Games
Slayer
Angel of death, angel of deaaaawwwwth! All apologies to Kerry King for that
one. Though not sponsored by the band Slayer, this mode certainly exemplifies
them -- ruthless, brutal, and fast as hell. It's a classic Deathmatch, where
you'll need 15 kills to win. What level you play decides whether you'll have
access to vehicles or specific weapons. If you're just beginning, this will
keep your head from spinning... too much.
Slayer Pro
Like Slayer, only this time you'll need 25 kills to win. That's a marathon,
folks. Thankfully, in this mode you start with a Pistol, Automatic Rifle,
and Grenades to make the killin' a little quicker.
Team Slayer
You pick your teams, and the one to reach 50 kills first (total between your
team) wins. The extra gimmick here is that the more you kill, the slower
you'll move, but the more you die, the faster you'll be able to frag. Remember
that you choose your teams at the start up screen, so you can mix this up
in whatever fashion you like. Four newbies can take on two seasoned veterans,
or you can have an even three on three split if you've got two consoles and
two TV screens. Team games are especially fun when you've got multiple TVs,
cos you can keep one team in one room, and another team in another room,
provided you buy long enough Ethernet cable to go between the two.
Hint: buy reeaaaally long Ethernet cables. More expensive but worth
the price in the long run.
Elimination
This one's quick and dirty, and better suited to levels that give you a little
room to dodge. Play it on Longer and you'll find yourself with a shorter
(sorry about that one) game. This mode's great on levels like Boarding
Action, where precise shooting means that the game's usually drug out
longer than usual anyway.
Phantoms
Mmmm... yummy Phantoms. All players are "invisible," meaning that everyone's
got on Active Camouflage, making them almost impossible to see unless they're
firing directly at you. Fortunately, all your opponents have nav points,
so you'll be able to tell how far away they are from you, as well as their
direction. This is a fun one in a variety of levels, whether you're tying
to snipe ghosts of your enemies, or chugging it out in tight hallways.
Endurance
You've got five lives, and the winner is the first person to score ten kills.
The clincher? Respawn Time Growth and Odd Man Out rules apply.
Time Growth means that ever time you die, your respawn time will increase
by five seconds... but every time you kill someone else, your time will
decrease by five seconds. Play clumsy, and you'll be waiting ages
to get back into the game. Odd Man Out rules mean that if you die, you can't
respawn until someone else assumes the role of Odd Man Out by dying. It's
a rotating afterlife, made worse by the time increments. This doesn't work
with two players, for obvious reasons, so get a big group to make this one
really frustrating.
Rockets
Don't be daunted by the 25 kills needed to win this game. Remember that one
rocket blast will nail someone in a flash... and since that's what you've
all got, this one flies by. The catch (and have you noticed that all Halo
multiplayer games have one?) is that nobody's got a motion tracker, so you'll
have to use your eyes and the rocket scope if you think you're going to nail
someone from afar.
Snipers
Everyone with snipers! Fifteen kills are needed to win this one, but with
Respawn Time Growth rules in place, if you're not quick you'll be waiting
in the afterlife for what seems like hours to get back into the game. Get
the lead guy out of the picture as quick as possible if you don't want to
see them snowball the whole game.
Oddball
It's simple -- hold the skull for two minutes, and you win. Of course, there'll
be a ton of people on your tail trying to take it from you, but don't worry
about that. About 10 seconds after play begins, a skull is dropped somewhere
on the map. Find it, and your timer will start counting down from two minutes.
Make it to zero, and you win -- but remember that you can't use your weapons
while holding the skull, leaving you vulnerable. The skull's a brutal melee
weapon however, so a good knock over someone's unsuspecting head can help
take out a potential noggin stealer. The weapons depend on the level, so
try a few out in Oddball and see which ones suit your playing style the best.
Team Ball
The first team to hold the skull for two minutes wins the game, so make sure
to protect your buddy holding the skull to keep them from getting killed.
A 10 second respawn time makes it tough to simply tag along and protect your
buddy, however.
Reverse Tag
The first one to score a kill on the map is "It," and a counter starts counting
up to two minutes. The first one to reach two minutes win -- but the one
who's "It" runs slower than the competition. Fun for all! In case you need
pointers, look for the big target symbol over their head to know to nail
with your sniper. Remember, so check up on everyone's times, including your
own, press the Back button.
Accumulate
You've got to stay "It" for five minutes, but it's not as long as it sounds
-- if you're it, and score kills, you get a timer speed bonus for each one.
Get a few kills and keep "It" and you'll win in no time. Get killed, though,
and you'll lose "It" status, as well as any time bonuses you accrued while
playing.
Juggernaut
The first one to kill becomes the Juggernaut, and does extra damage with
all weapons. Kill the Juggernaut, and steal his powers for yourself. It's
as simple as that. Ten kills will nab you the game in this mode.
Stalker
One player is invisible on the map, but if you can find and kill him, you
get his powers. Wanna guess that the person sniping you from the hills is
the invisible one? Get 10 kills, and victory is yours.
