Halo 5 Beta Impressions
Halo 5 Beta Impressions.
Platform Xbox one.
Developer 343 industries.
Publisher Microsoft
The Halo 5 beta is currently under way (running from December 29th to January 18th, so there is still time to join in), the easiest way to join is to pick up the Master chief Collection as this includes beta access, but there is also a path to the beta for Xbox One Preview members.
The beta is ever evolving and throughout the three week period new maps and game modes are constantly being added and rotated, right now there are a total of seven maps and three game types including Slayer, Breakout and Stronghold.
Slayer is the team Death match mode, very simply the team with the most kills at the end of the game, or whoever hits the kill count first wins. Check out our Gameplay clip below
Breakout however is a brand new mode in the Halo universe, it is very much aimed at the competitive match market with players only getting one life per round and reduced shields making it much easier to get a kill or to be killed. Team work is very important in this mode.
Stronghold is a traditional capture the point/control zone mode. There are three control zones placed around the map that your team will need to control in order to win. The first team to score 100 points wins the game, the more control zones you hold the more points you get. Your team needs to control at least two zones for you to start earning points. You can play it safe and hunker down on two zones or go for broke and try to take all three, this of course spreads your team thin on the ground and makes it easier to be picked off. Check out our Gameplay clip below
All eyes are on the Halo 5 beta after the issues with the Master Chief Collection online but so far things have been running pretty smoothly (bar occasional long waits in match making). The stability is a good sign but let’s be cautiously optimistic for now as the beta is running with a much lower daily active user number than the collection.
From my own point of view the beta has been very enjoyable, the presentation is sharp from the intro fly over to the announcer’s voice-over during the intro sequence gets you psyched up for battle. The Spartan animations are clean and smooth, whether you are sliding on the ground or pulling yourself up over a ledge it works. The ability to run and slide has drawn me back into Halo as it reduces the number of people shooting each other in a “stand-off” and then running to cover to get their shield back up and repeating.
I did notice there is no option to change your loadout on the Beta, this might be deliberate which is great as it goes back to the roots of Halo when everybody started with the same loadout, another step in the right direction.
Even though it seems to be going back to its roots there are a number of new abilities specific to Halo 5, “Stabilization” allows you to momentarily stall hover while in mid-air can give you a tactical advantage, but will also make you a bigger target, “Ground Pound” is a ability to slam into the ground from an elevated position. There are many more abilities to discover, my own personal go to abilities have been the “Charge” and “Thruster pack”.
We have seen some solid improvements to the way guns handle too most notably the change in how aiming is handled and firing from the hip is a lot more accurate. Aiming down the sights is now very much for long range weapons as the scope takes up the whole screen it can be difficult to manage in close quarters.
Grenades have always been a big part of the Halo online experience and it is great to see them get an overhaul too, they now seem to have a much bigger impact if only in the way the audio and visuals are handled rather than ramping up the hit detection radius or the damage done by them.
To be honest I had gone a little lukewarm on the Halo series, I couldn’t quiet put my finger on it maybe it was just fatigue from the constant re-mastered versions being released but from playing the Halo 5 beta that love for all thing Spartan has been reignited.
I am now looking forward to jumping back into the Halo series and get a lot more time on the Multiplayer.
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