Multiplayer:
The multiplayer game play video hit the interwebs and caused a shockwave of awesome across the community, now that we have more information, I'll give you a rundown of what we have learned since that monumental event. Also, here is an analysis of the video on YouTube by 'Tied the Leader': Analyze this!
Recently on Bungie.net we have seen two articles (One, Two) posted about Reach's new take on matchmaking, followed up with some more info on the Bungie update. I am going to talk you through it, from a community perspective.
Back in my day:
Looks like Bungie misses Halo 2 as much as we do and the evidence is in Reach's new party system. It seems as though it's a case of out with the new, in with the old, as we are now going to be able to avoid the Dashboard button (the big, shiny one in the centre of your controller) and can simply utilize options in-game to join our friend's parties, send invites and check what our friends are up to with the 'party details option'; which allows you to view what game your buddy is playing, who with and what the score is.
Also, after a game, instead of the old 'party up' option for Halo 3, you will now stay together after each game depending on a few things. The system will determine whether a team should stay together for the next game automatically, most likely depending on how well your team did, individual performance and the score line between your team and your opponent. Most likely though, if you wish, you will still be able to back out and invite your new comrades in if the chemistry is there.
Social Settings:
Essentially, Bungie is giving us OPTIONS, which is fantastic. You now have the ability to select from a list of descriptive options that will tell Reach's matchmaking what qualities you are looking for in team mates. Here they are:
Teamwork - Team Player vs.. Lone Wolf
Motivation - Winning vs.. Having Fun
Chattiness - Chatty vs.. Quiet
Tone - Polite vs.. Rowdy
This means that if you are tired of loud, hyper-competitive and angry people, you can setup your settings to reflect that. Bungie has also stated that this does not mean they are suggesting that winning and having fun are 'mutually exclusive' as if you enjoy both, you can simply turn the settings off and remain neutral. Lovely.
Queue-joining/Active Roster: Instead of having to spam your buddy with invites or wait for him to finish his game while you sit and twiddle your thumbs, you can now go to his name and click 'join'. This means that as soon as your buddy has finished his game, you will instantly be added to his 'squad'.
This sounds useful yes, but could be more trouble than it's worth. I mean, say you find something to do, or someone else to play with while you were waiting for your friend; are you just going to be torn out of your game and thrown into theirs? Of course, the likelihood is you will be able to return to your friends gamer tag and cancel the joining process, but this might not be an ultimate fix.
Connection/Locale Searching:
This is the most exciting thing for me. Bit of background. I live in Australia and in this country, we hardly ever get good latency. 90% of my games I am yellow bar and each game I have to work against my connection. Many people from other countries can appreciate this and many complaints have been yelled out on the forums, in Xbox bios and over the Mic (12 year old style, yo).
So here it is, the bottom line: The good connection setting on Halo 3 was sub-par. Essentially you could never get a game, especially not in ranked. Now however, according to the Bungie update, they are taking your Locale (where you live) into account, this could mean that we Australians (or Brits, or any laggy customer) will be paired up with our fellows and be able to play with the legendary Green Bar! Amazing stuff, love you Bungie xxxoo.
Veto 2.0:
Bungie's new veto system has arrived! The old one was, let's just quote Bungie on this 'lame'. Now you are given a default game type and map and are then given 3 other alternate options, which each player can then vote for. Again, fantastic.
Arena Mode:
One of Bungie's bigger changes to multiplayer is the inclusion of Arena. This has been garnered towards the more serious gamer and it is advised by Bungie that if you 'don't have a competitive bone in your body', you should probably steer clear of this one! Ok, so, the break down.
Essentially, each 'season' players can compete in Arena mode, but to qualify you must play a certain amount of games for the first few days of the season. It shouldn't be too arduous, don't worry folks! Once you have qualified you can move you self up through the ranks, which are as follows: Steel, Bronze, Silver, Gold and Onyx.
Your rank is not determined by your team winning, but rather by individual performance, so, your kill/death ratio, your assists and other nifty statistics; possibly even things such as medals will boost your rank as well. But Bungie has tried to ensure this doesn't encourage selfish play, by making certain things minus your score; things such as betrayals and a lack of assists wont help either.
But how can they tell if someone has just gotten a few kills and then hidden away somewhere for the rest of the game to save their k/d ratio? Hmmmwe'll have to see about this one.
