Video Games: Halo Reach Multiplayer Beta Review

The Halo Reach multiplayer beta became available on May 3 to any XBox Live member who owns the Halo ODST game. After one evening of playing, here are my impressions of the game compared to Halo 3 multiplayer:

• Graphics are very updated. Textures and details of the weapons and Spartans are more realistic instead of cartoonish like Halo3. This does, however, seems to have an effect on frame rate as it seemed to be a bit more choppy.
• Shields in general seem to be a bit beefier, seems little harder to die.
• Most weapons are basically the same (assault rifle, BR/carbine, needler, shotgun, sword/hammer, sniper rifle, rocket launcher, plasma rifle, frag & sticky grenades). The balance in terms of damage is a little different. For ex, the BR/carbine shoots 1 shot a time at a relatively slow rate (slightly faster than 1 per sec). Seems to do a little less damage, as it was hard to finish off a guy with a full shield. Or maybe this is due to my perception that everyone's shield is a bit beefier. You can still get a kill by unloading most of an assault rifle on a guy and finishing up with beat down. 
• Melee from behind (assassination) is a bit more dramatic if you hold down the melee button (instead of tapping it) as it will show you stabbing them. All about humiliation.
• All new maps of course
• Movement radar is enhanced. Key difference is that if an enemy is on a different vertical plane from you (say above or below you), they'll show up as a different dot. Guys below you show up as dark red, guys above you show up as red dot with black shadow. 
• I did not see any of those extra's like power drain, regen, bubble shield. I also did not find any invis or overshield in the maps. I think that's because they provide 4 classes of Spartans which unique superpowers (see below).
• Spawn points: you can select a spawn point that is closer to your squad. I didn't play with this option to see exactly how it works though.

Ok, here's the biggest difference, which really changes the game and makes it quite different:


There are 4 classes of Spartans that you can choose to be. You can switch between these classes at every spawn. The only difference in the classes are their superpowers (same shield, same look, same default weapons). You can access these superpowers at any time, and you have a "superpower meter" that will drain as the power is used, recharge as you don't use it. They obviously make the superpower charge limited so that you can't have it on all the time. Here are the 4 classes and their respective superpowers:

Scout: can do a burst of very fast sprint. Good for running quickly towards a target if you have a short range weapon (like shotgun or sword) or running away if you have low shield.

Guard: can activate an invincibility shield (completely impervious to anything) called Armor Lock. You will freeze and not be able to move or shoot when you activate it though. It does not cause your regular shield to pause in its recharge cycle. I personally played this class the most. Very helpful if you hear a grenade throw, or if your shield is gone, and you need just a few more seconds for it to recharge. Ideally timing is to turn on the supershield and hold it until your regular shield is fully recharged. In addition, the Armor Lock imparts a knock back and EMP (shield drain) on anyone close to you when you come out of it. The longer you hold your Armor Lock, the larger the knock back & EMP effect. Also, you'll shed off any needler needles or a sticky grenade if you engage this. This can be very effective for a team charge- Guard goes in first, engages Armor Lock to distract the enemies, then he drains shield from any enemies close by when he exits the Armor Lock.

Airborne: have a jetpack that allows you to fly. This is important to use for maps that have a lot of vertical levels.

Stalker: on demand invisibility. Also, you scramble all enemy radar when engaging the camo. No more need to crouch walk while using camo. However, your radar also gets scrambed when you active it. Also, weapons are silenced when you have the camo on but you also cannot hear anything when in camo mode.

These superpowers are on demand and can be turned on for any random amount that you determine, so you can "tap" a speed burst or an invincibility shield just when you need it and use just a tad. It's not the same as picking up something like the invisibility sphere and you're stuck with the power until it turns out in about 30 secs.

The download is a little over 1GB, so make sure you have a hard drive and give yourself enough time to download it on your machine.