360 Preview
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Halo: Reach Preview
360 Preview | Reaching for the stars in Bungie's final Halo game.
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Bungie’s final effort for the Halo franchise is set to bring about the end of an era, for what has been one of the most prominent and culturally impactful video game series of the past decade. Recently PALGN was able to gain another glimpse at Halo Reach in Microsoft’s Sydney office, and were guided through the revamped Forge and a taste of the campaign by none other than executive producer Joseph Tung.
From our own viewing and from the words of Tung himself, the map creator 'Forge' appears to have been upped significantly. The area that you can play around in, to put it quite simply, is huge, but with its great size comes a variety of new touches. Those who have been through past Halo games will recognise some of the natural environment, with a Halo 2 set-piece making its presence felt. Tung himself also claimed that Forge in Halo Reach will be much easier to use.
Players are able to shift switches around and remotely activate other parts of the map as part of their own special build. These can be activated in a variety of ways with different amounts of pressure. A key aspect of making this work is the revamped physics engine of Forge, which allows for three different physics modes – normal, fixed and phase. Normal mode is just as you would expect, and is similar to that which was on display for Halo 3. In fixed mode, you are able to place an object on a certain spot and it will stay there indefinitely. Finally, phase mode allows objects to penetrate other objects, as well as being able to sink into cliffs and the ground itself.
The tyranny of distance is used and combated in various ways for the Halo Reach version of Forge. This can be really used to a player’s advantage, especially in capture the flag games. A player can set up a capture the flag point far, far away from where their enemies are located, and given that it can take quite a few minutes to cross from one side of the map to another, this ups the challenge and tension of the game significantly.
After checking out the new version of Forge, we were given a glimpse of a segment of the campaign. This time around, players take part in an elite squad known as Noble Team, who arrive on the planet Reach to investigate the various goings-on, all the while armed with some serious weaponry. With up to four players available for co-op, each will take control of a ‘rookie’ as you play through. At first the experience was peaceful enough, as the team made its way through some hilly countryside. Some of the different visors were given a work out as we explored the new and alien planet. Eventually however, there were signs of trouble – a couple of alien creatures with a passing resemblance to ostriches ran past Noble Team, clearly distressed at something that they had witnessed.
After traversing the area without a single shot being fired, we came to a building and talked to a gentleman who assured us that something was very wrong in the area. Our fears only increased when we reached a two-storey building, where the mangled corpse of a soldier lay. After the team leader had assessed the situation, our squad moved up into the second floor of the building itself to try and uncover some more clues as to just what we were up against. The tranquillity did not last long, however, as we spied enemy forces from the second floor of the building and engaged in a fire-fight. As we discharged our weapons, it became clear that there was nothing left for us to do but to face the enemy head-on, and we manoeuvred back down to the ground floor. As more and more enemies amassed, so did the number of harmless ostrich-aliens fleeing the area in terror.
In a temporary lull in the action, we discovered a ground vehicle with which we made our getaway from the enemy hordes. Firing at enemies as we drove and dodged out of the way of even more ostrich-aliens, we eventually entered a clear space and stopped our vehicle. Upon exiting and scoping out the area, our glimpse into the campaign mode finished. Bungie obviously weren’t in the mood for giving up too much.
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Overall:
Though our time with it was brief, expect Halo: Reach to satisfy those wanting Bungie's final effort to be a polished product.
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Content provided by PAL Gaming Network.
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