map editor, It’s a map ‘fiddler’ allowing you to just mess about. Well now they might as well eat their own trousers because Forge just got juiced. This has now become a world of fun, Forge World to be precise.

It’s still called Forge, they’ve just added a brand new map called Forge World. ‘FW’ is the biggest map that bungie has ever compiled. It’s the size of blood gulch and then some. It’s a map so vast it has been split up into 5 different sections. This map could be used as one big slaughterhouse or, by choice, your own little playground in the middle of nowhere. You can set your diameters in which you work in. The world has been purposely made to re-create all of your previous halo classics. We were shown how to re-build Lockout, or even Ascension. This world has been made for your creative-mind to go absolutely mental. Like Firefight we can’t wait to see what you the fans come up with. All this space is full of possibility.

Forge mode’s options have also been given a big overhaul. One of the main problems in the original was that you couldn’t build a solid floating structure without building a ‘work around hack’. People worked out ways to create something to float by stacking stuff high and then deleting each of the pillars, leaving a floating structure. Worry no more! We now have the ability to render structures with the option of ‘fixed’. Fixed makes sure it stays still wherever it is. Perfect for re-creating that spaceship map you’ve always wanted!

The phased gravity mode is the most interesting. Phasing allows to objects to seamlessly merge together and create an even more interesting structure. Phased basically means, endless possibilities! It allows you to create objects that you wouldn’t normally be possible or be available in the, lets call it, ‘Forge Shop’ (Open 24/7). Perfect for creating the perfect shaped gate, wall or even hangar! Always wanted that warthog to have its own garage? Then simply mush some structures together and wala! People who wouldn’t normally be interested in all of this may just have a go at all these new options, you never know, you might just become the next Alan Sugar.

Overall then:

This is what we want to see! They have improved forge so much that they have created an actual world and they’ve stuck steroids in Firefight making it even more addictive. The only thing next is for the fans to get their grubby greasy hands all over the endless possibilities of Halo Reach. This could mean that you might not even need another Halo game ever again. Some readers may think “thank goodness” others may just think that they can’t stop now! Well that is now in 343 Industries hands. Those gold plated hands.