Halo: Reach Beta: A Live Journal

We spent all Friday exploring the new Halo: Reach beta; check out our first five hours with the hotly anticipated game.

Bungie and Microsoft supplied Game Informer with a number of early codes for the new multiplayer beta. If you haven't yet been lucky enough to get one of the codes we've been giving out over Twitter (@gameinformer), you may have to wait until the formal beta launch next week. In the meantime, I'll be playing the game for the next several hours to fill you in on what you can expect out of the new multiplayer features.

UPDATE 1, 0:20:

After a big gigabyte download, the beta lands in my game library, and I'm off to the races. Before diving into the action, I head into Settings and get my avatar ready to go.

It's clear from the start that Reach offers a dramatically expanded approach to visual customization, but the beta only has some of those options integrated. The beta Armory includes the option to change your helmet, left shoulder, right shoulder, and chest piece, along with the expected variations on emblem and colors. I make a couple tweaks to my helmet, but there's not much else I can do at this point – most of the armor changes requires credits to purchase. Being an untested private, there's not much wealth to spread around.

The menu also allows you to explore the File Browser for interesting screenshots and videos, along with a history of my online sessions. Nothing's in my history right now, so it's off to Matchmaking.

Once I head in, I can select what Playlist I'd like to jump into. I leave the setting on the default Grab Bag, so I can see all the available modes.  It looks like there's about 2,500 people online at this point – you think that's likely to grow next week?

I'm itching to play my first match, but I hop into Social Settings first, and I'm pleased by what I find. This features filters for matching you with like-minded players. These include player chat (chatty, quiet), motivation (winning, good time), teamwork (lone wolf, team player), and tone (polite, rowdy). As an experiment, I put on the polite filter, just to see how much I can cut down on the racial slurs and trash talking. We'll see how that goes.

Enough of this setup nonsense. I'm off to my first match. Expect more updates soon.

UPDATE 2, 0:45:

Victory! I'm moving up in the world. My first game was a team-based Oddball on the new map called Sword Base. Prior to the match, players had the option to vote on the map and game type between several options, and Oddball won out.

There was a lot of running around and scrambling for the Skull. For new players, Oddball focuses on holding the skull for the longest period of time. A good team will defend their ball carrier as they either move around the match, or find a defensible spot and hold it against the opposition.

Unfortunately, most everyone on both my team and the other don't know what they're doing quite yet. Including me. The addition of armor abilities dramatically changes the nature of the game, and I saw more than a couple players randomly rocketing around the map on their jet packs. It's been a while since I I threw down in an honest-to-goodness Halo match, so I spend the first half of the match getting my feel for the controls back.

I have no idea which armor ability I lean towards at this point.

Despite my stumbling, I manage to get my hands on the skull several times during the match, and help to hold off the enemy while my teammates hold it. A particularly furious firefight ensued in an upper corner of the map with only two entrances – an open door and a gravity lift near the back of the room. The ball changed hands there half a dozen times before the match ended, but we managed to come out on top.

Post-game wrap-up awarded me a bunch of credits, based on my performance. I got credits based on commendations, for winning, and for some other reasons I couldn't immediately identify. More on that later. For now, I'm heading off to another match.

UPDATE 3 1:30:

A few more matches under my belt now. Rank advancement rolls across the bottom of my screen as I finish each match. I'm a "Private" to start out, but with hard work and determination, I'm pretty sure a few more matches will award me the lofty title of "Private Grade 1". I'm moving up in the world.

I miss my Halo 3 rank...

Best match so far was a King of the Hill session. I was lucky, and managed to get dropped into a team of cool guys who were pretty communicative, and so we were able to hold the hill as it moved around the board.I traveled with the team through the next couple matches.

I'm warming up to the Stalker loadout, particularly for objective based maps. That sets me up with the active camouflage armor ability after a respawn, which pays dividends when trying to hold a static location like in CTF or King. More than once, I crouched down in our King of the Hill match right outside the hill while a teammate stayed inside to maintain control.

As soon as an enemy team member came in gunning for my buddy, I'd appear from behind and take him out. Good times.

I'm also getting a feel for the new weapons. I think people will be pleased by the newly re-empowered pistol. Feels great as the standard secondary. Sounds great, too. Beyond that, one of the biggest changes I'm noticing in these early matches is a shift with the frag grenades – way less bouncy than they used to be. A couple teammates have voiced complaints, but I'm tentatively pretty enthusiastic about the shift. It's a little easier to target with the frags, and they just feel like they have more weight to them now.

Next match looks like something new: Elite Slayer. More on that in a bit, once the match is over.

UPDATE 4 1:30:

I have discovered the glory that is the Needle Rifle. What a great weapon. Big kick. Explosive results. Think the Needler, but it takes fewer hits to get a super combine.

Crap. Match is still running. Totally just got wasted while typing. More in a few.

