So, because of formally being employed by OfficeDepot, I have been registered on Microsoft's RetailExpert Zone for over a year. Yesterday I got an email that telling me that I can get access to the Reach Beta. Its a quick quiz that took about 1 minute, then It redirected me to a website where they email me a code. I was able to put it in and start downloading immediately.  
 
I've only played 10 rounds so far, but I think it's enough to make a fair assessment.  
 
First I'll start with the matchmaking stuff. It seems to work surprisingly well. I went 3 or 4 games with people who didn't even have their headsets plugged in, changed the preference to find me "Chatty Players", and the next round my entire team was talking up a storm. I was impressed considering there were less than 1000 people online when I was doing this. The vetoing system is something they should have figured out a long time ago, and it also works really well. Its nice to be able to choose what gametype you're going to play.  
 
Onto the actual gameplay of it. Right off the bat, it feels very ,"Halo". I recently started playing Halo 3 again, and the hardest part of switching from Halo 3 to Reach is getting used to the change in button layout.  They tightened up the aiming since Halo 3, it's a lot less "floaty". This is more noticeable when switching back to Halo 3 from reach, than it is going in. 
 
 The armor abilities are really cool, and seem to balance out pretty well. I haven't seen any one ability that works better than any other.   
 
Jetpacks are a bit slow,  and going up into the open air leaves you pretty vulnerable, and if you drop from a high height there is fall damage, and you cant move for half a second.  
 
Stealth is really cool how it balances. When you go invisible, you can't hear anything at all, not even announcer voices. So you never know if your flag is taken or anything like that.  
 
Armor Lock seems like it'd be really useful for a certain style of playing, but it hasn't been very useful for me. 
 
And lastly, Sprint seems kind of like a cop-out of an ability. It should be something that's standard for everyone.  
 
The main thing I've noticed about Reach so far is that it takes a lot longer to kill foolios than it does in halo 3. You'll unload an entire clip into someone, switch to your pistol and it'll still take 1/2 a clip from that to take him down. Also, melee is pretty much useless now.  
 
I'd go on for longer about this, but I have to get ready and go to work. 

So, because of formally being employed by OfficeDepot, I have been registered on Microsoft's RetailExpert Zone for over a year. Yesterday I got an email that telling me that I can get access to the Reach Beta. Its a quick quiz that took about 1 minute, then It redirected me to a website where they email me a code. I was able to put it in and start downloading immediately.  
 
I've only played 10 rounds so far, but I think it's enough to make a fair assessment.  
 
First I'll start with the matchmaking stuff. It seems to work surprisingly well. I went 3 or 4 games with people who didn't even have their headsets plugged in, changed the preference to find me "Chatty Players", and the next round my entire team was talking up a storm. I was impressed considering there were less than 1000 people online when I was doing this. The vetoing system is something they should have figured out a long time ago, and it also works really well. Its nice to be able to choose what gametype you're going to play.  
 
Onto the actual gameplay of it. Right off the bat, it feels very ,"Halo". I recently started playing Halo 3 again, and the hardest part of switching from Halo 3 to Reach is getting used to the change in button layout.  They tightened up the aiming since Halo 3, it's a lot less "floaty". This is more noticeable when switching back to Halo 3 from reach, than it is going in. 
 
 The armor abilities are really cool, and seem to balance out pretty well. I haven't seen any one ability that works better than any other.   
 
Jetpacks are a bit slow,  and going up into the open air leaves you pretty vulnerable, and if you drop from a high height there is fall damage, and you cant move for half a second.  
 
Stealth is really cool how it balances. When you go invisible, you can't hear anything at all, not even announcer voices. So you never know if your flag is taken or anything like that.  
 
Armor Lock seems like it'd be really useful for a certain style of playing, but it hasn't been very useful for me. 
 
And lastly, Sprint seems kind of like a cop-out of an ability. It should be something that's standard for everyone.  
 
The main thing I've noticed about Reach so far is that it takes a lot longer to kill foolios than it does in halo 3. You'll unload an entire clip into someone, switch to your pistol and it'll still take 1/2 a clip from that to take him down. Also, melee is pretty much useless now.  
 
I'd go on for longer about this, but I have to get ready and go to work. 

Firefight's are supposed to last longer than Halo 3.  Sage said so on the podcast. It's good to hear that it's good, mere mortals like myself have to wait till Monday.

The part I like most about Halo gameplay is that if you start taking damage, you can fight back. In other games (I hate calling out MW2 but its the biggest example) if you start getting shot, you've already lost so much health you cant react fast enough to even line up a shot, IF you weren't already killed instantly. While I expect the weapons to be balanced a bit better for the final version (havent played but i hear the focus rifle is obnoxious) I like how even if someone starts shooting you from behind, you can not only return fire, but actualy kill the opponent if you're good enough. Its a bit slower than other shooters, but I like that.
 
Everything else you've said, like muting sound when you're invisible is genius. I so cant wait to play.

Grenades do too much damage, and that laser....oh god that laser!

stealth sounds good, i rarely play with sound 

I got my beta key from GiantBomb, and my impressions of Halo Reach has been favourable; which is ironic since I tend to talk shit about Halo 3. 
 