King
Somewhere on the map is an area surrounded by a moving square ring -- get
inside it and stay there for two minutes, and you win the match. Simple,
huh? Of course, everyone else is trying to stay in the same place as well,
so don't blame us if things get a little heated. For even more fun, try it
out on levels like Prisoner where the ring is at the top, and in the
middle of, the entire level. You may think your safe, but a good grenade
toss is all they need to take you off your throne.
King: Find the glowing square and keep your butt inside
it.
King Pro
Like King mode, only you start the match with grenades, a pistol and an automatic
rifle.
Crazy King
Like King mode, but with one little difference -- the "hill" location changes
during the match.
Team King
The same two minute rules as King, only now you're a team, and it's the team
total that counts. A ten-second respawn time makes this one tougher, however.
Race
Follow your nav readout onscreen and touch a series of flags laid out around
the map of your choice. Do three laps first by touching all the flags in
order, and you win. This gets real fun when you big vehicle-based levels
like Blood Gulch -- it becomes a flat-out racing game... with guns, of course.
Team Race
Get a team and play a level with vehicles -- you'll be able to shoot at your
enemies while racing for the next flag point. Quake may have quad damage,
but it certainly never had racing with guns.
Rally
This one's a race without the laps -- collect 15 flags first, and you win.
Of course, the designers have made it so that you're definitely getting in
one another's way while trying to get to the flags first. A pistol will do
the trick.
Team Rally
The team version of rally runs a lot quicker, because you've just got to
grab five flag points to win. Of course, everyone on your team has to collect
five flag points, so if one of you is lagging...
CTF
An FPS classic. Capture your enemy's flag and return it to you base three
times, and you win the game. You can't fire while holding a flag however,
and everyone will be alerted when a flag has been stolen from a base. Battles
of epic proportions have been waged under this pretense, so beware -- your
free time is at stake. While CTF is fun in small groups, the true beauty
of the game type comes when you get eight or more players involved.
Iron CTF
All players have 200% health, and both teams start with Scorpion tanks. If
you think you can get away with this with only four players, it doesn't work
as well as you think. Play it with at least six or more, and you've really
got a party going on. You'll only find this mode in a few types (because
you really can't fit a tank that well in a hallway), but seek it out. It's
definitely worth some play.
CTF Pro
This one's a killer, and I only advise playing it if you've got a super-sized
group ready, otherwise no one's ever going to score on this one. CTF pro
plays just like CTF, only this time you've got to have your flag at home
base in order for you to score. Not only do you have to sneak into your enemy's
base and steal their flag, but you've got to make sure that your flag's intact
at the same time. Great fun if you've got a good team to work with.
Invasion
A fast food version of CTF. You've already got your enemy's flag, and now
you've just got to get it into their base and plant it onto their flag station.
Do it three times and you win -- but you've only got five lives to work with.
It's quick, it's dirty, and it's ruthless. Once you've mastered the general
CTF skills, then move onto this one for a different sort of challenge.
Customize to Heaven
It's Halo, and the customizing options for multiplayer are heavenly. Once
you've played all your types to death, you can then go back and customize
your favorite game types to give them your own flavor. We're talking down
to the nuts and bolts here. You think you can do it better? Then go ahead
and try. Here are the types and what you can change:
Change Name
Are you offended that the normal Deathmatch mode is called Slayer?
Then go ahead and change it to I Don't Like You Too Much and make
your parents proud -- well, despite the bad grammar. You can change the name
of all the game modes to whatever you like, but you can't change the level
names or details.
Game Options
You can go into the five major modes (Capture the Flag, King of the Hill,
Slayer, Oddball, Race) and tweak their properties. You can make a flag that
appears only once a minute on the map in Capture the Flag, or make it so
in Oddball you'll be invisible when you've got the ball. Maybe the guy with
the most kills in Slayer should also be the slowest, or maybe you'd rather
have a race where you can go through the flags in any order you please...
it's up to you. You can tweak most major aspects of the game types to your
whim.
Player Options
Set the number of lives, maximum health, whether or not you'll have shields,
or how soon you respawn. Think that dumb players should have a suicide time
penalty? Then go to it! Because shields reward campers (aka, people that
hide so that their shields will recharge), taking off shields is a fun way
to make a multi game a lot tougher.
Item Options
This is where the fun begins. Why not give everyone infinite grenades for
pure carnage? Only works in games with four or less players, though. Wondering
where that Ghost you've wanted to play in the game is at? Just change the
vehicle set to Ghost and you'll be ready for fun. Give everyone standard
weapons across the board, or leave it to the custom settings that the Halo
team has picked.
Indicator Options
Turn off the motion tracker for a tougher game, or just set it so that you
can see Nav points, but not other players. For a vicious game, take off the
green friend indicators in the game completely.
Remember, you've got to make sure and save your changes when you're done
tweaking, as it's not done automatically. The main edit screen has a Save
Changes option, and shows you the gametype you've been editing as well.
You'll have to save a new name for your game type, and after that, it'll
be mixed in amongst the normal game types for you to choose from. Save 25
different custom games -- it doesn't matter when you've got a hard drive
with room to spare.
See how huge the multiplayer in Halo really is? After you've beaten the game, you'll have tons to do, and even more ways to customize your multi games into new devious configurations. Invisible players with infinite grenades, here we come!