To kickoff our big E3 2015 coverage, we are happy to provide the entire Halo 5: Guardians cover story from our current issue #267 (July 2015) online free of charge for everyone to read! The follow contains all of the text that our print and digital subscribers receive, though there are a few minor changes to reflect the different format and to address a 343 Industries' decision to require Xbox Live Gold for online co-op play. Enjoy learning all about Halo 5: Guardians!
The Reclamation Is At Hand
Nearly three years have passed since 343 Industries released Halo 4, its first game in the Halo series after taking over for original developer Bungie. It was quite a debut. Halo 4 garnered the biggest day-one launch sales of any Halo game to date with $220 million in total. Later, Microsoft confirmed it as the best-selling Microsoft Studios title of all time in the United States. Critical reception was positive, with a Metacritic score of 87 calculated from nearly 90 outlets. However, the multiplayer population dwindled quickly, with traditional fans lamenting class loadouts and Ordnance drops.
The studio seemed poised to repeat the sales success with the creation of Halo: The Master Chief Collection. This Xbox One package remastered the four numbered Halo campaigns and all of the multiplayer maps with the classic gameplay fans loved. But excitement quickly turned sour upon the collection’s launch last November. Technical issues were prevalent from the start, especially with online matchmaking. Patches and updates fixed some problems, but frequently created new ones in the process. After formal apologies and the promise of digital goodies, matchmaking was finally stabilized in March and 343 says it remains committed to stamping out the remaining bugs.
In the midst of these trying times for the signature Xbox franchise, a bright spot emerged. The Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer beta ran for several weeks in late December and early January, showing a return to equal starts for all players and weapon placement on the map. This allowed 343 to test new gameplay elements and map layouts, and also distanced Halo 5 from the Master Chief Collection’s problems, proving to fans that the code and dedicated servers work in the wild right out of the gate.
We visited 343 Industries’ offices to play Halo 5: Guardians’ tweaked post-beta multiplayer and got the world-first hands-on time with Master Chief’s side of the campaign (the latter of which you won’t see at E3). This taste of the second chapter of the Reclaimer Saga not only teases a new Reclamation for lore fans, but also serves as a chance for 343 to take back its good name. From what we’ve seen so far, it’s on the right track.
A NEW DAWN
After Halo 4 launched in 2012, 343 Industries shuffled its staff around. Halo 4 creative director Josh Holmes was promoted to internal studio head, and he then recruited Tim Longo to take his place on Halo 5. Longo cut his teeth at LucasArts, eventually becoming creative director on Star Wars: Republic Commando. He then spent several years at Crystal Dynamics working on the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot and eventually returned to LucasArts as creative director on an unannounced Star Wars first-person shooter. When Disney bought the company, two years of work on what was likely a Republic Commando sequel were trashed and Longo brought his sci-fi shooter pedigree to Halo.
The reconfigured team knew it was developing for the upcoming Xbox One. With the added horsepower over the Xbox 360, the developers shot for the stars in the conceptual phase. “Halo 5 is probably the most ambitious game we’ve done to date, and when it was originally pitched it was even more ambitious,” says founder and head of 343 Industries Bonnie Ross. “You come in with a huge idea and you mold it down into something that I think really works. All of the pieces are coming together really nicely. It’s going to be a very different Halo, but it also feels the same.”
This mix of familiar and new pervades everything we played at the studio. As beta players know, multiplayer returns to structural roots of the original games, yet adds a new twist with Spartan abilities like dashing thrusters and a death-from-above ground pound. Campaign trades off control of series hero Master Chief with new character Spartan Jameson Locke, a similar approach to what Bungie did with Halo 2’s Arbiter. But now solo players are always accompanied by an A.I. fireteam of three that can receive orders or be inhabited by drop-in/drop-out co-op friends. The studio is also creating a new mode that promises to unite everything fans love about Halo.
Next page: The fall of Master Chief