Jetpacks changes everything.

Quick question for anyone with the beta: Is it actually rendered in 1920x1080 like the screenshots? I'm insanely doubtful, but still.

" @CL60:That fuckin laser!!! Needs to be toned down ALOT, same with the plasma launcher, great weapon in theory, great weapon if it were real, great weapon when you're holding it... but when your on the opposing team its a pocket game winner! "

I've only played 10 rounds so far, but I think it's enough to make a fair assessment.  

First I'll start with the matchmaking stuff. It seems to work surprisingly well. I went 3 or 4 games with people who didn't even have their headsets plugged in, changed the preference to find me "Chatty Players", and the next round my entire team was talking up a storm. I was impressed considering there were less than 1000 people online when I was doing this. The vetoing system is something they should have figured out a long time ago, and it also works really well. Its nice to be able to choose what gametype you're going to play. 

Onto the actual gameplay of it. Right off the bat, it feels very ,"Halo". I recently started playing Halo 3 again, and the hardest part of switching from Halo 3 to Reach is getting used to the change in button layout.  They tightened up the aiming since Halo 3, it's a lot less "floaty". This is more noticeable when switching back to Halo 3 from reach, than it is going in.

 The armor abilities are really cool, and seem to balance out pretty well. I haven't seen any one ability that works better than any other.  

Jetpacks are a bit slow,  and going up into the open air leaves you pretty vulnerable, and if you drop from a high height there is fall damage, and you cant move for half a second. 

And lastly, Sprint seems kind of like a cop-out of an ability. It should be something that's standard for everyone. 

"

I've only played 10 rounds so far, but I think it's enough to make a fair assessment.  

Well you did play a lot of Halo 3, and since the game hasn't changed much, you could make a fair assessment of it without even playing the game.
 

First I'll start with the matchmaking stuff. It seems to work surprisingly well. I went 3 or 4 games with people who didn't even have their headsets plugged in, changed the preference to find me "Chatty Players", and the next round my entire team was talking up a storm. I was impressed considering there were less than 1000 people online when I was doing this. The vetoing system is something they should have figured out a long time ago, and it also works really well. Its nice to be able to choose what gametype you're going to play. 

Well, this feature will be abused when the actual game comes out. Players that are not "chatty" will pick it, and players who are, will pick the other option just to piss off people. Considering that 95% of the Halo fanbase is 12 year olds, you can expect a lot of abusing the system.
 

Onto the actual gameplay of it. Right off the bat, it feels very ,"Halo". I recently started playing Halo 3 again, and the hardest part of switching from Halo 3 to Reach is getting used to the change in button layout.  They tightened up the aiming since Halo 3, it's a lot less "floaty". This is more noticeable when switching back to Halo 3 from reach, than it is going in.

That is expected. You can't expect any real change to the gameplay if the mindless sheep continue to buy the same game with better graphics for 10 years.

 The armor abilities are really cool, and seem to balance out pretty well. I haven't seen any one ability that works better than any other.  

Seems like a gimmick.
 

Jetpacks are a bit slow,  and going up into the open air leaves you pretty vulnerable, and if you drop from a high height there is fall damage, and you cant move for half a second. 

Whenever Bungie steals ideas and calls it their own, they always fail. Tribes came out around a decade ago, and they can't even get it to be at least satisfactory?
 

And lastly, Sprint seems kind of like a cop-out of an ability. It should be something that's standard for everyone. 

What do you expect from Bungie? They will take features from other games (which by the way, they are 20 years late) and can't even do those right. "

I don't have as much of a problem with grenades. I do think they should be a bit weaker, but they were too weak in H3. Pistols and DMRs are 5sks. I think that it's ok but there's not enough ammo per clip. either increase the ammo amount in the clip for both weapons or decrease the 5sk to a 4sk. 
 
The beam rifle or whatever they call it IS overpowered, but I think that was intentional. It was supposed to be like a beam sniper. However, I think they should nerf it because it takes a lot less skill than sniping (which for some reason is a lot easier in this game).

Jetpacks are a bit slow,  and going up into the open air leaves you pretty vulnerable, and if you drop from a high height there is fall damage, and you cant move for half a second. 

Whenever Bungie steals ideas and calls it their own, they always fail. Tribes came out around a decade ago, and they can't even get it to be at least satisfactory?
 

Melee isn't useless per-se, you just have to make sure the dude's shields are down first, also based on both my and my friends experience it seems as though you can block an energy sword with a (very) well timed melee.

" stealth sounds good, i rarely play with sound  "

" @wh1terav3n: Yeah, I get that. This is one of the other things I wanted to go into but didn't have time to write out before work.  The melee plays a lot into it taking longer to kill people in reach. In Halo 2/3, you'd pretty much melee after you ran out of ammo. Whoever jams on that B button fastest gets the kill. But in reach, it seems like most of the weapons take pretty much every shot in a clip to even drain the shields all the way. So you'll be in a fire fight, unload all of your bullets in your assault rifle, melee the guy you're fighting and THEN his shield finally pop. So you either have to try to land another hit, or switch to your other weapon.  "