Preview: Halo 5: Guardians’ multiplayer

The Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer beta finished this weekend after three weeks of experimenting with maps, game types and starting loadouts. With at least nine months until the full release, there is a lot of time for 343 Industries to apply what they have learned to the final product, but just what did they want from this beta?

343 has made no secret of the involvement that former and current professional Halo players have had in developing the multiplayer aspect of Halo 5. It shows in what Halo 5 achieves, bringing the depth of top end competitive play to the masses. Team play is built into the core of Halo 5; teammates have automatic voice prompts for a huge number of in game events, identifying opponents in certain areas of the map (“one at blue base”), warning of incoming grenades, alerting you they have a particular heavy weapon or that a teammate just went down. It makes a huge difference, doing a good job of replicating a dimension crucial to top end play in any team based shooter, voice communication. The automatic commands are more useful than what 99% of public players would be, they are concise, accurate, specific and constant.

They emphasise teamwork so strongly because a lot of the variety in tactics has been removed. While several starting weapons were tried in the Slayer playlists, it felt like 343 were just building to the last week where they showed off Battle Rifle starts. The Battle Rifle is the core of competitive Halo, being a weapon requiring significant skill to use but capable of killing an enemy in four headshots, making it a viable option to remove a team from an entrenched position. Competitive Halo is all about weapon and map control (343 went so far as to explain that at the start of every Slayer match in Halo 5), and before the Battle Rifle became the standard starting weapon it was near impossible to dislodge a competent team once they had good map position and control of the power weapons such as the sniper rifle and rocket launcher.

The Battle Rifle also moved Halo from slow-paced combat that gave players a chance to react in most situations to a more traditional “shoot first and win” style, particularly in less coordinated environments like non-team games and public matchmaking. As players became hyper accurate with the Battle Rifle its place as a starting weapon turned it into the most effective tool in the game, making all but a few power weapons redundant. This is highlighted in Halo 5 where other weapons barely exist, you can pick up a token SMG or Magnum for variety but plasma weapons, Needlers and other options were gone in the beta. Most pickups were rifle variants such as the DMR or Light Rifle, or true power weapons like the Sword, Sniper Rifle and Rocket Launcher, all of which appeared on timers and whose position was highlighted when they weren’t available. All players were notified of when they were spawning, and when they arrived.

So here we are with Halo 5, where players who are still dedicated to the game over a decade later outnumber new players, and the game is designed to cater to their ‘professional’ variants. It is a credit to 343 that they are attempting to bring the joy these gamers find in competitive Halo to the masses, encouraging teamwork and highlighting high level strategies like weapon control. It leaves behind a lot of what many people liked about Halo (this is a long way from the holy trinity of combat days) but replaces it with something that feels fresh in a ‘teamwork optional’ era of Team Deathmatch in Call of Duty or even Destiny’s Crucible. Once players adjust to this they will get a lot out of Halo 5.

It doesn’t take long to get used to the other changes 343 have made in this post Titanfall world. The dash, clamber, sprint, hover and aim down sights are all well implemented and have specific uses that complement the classic Halo gameplay rather than replace it. The faster movement options are appreciated when you feel that first BR round go into your armour, the shooters whereabouts unknown. That removes one significant problem with the older games BR starts, you now have an escape before being gunned down by brutally accurate BR veterans. The hover when you aim down sights mid-air is a nice touch that subtly changes the pace of battle and shields not recharging while you sprint is a perfect balance of that feature. I didn’t find aiming down sights too offensive to the Halo style, most players were using it anyway with the Battle Rifle or even the Halo: Combat Evolved pistol, and being bumped out by taking fire is a good compromise. I found it a natural fit for the game.

The only new addition I didn’t find much use for was the ground pound, both the charging time and the faster player movement made it difficult to justify using except when you had the jump on your opponents, in which case just about any option you choose would work. Melee timing was very different to previous games, it will become more useful as players adjust especially with the options to charge and melee. The sword is a deadly weapon in the right hands now that players are far more mobile.

