Halo: The Fall of Reach

As odd as it may sound to some, video games will often times spawn books based on the lore surrounding that particular series. Game series’ such as “Gears of War,” “Diablo,” and “Mass Effect” have all been turned into novels that serve to expand the history of the series or to explore events that happened between games. As the kind of gamer who usually gets sucked into a good story, these novels are great sources of information for fans who need to know everything about their favorite games. Of all that I’ve read, though, “Halo: The Fall of Reach” has always been a favorite of mine.

“The Fall of Reach” serves to explain the origins of Halo’s protagonist, Spartan-117, or as he is more commonly known, the Master Chief. Along with providing a previously unexplored backstory for the game’s main character, the book also introduced the series’ main antagonists, a race of aliens known as The Covenant. Though the book is regarded as canon, we gamers have never been able to experience the events of this book - events which ultimately lead up to the first game in the series, “Halo: Combat Evolved.” We haven’t been able to…until now.

Well…not necessarily right now, but soon. Relatively soon, anyway. Microsoft and Bungie (the developers of the Halo series) haven’t given the game an official release date yet, but have stated it will be out in Fall 2010. For those who bought “Halo 3: ODST,” a special multiplayer-only beta test of “Halo: Reach” is going on right now. For the rest of us, though, we’ll just have to get by on what details Bungie is willing to release from time to time – and the latest bit of news is (almost) worth the wait.

In the spirit of the current multiplayer beta, Bungie has finally released a few details on its newest competitive multiplayer mode titled “Invasion.” All that was known about it before a few days ago was that maps for Invasion would be much larger than normal maps and would feature numerous vehicles.

With the grand unveiling of Invasion on the show GameTrailers TV, Bungie let a few nuggets slip about the new game mode. To start, Invasion will feature a team of Spartans (genetically enhanced super-soldiers) facing off against a team of Elites (physically imposing creatures who serve as officers and elite soldiers for The Covenant) to defend/attack a series of objectives – very similar to the “Rush” mode in the “Battlefield” game series. From the looks of it, each objective has two points that must be taken before the attacking team can move on to the next point. Bungie also noted that new vehicles and weapon loadouts will be available as the objectives are taken.

Though it’s unfortunate that “ODST’s” Firefight mode apparently won’t be included in “Reach” (a mode which pits you and friends against increasingly difficult waves of enemies), Invasion has a lot of potential. Rush is one of the most entertaining modes in “Battlefield: Bad Company 2” and Invasion introduces a tactical game-type to the standard deathmatch and capture-the-flag games that are most popular in the “Halo” series. This will also be one of the only multiplayer modes in “Reach” that features Elites as playable characters. Bungie noted that the Elites in “Reach” are much bigger, nastier and uglier than Elites in previous “Halo” games and are tougher to kill than even the Master Chief himself.

As a big fan of FPSes and of the “Halo” series, I’m eating up every detail and screenshot of “Reach” that I can find. Everything I’ve heard so far about the game makes it sound like Bungie is taking its cues in the making of “Reach” more from “Halo: CE” than from its two sequels – which means, to those who aren’t familiar with the entire collection of “Halo” games, more emphasis on large open environments and a more visceral experience overall. And, always a company to keep their fans eager for more, Bungie will soon be releasing more information about “Reach’s” single-player campaign, saying only “in June” in terms of when this info will reach (I crack myself up sometimes) the masses.