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Halo: Reach

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Developer(s)Bungie
Publisher(s)Microsoft Game Studios
Designer(s)Marcus Lehto (Creative Director)
Composer(s)Martin O'Donnell
SeriesHalo
Platform(s)Xbox 360
ReleaseFall 2010
(Multiplayer Beta: May 3, 2010)
Genre(s)First-person shooter
Mode(s)Single-player, multi-player

Halo: Reach is an upcoming first-person shooter video game for the Xbox 360. It is part of the Halo series, and it is scheduled for release during the fall of 2010. Its world premiere was held on December 12, 2009, at the Spike Video Game Awards.[1] The game takes place in the year 2552, where humanity is locked in a war with the alien Covenant. Players control Noble 6, a member of an elite supersoldier squad, during a battle for the human world of Reach.

Gameplay

Halo: Reach is a shooter game; players experience gameplay from a first-person perspective.

In Halo 3, players had the option of picking up and deploying items that offer temporary offensive or defensive advantages.[2][3] This system of single-use equipment is replaced in Reach by reusable and persistent armor abilities which remain with a player until they are replaced.[4] Among the abilities are a jetpack, active camo, sprint, and "armor lock", which makes the player nearly invincible in exchange for the loss of mobility.[5] In addition to tweaks and changes to existing weapons from the Halo series, Reach features new weapons fulfilling various combat roles.[6]

Forge, Custom Games and Theater also return with Halo: Reach, though whether or not any changes have been made to these modes has yet to be announced.

Multiplayer

File:Halo reach pic 1.jpg
Two Spartan players use the armor lock and jetpack armor abilities

Reach will feature multiplayer support via Xbox Live, System Link, and Split screen.

Most of the time, players play as Spartan soldiers but in certain multiplayer modes, players can play as Covenant aliens known as Elites (the Covenant's closest equivalent unit to the UNSC Spartan). Elites are larger, tougher, faster, and have a unique "evade" rolling ability.[5] Reach also features "loadouts", a feature allows players to pick a predefined choice of weaponry at spawn. The veto system has been improved, allowing players to vote for their preferred map and game mode out of a few choices. In order to give multiplayer a longer lasting appeal, players are now rewarded with "credits", which players can spend on armor customizations. These effects are only visual, and don't change the gameplay of the players in any way. The amount of credits a player receives after a match is determined by the player's performance in the match.

Among standard multiplayer modes such as deathmatch (called "Slayer") and king of the hill, Reach includes gametypes new to the franchise. In "Headhunter", players drop skulls upon death, which other players can pick up and deposit at special zones for points. When a player dies all their accumulated skulls fall away as well. "Stockpile" has teams race to collect neutral flags, holding them at capture points every minute for points. "Generator Defense" pits three Spartans versus three Elites. The Elites' objective is to destroy three generators, while Spartans defend the installation. After every round the players switch roles. "Invasion" is a six versus six mode.[7] The gametype pits Spartans against Elites; as the game progresses, new loadouts, vehicles, and areas of the map become open.[8]

Synopsis

Setting

Reach takes place in a futuristic science fiction setting during the year 2552, shortly before the events of the 2001 video game Halo: Combat Evolved.[9] Humans, under the auspices of the United Nations Space Command (UNSC), have been waging a long war against a collective of alien races known as the Covenant. By the events of Reach, almost all of humanity's interstellar colonies have fallen. Reach itself is an Earthlike colony that serves as the UNSC's main military hub. In addition to the military presence, the colony is home to over 700 million civilians.[10]

Characters

The game follows the actions of Noble Team, a UNSC special operations unit composed of elite supersoldiers known as Spartans. Players assume the role of an unnamed new addition to the team, identified by the call sign Noble 6.[11] Noble Team's leader is Carter-259, a no-nonsense soldier. His second-in-command, Kat-320, has a bionic arm; together Carter and Kat are the only two remaining original members of Noble Team. The other members include heavy weapons specialist Jorge-052, Emile-239, and marksman Jun-266.[4][9]

Development

Design

After the development of Halo 3, developer Bungie broke into teams; one group began working on an expansion, Halo 3: ODST, while another group, headed by creative director Marcus Lehto, began work on what would become Reach. In brainstorming, the team kept returning to the idea of a prequel set before the first Halo game. "And Reach, as a fictional planet, was just a great candidate [to] play around with. It's such a rich world, with such a great fiction surrounding it," said Lehto. "We were like: 'Okay, that's it. We've just got a lot of things we can do there so we can build an immense story with it.'"[12]

As Reach ends with the destruction of the titular planet, Bungie focused on making sure that players still felt a sense of accomplishment and success. "It is a challenge overall to ensure the player feels they’re doing the right thing all the way to the end," said Lehto.[13][14]

Bungie made it a goal to capitalize on the Xbox 360 hardware to make every part of Reach look better than Halo 3.[15] Originally, the plan for Reach was to port existing Halo 3 assets and update them, but as 3D Art Lead Scott Shepard noted, "The more we started looking into this, the more we found that realistically we could rebuild each asset from scratch with a huge increase in quality without significantly investing more time." Texture resolution and polygon counts for models were increased; the Reach assault rifle is constructed of more polygons than an entire Marine character from Halo 3. The prequel concept also gave the art team an opportunity to redesign key enemies, weapons and elements of the series, though Scott stressed that they remained true to the spirit, if not the letter, of the original designs. Artists found inspiration in the original concept art for Halo: Combat Evolved; the shape for the redesigned Covenant Grunts came from a sketch by Shi Kai Wang done ten years earlier.[16] Much of the engine was redesigned.[17]