New game mode Breakout deserves special mention. It is simple enough, a Counter-Strike style mode played in rounds with one life and no shields. The Battle Rifle becomes a power weapon on these specialty maps that look like paintball fields, your starting Magnum and SMG are deadly enough in the right hands thanks to this lack of shields but most rounds started with a bum rush to the Battle Rifle with experienced players also lobbing their grenades at the oppositions BR spawn aiming for a ‘Hail Mary’ kill. The quick nature of death in Breakout worked well in the tight levels, teamwork was essential to success but also easily achieved thanks to the movement mechanics, small levels and automatic vocal cues. It was addictive, if unfortunately ruined when a teammate would drop from the game, and a fantastic twist on Halo gameplay. I hope it is still heavily populated outside of an environment where players only have three choices of game mode, I think it is a brilliant addition to Halo.

The map design was competent enough, but particularly in the third week where two of the three maps on offer were Forge variants they weren’t pleasing to the eye or particularly memorable. Forge maps tend to have a pre-fab furniture feel, Halo by Ikea if you will, even when the design is well thought out and elegant the lack of a theme and notable landmarks make them feel generic. Forge is a great way to create maps with strong flow and balance but unless they can give them some character they won’t have lasting impact like so many classic Halo maps do.

I also found it particularly jarring in some cases where lens flare and lighting effects were used, often it would impact my vision and that is something I don’t want to deal with in a multiplayer match. I hope it was an oversight rather than a deliberate effect and is toned down in the final game. Personally I thought reactions to the “bro down” celebration scenes after the games was overblown, it’s short, completely inoffensive and does a nice job of highlighting the winning team without being obnoxious. One other aspect I feel could be improved is the kill cam, which was accompanied with a tiresome bar of music and needs to show more of the lead-up to the kill. Being able to remove it entirely would be nice, going back to a simple countdown and the scoreboard, but that might just be my old fashioned fear of change.

I’ve always had my reservations about ‘MLG style’ Halo, preferring dual wielding and making do with what you find (and the variety that provides) to the brutality of Battle Rifle starts and requirements of regimented teamwork. Even when I have found matches in The Master Chief Collection I am not enjoying the experience as much as I hoped I would thanks to the endless BR starts where they barely belong. In Halo 5 I feel like I am being taught how to enjoy this style and 343 are proving to be a good teacher. The vocal barks are a game changer, it makes even the most incompetent of teammates somewhat useful for identifying targets and locations. Once players figure out that the odds of survival and thus victory increase when you stick together and even work together, the game will shine even further. Halo 5 is leading them to the water more directly than any game before it, but it can’t make a pubbie drink.

My main worry is that Halo 5 more than most will live and die by its competitive matchmaking. Playing ‘pre-made’ teams was a painful experience, often resulting in quitters that would compound the problem of playing against veterans with deadly aim and advanced tactics. There were several instances where easy balance equations (such as four ‘gold’ skill players and four ‘silver’) were split into unbalanced groups. It did get better as the beta went along, probably due to my racking up more games and a more accurate profile, but if 343 go with the standard number of matchmaking playlists in Halo 5 then I fear the player base will not be big enough to provide everybody the balanced experience this game needs.

The equations they use for determining your skill could use some work too, I shouldn’t be losing skill points when two teammates quit and we play a 4 v 2 game to a 40-36 result. I shouldn’t be making big gains when a team of three gold players and myself beat four unranked players 50-27 and I finish with a negative kill/death ratio. Too much emphasis is placed on match result and not enough on individual performance. These days skill ratings should be a fine science, weighing not just the match result but your contributions and individual results against other players. Players grouping in parties makes this difficult, especially when they have a wide skill range, but it is 2015, you should be able to work around that and provide balanced games to everybody. 343 Industries are on their way to creating an excellent multiplayer shooter, one that successfully applies modern ideas to Halo while also highlighting what keeps the competitive scene alive, they just need to make sure it is as accessible as possible for new players. I’m confident they are on the right track.

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