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It's not every day that a Halo franchise comes by. That is what makes it one of the most sought after games in today’s world. In the last 13 years, there have only been five or six, depending on how you count a few of the side stories.
Hence, Halo 5: Guardians comes with a lot of anticipation as well as a huge amount of pressure, to excel and to make its marks. Such a situation has arisen because Halo 4, which was the first for new series developer 343 Interactive, was somewhat of a multiplayer disappointment. As a result, we can expect the developers to rectify previous mistakes and come up with something that can impress.
So, the big question is whether Halo 5 will lean more towards the major gameplay shift of the last new entry or bring back the classic gameplay that we all loved from the ones before it. Well, there might be an answer as we have the first hands-on impressions of the game.
The game runs at the standard 60 fps. The action is fluid and smooth while feeling responsive while the visuals are pretty good as well. In terms of content, the early access multiplayer beta is more limited in scope than the one more players will experience later in the month.
Only Team Slayer is open, and only on two maps: Truth, a remake of the Halo 2 classic Miship, and Eclipse, a new map that is set in a human city. Matchmaking functions fairly well, with games taking less than a minute to form up and get started. That comes as a relief.
ADS
The first thing that players noticed in the game was the inclusion of an aim down sight (ADS) and sprint system. ADS is pretty much standard for shooters these days, but Halo was always different.
Since the core gameplay of Halo is built more around movement and run and gun action, having ADS would change things quite a bit. Instead of being able to move around as you fire, making it more difficult to track your target while also making yourself tougher to hit, players might become mobile turrets; running to a fight, stopping and shooting, then repeating this over and over. The ADS system that has been used in Halo 5: Guardians works around this issue in many ways.
Well, you can still move around and shoot from the hip just like normal, with not penalty to your accuracy or effectiveness. Instead, using ADS, or Smart Link as it is called in the game, will simply give you a small edge against your opponent by zooming in a bit and making targeting slightly easier.
To counter this though, if you are hurt in any way you will pop out of Smart Link, making it useless in more frenetic situations. Similarly, the Smart Link system will allow you to hover in the air and fire down on opponent’s heads. The counter to this is that you are literally hovering in the air, making for a quick and easy kill if those enemies know where you are.
Sprinting
Sprint has also seen a modification to make it more acceptable in the world of Halo. Once sprint became a default ability for Spartans, it was used more as a way to avoid combat than to get around the map.
It is frustrating because kills take more time in Halo, usually requiring multiple shots or a grenade, bullet combo. Watching your hard-fought kill disappear around a corner was never enjoyable. While this hasn’t been totally eliminated, it has been balanced a bit with the fact that sprinting disabled your shield recharge for some time.
This means that fleeing opponent can be followed and picked off, or his location can be relayed to your teammates for an easy kill.
Movements
Along with the sprint come a few other abilities, mostly enhancing your Spartan’s movement around the map. Each player has a single, rechargeable boost that can help get them out of danger, of simply get them across a large gap.
There is also the new clamber mechanic, which lets you climb ledges that used to be too high. While this takes away some of the fun of trick jumping, it gives levels more verticality and allows for some fun times sneaking up on perched snipers. There are also a ground pound and slide mechanic, but these will require some more time for the player base to get used to.
So far, they are used very infrequently. Overall these new pieces seem to fit well within the architecture of the core Halo experience. We’ll have to see how they work into player strategies over time, but so far I have had many moments of exhilaration thanks to clamber and boost.
Call Outs
One thing that the game seems to be focused on is lifting up the experience of casual players. Halo 4 seemed to try to do this and ended up upsetting the core audience. This time 343 seems to have hit on the perfect strategy, by enhancing the experience for casual players while not impacting the hardcore gamers.
To do this, they took elements of the hardcore experience and added them into the game as default features. For example, call outs are a huge part of the competitive game. Having a team that calls out enemy locations, and areas of danger can turn the tide of battle almost every time.
However, this required a team of four people who would actually communicate with one another, which seems to be a rare thing in online gaming these days. To get around this 343 has taken call outs and added them into the game by default.
Whether your teammate is communicating or not, his in-game character will do it for him. Shouting out helpful info like “grenade incoming” or “enemy at Big Tower” help make the game feel and play more competitively for casual players without hurting the experience for those who already played this way.
Power Weapons
The power weapons have become a more focused element of the game in the latest release. Whereas before, teams would have to keep track of respawn times and location in their head, now power weapons are indicated on the HUD, and their imminent spawn is announced long beforehand.
Hopefully these can be turned off in the full game, as many will likely prefer the older style of play, but for now it is great to see teams of random players rally to the power weapons upon spawn just like more competitive players have for years.
The Rest
From what we have learned so far, it is more or less obvious that 343 is succeeding at avoiding the mistakes of the past while still enhancing the game for the modern audience. The core Halo gameplay seems to have not only survived, but thrived as well.
Old school fans should be pleased with the arena style gameplay, and newcomers will find a more accepting environment thanks to the changes made by 343. What will be really interesting later on is finding out what the non-arena specific modes are like, as 343 seems to have shown that they have full control of the Halo series at this point and are skilled at making it work in new and unique ways.