UPDATE 5 2:00:

A crushing defeat while playing 1 Flag CTF on the Powerhouse map. Oh well, can't win 'em all. Didn't help that one of our teammates quit in the middle of the second round.

So far, this is the way credits are rolling out at the end of a match. I get a bunch of credits for completion, which I think is awesome. The implication is that one of the biggest ways to build up credits to make your guy look cool is by actually staying around until the end of a match. Hopefully, there will be less game drops (like my friend in the recent CTF contest) because of it.

Of course, you also get a chunk of credits for winning. Every victory delivers extra credits. Pretty simple.

I'm still trying to understand commendations, which appear to be the last common way to build up credits. I know from previous conversations with Bungie that commendations are like tiny achievements that occur during every match. Complete a commendation, and you get a credit reward. This might be something like racking up a certain number of headshots. Thing is, I'm still not entirely certain where to look to find out what I'm aiming for. Regardless, I must be doing something right, as the credits keep rolling in. It may be time for some shopping sometime soon.

I also implied an update about this whole Elite Slayer game mode. This gets to one of the big things that has changed with Halo: Reach. Elites play differently from Spartans – enough so that a Slayer mode where everybody gets to play as Elites is pretty different. In almost every way, Elites are better than Spartan IIIs in a one-to-one firefight. They're faster. They have better shields. They have more health.

But they're also way bigger, which means they're a much bigger target. That's the trade-off.

Supposedly, some game modes will throw a team of Spartans up against a team of Elites, but I haven't run into any of those yet. Elite Slayer has both teams suiting up as Covenant Elites, and you can tell the difference right away in their strength and speed. You also have access to an armor ability not available to the Spartans – a fast forward roll that does wonders for escaping a dangerous situation, or getting the drop on an enemy.

As I finish writing this, I'm hitting the button to jump back into Matchmaking. Looks like my team is voting for a game type called Stockpile. I'll explain how that goes in the next update.

UPDATE 6 2:30:

Stockpile is an interesting variation on CTF,  combined with a number of other familiar objective-style concepts. Each time you play you're out to retrieve a number of flags that stand in various places across the board. You have to bring the flags back to your base and drop them there, then defend the flags in that location until they get picked up at static intervals over the course of the match. Collect and hold 10 flags over the entire match to win.

Stockpile results in some fun strategic variations. One approach seems to be to dive in and send the whole team out to retrieve as many flags as possible, then meet up back at base to defend whichever ones actually make it back.

Now, if you're on the other team when that happens, a perfectly reasonable approach might be to wait until the enemy has all the flags in one place at their base, then sweep in, kill everybody, and march back to your own base with the collection. Presuming you can make it that far.

There's a fun tension to holding the flags at your base, desperately hoping that they'll be collected before the enemy sweeps in and kills you. I also like how you can carefully watch where the firefights are going on around the board, and then target a flag on the opposite end of the map. Grab it while everyone else is busy with the fight, and you've got a free run back to base.

We managed to win our first Stockpile match by a hair. The last flag pickup gave us 10 flags to the enemy's 8.There was much rejoicing.

UPDATE 7 2:45:

I just nailed my first assassination. Came up from behind a guy during another CTF match, and held down the melee button for an up close knife-slash kill. Satisfying.

UPDATE 8 3:10:

A word on the maps.

The beta just opened yesterday. Even now there are still only about 5,000 people able to log in. Monday will undoubtedly be Bungie's big day.

So it's understandable that there's only two maps being played at this point, despite the nearly endless griping that players are doing about it during matches. With that said, I'm getting a pretty clear sense of these two environments, and I'm ready to see a little more variety.

Sword Base is the far more complicated of the two, at least in the beginning. The stark white environs of the map are split between two vertical sets of mezzanine-style floors. In team games, these two sides house the two bases. Each of the two sides look down onto a central corridor along the ground level, above which are a number of bridges that cross between the two interiors. Needless to say, most of the fiercest fighting goes on in this central corridor during a lot of the matches. Meanwhile, the corridors, gravity lifts, stairways, and hidden nooks in each of the two main base complexes are complicated and twisting. Along the balconies that overlook the central chamber, there are some great sniping locations, or you could wait to drop down on passing enemies. Though there's a roughly symmetrical shape to the board, each of the two vertical complexes are dramatically different. I've played a bunch of matches there, but I'm not remotely close to understanding the intricacies of the board.

Powerhouse is more immediately accessible and understandable, but it also has a number of interesting features. The large outdoor environment is clearly built for 1-Flag CTF and other asymmetrical contests. On offense, numerous buildings offer paths to the enemy base along either side. The center path is a virtual death trap – you're on the low ground, and there are a number of blind dead-ends. However, this is where you find some of the board's sweeter weapons, including a rocket launcher hidden in a watery tunnel. On defense, the the Powerhouse base is a multi-floor structure with lots of dangerous entrances, but also several easily defensible positions. Hanging out in the base while utilizing the earlier mentioned camouflage approach is quite effective when waiting for an opponent to sweep in on a run for the flag. Another popular strategy on Powerhouse for either team is the Airborne loadout. Few things are more dangerous than a flying Spartan with a rocket launcher.

