Other notable features of Halo: Reach mentioned in the article include; state changes from walking to running to sprinting should also now look believable, as should pivoting on the ground; a new weather system, and Bungie has made the sky into a real object that ships can descend out of and onto the planet from.
Whereas Halo 3 could handle three or four dynamic light sources on-screen at one time, Halo: Reach can handle 20 to 40. And there are double the amount of enemies on-screen in Halo: Reach, not to mention a greater visual quality both at range and up close.
With regard to changes in gameplay, Bungie has brought mechanics in-line with Halo 1, as Reach is a prequel to it. Health bars again appear when shields are drained, and soldiers must find health packs to keep themselves standing. And flame grenades and spike grenades have been removed. They are also introducing stealth kills to Halo: Reach, which are context sensitive and performed by holding down a button when reaching an enemy undetected.
Halo 3's equipment power-ups been scrapped and swapped with new armour abilities, and these can be altered for the task at hand. The player swapped from a sprint ability to an active camouflage ability in the preview.
Here are some of the major points in easily digestable point form:
- Reach will NOT follow the book, Fall of Reach.
- Halo: Reach follows Noble Team, a six-man group of Spartans - mostly Spartan IIIs. Jorge is the only Spartan II on the team, and as a result is larger (heavy weapons specialist).
- You'll be Noble 6, a fiery yet commended soldier recruited when one of Noble Team falls.
- You can customise the appearance of the Lone Wolf by a small degree.
- The game is apparently darker than any of the other Halo games, even more so than ODST.
- A new enemy type, the Skirmishers - cousins of the Jackals - are to be introduced. They'll quickly form groups and attempt to out-manoeuvre you.
- Civillian vehicles are now drivable.
Below are some poorly taken snaps of the magazine article sourced from the net. Hopefully someone will actually use a scanner and upload some decent pics soon.
Well, we'll have to see if it lives up to the hype (already it's been touted as the game of 2010). For me, it'll have to do a better job than ODST, which I found a little disappointing. It was all a bit too repetitive, but apparently I didn't get to the best bits yet. Yes, I know I'm slow. ;)
Anway, if you're in The States you should pick up the Game Informer magazine for the full low-down, otherwise you'll have to make do with the limited news on their Halo: Reach Hub.
