This certainly isn’t a review of either Halo Reach Beta or Need for Speed World Online because that would be kind of silly. What I will say is that both betas actually have something in common. Both games are terribly less interesting than I was expecting.
The guys at Bungie have balanced the Halo series into submission and have created a ho-hum version of the series that started in Halo ODST with the lack luster gameplay and content that was more akin to to an expansion pack for Halo 3 rather than a whole new game. This game(at least the multiplayer) seems to be just like Halo 3 only with armor powers. These include: being able to run fast, cloak, use a jetpack, and create personal bubble shield with a damage generating explosion. These, except for the jet pack, really don’t change the gameplay one bit. The jet pack is great for getting from one side of the map to the other and being able to drop in unexpectedly on foes. But all the other armor powers seem to be pretty useless unless the person you are fighting isn’t expecting it or doesn’t understand how it works.
Otherwise all the new additions are mostly just new maps, new modes, etc… All of which could have been done in the current Halo 3. The incentive for all this is that you get credits to buy armor pieces. Really? Why do I care? They all ready let you win armor pieces in the current Halo 3. What is so different about this? I’m sure the single player campaign will be great and the graphics have received some tweaks, but in the end this seems like another quarter step forward rather than an actual new game worthy product. Again, this is based solely on the beta, which is only multiplayer. But certainly there aren’t going to be any BIG changes between now and the fall release of the finished product.
Need for Speed World Online was announced as a free to play browser game from EA. The current situation of this, is not known to me. I did see there might be some kind of pay model to rent cars or some such which sounds epically bad. But the actual gameplay is a pretty standard far which has hints of Blur built in. Blur comes out in May and this game is reportedly coming out in June. I don’t think anyone will want to play this game after playing Blur. Because after playing for only about 30 minutes I found myself feeling this was a total Blur rip-off and not a very good one either. I’m not talking about the tons of problems that have come up in the beta. It’s a beta for an online game, it makes sense there would be technical issues. No, I’m talking about the actual gameplay that seems to be just a copy and paste from Blur. Linear tracks (check), powerups (check), and upgradable cars (check). Considering there have only been about three chances for folks to play the Need for Speed World Online Beta it would strike me that the game would be a little more feature rich if there are features coming. Also, in the beta, I would have liked to play some nicer cars just to get an idea of what the scope of the game will be. Currently the game seems FAR too easy and not anywhere near deep enough for a persistent online game.
I love betas in general, I try to get into as many as I can and play as many different types of titles as I can. But when the hype train begins in the beta or around the beta I think people have to understand that most of the time when the developer gets to the point of having a beta; especially a semi-open one like Halo Reach or Need for Speed World Online. That except for some minor things like polishing and managing network code the game is done. Only bug fixing and polishing are left. So don’t think that because you don’t like something that, it’s only a beta, and with the input from the community all the bad stuff will be fixed. For the most part if you hate the game in the beta you will hate the final product.
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