Smart Scoping in Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Dust Storm

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A cool new feature that 343 Industries has added to Halo 5: Guardians is the Smart Scope, which is the evolution of using scopes on weapons in the Halo universe.  Traditionally, when a player zooms in their weapon, they either get a reticule and scope outlines, ammo count, distance markings, etc for weapons that support the zoom feature, or just a zoom in on the HUD.  The weapon would not be visible and the smart link that has been in the game and the lore since Halo: CE was just displaying what the scope saw directly on your HUD.

Old Style Smart Linked Zoom

Old Style Smart Linked Zoom

Now with Halo 5: Guardians, that scope is more an integrated addition to your HUD instead of just completely taking it over.  You will see the term aim down sights or ADS thrown around when comparing this new feature to other first-person shooter games and there are similarities between the two, but the functionality remains the same for Smart Scope as the classic Halo zoom from previous Halo titles.  You do not loose any mobility when you Smart Scope, similarly to past Halo titles and every weapon will have some Smart Scope capability.  The weapons that do not have a normal zoomed scope will look and feel like ADS, but the speed at which you go in and out of scope is unchanged from past games.  Those weapons with scopes attached like the Sniper Rifle will feel very familiar to the way zooming worked before, even though it looks very different.  Making a comeback regarding scoping for Halo 5: Guardians is descoping, which means whenever you take fire from an enemy and you’re scoped in, you will get kicked out of scope.

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The style Smart Scopes takes compared to traditional zooming for Halo, while visually very different from past Halo games does not change the functionality firing a weapon scoped in versus firing from the hip.  Players still have their traditional weapon reticules and accuracy with firing from the hip.  When playing Halo 5, Smart Scope didn’t take me out of my element from what I was used to zooming in normally.  I was able to engage in battles starting scoped in and finishing fights similarly how I do right now on any other Halo game.  In a way, I kept more awareness of what was going on around me because I was using Smart Scope compared to traditional zoom where certain HUD elements would be cut out and dimmed areas of scopes my obfuscate something I may miss.

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Breakout Arena Game Mode in Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Dust Storm

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Arena Shooter for Halo 5: Guardians has been a term tossed around since the announcement trailer was release.  Thanks to our recent hands-on experience with the Multiplayer Beta, we got a glimpse at the new arena game mode: Breakout.  Debuting on the map Breakout, Breakout is a customized Team Slayer variant that works on round-based play.  Every round, every team member has one life and the team left standing wins the round.  The first team to win five rounds wins the game.  In Breakout, Spartans health and shields are reduced to somewhere between 75-85% making teamwork more important in the arena and strategy a top priority for navigating and controlling maps.  Straight on melees and nearby frags will take you out compared to just dropping your shields normally as comparison.  Spartans start with SMG/Pistols and one fragmentation grenade

As you play Breakout, you’ll learn how much damage you can actually take compared to normal gameplay, and the difference is significant enough to get punished by it early on if you’re not prepared.  Spartan Abilities become even more important for supporting teammates and getting out of danger zones.  Communication is key in this map and while skilled players can out play others and get by, the decreased amount of damage it takes to get killed plays to numbers over skill.  This game mode and map were by far the most popular with the group of people I played with and it had my adrenaline pumping and my hands shaking by the time we got done playing for almost an hour and a half.  Talking with Quinn DelHoyo, Breakoutis specifically geared for the competitive community and has been thoroughly tested by the the 343 Industries pro team, making me very hopeful for this game mode and other arena modes to come.

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Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer – Crossfire

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Dust Storm

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Crossfire is home to one of Halo 5: Guardians’ new arena game mode: Breakout.  This map was inspired by Lead Multiplayer Designer, Kevin Franklin based off the idea of a paintball arena and offers gameplay that takes out the randomness of grenade bounces inherent in more natural environments and structures that are more defined to ease the confusion of callouts and use of cover.  The map has a very holodeck and Tron like feel to it with a grid floor with glowing effects for footsteps, grenade bounces, rag-dolls, etc. offering rigid structures and an arena-like layout.

If you remember the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta trailer, you may remember the catapulted launch of the red Spartans.  That entrance is exactly what you’ll get with Breakout as you and your opponents are catapulted into the arena and come off sprinting into the heat of battle.  We don’t know if other Breakout maps will have a similar entrance, but it adds an interesting aspect to the start of each round of play.

