Microsoft and 343 Studios took the time on Monday night leading up to the North American launch of the Master Chief Collection to reveal some footage of Halo 5’s multiplayer, as well as to pull the veil back on a few details we kind of already knew about, along with a few we didn’t.
For starters, spartan abilities are set to make a huge splash in Halo 5 with vertical boosting, quick thrusting in every direction, a ground slam that allows you to kill enemies from above, and even an ability that lets you boost into other players with your spartan as a kind of alternate melee. Outside of that last bit, that spartan abilities look very similar to the exo suit movement in Advanced Warfare, and it certainly seems like they’re going to speed the game up quite a bit.
As suspected, aiming down the sights is more or less coming to Halo 5, but it doesn’t work exactly like it does in most other shooters. Depending on the weapon, it doesn’t always aim exactly down the site, but rather just zooms in slightly and adds a different reticle overlay to your HUD. 343 were quick to point out that using this ability might make it easier for some people to aim, but it doesn’t make any weapon more accurate than just firing from the hip, which is sure to please traditional fans of the series who weren’t too keen on the idea of ADS.
Another controversial addition to the Halo franchise has been sprint (Halo 4 introduced this), which some players spoke out against in the past. To try and find a balance between players who like the sprint and those who don’t, 343 is leaving the ability in the game but making it so that your shields will never recharge if you’re sprinting, which should keep players from just running wildly around the map and fleeing firefights with ease.
You can find some video from the multiplayer just above, and it looks pretty much exactly like what you’d expect a Halo game to look like, just with a few bells and whistles thrown on top. The assault rifle, the single-shot DMR, the battle rifle, and the energy sword are all returning and all appear to work about the same as they have in the past.
Finally, 343 announced what exactly the Halo 5 multiplayer beta entails, which includes three different game modes across seven different maps, with a shelf life of exactly three weeks before the beta ends. Per their previous announcements, the beta begins on December 29th, and anyone who purchased a copy of the Master Chief Collection gets a free ticket to join.