Namreh's blog

The truth is that the playing field of first-person shooters has changed within the past few years where is takes more than a shotgun and couple of headshots to appease gamers nowadays, and even though Bungie is late to the party the option for  players to choose their loadouts is certainly a welcome addition to the mix, before every match except solo slayer four ability types are readily available to choose from:  "Scout" which gives you temporary spirinting speed, "Guard" provides a impenetrable though armor lock forcefield that damages nearby opponents, "Stalker" gives the player active camouflage that also scambles radar detection, and last but not least an "Airborne" ability that equips you with a jetback for gaining the upper ground and quick getaways.

 

these class-based structures are subtle but include a disticntive flavor to the average gunfight and do a lot in adding some much-needed vitality, its probably a concept that you've seen in other online shooters and it works here as well. There are two new weapons that stood out the most, the Needler Rifle, a loose hybrid of the Battle Rifle and Needler works well in long range bouts while the Plasma launcher has a devastating lock-on fuction with power equal to or more of the standard Rocket Launcher.

 

The general Halo experience is still as entertaining as ever and should keep most happy (or extremely frustrated if your losing), but the new match types is really what keeps things fresh. in solo matchmaking you've got Headhunter in where every player that get killed drops a skull and you must pick them up and place any accumulated skull at the designated drop point, the more skulls you manage to get the bigger the score and as you would imagine the game can get overly chaotic. The other is Stockpile where teams much capture as many flags as possible and later tallied up a couple of minutes or so, and just like Headhunter the skirmishes are just as hectic. And finally a play type known as Invasion has Spartans and Elites going at it to either defend or overtake opposing forces.

 

So far the beta on the surface has been promising with even more things to come says Bungie, overall there is plenty to like and worth experimenting with here even if the elements aren't yet pieced together. It took a lot effort to pry myself away from Halo: Reach so I gotta get back, who knows? maybe I'll see you there.

 

-Namreh HD01