I like Powerhouse a little better of the two initial offerings, but then again I've always favored the larger outdoor environments in earlier games.

I'm up in overall wins at this point, but I've had two pretty definitive losses in my last two games. I think I'll go check out the Armory again, and see what my hard-earned credits can do for me at this point.

UPDATE 9 3:30

A few people in the "Comments" section below are asking about the filters.

The verdict is still out.

I've kept the "Polite" filter on since I started. With over a dozen matches under my belt, I'm definitely running into less blatant jerks, racists, and other problem players than I'm used to. Then again, this is a way smaller pool of players than will be in the full beta beginning next week, much less the final retail release later this year.

To be clear, I've heard a lot less overt abusive behavior. Less cussing? No %&$ing way. Ah, online gaming. A bastion of civilized discourse.

UPDATE 10 3:40:

I ducked back out of Matchmaking and am now exploring the Armory a little more.

As I try to deck out my Spartan, I realize that it's not just credits that play into outfitting him, but my rank as well. I've got over 1,500 credits at this point, but I'm still just shy of Corporal rank. When I try to purchase a new helmet, I'm out of luck. I need to cross that rank threshold to get the new headpiece.

Scrolling through the armory, there are other pre-requisites as well. Some armor pieces require that you purchase a certain other piece first. There are new pieces starting as low as 200 credits, and others I see that are well over 10,000. I get some beefy new shoulder pieces (although they don't change my abilities but are simply cosmetic) and head out.

While I'm out here, I figure it's an appropriate time to check out the Theater and File Browser. Bungie has made it a lot easier to track down and search for clips and screenshots. There's a full history of all your matches that you dig through. In addition, there are special categories, like "Funny" and "Awesome," where people can set aside their contributions by what makes them worth a view.

I downloaded a couple videos. My favorite is this short clip of some poor *** who gets melee killed from four directions at the same time by enemy team members.

I'm heading back into Matchmaking now, and I've flipped my Playlist over to Free For All. Time to see how things go without a team at my back.

UPDATE 11 4:00:

Just dinged to Corporal. When you rank up, your Spartan does a little reload and aim animation on the level-up screen, and a new rank insignia flashes up on screen. It takes so little to keep us gamers happy, doesn't it?

UPDATE 12 4:20:

As you might expect, competition is fierce in Free For All, as everybody aims to take the crown.

My Halo skills are far too rusty to see that crown land on my head after only a day back in the mix. I took second in one match of Headhunter in the last half hour, so I'll count that as a personal win.

What's Headhunter? I'm glad you asked. I really like this mode, which changes up the traditional Slayer model with a retrieval mechanic. Every time a player dies, his body drops a skull that bounces down to the ground to be picked up. You can then grab the skull, and start heading towards a collection zone to drop it off. Alternately, if you're really impressed with yourself, you can head off in search of other skulls.

Around the board, you can see exactly how many skulls every player is currently carrying. The more skulls you pick up before returning to drop them off, the bigger a target you become.

Incidentally, there are few sights more enjoyable than nailing a guy who is carting around half a dozen skulls, and then watching them all shower down around you.

There's some Oddball matches going on in Free For All, but the largest number of matches appear to be Slayer and Pro Slayer. Pro Slayer is the real skill contest at this point, with starting weapons of either the DMR or the Needle Rifle. Any way you go, you need good aim and a steady hand.

UPDATE 13 5:00:

I finish out my day with a few more team games. My final match of the day is an Elite Team Slayer match on Sword Base. We lose by 4 points. But I do manage to get a couple of sticky plasma grenade kills out of the deal.

The beta is set to launch to ODST owners worldwide next week, and I suspect that's where we'll really see the competition really heat up. If you're chomping at the bit, I think I can give some words of encouragement, as well as a couple of caution.

The gameplay in Halo: Reach is already solid and fun. You're going to love armor abilities – they are by far the coolest way to handle equipment in the history of the franchise, and contribute a much broader range of play styles into the mix. I'm also really enjoying both the new weapons and game modes after my first five hours.

It might be worth managing some expectations, however. There are a lot of things not yet implemented into the beta, and I know many of them are planned to rollout over the next few weeks. I didn't run into any vehicle play today, and as I mentioned before, the map selection is very limited. The season-based Slayer Arena playlist wasn't open as of today, but that might change next week. There are also a limited number of new armor items with which to customize your character. Bungie has told me previously that there will be far more in the final retail version.

All that said, Halo: Reach multiplayer, as it's presented in the beta, feels like a welcome step forward for the franchise. The progression system is addictive, the action is fast and varied, and there are lots of ways to play the game in your own way. In short, I had a great time, even if this beta isn't anywhere close to a fully featured multiplayer system that will be in the final game.

Thanks for reading. And, come Monday, hope to see you on the battlefield.