did you control any NPCs? switch weapons? (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Thursday, August 20, 2015, 19:48 (3480 days ago) @ scarab

which characters did you interact with?

I only played multiplayer... I watched a campaign demonstration. Tim Longo (the creative director) played a chunk of the 2nd mission for us.

The multiplayer mode I played is called Warzone. It is a 24 player PvPvE mode. Each team spawns on opposite sides of a huge playspace that contains several bases or capture points. You will spawn directly in front of a base that is controlled by AI enemies (forerunner or covenant). You must clear out the enemies to take control of the base for your team. Once your home base is established, you gain access to requisition terminals. As the match progresses, you earn requisition points that can be spent at these terminals. You earn points by scoring kills, assists, capturing control points, etc. You can customize your loadout from a selection of default weapons, buy heavy or special weapons (shotguns, snipers, rockets, swords, etc), or buy vehicles.

Between the 2 opposing home bases are several secondary bases. These bases act as capture points which can be taken and held. If your team is able to capture and hold all secondary bases, the enemy team's generator in their home base becomes exposed and vulnerable to attack. Destroying the enemy team's reactor is 1 possible way to achieve victory. You can also win by reaching the target point score (the build I played had a winning score of 1000 points).

While this push to control capture points is happening, there are still enemy AI forces moving through the area. Killing them will earn requisition points. From time to time, enemy Boss characters will appear in the area. Killing them awards a large chunk of requisition points.

So there is A LOT going on. The battlefield feels a bit more chaotic than Halo multiplayer usually does, but not so much that it loses focus. The cool thing is you always have options. The hardcore PvP players will go out of their way to target the enemy team. Campaign or co-op fans can focus their attention of taking out the AI targets and bosses to earn points for their team. Vehicle lovers will have a blast saving up requisition points and buying warthogs, banshees and more from the vehicle bays.

The gunplay feels great (not quite as good as Destiny, but close IMO). The new spartan abilities are all nice additions to the game as well. You feel slightly more mobile and powerful than in previous Halos.

For campaign, I saw about 10 minutes of gameplay and a couple cutscenes. I won't spoil the cutscene's... I'll just say they were very cool.
The gameplay I saw featured Chief and the rest of Blue Team fighting a bunch of covenant. It was classic Halo combat, but the environments felt a touch wider, with more vertical layering going on. You can tell the playspaces and encounters have been designed with Co-op in mind. Plenty of opportunities for flanking maneuvers and taking different paths to hit enemies from various angles. The squad orders felt right at home within the Halo sandbox. Its one of those features where you see it in action and say "why hasn't this been in the series all along?". I got some definite Republic Commando vibes from it. Not too much... just the right amount :)

Overall, I came away more excited for the future of Halo than I have been in years!