Jumping The Shark

You must understand that the Halo: Reach beta lives up to it’s name: It’s a BETA. That means that it is for testing, finding bugs, gathering feedback, and refining the final product–something that is still several months away. You act as if it was a demo, something more representative of the final product. Bungie has explicitly stated that what is seen in the beta does not reflect the entirety of what will be available in the final game: There will be more “classes,” more maps, potentially new weapons, and of course the campaign and other features left out of the multiplayer beta.

It is true that Reach should shine, theoretically, from the “classes” that are now available. In fact, where Reach shines is in the balance of the weapons. The DMR, the replacement for the Battle Rifle of the past, is not the go-to weapon. The pistol is not a sub-standard shadow of it’s original self. Each weapon is equally viable to be used against another weapon without any one weapon reigning supreme, as the BR did. Another thing to note about the weapons is that there is less overlap between the UNSC and Covenant (“human” and “alien” respectively, for the uninformed) weapons; Before, you would find that the UNSC SMG would have a Covenant counterpart, and it was wholly unnecessary to have two weapons fulfill the same role. Each weapon is unique, viable, and for the most part balanced (again, it’s a beta).

There are actually more “classes” than you’ve listed. First, they aren’t classes, they’re armor abilities. The configuration of armor ability and weapon is called a loadout. A class, like you would expect from Team Fortress 2, has a very rigidly designed role; You can’t play a Medic like you would play the Spy, because of the core differences to the class mechanics. You could pick the “Scout” loadout in Reach (Sprint armor ability, Assault Rifle, Pistol, and 2 frag grenades) and you would not be restricted to any specific playstyle. You can use the Sprint to jump long gaps, get close to an enemy, run away, or whatever. There is nothing about the “Scout” loadout that dictates how you play. You could even forgo the usage of the armor ability entirely, and you would not be at a disadvantage.

Second, your summary of the armor abilities is just pathetic and very trollish. Instead of picking about why you aren’t doing justice to the intricacies of each (and oh boy, are there intricacies), I’m going to address one: The “fetal position” armor ability… there’s simply nothing fetal about it. The pose you strike is more akin to Iron Man’s iconic ground pound than curling up into a ball and crying. It’s called Armor Lock, and it makes you invulnerable to ALL damage. In previous games, “invulnerable” meant that the only thing that can kill you is a smack to the back, which is called an assassination. This is true invulnerability, and that’s pretty big considering the term’s lineage (in Halo, anyways).

Now, onto the armor ability that you neglected to mention. But first, it’s worth pointing out that Spartans (like Master Chief) have a monopoly on the Sprint ability. Sprint lets them run faster for several seconds, and it can only be used while you’re running forward. The last armor ability is exclusive to Elites, the bigger, badder alien faction you can play as. The thing about Elites is that they can run as fast, unaided, as a Spartan in full Sprint. They can jump higher, they have more shields and they recharge faster, they have regenerating health, and the overall package is something truly terrifying to behold as a Spartan. Spartans cannot run, they cannot hide. On top of all of that their exclusive armor ability, Evade, let’s them roll out of harm’s way in any direction, Gears of War-style. By the way, how did you completely fail to mention Elites? In previous Halo multiplayer, they behaved identically to Spartans aside from their hitboxes. In Reach, they are terrifying menaces that require teamwork to over come. That’s a huge change in multiplayer.

Another thing you failed to mention are other changes from previous games that will set Reach apart from them. First, there is the health model. Before, Spartans (and Elites, but they don’t matter now) had health that would regenerate after your shields returned to full. In Reach, Spartans must find health packs on the walls to recover their lost health, just like in Halo 1. Also back from Halo 1 (it was taken out in Halo 2 due to a bug) is fall damage; That jet pack that you completely glossed over makes this a non-issue, but anyone found without one will take damage when they hit the ground from a significant drop. The biggest, and perhaps most important change, is the way weapons fire. Reach goes back to the old hitscan method (Halo 3 used actual ballistics, requiring you to lead your target at long distances before firing), and on top of that your weapons will become less accurate the faster you fire them. This means that skilled players will be playing far more deliberately than an unskilled player, and the skilled players will also be able to use much less ammo to get far more kills. This mechanic is entirely new to the Halo series, and it’s being employed to increase the skill gap between skilled and unskilled players.

Overall, I have to completely and utterly disagree with you that Bungie is jumping the shark with Reach. I dare say that your overview of the beta (again, things absolutely will change for the retail product) is rather amateur and quite possibly the worst attempt at trolling I have seen on the internet all week.