How Halo: The Master Chief Collection Ties Into Halo 5: Guardians

During the recent launch event for the Halo: Master Chief Collection, Microsoft also offered attendees a chance to try out the Halo 5: Guardians beta ahead of time. We talked with Josh Holmes, studio head at 343 Industries for Halo 5 about how exactly the next major release in the franchise will tie into the existing universe.

It was interesting to see Halo: The Master Chief Collection juxtaposed against the new Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer beta to see just how similar the combat in Guardians is to early Halo: Combat Evolved multiplayer. Combat in Guardians is raw and unadorned, at least in the beta I saw. All players start with the same set of equipment and abilities; there aren't armor abilities as there were in Halo 4, for example. New in Halo: Guardians is the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare-esque Thruster Pack, which allows players to boost jump up into the air (and slam down onto their enemies), as well as to dodge rapidly to one side or another, or even briefly levitate while you aim using stabilizers.

While Halo 3 featured 5-v-5 multiplayer, Guardians is strictly 4-v-4. "We debated it a lot," said Holmes, "between 4-v-4 and 5-v-5. Ultimately, we just liked that, in 4-v-4, each one of the team members is responsible for a quarter of the team's success, and can contribute in a very meaningful way. That, I think, brings the team together in a really important way. It requires coordination, there's a bit less chaos [than 5-v-5], and it rewards teamwork, especially in some of the new modes, like Breakout."

"Ultimately, we just liked that, in 4-v-4, each one of the team members is responsible for a quarter of the team's success."

Breakout is Guardians' new elimination mode, in which player death in a given round is permanent, and the goal is to completely eliminate the other team. Think Counter-Strike, but without the bomb placement or hostage rescue. Players begin equally equipped and have to work carefully together to avoid getting killed and to control the map space, especially the good weapon spawns. Holmes states that Breakout has "higher lethality," due to players having less shield power to block damage, and he went on to say that the mode was inspired by competitive paintball.

The cover art for Guardians showcases a new weapon called the Hyrda, but I didn't see it used in game. I did get a good look at the game's new melee weapon, however, the Prophets' Bane sword. The blade is not only super powerful, but it also lets you move faster when it's equipped, giving you an edge over gun-wielding foes.

Before playing Guardians, though, I watched the first two episodes of the TV series Halo: Nightfall. Expanding on the Halo universe's backstory, the show follows intelligence officer Jameson Locke and former Spartan Randall Aiken as they try to stop an apparent Covenant plot to destroy humanity with a disease that only afflicts humans. Without spoiling anything, the series definitely returns to some key Halo locations and themes and features plenty of CGI-based action scenes interspersed with fleshy backstory about the people and worlds of Halo. The TV series will tie-in to Halo 5's single-player, according to Holmes, who remained close-mouthed about further details. Even the character who plays Locke has been reticent about how his character interacts with Master Chief.

"There's more to that story: it continues through Halo 2: Anniversary, actually -- there's a tie-in to the prologue and epilogue there -- and all that ties into the story going forward."

Holmes did discuss, however, the close relationship between 343 Studios and Scott Free Productions in the making of the TV series: "Kiki Wolfkill, the Executive Producer on Nightfall, worked very closely with Scott Free… same with Frank O'Connor [franchise development director] and our franchise team. They were heavily involved with the project in pre-production, and both of them were on set throughout the shooting, to ensure that the scenes were lining up properly with the canon. It was very important in Nightfall to tell the story of Locke in a way that would feed into the campaign of Halo 5: Guardians. [Locke] is going to be a pivotal character in that experience, and Nightfall gives us the opportunity to tell that backstory and set him up. Of course, there's more to that story: it continues through Halo 2: Anniversary, actually--there's a tie-in to the prologue and epilogue there--and all that ties into the story going forward."

While Halo: Nightfall may be more glorified cutscene than honest-to-goodness TV show, it's something fans

of Halo -- especially those anticipating Halo 5: Guardians' single-player -- will need to watch. As for Guardians' multiplayer, the beta is available next month (along with all of Nightfall, which runs through December 9th) to anyone who purchases The Master Chief Collection.

While launch issues for the MCC have made up the bulk of the current Halo conversation, we'll have to wait and see if that ultimately has any effect on fan's perception of Guardians. And hopefully, 343 will be able to use the current problems to make Halo 5 stronger at launch.