Grab Bag
This is your familiar Halo experience. The go to game types. Some of this stuff you should already be used to. If you like Assault Rifle and Magnum starts (and you will much more than you did the same in Halo 3, trust me), you should go with Slayer. Should be self-explanatory. Like the longer range game? Vote for Pro.
You’ll also see a healthy mix of objective stuff like 1 Flag, Crazy King, Oddball, and, back by popular demand, Halo 2 style Three Plots, where teams must capture and hold a series of three fixed territories that can be subsequently recaptured by the opposition. The more territories you hold down at any one given time, the more points you are awarded, per second.
You’ll also run into a little somethin’ somethin’ we like to call Covie Slayer. Elite on Elite evasion action. Do yourself a favor and cast your vote in favor of this at least once. Trust me.
Free For All
Yeah, you know what’s up. No teams. Kill stuff.
Unless you’re the Juggernaut. Then you’ll have a Gravity Hammer and you’ll be on fire. Like on fire on fire. You’ll also be unkillable, really friggin’ fast, and unbound by the laws of gravity (Suck it, Newton!).
But you’re not powered up forever. Once the HUD indicator above your head changes from a skull to a bullseye, it’s your turn to become the hunted. And just like the original version of Juggs, if someone takes you down, they’ll get their own moment to rage out.
You get 10 points per kill as the Juggernaut and 5 points for killing a Juggernaut. Wash, rinse, repeat until someone scores a total of 150 points. No Armor Abilities. No Load Outs.
HEADHUNTER
THIS ONE’S PRETTY EASY. SCORE 25 SKULLS TO WIN OR CASH IN 1O AT ONE TIME FOR THE SKULLAMANJARO, WHICH ENDS THE GAME BECAUSE YOU ARE SO AMAZINGLY AWESOME.
GETTING A SKULLAMANJARO AIN’T EASY, THOUGH. SKULLS DROP OUT OF DEAD OPPONENTS AND WHEN YOU PICK SOME UP, A NUMBER APPEARS ABOVE YOUR HEAD IN EVERYONE ELSE’S HUD TO LET THEM KNOW EXACTLY HOW MANY YOU HAVE IN TOW (EVEN IF YOU’RE USING ACTIVE CAMO).
THE MORE YOUR CARRY, THE LARGER A TARGET YOU’LL ULTIMATELY BECOME, AND YOU DON’T GET ANY POINTS UNLESS YOU DEPOSIT YOUR SKULLS INTO ONE OF THE TERRITORIES. TERRITORIES MOVE, SO ASIDE FROM SKULL INVENTORY MANAGEMENT, YOU NEED TO BE AWARE OF WHERE THE SCORING ZONES ARE AS THE MATCH GOES ON.
WORKS FOR TEAMS OR FFA, BUT FOR BETA, YOU’LL BE GOING IT ALONE.
OH, AND CANDLAND WANTS YOU TO KNOW THAT HE DIDN’T INTENTIONALLY ENTER THE GAMETYPE IN ALL CAPS. HE BLAMES DEREK, WHO NOW HAS ACCESS TO A DESIGNER-FOCUSED SCRIPTING LANGUAGE FOR MAKING SWEET GAMETYPES.
Eye straining jokes aside, Headhunter is one of those games that’s just built for good times. It’s really easy to understand and always heaps of fun. Seeing some poor sap in a mad dash for the last minute cash in, only to stop him dead in his tracks and witness his entire supply of flaming skulls spill out from his dead body? So good.
Stockpile
Stockpile is a little more complex. Two teams scrap over four neutral flags. Flags are scored by bringing them into your team’s designated territory and protecting them until the timer reaches zero. Flags are collected every sixty seconds.
If the flag is outside the zone, even if you have it in your hands, it won’t count. If you allow a player on the other team to infiltrate your territory and toss all your flags outside the clearly marked boundaries, those won’t count either.
There’s two ways to win.
- Score a total of 10 Flags.
- Score the most flags in the ten minutes allotted.
Sounds pretty simple, right? It’s actually really nuanced. There’s a lot of push/pull going on and a coordinated team can employ multiple strategies to keep things mixed up.
Flag Taken, Flag Dropped
Speaking of nuance, flag juggling didn’t make the cut. Now, while you’re snagging a flag, you’re base player traits will actually stick, for lack of a better term, for a brief moment just after you let loose. So, drop it like it’s hot, but don’t expect to get a speed boost for your efforts.
And if you were worried about players flying with the flag via Jet Pack, I can assuage those fears. Won’t happen. If you have hold of the flag, using an Armor Ability will cause you to drop it instantly. Pick it back up, and the effects from your Armor Ability will vanish. Same goes for any multiplayer specific object you can hold in your hot little hands.
Generator Defense
And then there’s Generator Defense. Three Spartans defend three generators from an all out assault launched by three Elites.
Why only three per team? We’re testing out some pretty specific stuff on the networking side of things. In fact, the entire concept of Generator Defense was created simply to support what’s actually called Network Test 1. It’s just that Network Test 1 doesn’t sound like something anybody would really get pumped up to play, dig?
But Generator Defense? That sounds awesome! And actually, it really is. As the Elites begin to damage each generator, you’ll be notified with audio and visual cues in your HUD. If you want to prevent them from exploding, you need to get up close and activate the temporary blast shield. Each time you engage the lock down, you’ll earn thirty seconds of breathing room.
At the start of each round, you not only get to pick from a broad selection of Load Outs, you also get to choose your general spawning location. Choose wisely. As an Elite, you’ll need to destroy all three generators to win the round.
If you like what you play, let us hear about it. Maybe Generator Defense is something we’ll ship in the retail game this fall. Who knows?
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