To increase replay value, the developers focused on improving the artificial intelligence.[15] Rather than scripting enemy encounters, the developers focused on a more open world or sandbox approach to battles.[17]

Announcements

Halo: Reach was announced on June 1, 2009, at the Microsoft E3 2009 press conference.[18] A trailer was shown and details were released including setting and timeline. It was announced that an invitation to the open multiplayer beta of the game will be available in Halo 3: ODST. Reach will be the last Halo game developed by original Halo developer Bungie. Future Halo games will be overseen by Microsoft subsidiary 343 Industries.[19]

Audio

Martin O'Donnell returns to score Reach. With the game's music, O'Donnell wrote more "somber, more visceral" music because the plot is character-driven and focuses on a planet that is known to have fallen.[20] The music piece shown in the world premiere of Halo: Reach, was the first music he wrote for the game, which he hoped he could use as a starting point for developing further themes.[21] Heroes actor Greg Grunberg will voice a character in the game.[22]

Multiplayer beta

It was announced on December 12, 2009, when the game officially debuted, that the multiplayer beta will begin on May 3rd of 2010.[23] The game Halo 3: ODST will be used as a key to access the beta.[24] At the Microsoft X10 Event Microsoft announced that the beta would be available on May 3, 2010.[25]

Release

According to a survey by Gamesindustry.biz, Reach was chosen by industry professionals as their pick for the top-selling game of 2010.[26] A video featuring various multiplayer content has been released on Halo Waypoint and the Xbox Live Marketplace for free to download.

Reach will be released in three retail editions. The standard edition ($60) contains the game and the manual. The limited edition ($90) features an artifact bag with story information, different packaging, and an exclusive set of in-game Elite armor. The Legendary Edition ($150) contains all the materials from the limited edition, a different packaging, in-game Spartan armor effect and a 10 pounds (4.5 kg) statue created by McFarlane Toys.[27]

References

  1. ^ Bungie. "Bungie Weekly Update 11.20.09". Retrieved 2009-11-21.
  2. ^ Goldstein, Hilary (2007-09-23). "Halo 3 Review". IGN. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
  3. ^ Tolito, Stephen (2007-05-14). "'Halo 3' Sneak Peek: Three Things Every Beta Player Must Do". MTV. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
  4. ^ a b Ryckert, Dan (2010-01-25). "Halo: Reach Developer Commentary". Game Informer. Retrieved 2010-01-26.
  5. ^ a b "Bungie Weekly Update: 04.02.10". Bungie. 2010-04-02. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
  6. ^ Miller, Matt (2010-03-31). "Exclusive Interview On The Halo: Reach Sandbox". Game Informer. Retrieved 2010-04-01.
  7. ^ Nguyen, Thierry (2010-04-14). "Halo Reach Preview for the Xbox 360". 1UP.com. pp. 1–2. Retrieved 2010-04-14.
  8. ^ Geddes, Ryan (2010-04-21). "Halo: Reach Beta Hands-On". IGN. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
  9. ^ a b "Halo: Reach; Bungie's Astonishing Prequel Revealed". Game Informer. 1 (202): 54–61. 2010. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  10. ^ "Halo: Reach background page". Bungie Studios. Retrieved 2010-04-27.
  11. ^ Brudvig, Erik (2009). "Halo: Reach trailer analysis". Retrieved 2009-12-18.
  12. ^ Ingham, Tim (2010-02-23). "Interview; Halo Reach Pt. 1". Computer and Video Games. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
  13. ^ Staff (2010-01-21). "Halo Reach - Tales of the Fall". Edge. Archived from the original on 2010-01-22. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
  14. ^ Jarrard, Brian; Eric Osborne, Luke Smith (2010-01-27). "Bungie Podcast 01/27/10: With Joseph Tung and Sage Merrill". Bungie.net. Retrieved 2010-01-30.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ a b Ivan, Tom (2010-01-22). "Halo: Reach; "Bending The Xbox As Far As It'll Bend"". Edge. Archived from the original on 2010-01-22. Retrieved 2010-01-23.
  16. ^ Jarrard, Brian (2010-01-26). "Halo: Reach - 3D Art Evolved". Bungie.net. Retrieved 2010-01-27.
  17. ^ a b "Halo: Reach ViDoc 1; Once More Unto The Breach". Bungie.net. Retrieved 2010-02-12.
  18. ^ "IGN E3 2009: Microsoft Press Conference Live Blog". Retrieved 2009-06-01.
  19. ^ Reilly, Jim (2009-07-23). "SDCC 09: 343 Industries To Oversee All Halo Products". IGN. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
  20. ^ Ellis, David (2009-12-14). "Halo Reach VGA Interview". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2009-12-15.
  21. ^ Vore, Bryan (2010-01-22). "An In-Depth Q&A With Marty O'Donnell". Game Informer. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
  22. ^ Fahey, Mike (2010-02-25). "Heroes Invades Halo Reach". Kotaku. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
  23. ^ Good, Owen (2009-12-13). "Halo:Reach MP beta". Kotaku. Retrieved 2010-01-05..
  24. ^ "Beta FAQ". Bungie. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
  25. ^ Molina, Brett (2010-02-10). "'Halo: Reach' multiplayer beta lands in May". USA Today. Retrieved 2010-02-12.
  26. ^ Martin, Matt (2010-01-08). "Halo: Reach to be biggest seller in 2010". Gamesindustry.biz. Retrieved 2010-01-11.
  27. ^ Molina, Brett (2010-04-22). "Collector's editions of 'Halo: Reach' unveiled". USA Today. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
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