For Crossfire, there are five distinct callouts you’ll need to know.  First is the House, which is a covered structure that has two Plasma grenades and tends to be where a lot of battles will converge because of the cover it provides for the rest of the map.  It has entrances from both sides of the map and can be clambered up to from the trench.  The second callout is the Stage, which opposes the House and holds six fragmentation grenades, but is very open to fire and grenade spamming.  If your team has good control of the map, the Stage can be used as a great scouting position.  The third callout would be Trench, which, as the name suggests is the trench that bisects the map from Stage to House.  If possible, stay out of trench or risk getting hit by grenades and elevated fire if you’re at a disadvantage.  There were a lot of random nades that got thrown in Trench and stage at the start of rounds that instantly took out players, so tread carefully.  The fourth callout is tower, which there’s one per side that has a Battle Rifle at the top.  Whoever has the best aim in your team should grab this weapon and stay elevated when possible, spotting players and tagging enemies cross map.  The final callout is courtyard, which is the area in front of spawn on either side of the trench.  The courtyards will have the most activity as people try to reposition themselves and find lines of sight across the map as scouts call out enemy positions.

This is the first map we’ve seen that’s been made exclusively for the arena shooter experience 343 Industries is looking to create for Halo 5: Guardians.  It has a different feel mostly because of the gametype it supports, but was definitely the favorite for the group I played with and had my blood pumping the most with lots of clutch moments.

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Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer – Empire

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Dust Storm

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Empire takes place on an industrial high-rise building with many close quarters engagements but leaves enough open spaces for long lines of sight.  The outer part of the map reveals the hazards of falling off a sky scraper while the inside has more close encounters with hallways and rooms that provide multiple paths of movement for both teams.  There are primarily two different elevations to play for this map and much of the layout plays really well to the new Spartan Abilities.  This map is ideally made for 4v4 games with a central Sniper Rifle heavy weapon to control the outside catwalks and the central corridor lining the middle of the map.

Out of all the maps I played, this one was my favorite although I got to play it the least.  The variety in close quarter combat and mid to long range battles made this one really fun to play in and the layout let me play around with the Spartan abilities to the extent I was able to use a variety of the different mobility options to engage firefights and escape conflicts.  You always have to be weary of the many different possible angles you can get attacked from at any one point on this map.  There are many that won’t seem obvious at first until you get someone throwing nades and popping headshots from places you weren’t expecting.  Numerous times I was able to use the thruster pack to escape two-on-one battles and get into firefights to help my team.  Also, expect the fight for the Sniper Rifle to be a bloodbath whenever it comes up.  The fight is intense, but the reward is worth it if you can claim it.

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Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer – Truth

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Dust Storm

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Instantly, this map is recognizable as a remake of a Halo classic and many aspects of it hold true to its legacy.  Truth is a remake of the iconic Midship from Halo 2 and is the brain child of Vic DeLeon, environment artists at 343 Industries.  Unlike it’s predecessor, Truth is a lot more curvy and open to facilitate the new Spartan mobility options in Halo 5: Guardians.  Visually, Truth is a stunning work of art with holographic displays scattered throughout the map on terminals and the central galactic hologram above sword spawn top mid.  The pillars in the middle have been replaced by an arched walkway that can be used to get to the top platform by a hole in the middle.  The top platform is now one unified bridge bisecting the map across the middle with the sword platform levitating above and shields scattered around the central platform that can be taken out.  There are a few new cubby-holes in each of the bases that offer a few new options for players to move around the map.  If you’re one to admire the artwork of Halo, you can take a look outside the windows on ground level or just look up and out the dome.

The map flows similarly to the original Midship, but it felt uniquely different from the openness and some of the differences in  how players were focusing on moving around.  Engagements didn’t seem to be as focused in certain concentrated areas that I would anticipate from Midship games, and one point to that was the increased engagements I had in the middle versus concentrated engagements in the bases and top mid sections. Talking with some of the Ready Up Live in our podcast, it seems like my group may have just played the map differently because they got a very identical feel to Midship.  None-the-less, people will take the nuances with this map and may play differently because of the changes but there are aspects that definitely feel like the original Halo 2 map.  Simply for nostalgia’s sake, this map may be the fan favorite for the multiplayer beta, but there are still a few more maps that will be coming during the beta we didn’t get to see yet.

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Infinite Sprint with a Heavy Price in Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Dust Storm

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If there’s one controversial topic to rule them all when it comes to Halo, it’s the use of sprint.  There are just as many people that are content with the feature and those that will yell their heads off about how it doesn’t belong and causes issues when it comes to engagements and running away.  While we’re still more than a month away from the release of the multiplayer beta, 343 seems to be moving in the right direction when it comes to addressing the issue with sprint and keeping it fun for the whole community.  Before you go cringe at the fact that there is now infinite sprint in Halo 5 for the multiplayer beta, there is a new balancing aspect to the game that, given my hands-on time with the game seems to actually address many of the community’s concerns.

Fictionally, there shouldn’t be anything keeping a Spartan from sprinting into and away from battle and we’ve seen it numerous times in cut scenes, novels, videos, etc. and while something may be fictionally accurate, it doesn’t mean it always translates to a balanced gameplay element for multiplayer.  Strangely enough, the implementation of sprint in Halo 5: Guardians is already a lot better than it’s Halo: Reach and Halo 4 armor ability counterparts and the key difference behind this change is the fact that you cannot recharge shields at all while you sprint.  In fact, there is now a Shield Stun bar just above the shield that is usually invisible to players but was introduced as this gameplay element was introduced.  Every time you take fire or start sprinting, the shield stun timer resets, which is typically about five seconds.  There is no more running away from battles without a careful consideration for risking to sprint away or hunkering down and recharging your shields.

