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According to a Halo: Reach preview found in the latest issue of Game Informer, fans can expect this year’s Halo prequel to offer a significant visual leap over both Halo 3 and ODST.
Bungie’s game engine is certainly still able to impress under the right conditions, but there’s no denying that when Halo 3: ODST came out last autumn it was showing its age. Thankfully, Game Informer states that Reach is being built on a massively overhauled version of the engine, boasting big increases in the level of graphical fidelity and the number of enemies/objects able to be displayed on screen at any one time.
This should mean not only a smarter looking game, but one that features much bigger firefights than we’ve encountered in previous Halo titles – as many as double the number of enemies, up from 20 to 40, and up to 20 vehicles.
We can also expect more believable facial animations, with work on Reach outsourced to Image Metrics, which has previously worked on Assassin’s Creed 2, Gears of War 2 and Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. The game will also feature full motion-captured animation, produced at a new in-house studio.
Halo: Reach features the story of Noble Team, a six-man group of Spartans comprised of Carter-259, Kat-320, Jorge-052 (the party’s only Spartan II), Emile-239 and Jun-266. Players will take control of Noble 6, recruited by Noble Team loses one of its members.
In gameplay terms, Reach is a prequel to the first Halo and as such many of its mechanics are similar to the Xbox classic. The recharging shield and health system from Halo: Combat Evolved returns and equipment will be assigned to a single slot which can be swapped in and out.
Halo 1 weapons, including the sniper rifle, assault rifle and magnum pistol will be joined by newcomers such as the Designated Marksman Rifle – lethal at both long and close range.
Via Kotaku | Bungie.net forums
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