Preview: 'Halo: Reach' Multiplayer Beta

Although it still dominates the Xbox Live activity charts, there is no doubt that Halo has become outshined by other shooters. While the release of the pseudo-expansion Halo 3: ODST last year rejuvenated its place within the multiplayer space, the likes of Modern Warfare 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and their customisation and reward systems have left Bungie's more competitive and frantic style of play a far less attractive option. Halo: Reach, built from the ground up with some of these new design philosophies in mind, aims to bring the franchise back to the forefront of player's minds.

Much like Halo 3, its online onslaught will begin with a pre-release beta. Offered free with all copies of ODST, the size and scope of the teaser is not to be sniffed at, with four new modes and a variety of maps to play around with. The biggest departure and easily the most impressive is Invasion, which sees Spartans defend a succession of points in a sprawling custom-built map against oncoming Elites. The first set of points – two generators housed inside an elevated complex – oversees a debris-filled wasteland which the Elites spawn from. Dodging the fire from above, the Elite forces can choose a variety of routes to the generators, which are overtaken by standing within their radius for a tense 30 seconds.

From there, another section of the map opens up with more generator zones to overthrow, before having to retrieve a data core inside a complex which must be carried to an extraction point at the far end of the map. It's a mode that gets increasingly hectic as the match draws on; while the opening breach is fought within tight corridors and crucial choke points, the high ground that gives the Spartans such an advantage is replaced by a second series of points that are more open to attack, and finally an extraction area planted at the far end of a vast clearance. Increasingly powerful weapons and vehicles spawn as time goes on to make that last-ditch run even more daring, and as for the defensive side, managing multiple points and plugging weak points is a demanding and challenging effort.

While Invasion takes inspiration from the grandiose skirmishes often seen in the campaign, both Stockpile and Headhunter twist familiar play types with chaotic results. Stockpile has two opposing teams retrieve flags found dotted all over the map, but are only added to the team total every 30 seconds, which leads to all sorts of last-minute pinching and striking a balance between defending your collected flags and scouting for new ones. (As someone who doesn't normally enjoy flag-based modes, this came as a pleasant surprise.) Headhunter has a similar collection objective but for Slayer, where players leave skulls upon dying and must be deposited in a zone to score points. Again, there's a balance between fighting on for more skulls with the risk of losing them, or retreating to a zone regularly to clock up points.

Headhunter is certainly the most manic and free-for-all of the new modes, and the one that's most unbalanced. There has always been that cheap tactic to wait for a sparring pair to finish their fight so you can easily dispatch of the victor, and here this is encouraged immensely. Furthermore, the zones keep moving, giving an advantage to those with prior knowledge of the zone spawn locations, or the back alleys of the map where you can safely hide until one appears again. These two modes, as well as favourites Slayer, Oddball and Capture the Flag, will be playable on two multi purpose maps, while another mode called Generator Defence will make use of a specifically-built map, also playable come May.

A showering of new modes and maps is not all that will rejuvenate Halo's multiplayer experience. Like many other online shooters it introduces load-outs with different weapons and all new abilities, however a notable difference is that these will be preset and not user-created. Five types of abilities are available; Sprint will give the player a boost of speed, Active Camo will keep you hidden, Armour Lock which freezes the player solid but makes them temporarily invincible, the dash-like Evade which will thrust you in any direction, and a Jet Pack sees you glide through the air. Although some abilities such as the Armour Lock and Evade use up a chunk of your ability gauge, the others can be used in spurts, and regularly recharge for multiple uses. While it's difficult to tell, it seems that no single ability gives the player an advantage over the rest (especially since you can't carry an object at the same time) but can offer the player a means of escape when all hope is lost. Load-outs, which also come with different weapon sets, can be swapped between respawns to change tactic on the fly.

Elsewhere, an experience system rewards the player for finishing and winning matches. While it acts as a ranking indicator, the points can also be spent on customising new body parts such as helmets, chest and shoulder parts, which can also be carried through to the campaign. An interesting shift is that Commendations, which are rewards for continued actions over time, will offer more experience points than an actual team win, which is a step away from the all-or-nothing points reward system of Halo 3. (Whether this will deter the hardcore and entice new users to play will be something the beta may show evidence of.) It should be noted that experience accumulated during the beta will not carry over to the main game, so Bungie encourages players to be frivolous with their spending and customise away.

If that wasn't enough, everything from the engine to the matchmaking framework has been gutted out and rebuilt from the ground up. While Halo 3 is starting to look its age, Reach looks far more detailed and somewhat more gritty, replacing the original chunky weapon set for more sharp and sleek variants. Social features such as queue-joining ensures you automatically join a party when their game has finished, and a variety of connection and social options allows you to exclude rowdy players from your game or those from faraway lands for better match speeds.

While the beta presents us with all kinds of new features, Reach is undeniably a Halo experience. One-on-one encounters will still culminate in that split-second decision between a melee attack or an early grenade throw, and the gunplay still retains that sharp and focused feel that cannot be found anywhere else. The new modes are tense, chaotic and utterly entertaining, and breathe new life into a franchise that has felt a little behind the curve for some time. We're sure you'll agree come May 3.

The Halo: Reach beta launches on May 3 and will be accessible through the Halo 3: ODST disc, exclusively on Xbox 360.

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