Halo: Reach Invasion Impressions & Gameplay

"On Friday, the Halo: Reach beta expanded its horizons and added a new map and a new playlist into the mix. We put the new Invasion mode through its paces this weekend to see what all the fuss was about.

Invasion – which is billed as Halo's take on Battlefield’s Rush game type – pits a team of 6 Spartans against 6 Elites in a multi-staged objective based game. With the Spartans on defence, the Elites must push forward and gain a territory, before doing so again deeper into the map and then carrying a core to a nearby Covenant Cruiser to win. Each team starts the round with a limited amount of load outs and as the game progresses, the more options each team gets, including a wide range of vehicles.

While the mode itself is relatively fun, it's not without its shortcomings, although thankfully it's the simple stuff that can be easily rectified before the game’s official launch. Things like, why is it only one round? Why don't you swap sides at the end and take it in turns? Why are the Spartan's starting weapons vastly superior to the Elite's? Why did Bungie change the vehicle handling for the Warthogs and the Banshees? And why is it all over so bloody quickly?

It comes to something when an Invasion Slayer match can last twice as long its namesake. Invasion Slayer incidentally is a neat variation of Team Slayer on Boneyard with a moving territory to capture that spawns power weapons and vehicles. It’s actually more appealing to play than Invasion currently is.

Invasion as it stands is definitely an interesting game type on a fairly expansive map and one that's quite enjoyable, although it does have its flaws. If Bungie make it multiple rounds and tweak the load out balance, then it could become a welcome addition to the Halo universe, but at the moment, you can definitely tell that this is more of an experiment than a foregone conclusion.

For those that aren't on the beta, we've captured a bit of HD footage to give you a better idea of what to expect."

Click here to see the original post, theres also a video. This is a very good review.