Quote:
Noble Team is ready to report for duty.
January 13, 2010 - If there's one thing to know about Halo: Reach, it's that it sucks to be a Spartan III – at least according to February's Game Informer. In a 10-page feature about Bungie's latest, the magazine introduces us to Noble Team – a six-person squad made up of mostly Spartan IIIs – and the fact that their lives are completely expendable in the day-to-day operations of the UNSC.
Good thing the planet's about to fall to the Covenant anyway.
Halo: Reach is the prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved. Here, the 100-year-old colony of Reach will fall to its alien attackers, and you'll be there as Noble 6, the newest member of Noble Team. Carter-259 is the leader, the female Spartan Kat-320 is second in command, Jorge-052 is heavy weapons specialist and the only Spartan II on the team, Emile-239 has a skull painted on his helmet, and Jun-266 rounds out the squad.
However, according to Game Informer, the planet of Reach is going to be just as pivotal to the story as Noble Team. There will be a darker color palette to this outing to reflect the somber feel, the environments will be detailed, you'll meet the cultures inhabiting the planet, and so on.
When the demo described in the article starts, Noble Team goes to check out a tinkered with communications array and finds no rebels, a whole bunch of abandoned houses, and walls and ceilings covered in plasma burns. Soon, the Covenant is upon the troops and there's a massive battle. Bungie says that it's making the Covenant scarier this time (the game's being framed in a more cinematic style) and that they'll be talking in their native tongue in deep, creepy voices. On the tech side, look for Halo: Reach to support battles packing 40 AI characters and 20 vehicles (Halo 3 only supported 20 AI).
Fans of the original Halo will see a number of throwbacks in Reach. The health bar will take damage and not replenish over time like your shield, and the sniper rifle, assault rifle, magnum, plasma pistol, sword, and needler are all back. It's not all old news, though. Spike and flame grenades are out, and frag and plasma grenades are in.
Meanwhile, the designated marksman rifle (a mix between a sniper and a battle rifle) and the needle rifle (a medium range gun that will cause three people to explode if they're hit in succession) are joining the fray for the first time alongside melee assassinations, which are described as being performed by holding down a button near an unaware enemy for a context-sensitive takedown. Still, one of the coolest additions in Halo: Reach seems like it'll be armor abilities. Here, a Spartan can choose a super-up ability (sprint or camouflage) and be able to use them until a rechargeable meter runs out. You can swap the abilities whenever you like.
Game Informer touches on multiplayer briefly, confirming that Halo: Reach will at least feature all of the multiplayer features of Halo 3 (including four-player online co-op, split screen co-op for two players, 16 player online matches and saved films). It also will feature a few new treats that haven't been unveiled yet and will make use of the aforementioned armor abilities.
The article also showcased the new enemies known as Skirmishers (Jackal cousins that travel in packs and have dino-like faces while moving on two feet), announced that the game will use 20 to 40 dynamic lights at one time, and that Reach will use motion capture for the majority of its cinematic scenes. Basically, it made Halo: Reach sound awesome and made the wait until the game's fall release all the more annoying.