Next up was investigating a spire that projected an EMP dead zone which prevented UNSC sensors from scanning the area. Turns out the spire was a teleporter and the last part of Tip of the Spear showed just how serious the stakes of this battle were going to get. A UNSC frigate bearing reinforcements came into view and it looked like the tide of the conflict was turning to in favor of the humans. Suddenly, a Covenant super-carrier looms into view and destroys the frigate, demoralizing even your Spartan comrades. As desperate as this battle’s already been, it’s only going to get moreso. The mission after Tip of the Spear leads directly into the space battle sequence that Lev, Peter and I got to check out a few weeks back, and knowing the context makes that fight in the sky all the more important.
(More on Techland: Reach for the Stars: Hands-on with Bungie’s Last Halo Game)
That desperation is one of the things that’s distinctly different about Halo: Reach. The Campaign Mode shows off tons of tonal variation, going from spooky to balls-out without ever feeling un-Halo. I handled a few new weapons in Reach, too. Of those, the Target Locator gave me another new Achievement called “Two Corpses, One Grave” after I used it to call in an orbital airstrike that took out two Revenant tanks at the same time. Another weapon that became a favorite of mine is the Plasma Launcher, which fires energy bursts that track targets.
After my Campaign time, I jumped into a bunch of multiplayer sessions. I loved the new Headhunter mode, where players fight to collect the most skulls in a time limit; whoever gets 10 skulls automatically wins the round. Another all-new mode is Versus, where two teams face off with one group controlling Spartans and the other team controlling Elites. The Elite team has infinite lives and care only about killing humans; they’ve also got the advantage of swarms of AI bots to help them. The Spartans have a set number of lives but at the end of each round, teams switch sides.Overall, Reach seems like it’s going to be a greatly varied send-off for Halo from Bungie. Whether it’s the moodiness of the single-player or the deep amount of customization in the various multiplayer modes, Bungie’s pulling out all the stops. September 14th can’t get here soon enough.