Halo Reach — Week 2 Update

guaranteed payday loans

Version 1 (v1) of the MLG settings released this past Friday and so began our official methodical practice regiment. We have scrimmaged a wide variety of teams, including those from other games such as Gears of War and Call of Duty. If you happen to have a team and are looking for scrimmages make sure to add my tag: “ArctYc zYn.”

As it stands, I am not overly fond of the MLG v1 settings. I would have personally like to have seen sprint remain in the game and no “on map” power ups. Taking out sprint and substituting it for 120% (up 10% from H3) speed feels a bit awkward; players have the feeling of “skating” around the map. Escaping enemy fire becomes non-existent as well, making it “more of the same Halo” rather than a similar, but new experience.

The settings (download here) use 120% speed, increased jump height, slightly altered gravity, and four stock maps that have been adjusted or substantially recreated. The maps, in alphabetical order:

Asylum

The most notable difference to the map is that the size has been reduced. There are large mountainous rocks surrounding the areas that previously housed cliffs and ledges. The center structure of the map (we call “Ring”) has been raised to mirror the Sanctuary in Halo 2. The “jump up” rocks on the outsides of the ring have also been raised and are now slightly more difficult to jump onto and in the inner ring.

On either of the sniper bridges (Red/Blue) leading into the ring, there is a slight ramp that leads up to the “third story” (Ring 3) of the ring. We noticed that the build of the ramp on Blue side makes it easier to jump to Ring 3 than on Red. The two unbalanced defects, among a few others, are probably the reasons attributing to the rebuild of the map.

Countdown

This is quickly turning into one of my favorite maps. The most notable changes to this map are the “Red/Blue” lights that now make calls easier on the map. There is now a focused emphasis on controlling the second level power weapon spawns (Rocket/Sniper) now that they have been placed at Big Door and in front of the second level, three-vent drop.

Reflection

To my knowledge there has been no official changes to the map’s build. The sniper and rockets have been placed on the top of the second-level walkways on opposite sides from each other. The spawns have also been altered, allowing for a more balanced push for power weapons at the beginning of the map.

Zealot

I continue to house mixed feelings about Zealot. The map has been altered to not allow use of the three colored vents to outer space (Red, Blue, Yellow). At the bottom of yellow lift there is a teleporter that sends you to the second level of yellow. The power weapons on this map are the grenade launcher (which needs to be on more maps) and the sniper rifle.

My problem with the map is due to the spawns after death. Losing top control of the map makes for a difficult struggle to regain control.

Team Slayer & Flag

From the teams we’ve seen thus far, we have a long ways to go on objective gameypes. Our Capture the Flag needs quite a bit of work, however we have seen significant improvement in a short amount of time. I am sure after a few months of becoming acclimated to the flow of the game, it will begin to click.

On the flip side, we have been able to hang with just about anyone on Team Slayer, mainly because the strategies we have developed thus far are quite a bit better than everyone else’s. Once we improve our slaying abilities, I’m sure we will witness further improvement.