Opdahl: Reach goes well beyond what anyone’s done before

Chris Opdahl, Halo Reach’s lead campaign designer, has said Bungie's next game will have moments which go "well beyond what anyone has done before on a console."

Speaking in response to community questions, Opdahl talked about the size of the task facing the team.

"We absolutely could not have made Reach without all of the engineering magic that went on. The sheer volume of code changes and how much more we can do because of them is staggering," he said.

"We have imposters, AI LOD, a new memory management system, networking (both synchronous and asynchronous), neuticle system, Big Battle flocks, new flying vehicle behaviors, stimulus system, new damage model, physics updates and improvements, perception models, lighting model upgrades… And that is just the few things off the top of my head.

"All of those together allow us to make moments that we have never been able to do in a Halo game. We are also able to achieve a visual fidelity for those moments (at the scale of a Halo encounter that you have come to expect) well beyond what anyone has done before on a console."

Halo Reach is set to release for Xbox 360 this September, it will be the last Halo game from Bungie as it concentrates on its new, Activision-published IP.