A Visual Tour of the Halo: Reach Multiplayer Beta Maps

The greatly anticipated Halo: Reach multiplayer beta is just weeks away, so Bungie is delving deeper into just what that frenzied sci-fi shoot ’em up preview will be like, focusing on the four available maps and exciting new info.

Bungie’s weekly update offers us a visual walking tour of three of the new maps—Powerhouse, Overlook and Sword Base—hoping to clear up a little confusion about each while also bringing with it some good news. Details on the distribution of guns and ammo on those maps will likely be helpful to hardcore Halo players’ plans as will this particular detail, probably not officially marketed as “invisible love.”

“There’s a new layer of invisible love being applied to all the nooks, crannies, and yup, stairs you’ll find distributed throughout the multiplayer maps you’ll throw down on – a layer that’ll ensure your grenades bounce in the perfectly predictable way you expect them to,” Bungie man “urk” writes on the developer’s official site, likely welcome news for serious grenade bouncers.

Bungie also points out that some of the lighting you’ll see in Reach’s campaign maps may be different from what you’ll see in each level’s multiplayer variation, as pictured in the gallery below.

Read on for additional Halo: Reach details.

Bungie Weekly Update: 04.09.10 [Bungie.net]