Halo 5: Guardians will be spinning through consoles at the end of this month, and if you're not excited, it's probably because you've never owned an Xbox. Looking to shake up the series in more ways than one, the flurry of announcements—like the brand new REQ system and Warzone mode—led us to talk all things multiplayer with Design Director, Kevin Franklin.
HYPER: Let's get straight to the juicy bits, lay out Warzone for us.
KF: Warzone is an all new mode that is 12 on 12, but for the first time we’ve incorporated PvE elements with PvP; we've even thrown AI into the mix. This mode has all the elements of the Halo sandbox: weapons, vehicles, AI—all in one place. It doesn't work like your standard red versus blue fire fight, as it features dynamic objectives that pop up and change during the course of battle. The first team to 1,000 points wins, or there’s an alternate victory condition if you destroy the enemy team’s core.
As we understand it, some of these dynamic objectives include bosses. Are these completely original or taken from the campaign?
KF: When building bosses we took special versions of the AI from the campaign and gave them an identity—they even have names. Each boss is unique per Warzone map, so there are around 12 bosses for each area we've created. Some have unique colours, others behave differently, and then come those that are really hard to kill. Basically they’ll be familiar to players who have tackled the campaign, while still having a few surprises of their own. As far as maps go, we haven’t quite gone into the exact breakdown of Arena and Warzone just yet, but there will be 20 maps at launch across multiplayer, and 15 maps post launch that are going to be available at no additional charge.
Are there any other points where the campaign and the multiplayer intersect?
KF: One of the biggest points are through the Spartan abilities, which are completely shared between the campaign, Warzone and Arena. There are certain things that you will find in campaign, like you’ll be able to shoulder charge and ground pound through specific blocked-off areas when exploring. You’ll also look to do this in Warzone in order to find some of the more difficult challenges and bosses hidden around the map.
How will the new REQ system change playing Halo online?
KF: Well it’s always going to be rewarding you, for one, whether you play Arena or Warzone. You’ll be able to unlock all sorts of new customisation options that will be shared between both our multiplayer modes. In Warzone in particular, you’ll be able to call on powerful weapons, vehicles, power-ups and other mods into the battlefield. Nothing in the REQ system will translate to single player, but it will provide incentive for further multiplayer engagement.
Word is there's a new skill ranking system governing Halo 5's online match-making. Can you tell us anything about how it works?
KF: Every time a player enters a new playlist, they'll go through a handful of placement matches that will set where they sit in that particular playlist. There’s a lot of very complex math that goes into keeping players in the right spot to ensure better matches for everyone. Another thing we’ve done is we’ve added a system where top players are ranked from one to 200. We’re trying to identify our champions, our absolute best players on the playlist, and that’s completely new for Halo 5.
Will this make it harder to find games for these players?
KF: No, these players won't be excluded, they'll be exalted. We’re launching with less playlists to ensure that we have a lot of players in the matchmaking system at once so we can get quality matches, and that’s why DLC being available to everyone is a really big deal to us. We didn't want to have to split players into different brackets otherwise, you know, you have one DLC but not the other so you can't access those matches. This way everyone is playing in the same place which gives us a much bigger pool to draw from. So if, for example, you are the 100th ranked player in the world we’re really hoping that a bunch of the other top players will be amped to compete without you and are going to be online, all trying to get to the top. Those are probably going to be our most active players. We don't foresee any issues with players way up there having to find matches.
Because Warzone maps are purported to be four times the size of regular maps, will bots fill out matches that struggle to hit the 24 player mark?
KF: Typically we’ll try and launch games completely full. If players drop out then we have a late joining system that will refill the game while it’s going. This works because late comers will be fast tracked to the average level of the match so you'll never find yourself playing from behind. At launch, the minimum amount of players to activate a game will be 18 players, but again, this will then be filled throughout the duration of the match. Warzone definitely still works with that many players, I mean, it really is a lot of fun, but obviously we’re going to do our best to make sure matches are always running at 24. Numbers aside, in our playtest, whenever there’s a boss on the field (which is about every two minutes) it really creates a focal point for players to go after. So even then, when games are less populated, you’ll always see a lot of players converging around these points of attention which is kind of cool.
Halo has been iconic for shooting from the hip, but now the ability to aim down sights looks to offer a very different experience. How do you think this will change playing online?
KF: The smart-link is only one of a very wide set of new skills to master in Halo 5. We’ve been working very closely with our competitive gaming team in-house to refine these and make sure that, while they are evolving the franchise, they’re not too much of a departure from the roots of Halo. We've made sure you’re still able to do awesome things like 360 no scoping or earning snapshot medals with your sniper rifle—all to ensure that core system doesn't get left behind. The pro team has been instrumental in keeping everything we do in line with the competitive gaming style that players are hoping for. The whole reason we've kept Arena is to cater for the fans. No matter if you play 10 games, 100 games or 1,000 games, you’re going to have the same starting weapons and abilities as every other player in the match. That was really big for us, to create a level playing field. We also have really invested in our Halo Championship Series, and we’ve built our own in-house Esports league that we actually showcased at Gamescom, which was an awesome event.
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Halo 5: Guardians will be available from October 27 on Xbox One.