Well it came and went. The Halo Reach beta has been done for about a week now, and I’ve finally decided to talk about it. Some people will understand what I’m saying, others won’t have a clue. I’m not going to dig into all the features or anything yet, I’ll probably just talk about my reactions and gut feelings on the whole thing.

For about the first week of playing, Reach was basically a madhouse of stuff going on. People were getting use to the load outs and armor abilities, and believe me, I was one of them. I didn’t lose many matches, but I can’t claim that I helped WIN any matches either. I went most games with a negative K/D spread, and would end the playing sessions somewhat frustrated. I was a pretty good Halo 1/2/3 player. Not professional grade but good enough to win most of the time and still enjoy the game when I lost. Playing Reach was almost the equivalent of picking up the original XBox controller and playing Halo 1 (my first experience with a FPS using a dual thumbstick controller that barely fit in my hands). I stepped into Reach and it felt like I was starting all over. I couldn’t kill worth shit, I couldn’t survive anything, and I had no idea where I was on the map half the time.

The additions of having loadouts with armor abilities throws in a HUGE new variable into the classic FPS Multiplayer scene that was the Halo Universe. I still haven’t decided if it adds strategy to the mix, or just creates a new type of chaos that is jumbled into the typical playing style you use to find in Halo multiplayer (which was sort of chaotic in its own way already). Now, instead of seeing someone masterfully make a crouch-jump onto a ledge that gives an advantage or allowed them to escape, you will see a person flying from the other side of the map, chucking grenades and firing at you with a pistol (while getting shot at by another pistol somewhere else on the map). Or when you used to have just enough time to get that final shot with the Battle Rifle to snatch a kill (and feel satisfied doing so), now you get 1 or 2 shots off and your target has already sprinted into cover and around 3 corners (thus avoiding that last ditch effort grenade you’re about to throw). It’s just so different. Maybe it just adds so much extra strategy to a game that didn’t have tons to begin with and it’ll just take time to fully realize all of it? Only time will tell.

By the time the beta was ending I began to get the hang of it all. I started to do much better in all the game types, I would use my loadouts wisely for the most part, and I got used to the 3-4 maps they released. The new game types were interesting and somewhat fun. I feel as though the maps were not good fits with the game types they threw at us. Invasion was interesting with it’s single map but I still feel like they could have been better. That’s one thing about the transition from Halo 2 to Halo 3 that I remember, was that I loved the Halo 2 maps. I don’t always remember why, but I’m pretty sure it was true. Halo 3 maps were a little iffy a lot of the time, so I hope they pull through and give us some good maps to play on, and give us a good amount of maps from the start, none of this DLC after 1 week crap that you have to pay for. The Reach maps so far were pretty unimpressive in my eyes. Fun, and good choices to show off some of the armor abilities (jetpacks), but as far as maps go, I was pretty unsatisfied. Although adding names to all the areas of the map was pretty brilliant.

Overall I would say my experience was a fairly enjoyable one. I will add that having a buddy come over to have some beers and play some made it a lot more fun. Even though there was a point in that first week where I said, “you know, playing this beta is almost convincing me NOT to buy this game when it comes out”, I don’t think I’ll be able to stand by the statement. For one, it’s a Halo game and I’m a fan, and would want to at least play the campaign (which I’m hoping is excellent), secondly, I’m sure I’ll get used to it and it’ll turn into a blast playing online. Maybe it’ll even get some of my old friends who used to play with me back on.

Now, having said that. Here is my mock Dear Bungie letter that states my concerns:

Dear Bungie,

Here are some things to change for the Halo: Reach release.

Human grenades – too powerful

Jumping sucks now. Can we get some ups please?

Gun bloom – we didn’t need it in the first 4 games, why now? At least step in down a notch

Voting for the game type is nice, but its also annoying, maybe just stick to the Veto system

Why am I slow as molasses?! Just because we can sprint now doesn’t mean normal pace should be slower

The DMR is just trash. Give me my BR back.

The Assault Rifle shouldn’t take more than 1 clip to finish a guy off, thank you very much. No more reload battles or lame double beat down battles.

At first I was mad that the beat down didn’t carry over the shield, but I got used to it, however, I’m still not okay with the fact that 2 beat downs is more powerful than bullets.

The assassinations are pretty kickass, even when they are glitchy they pretty much rule.

Not sure how I feel about being able to block a sword attack, but I like that you’re thinkin out of the box on that one.

More armor options would be nice. Or maybe if the armor actual had an effect on the battlefield. Think about that! Upgrades that actually upgrade your guy?!

Maybe tell us what goes in to the ranking system? I never know for sure if I kicked ass or not because my rating will blow while everything else was pretty sweet.

Get rid of the radar jamming while using the cloak ability. It’s supposed to give you the upper hand, not completely warn the enemy you’re coming AND screw over your ability to tell where the enemy is. Seriously.

K, I think that’s about it. This will probably be one of the many games I’ll be getting by the end of the year.