Bungie showed off some of Halo: Reach today at the Microsoft booth. As most of you know, Reach’s campaign follows the Noble Squad, a group of Spartans. Not much was revealed about the campaign, but the level we were shown took place in an outside area that looked like a beach. Covenant drop pods were blasting into the landscape, each containing an enemy. The demo took us further up a hill and we were shown the Covenant grenade launcher, which bounces once off the ground before flying into its destination, not unlike a bounce pass in basketball.
After securing the area, the space combat mission began in which your player hops into a spacecraft and takes the battle to the skies. It’s worth pointing out that only one mission in the campaign (which does again support four player co-op) involves space battle. The remaining missions are of the typical ground variety that Halo players have come to know and love.
Players have lock on missiles and standard lasers to shoot with. A shield and hull percentage in the HUD tells you how much damage you have sustained, too. The Firefight mode has been greatly expanded in Reach. Players can customize each wave now, and there is a new matchmaking service introduced to play with others over Live (instead of just your friends). Firefight customization includes what map and types of enemies appear during what wave, and several other configurable options.
Halo: Reach is out later this year.
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