Some quick thoughts from PAX, crashing on a bean bag after three hours of standing or wandering. (God bless the bean bags.)
I went straight to the Firefight booth, which is similar in location and set up to the ODST Firefight set up from last year: three sets of four screens, each configured with a different map and a ten minute time limit. The line for Firefight was pretty big, even after heading straight there. Quite amusingly, Gears of War 3 was right next to it, and had about a half dozen people standing around it. Ditto for Fable III, which was right next to it. Reach's line was 60+. Given that the churn rate is 12 people every 10 minutes, that's a 50 minute wait, which is exactly how long we were in line. It's designed to wrap around the booth though, so we could watch the game the entire time, which helped the time pass quickly.
I played with a group of three other guys who needed a fourth (sorry BB, HP!) on Courtyard. The improvements in Firefight over ODST and in gameplay and polish since the Beta are legion. It's almost absurd the level of polish that's gone into the core combat since the Beta. Bungie been busy.
As mentioned by Letters, the weapons feel wonderful; there's an extremely powerful feedback loop to everything. Shots from the Phantoms have the impact of plasma grenades landing around you; they sort of announce that you do not want to get hit by them. Firefight is much more hectic than before, as there are more heavy and explosive weapons in the mix. As with the videos, the opening waves really are just a warm up for when the Elites march in: those guys kicked all our asses. Repeatedly. (We were on Heroic, I think, with Tough Luck enabled.)
What struck me most is that they knew what to do in various situations. They'd close ranks when I was retreating, they'd dive behind cover when I was landing shots on them, juked when out in the open, aggressive when they had the advantage. Very fun, tough guys to fight. Every game I watched, guys started dropping like flies when they showed up; you really have to be methodical. It's like how you remember Halo 1, but on steroids.
The spawn set up is ideal now, I was never locked in a box with enemies all around as with ODST. You can pick from a few locations, and those locations all have multiple ways in and out.
Many amusing moments:
Snagging the Target Locater and getting an Achievement for taking out 10+ guys at once. Including one team mate. Sorry 'bout that, random PAX dude. I should have saved it for the Elites, though.
Someone hopped into a Forklift and charged a Hunter. Well, charged as well as forky can charge. The Hunter put down its shield defensively, and the forklift went up it like a ramp, tipping to point up at the sky. Then the Hunter nailed the underbelly with a FRG round that ended forky's romp. The Hunters are mean bastards; I died three times working on one pair. (Lars and I were talking when they showed up; he smiles and says, "Good luck," with a rather delighted devilish smirk.) They take up a defensive posture when taking fire, with the shield blocking most of the front of their body, and fire the cannon repeatedly. Oh, and then slowly advance, which pinned me against walls twice. Whoops. Jetpack is going to be handy against them.
Jackals were Jackals. Grunts are terrifying and deadly. Skirmishers are fast little bastards, which makes landing headshots on them with the DMR a joy, but they were born to flank and that's what they do.
Overall the combat felt meaty, fluid and very much like Halo, polished to ridiculous sheen. Jump and movement felt just right. Animation for the weapons was entirely redone since the beta, and are detailed and satisfying. Remember how it felt to cock the shotgun after emptying it out and then reloading it in Halo 1? Every weapon animation feels that good in Reach.
Crazy hyped for the full product after this sampling. Time to head to lunch now...
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