The goal of the Arena mode is to try and climb the ladder each season as far as you can, once the season is over, your rank is reset and your stats from last season are placed on your Online Service Record (On Bungie.net and most likely in-game as well) baseball card style. Overall this sounds really innovative for a FPS and will be incredible to see in action.
Game types:
/Returning:
Team Slayer: Strait up slayer of old, no obvious new features
Capture the Flag: Nothing new evident here, just go cluuuutch
King of the Hill: Looks as if the hill is less 'overly defined' so you can actually see out of it. Booyah.
/New:
Invasion: Nothing is too clear here as of yet, but it looks intriguing. The Phantom shown at the beginning of its section in the Multiplayer video could mean that:
a) We finally get an opportunity to pilot that beast
b) It's just a cut scene for the start of Invasion
c) This is the new Firefight mode
d) This is how the team playing as the Elites will be spawned each time.
Personally I think d) is the most likely. Based on the video, we can see that there are doors with Objective-style red outlines around them, this could mean that the Spartans have to stop the Elite players reaching or busting down these doors and the Elites have a certain amount of reinforcements to get to the doors with. Also, it is unclear about the generators shown in the video and whether they are part of this game type or another one all together.
Head Hunter: Each player must earn the most skulls, which are obtained by head-shooting your opponents; the person with the most skulls at the end of the game wins. It seems as though a person kills a person, retrieves a skull and then if they are killed they will drop 2 skulls (one for the person they killed and an extra one for themselves).
It is unclear however, if there is a way to 'bank' your skulls, in other words, whether there is a capture point where you can drop the skulls into and have them permanently added to your score.
Maps:
Power House
Sword Base: No images or information yet, just a code name for it seen in screenshots on the latest Matchmaking articles.
Elites in multiplayer:
From the title 'Spartans vs.. Elites' shown in the Multiplayer trailer we can tell that Elites obviously play a different role in MP than they did in any previous games. They haven't been shrunk down to fit the hit boxes of the Spartans and by Bungie's comments in the most recent weekly update it is obvious that there are major differences between Spartans and Elites this time around. This leads me (and many others) to believe that Elite models will only be allowed to be used in certain game types, Arena has been said to house them and Invasion is the only other game type evident Elite presence.
True Skill
True Skill is still in the picture. Although you will no longer have an obvious 'number ranking' or visible rank in that sense, social playlists seem to still have pictorial ranks, as in; you can be a sergeant based on their new system, but you will lack a number to describe your level.
Bungie are using True Skill like it was supposed to be used, so it should figure out your skill level in as few as 10-12 games.
Campaign:
There has been much less information about the campaign (as usual) but what we do know so far is that the level design is much vaster and possibly much more open world; with Bungie saying that on Co-op each person can go off in their own separate ways for much longer distances before being put back together. Weather effects are also going to be seen throughout Reach, we have seen evidence of this with rain in some screenshots and what looks to be a night-time level in the Vidoc.
Characters:
The Lone Wolf/Noble 6 -312: The character you will be gearing up as, it has been said by Bungie that they have been recording 'male and female voices' for Noble 6, which means we will have a gender option similar to Mass Effect. This could have big impacts on the story, since it is more character driven this time around; we'll just have to wait and see!
Kat -320: The only female Spartan in Noble Team
Emile -239: The apparent CQB member of the team, shown
wielding a shotgun
Jorge -052: The heavy weapons specialist and the only Spartan II of the squad
Jun -266: The sniper of Noble Team
Carter -259: The squad leader of Noble Team
Other Spartans mentioned in Ambrose's letter:
170
091
Hidden release date? 17/09/10 lol or maybe even a hidden Master Chief reference: 117? Again, lol.
Enemies:
According to Bungie, with their new system for Reach, it is possible for them to have many more AI alongside the player, that it will allow for much larger battles:
Quote from the Vidoc by Chris Opdahl (lead campaign designer:
We can now put so many AI in an encounter that you can put 4 Spartans, the player, 8 marines against 30ish Covenant and that's an actual, serious challenge
Elites
Grunts
Jackals
Skirmishers
Spirit Drop ship: Although not technically an enemy, it will return to the Reach campaign, most likely serving the same purpose it did in Halo CE; although this may mean that Phantoms are now more for combat purposes as one essentially makes the other redundant.
