I’ve been playing the Halo: Reach Beta for a few days now, and it’s definite change from the past.  Or…maybe they’re returning to the past.  Or maybe they’re bringing the past into the future.  Now my head hurts.

Here’re some impressions–without any appearances by Michael J. Fox.  

There are a few things they definitely need to fix (read: “beta”), but overall, this game is a better representative of the Halo canon than even Halo 3 was–from a playability standpoint.  Reach is a grittier and more ‘realistic’ game, despite still being set in a science fiction world.  It almost seems like they decided to take a few pages from the Call of Duty playbook, which I’m not totally against, especially in areas like movement and shooting.

Overall Feel: The feel of the game is an extension of the original Halo: featuring shorter jump height, the return of health bars, and a wider FOV.  Grenade tossing is a little more of a direct throw than a lob.  Animation also plays a huge role in the ‘throwback’ feel of the game, featuring some animation motions in grenade tossing and pistol-whipping from CE.

Some big changes include the introduction of a “Reticule Bloom” which shows the accuracy of your shooting for a split second after each shot.  Also, we have a few different loadout abilities or classes: each player can choose between sprint, jetpack, invincibility, or invisibility.  All of these abilities have a time limit with a recharge.

It’s growing on me.  At first, the jump height was one of the biggest things I had to adjust to, along with the reticule bloom.  But neither detract from gameplay.  It’s really tough to imagine this being a beta, being how polished it is already.  I think I only ran into one little frustrating glitch, which even could be considered a personal preference issue.

Here is one thing I LOVE: Most of you out there have heard me rant calmly point out specific ways in which recent FPS games have failed to provide a real feature supported learning progression for skilled players as they continue to play.  Games like Halo 3 and Call of Duty were milktoast in offering a set of features that could really diversify the level of competition.  BUT, Halo: Reach is finally addressing the issue with the new loadout abilities.  The ways in which each ability can be used is diverse and flexible, and no ability is overwhelmingly overpowered.

Also, one feature that I found interesting was melee countering.  For instance, if you melee at someone who is in mid-charge with a sword–with the right timing, they will bounce off you without killing you.

Multiplayer Rating: The old Halo 3 rating system has been scrapped for another experiment.  This time they actually give you a number from 1 to 2000 (although I doubt anyone is rated below 1000 at the moment).  Also, the multiplayer roundup features “Seasons” in which you play until the end of the season when all ratings reset.  All I can think is, great, more gimmicks to make me even more addicted.  Screw you Bungie.  Nevermind.  I love you.

Background: There isn’t much background to the game yet, but the levels are pretty fantastic looking.  I’m still a little interested to see how they reconcile the Mark III Spartans with the lore from The Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund.  Also, being that since this is supposed to be a prequel to the original Halo… will they completely do away with Brute weapons?

So, if you haven’t picked up ODST yet because of complaints about how short the game was reported to be, don’t worry.  Now it’s worth it.  The beta is fun, and it evolves the Halo multiplayer experience far enough without totally losing authenticity.