Halo Reach multiplayer designer Derek Carroll has released more details for Halo Reach:“I don’t think we went crazy on purpose to go out with a bang, although we certainly are. We just said, ‘okay, Slayer, CTF, King of the Hill, those are great, let’s lock those up and put them aside. Now what else? What can we have?’ And then came up with some fun stuff to do in the space.”
The first new mode, ‘Headhunter’ is “a new ‘party’ game where the goal is to collect and capture the most skulls.” Basically, upon death players drop a skull, and you’ll look to pick up that skull and carry it to a designated skull deposit zone (that moves around the map). You can carry multiple skulls, but if you’re killed before scoring, you’ll lose all the skulls you had.
‘Stockpile’ is “another ‘party’ gametype that is sort of like Territories meets with Capture the Flag,” explains Bungie. Two teams race to capture four neutral flags that spawn on the map and successfully return them to their respective capture points.
‘Generator Defense’ is one of the most interesting Reach modes and in Bungie’s words, “pits three Spartans against three Elites. The Elites are trying to destroy three generators before time runs out while the Spartans are trying to defend.
“Elites may be faster, bigger, and ‘healthier’… but they are also easier to hit, and Spartans have the advantage of being in a pretty well defended position.”
Invasion is the fourth and final game mode in the beta, and also the one that Bungie’s keeping most quite about. “It’s a vehicle-full frenzy,” teases designer Carrol and in fact, this mode and its accompanying map (Boneyard) is the only map in the Reach beta that features vehicles.
“[It's] packed to the gills with vehicle combat,” says Carroll, who adds, “It’s really big — nice and spacious to drive around in. A little bit bigger than Sandtrap even.”
