Halo: Reach Firefight Mode Premieres

At a special press event after the E3 show floor closed tonight, Bungie revealed the long-awaited details on Reach Firefight. We got a chance to quiz the developers on all the new game elements on display, and then play several rounds within the new levels.

Halo: Reach Firefight is all about customization. Players are now able to craft their own special rule-sets, and then share them over Xbox Live. The best of these unique game types will rise in popularity and be downloaded by more and more users. The options to shape the mode to your liking seem almost endless. You can set the length of the game, the number of waves, or the number of rounds. You can choose what enemies show up during a wave, including the makeup of the boss wave. You can even set active skulls. On a related subject, you can now create custom skulls that affect player or enemy abilities, including appearance, shields, health, immunities, and a host of other tweaks. If that's not enough for you, then the ability to pick weapons for the battle and other map features, like generator locations, should fill the quota.

What are generators? That's a part of just one of four game types we saw on display. Generator Defense should be familiar to devoted players of the recent multiplayer beta, as the concept appeared there as a competitive mode called "Network Test1". In the cooperative Firefight variation, players are tasked with protecting a set of generators from waves of Covenant. These generators have health bars, and once they are all depleted, the game is over. The strategies are myriad. Players can split up to defend multiple generators. They can instead focus their attention on one generator and let the others fail. They can take the fight to the enemy before they can even get close. Players can also "lock down" a generator to make it invincible for a short 30 second period, but this ability is limited, and has to be saved for the most dire situations.

Rocketfight will be the game type of choice for late night parties. This special variation gives the Spartan players unlimited rockets to tear apart the approaching hordes of Covenant enemies. As expected, it's all too easy (and hilarious) to accidentally blow up a fellow Spartan as things start to get crazy.

Firefight Classic exactly emulates the Firefight mode found in Halo 3: ODST, fighting until every player falls beneath the assault. The fourth variation we saw was the new default Firefight mode. This tweaked version lasts for only one Set, and the skull progression has been altered somewhat to take out Black Eye from the third round. This newer variation makes for a shorter game with a lot of variation in the action over the stretch of the match.

Two brand new maps were on display, and we explored each of them as well as we could during our matches in each. Beachhead is a lush outdoor environment set on a coastline -- an area we're told appears in the Reach campaign. The area is a verdant park on the shores of a location called New Alexandria. A big, well protected building sits at the east end of the map, and acts as the primary spawn point for players. Leaving the base, a partially covered walkway separates two large lawns on either side. It's into these areas that the Covenant drop ships begin to fling their troops against you. Journey far enough out towards the beach, and you'll find the warthog that is comfortably parked near a garage -- well worth the sojourn once you bring it into the fight.

Waterfront is an assymetric, mostly outdoor map set around a reservoir and hydroelectric plant. The map plays out at night, and features a huge open area near the middle -- an ideal location into which enemies can be lured to try out the new Target Locator.

The Target Locator is a brand new weapon with some explosive effects. It works much like the Spartan Laser. It must target a spot on the ground or an enemy for a short stretch of time before it can be fired. Paint the target, and a massive orbital attack will blanket the immediate area. One great strategy is to paint a moving enemy just as he's moving into a large group of other concealed enemies. Once the Target Locator has a lock, it doesn't matter where he moves. The attack will take them all out.

The evening also revealed two other weapons that hadn't been seen yet. The Concussion Rifle is a Covenant weapon that fires super-heated plasma rounds that wreak havoc on Spartan shields. And the Fuel Rod Gun returns as a shoulder-mounted heavy weapon that shatters defenses with one well-aimed blast.

We also got to see yet another new armor ability: the Drop Shield. Much like the Bubble Shield of Halo 3, the Drop Shield deploys a protective barrier that also manages to heal you and all allies that remain within. In any team game, the presence of this armor ability will dramatically change the flow of battle, letting one or more players act in a sort of medic role, even as they continue to fight the enemy.

We also saw how the new Firefight mode contributes to your buildup of credits, allowing you to further customize your unique Spartan with a wide array of new armor pieces.

All these features are great, but we were excited to learn about one other awesome addition to the Firefight formula: matchmaking. Just like in traditional competitive multiplayer modes, Reach Firefight now has access to the full suite of matchmaking capabilities, like active roster, queue joining, and playlist selection. Players will be able to matchmake alone, or with a party of up to four players at once. Bungie is also including two-player split-screen Firefight play.

We came away impressed with the alterations that Bungie has in store for its popular Firefight mode. It was easily one of the coolest features of ODST, and it's great to have confirmation that it will return for the next installment. The ability to customize game types is amazing, and we predict a wealth of sweet game types that emerge out of the community over the weeks after the game launches on September 14th.