[Author’s Note: This article acts as a follow-up to the first, second, third and fourth Impressions Log entries regarding the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta. Additionally, I will continue to share my thoughts regarding 343 Industries upcoming Shooter as the Beta rolls on through January 18th, 2015.]
Continuing our coverage of the third week of Halo 5: Guardians’ Multiplayer Beta, let’s jump into some of the new features for the playlists that were already available throughout the first two weeks of the Beta.
Despite not offering anything significantly new to the Slayer playlist, 343 added in a brand new Forge map called Pegasus into the game mode’s map rotation, which resembles a level taken straight out of Halo: Reach oddly enough. At first, I wasn’t enjoying Pegasus that much because of its asymmetrical design and odd spawn points, but, the more I played of it, I started understanding its layout and taking advantage of it. It has many high position points all across the map, making it very easy to get annihilated or killing the enemy efficiently with its high ground advantage. Additionally, the power weapons set on the map, the Rocket Launcher and the Sniper Rifle, are a great fit for it because of its big and open structure. The Sniper and Rockets are used the best on Pegasus because of the long range battles you can get into, as well as the easy explosive kills directed to enemies located below you. The Ground Pound Spartan ability is another great way to take leverage from the map’s design. My only concern is that I don’t see it working for gametypes other than Slayer – maybe King of the Hill, but that all depends on where the objectives are located.
Great verticality in Pegasus
Week 3 of the Beta also marks the return of Truth as the second Slayer map, except this time it’s Assault Rifle and Battle Rifle starts, just like on Pegasus. I’ve addressed this issue in my previous log entry, but I can’t stress enough how annoying it is to switch weapons when getting off respawns. On multiple occasions, I saw enemy players at a distance as soon as I got control of my Spartan, but couldn’t put shots into them because of the starting weapon’s range – something that wasn’t happening when it was strictly BR starts back in Week 2. Despite the frustration, I got past it, and Truth plays the same as it did during Week 1, except long range battles are a lot more frequent.
Sadly, no changes have been implemented in Breakout, which I honestly thought would’ve tested out BR starts just to see how it plays out. It remains the exact same, and is still pretty fun despite being a little repetitive (the same starting strategies I’ve been implementing since Week 2 still work very well to this day).
Breakout remains the same.
One thing I want to address (and this isn’t directly related to my overall impressions of the Halo 5: Guardians Beta) is that I keep losing games despite performing decently. For some odd reason, even if I am ranked in the Gold division in two playlists, I still get matched with bad players who keep losing games for my team. Though this is entirely my fault because I go into Halo as a lone wolf, I can’t stress how frustrating it is to lose a Breakout match 5-0 when you get 10 kills, while the rest of your team doesn’t get any of them, or having a Slayer games with 20 kills and 15 deaths, while one of your partners goes 4-20. I’ve mentioned this before, but the worst part is that, whether or not you perform decently individually in a game, your rank points are all based on your game wins or losses in this Beta, making it very hard to stay consistent. So, if any of you readers out there want to play some Halo 5 matches with yours truly, send me a message on Xbox Live at ViiCTiiM x, and I will happy to play with you during the last week of the Beta. I just cannot stand losing any more matches, as I really want to reach the Onyx division in a playlist before the 18th.
Once again, reminding you all to stay tuned to Gamer Headlines as this Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta Impressions Log will be continuously updated until it ends on January 18, 2015.
Have you played the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta? If so, feel free to let us know what you think of it in the comments below and, as always, stay tuned to Gamer Headlines for all things gaming.
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