One of the biggest gaming conventions in Europe, EuroGamer, happened this week. From Thursday til Sunday gamers, cosplayers, youtubers and entertainers alike gathered in the halls of the NEC arena in Birmingham to play, watch and otherwise enjoy games.
One of the games I was most excited to get some more hands on with at EuroGamer was Halo 5: Guardians and more specifically the new 12v12 PvPvE gamemode, Warzone. This brand new gametype has been one of 343’s biggest selling points as they launched their marketing for the next Halo game and there were a huge amount of people, queueing all day long on both days I went just to get 20 minutes of this new gametype. Let’s talk about how Warzone felt, after waiting to play this mode for so damn long!
After waiting in the queue, myself and my clan mates stepped up to our consoles, setup our controls and were ready to rock and roll. All of the button schemes that you want and are used to from Halo games are there as presets and the new Xbox One Elite controller that was demoed in line is sure to make this Halo feel like one of the most responsive Halo games we’ve seen yet. We jumped out of our ships and proceeded to sweep and clear all of the AI combatants out of our base. This is an excellent way to get warmed up and guage your gunskill for the day with the slightly easier enemies before you jump out of the shielded walls and pick fights with other players and boss enemies.
After cleaning up the enemies, you had the option to spend some energy (currency that is earned over time in the game and by killing enemies) on all kinds of weapons from the Halo arsenal or jump right onto the first base that is needed to capture. Usually if you’re just starting, you won’t have enough energy to buy anything substantial so making a beeline for the first base is a priority.
From then on in, it’s just like a Halo game you would expect, with the addition of bosses and regular enemies while capturing bases. There are a couple of win conditions to be looking out for though. If you capture all 3 bases you will remove the shield from the opposing teams base allowing you to run in and destroy that teams core. If you destroy the core, that’s an insta-win! You can also win by reaching the score limit or time limit with the highest score. To earn score you can either hold multiple bases and slay the enemy team or, when a boss enemy is dropped into the game every so often, you can kill these guys for a big jump in points. It’s cool that there isn’t just a score limit and that if you’re being beaten by the other team and there’s only a couple of minutes left, there’s always a last minute push to blow up the enemies core that could secure the victory.
It felt almost exactly like a Halo should, given the advancements in technology and studios. It’s obvious that 343 want this to be the Halo that they are remembered for and they are doing a number of things to make sure that it is going to be a re-awakening for fans of the series. The gun-play was solid, BR’s are right at the forefront of the gunfights again, the sound is visceral and the movement, fluid.
From what we’ve seen so far, this Halo will be one to write home about and will bring a lot of the player-base up to the next-gen, right back into the Xbox camp.
Did you guys get a chance to see any Halo Warzone? Are you excited for the changes 343 have made since Halo 4? Let us know down in the comments.
