If you thought that after putting their last stamp on their storied franchise Bungie would abandon Halo: Reach then you were sorely mistaken. As promised a new update will be surfacing some time in October that will improve online game play as well as include the announced cooperative campaign matchmaking.

Primarily the update will consist of bug fixes and take care balance issues in order to make Halo: Reach’s record breaking Live experience that much better. Once Bungie has addressed all of the issues that they are currently aware of, more details will be available concerning what improvements will be made.

Campaign matchmaking was the feature I struggled to find when I first fired up my copy of Halo: Reach. At first I thought that perhaps I had been given a flawed copy or that it was some sort of EA trick where I had to purchase a token to go online.  As it turns out, Bungie kept the co-op matchmaking out of launch in order to protect their fans from Halo spoilers.

While the ending to Reach is already available to view online, those who wanted to experience the story in all of its glory might not have been able to, had they joined a campaign through co-op. Like in the various multiplayer modes, all members of a party are given the option of voting in favor of which map they would like to play. This leaves open the possibility that the mission you were hoping to start on, the one that you are currently up to in your own single player campaign, could be vetoed in favor of a more exciting mission further in the story.

I consider this a fairly smart move on Bungie’s part who, up to the game’s release, were very mum about the story of Reach. We got to learn some about the Noble 6 team and were shown a live-action short to further inform our experience, but the story was kept tightly under wraps. So, finish up your single player campaign in time for October and make some new friends as you defend your home on Legendary.

Are you disappointed that Bungie didn’t include co-op matchmaking at launch or are you happy that you were able to experience the storyline the way it was intended?

Halo: Reach is available now for the Xbox 360.

Source: Game Informer