The Halo: Reach multiplayer beta has come and gone and hopefully most had a good chance to play it because this is one solid multiplayer game even for being in beta stages. If you didn't get a chance to play it bask in my reminiscing of this great game as I explain the ups and the downs.
When the beta was first released players could play Slayer, Team Slayer, Stockpile and Headhunter on two maps; Powerhouse and Sword Base. Aside from playing Slayer and Team Slayer in the mixed bag playlist where it would cycle through all the game modes you could also go into "The Arena," which is more like a ranked playlist that takes three games that you play and then gives you your average rank and groups you with like players. If you play the next day your rank will reset but your previous rank will be archived to be placed for a "season rating". It's an interesting take on ranked matches and will most likely keep more players competitive working towards being a top player during a particular season.
Headhunter is a new twist on Free For All. Each kill players get will give them a skull to carry and return to their base respectively but if you think you're Mr. Badass you can kill multiple enemies and gather multiple skulls to return all at once but don't get caught with your pants down because if you get killed before you return your skulls all of them will drop that you were holding allowing another lucky spartan to steal them and return them to their own base. It's a frantic game mode of hording and stealing that surely has many yelling over their headset in disappointment or excitement.
Stockpile is a team based game that is in a sense much like Headhunter but with flags. Each team has a base where they must return collected flags scattered around the map. The kicker here is that the flags are returned every minute so this gives a chance for teams to steal the other teams flags so they don't get the capture points. Teamwork is the key here and some strong defense/offense skills. Very fun game mode to be played with your friends and playing it on Powerhouse is perfect allowing for many escape and sneaking routes to get some flags for the team.
One week after the beta was released Bungie added the Invasion game mode on a new map; Boneyard. Invasion is Elite vs Spartans, the Elite storm the base to capture points throughout the map in a Battlefield-esque manner while the Spartans are left to defend the points. It was one of my favorite game modes to play during the beta as was Invasion Slayer which is just Team Slayer but with Elite vs Spartans. I can tell I'll be playing this one the most during the full release.
The next week Bungie released the final game mode to be tested: Generator Defense on the Overlook map. This is where the beta showed its colors the most, the game mode was Generator Defense but at the match maker it was titled "Network 1". I could see that this was a great game mode of Spartans defending three Generators around the map while the Elite must destroy them but since this network test was going on it was very laggy for me and a lot of other players so that was a slight disappointment but I still like the idea of the game mode.
Stay tuned, I'll let you know about the different c.lasses, armor abilities and customization.