Brutes: Seen being revamped on the computer screens at 4:37 in the Vidoc
Armament:
Weapons:
Some weapons are returning and others are not, there are also some completely new weapons allowing for more balanced online and offline game play. Some weapons, such as the Sniper Rifle (most obviously) now have 'Reticule Bloom' meaning that you have to be more careful and deliberate with your shots in order to connect. If the reticule is still enlarged when you fire off your no-scope, don't expect the accuracy to be pin-point.
/Returning:
Assault Rifle
Sniper Rifle
Shotgun
Magnum
Needler
Plasma Pistol
Gravity Hammer
Energy Sword
Rocket Launcher
/Grenades: Seems as though you can once again only have 2 types of grenades, but you can have up to 4 of each. Some have commented though that you do not drop all 8 at once, as in the Multiplayer trailer we have only seen people drop 2 grenades upon death (1 of each type). This could help prevent grenade spamming.
Plasma Grenades
Frag Grenades
/New:
Needle Rifle: Acts like the Covenant's answer to the DMR, when an opponent's shields are down it can super-combine a la the Needler after just 3 shots.
DMR: Essentially the replacement for the BR, the Designated Marksman Rifle seems to have a longer range than its predecessor and is used much more as a mid-long range weapon; rather than an all-rounder like the Battle Rifle. It has also been confirmed that it takes the same amount of shots for a kill as the Magnum does.
Sentinel Sniper: Although there is no official name for it, it seems to be a combination of the Sentinel Beam and the Beam Rifle, shooting a large, orange beam of light that fades into purple for a long period of time. The combination of the two aforementioned weapons could mean their ejection from the Reach Sandbox.
Plasma Grenade Launcher: Again, the name isn't confirmed for this one. It is the weapon that made the mystery sound at the end of the Bungie Podcast and seems to be the Spartan Laser's replacement or opposition. Once you have obtained a lock on a vehicle, it shoots out a burst of 3 plasma grenades that stick to the vehicle, causing a big old boom.
Grenade Launcher: This new Spartan weapon fires one grenade and then must be reloaded, it is still unclear how much damage this gun does as it is impossible to tell from the Multiplayer Trailer.
Jorge's big gun: It is still unknown whether this will be able to be used by the player or whether it is just for him as an A.I character.
Armor Abilities:
Bungie's replacement for equipment is here! No more Bubble Shield's or Regenerators, this also might mean the death of the Over shield; as Active Camo on the map has been replaced by an Armor Ability.
Active Camouflage: Makes you invisible for a short period of time
Jet pack: Possibly the most exciting ability, allows you to fly into the air, essentially give you a mega jump to utilize for sticky situations
Sprint: It's finally here! Tired of walking around like your pants are full of rocks? Now you can get a quick burst of energy and escape enemy fire!
Over shield/personal bubble: Gives you a huge shield boost, allowing you to survive big attacks; as seen in the multiplayer trailer to fend off a boosting Ghost. Could also destroy charging vehicles or repel rockets and such, allowing you to use it as a weapon as well as a defense mechanism.
Dive Roll: This ability allows you to perform a leap forward to escape danger and/or dodge attacks and vehicles. So far we have only seen Elites using this ability, which could mean it is an Elite only Armor Ability.
Hologram: Although unconfirmed, it has been a rumors floating around since those first few leaked images; apparently can be used as a diversion or a distraction by creating a hologram.
Radar Cloak: Another unconfirmed ability, this makes you invisible to the enemy team's radar, allowing for sneak attacks!
Vehicles:
Falcon
Banshee
Phantom: Whether this will be drivable is still unknown, seen right before the invasion game type is listed in the Multiplayer video
Scorpion
Wraith
Warthog
Ghost
Mongoose: Seen at 5:35 in the Vidoc
Civilian Vehicles: So far we have only seen civilian vehicles in the campaign, shown in the Vidoc at 6:42 and in some other campaign screenshots; also, only one type of civilian vehicle has been shown, but in the Vidoc there is a Truck in the background of one scene, which could mean there are a variety of new civilian vehicles.
The potential for this in modes like Forge is fantastic and also could be great for specific campaign missions.
Theatre Mode/Screenshots:
Bungie has stated that you will now be able to record a film, put it in your file share and tag it all in-game. This will allow for quick and easy moving around of your files. On top of that, where you could once only house 100 user-created items on Halo 3, you can now house 'thousands'. This sounds really exciting; hopefully the File share default size will be increased as well!
