Halo Reach Beta - Review PART 1

The Halo Reach Beta is finally mine. 2 days before its official release, I will give you all a sneak peek to Bungie's latest attempt to make another masterpiece. Is the Beta worth downloading and begging? Or is it just a waste of your precious time? This, ladies and gentlemen, is the review of the first 2 maps and game modes of the Halo Reach Beta.

Halo Reach even though in the Beta stage, looks much improved from Halo 3. The guns are much more detailed and the new added guns look superb. The Assault Rifle now has a makeover and my favorite gun is the DMR by far.

The 2 new maps are both amazing. Powerhouse is like a bigger version of High Ground. There's a bridge with some water below and besides that it's an open area with buildings. The best game mode to play in this map is Headhunters and any type of Slayer. The map is balanced and spawns are never a problem. The map is colorful and inside areas are detailed. There is a middle area in the map with water and I feel whoever passes that part gets killed if its Slayer but extremely chaotic when playing Oddball or Headhunters. Another flaw with this map is a small bathroom where people usually camp with the oddball or gravity hammer. Frags usually help out.

Sword Base is inferior to Powerhouse but still great. It is an indoor area with a center and various rooms with stairs. There are bridges and 3 gravity lifts that give people the advantage when playing Oddball. Capture the Flag is the best mode for this map. Grav lifts, like I mentioned, makes Oddball unfair and the map looks pretty but not that unique. And besides the best gun in the game is in Powerhouse. Other than that all other gun pickups in Sword Base are good enough to keep variety. Weirdly enough, I still haven't found any glitches on any of the maps. Great job Bungie.

The gameplay in the Beta is outstanding. Bungie has surpassed themselves with the class system and the unique XP system. You also gain credits which you can buy helmets, shoulder plates and chest plates. They give you a different appearance and of course improves some of your equipment depending on your class. Sadly, Slayer Arena is not available yet, where you get ranked for your perfomance and involves game seasons and divisions. Like a tournament if you must.

The Stalker class gives you an active camo. It is the inferior class out of 4 but still great. This is because sometimes the camo seems useless since they easily see you, especially in objective based game types. But when the camo works it can deliver some satisfying assassinations. Talking about assassinations, the little scene that switches third person never triggers unless you hold the melee button behind someone. This avoids annoyance.

The Guard class which is my favorite, has the ability to give him a few seconds of invincibility and blast a EMP by punching the ground gives you an advantage when under fire. They are mostly useful on Slayer. On Oddball it might make the skull fly if not used in propriety.

The Airborne class is the infamous class that involves the jetpack. Surprisingly the jetpack is balanced and I was rarely frustrated by people using it. I usually used the jetpack in objective based games where you fly for a skull or flag. Better in Headhunters which makes it easier for you to get to the base. King of the Hill and Juggernaut as well.

The Scout class gives you the ability to sprint. The sprint feature might seem useless but in objective based games like Headhunters where you have to rush somewhere, it's very useful. In slayer games it helps if you're getting shot at and you have to run at cover. Very useful despite it being so simple; this feature should've been added to Halo from the first game.

Guns are all balanced. The DMR is the BR with no burst fire but this time the crosshair expands when shooting. The AR is improved but still somewhat useless, typical since it's your standard gun. The shotgun still packs a punch from close but useless far. The melee power has decreased slightly but increased the lunge. The matchmaking is also fast and finds a match immediately even with less than 10,000 people.

In conclusion, the Reach beta is flawless. The new game modes like Headhunters are fun and addictive, and old favorites like Juggernaut feel new with the amount of new stuff they added and this is just a sliver of the actual beta. I can't wait when more people retrieve this amazing beta.