14 DAY TRIAL // Halo 5: Guardians has been out for less than one month, but the teams at developer 343 Industries and publisher Microsoft are saying that the first major free update for the shooter will be out before the end of the week, delivering a wealth of new content for gamers to explore.
On the official site, the two companies explain that Battle of Shadow and Light will arrive in the coming days, giving gamers access to the Big Team Battle mode and the maps associated with it.
343 Industries offers a closer look at Deadlock, Recurve, Basin and Guillotine, with details delivered by the members of the community and the designer that created the new environments and shaped them for the coming mode.
Big Team Battle will deliver another way for fans to enjoy the multiplayer of Halo 5: Guardians, although many members of the community will probably stick with the all-new Warzone in the long run.
Battle of Shadow and Light is also introducing 48 new REQ cards that gamers can obtain in packs, and Chris Blohm, investment lead, explains that his team has big long-term plans for the system.
He states, "First priority for us was to establish a cadence of new REQs. Second, we wanted to release a large set of content from across the types in the collection to make sure there was something for everyone. We made sure there was plenty of REQs of all rarities, so we didn’t hide the new items only in Gold packs, and hopefully everyone has already seen something they want."
The highlights of the coming packs are the Shinobi and the Tracer armor sets, and gamers can also get access to a special assassination move.
Bans are coming for common exploits in Halo 5: Guardians
343 Industries is also tweaking the SWAT playlists, increasing the respawn time to 3 seconds and removing friendly fire, changes that are designed to maintain game flow while making the entire experience fairer.
The studio continues to track data about the way the community uses REQ points and experience boosting, making sure that it has a handle on the exploits that certain players are using and that it is starting to deliver punishment, which can entail point removal or timed bans.
Warzone is designed to mix Player versus Player with Player versus Environment gameplay and even has some MOBA DNA mixed in, but the developers are still trying to keep the mode as balanced as possible.
In a game as popular as Halo 5: Guardians, a solid system of bans is required to make sure that gamers do not abandon some areas of the game because they feel they are unfair.
343 Industries has already said that it has no plans to make major changes to the REQ system, which some fans see as unfair.
During the month of December, another big update is planned for Halo 5: Guardians, which will include the Forge editor that gives the community a way to create and share maps for the shooter.
