Josh Holmes of 343 industries has now explained some of the gameplay designs the studio made in Halo 5: Guardians. The gameplay has been significantly changed through the all-new Spartan abilities in this installment of the Halo franchise. A sprint feature has been added in the game along with many other first-person shooter abilities. In a huge forum post in Team Beyond, Holmes explained all of the design changes made in this game.
The explanation may appear to be quite long, but he provides various reasons that justify the features that have been added to the game. The main objective of the team in Halo 5: Guardians was ‘immersion’. The studies revealed how a real human being moves and reacts ‘in our world’ where you are a Spartan ‘wrapped in Mjolnir and assault armor’.
He further declared that movement, motion combat and gunplay are very important aspects in Halo 5. The developer team wanted to make sure that the gameplay has correct ‘weight and impact’ while you are firing a gun. According to him, mobility was rather underdeveloped in Halo 4; hence, they made serious changes to the movement abilities in Halo 5: Guardians.
In order to make the movement much more fluidic and responsive in the game environment, the Spartan Abilities now incorporate features like Clamber, Sprint, and Thruster. When used in the correct manner, they will significantly augment the combat abilities in interesting new ways.
Many other offensive crowd pleaser abilities have been added, notable among which are Ground Pound and Charge. However, in a more competitive level, you may not get to see too many of the former due to the high risk associated with it. However, if someone does go for it and accomplish it successfully, it will create a wow moment that rewards the player and the spectators as well.
Why has Sprint been added in Halo 5: Guardians? Well, being a Spartan, it is imperative that you can push yourself to the limit in situations that rightfully demand it. Focusing on pure mobility and agility, this is an ability that grants you can extra survival gear during an intense firefight. It creates many opportunities as well as substantial choices related to offense and defense.
Maintaining your sprint mechanism while balancing between shield recharge and sprint ramp-up with potential escape is the key for gamers. The Halo community is quite huge and diverse. With a larger audience, the ability to Sprint will be great appreciated.
The core gameplay experience has been kept as consistent as possible between Campaign, Arena, and global Multiplayer experience. Sprint when done right, will work great in the Arena and the community seem to love it as well.