Playing on Team Slayer on Truth and Empire, the effect of not having shields recharge after sprinting had almost immediate consequences.  When I would normally be able to run from battle and find cover, now I had to change my tactics to walk to the nearest cover I could find so I know my shields would start recharging sooner.  I ran into situations where I would sprint from one area of the map only to find more opponents lurking nearby to finish me off wherever I decided to stop.  My tactics changed from using sprint all the time to using sprint only on the offensive or, if I knew I was far enough away from opponents, risking the additional delay in my shield’s recharging.  While I don’t know if this the solution to the sprint issue, it seems the changes they have made so far addresses a lot of the community’s concerns, not to mention these have been tested by 343 Industry’s pro team.

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New Spartan Abilities for Halo: 5 Guardians Multiplayer Beta

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Dust Storm

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Armor abilities in Halo have always been a little contentious within the Halo community since their introduction in Halo: Reach, but 343 Industries is looking to take those armor abilities and not necessarily remove them, but completely revamp the way they are implemented and utilized in Halo 5: Guardians.  One of the main issues armor abilities introduced was imbalance to the sandbox and unpredictable outcomes of engagement.  Halo has traditionally had a balanced formula of everyone starts with the same thing, which got offset by these abilities and loadouts.  Looking to re-establish balance to the Halo sandbox, but give players abilities that are fictionally based, 343 Industries is introducing Spartan abilities as a 4th element to the golden triangle: guns, grenades and melee.

Spartan Abilities are available to every player in the game right from the start as part of 343’s new Fair Starts initiative.  There are no loadouts in Halo 5, but some of the Spartan abilities you will find familiar from previous Halo titles.  The abilities given to all players offers new mobility by means of micro-jets on the Spartan’s back, which have a pretty low cool-down time of somewhere between three to five seconds.  Each mobility option has been extensively played by 343’s pro team to make sure every option is well balanced in the Halo sandbox.  While some of these may sound very similar armor abilities you have heard from in the past, keep in mind these are available to all players right from the start.

Xbox One Controller Spartan Mobility H5 v2 small version

Spartan Mobility

Stablizer

For anyone who has used the Jetpack from Halo: Reach or Halo 4, then you have probably used it to get up to other levels instead of taking the stairs or get those last few shots as you hover in the air.  You’re not getting any additional lift from your micro jets, but if you’re up high and smart scope, you’ll get that familiar feeling of being able to float in the air, slowly falling down for about three seconds and trying to land shots from up high until you start barreling back down to earth.

Ground Pound

I didn’t get a chance to execute this one, but I was definitely on the receiving end of this a few times.  If you jump from a high ledge or level, look down and hold your crouch button, you’ll get this targeting reticule you can use to aim  a quick thrust to the ground.  Any direct contact is an instant kill and if you miss, there is about a three to 5 meter radius of splash damage.  You only have about three seconds to choose your target and they can’t be too far out in front of you.

Clamber

This one is pretty simple and has been adapted in many other first person shooters, where if you approach a ledge and you don’t quite make it, you can hit your jump button a second time to quickly climb up a ledge you wouldn’t normally be able to jump up to.  Take for example on Truth, the Midship remake, trying to jump from top middle to one of the bases: if you didn’t quite make it, but are close enough to basically grab it with an outstretched arm, you’ll be able to climb up the ledge to your intended path.  Quinn also mentioned trying to combine Clamber with crouch and spring jumping.

Thruster Pack

Thruster Pack is very similar to the armor ability in Halo 4 with the one major change that you don’t go out of first person view and you don’t loose the ability to shoot, throw grenades, melee, etc.  It is still omnidirectional and can be used while walking on the ground or in the air.  The thruster pack is very useful for getting quickly into a position for support, or in the case I used it the most, getting out of firefights.  There were several times when I got out of the way of 2v1 and 3v1 engagements by using the thruster pack.

Spartan Charge

This ability takes advantage of the new micro-jet assisted sprint.  One you hit top speed, you can hit your melee button and you’ll shoulder charge about five meters straight in front of you any unlucky player standing in your way.  From the front, this acts like a normal melee, but from the back, is the same as an insta-kill beat down.  I suggest using this only if you have the jump on the person, because trying to get to someone from mid-distance using this ability will just end up with you being a bullet sponge and by the time you charge them, will just smack you down.

Slide

Also utilizing the full sprint, you can hit the crouch button and you’ll slide into a crouched position to quickly dive into cover or surprise someone from down low.

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