Halo: Reach gets Player Investment System @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on March 26, 2010

News: Bungie shows off their new Create-A-Spartan system.

In the last few years, more and more first person shooters have implemented a kind of RPG-like experience system where players can level up their soldier with new guns or "Perks" or something of that nature. Bungie plans to go one better when it releases Halo: Reach with their "Player Investment System."

Revaled yesterday at G4, the Player Investment System could just as accurately be called the Create-A-Spartan mode, however the customization options work across both the multiplayer game and the singleplayer campaign:

Player Investment is driven by credits ("cR" for short). Credits are given to gamers simply for playing Halo: Reach, either through rounds of multiplayer or by working through the single-player campaign, but the amounts of credits vary, based on the actions of the player. Different actions will dole out a different amount of credits, but Bungie is being careful to not encourage player actions that would potentially damage the gameplay experience. It does mean that more challenging tasks (say, five headshots in under a minute) would produce more credits. Bungie's currently balancing how credits are doled out, but credits drive the Player Investment experience, both to increase a player's Military Rank (replacing Halo 3's Ranking system) and to purchase customization items in Halo: Reach's "Armory."

Bungie was quick to point out that these customizable objects will not change the way players experience the multiplayer mode as "Perks" do in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. But the developer is dedicated to keeping your created character at the forefront of the action at all times, even including the customized armor design in all of the game's cut scenes.

The Player Investment System will also branch out into two other modes new to Halo: Reach, Commendations and Challenges. Commendations will track how much time you invest in Halo: Reach and create a "service record" of your Spartan for others to see. Challenges are weekly Bungie-designed minitasks that can be played solo or in groups, similar in a way to Nintendo's Mario Kart Wii Worldwide Tournaments.

"Some of [simpler daily challenges] are aggregate actions," said Bungie's Player Investment developer Luke Smith, "like kill X dudes, help kill X dudes today. Sometimes those dudes we want you to kill are gonna be in multiplayer, [or] they're going to be in another mode. Sometimes it's going to say just kill anyone anywhere, we don't care what you do, just kill people and we'll reward you for that."

Bungie and G4 put together this video detailing some of the customization options found in the Player Investment System, so take a look at the video below and be sure to examine the full article at G4, as it contains a lot more infomation about the system.