Just One Space Combat Mission in Halo: Reach
"Give fans things they had never seen or experienced before. Space combat is one of those things."
‐ Lars Bakken, Multiplayer Design Lead at Bungie
Halo: Reach will be Bungie’s last game with Microsoft before they join Activision on a 10-year contract. Although this is Bungie’s last Halo game, this is not necessarily the last Halo game in the series. Any future Halo games will be made by an internal team at Microsoft called 343 Industries.
Lars Bakken from Bungie plays through the single-player campaign and reveals the one and only space combat mission that will be in the final game. Lars has stated that space combat has been considered in previous Halo games. In addition, there will be other surprises that haven’t been done in previous games. Needless to say, they want to end with a bang.
The saber ship has energy shields, machine guns and missiles. It also has afterburners and capable of performing barrel rolls.
Not only did it remind me of Star Control, it also reminded me of Nintendo’s Star Fox series. Nintendo will be recreating Star Fox 64 for their new handheld console, dubbed the “3DS”.
From what I’ve seen in the above video, it feels like an entirely different game. My prediction is that this mission will be well-received. They haven’t stated whether or not multiplayer space combat will be included in the final release. I’m sure there will be split-screen local multiplayer.
I highly doubt it will feel close to what we have experienced from Star Control. For example, if the player dies, I highly doubt that he or she will be able to choose another ship with different strengths and weaknesses and try another strategy. Star Control also contains more races, not all of them wanting to wage war. This part of the game will at least show that space combat is something that is worth exploring, even for big-budget titles that haven’t done it before.
I hope that players and reviewers enjoy the space combat mission in Halo: Reach and show desire for more diverse ships and deeper combat in future games. It can become a positive point towards future space combat games and even become leverage for the creation of a new Star Control game.
