14 DAY TRIAL // Halo 5: Guardians is one of the most ambitious releases of the year and the development team at 343 Industries knows that, in the long-term, the video game will live or die on the strength of the maps that will power its multiplayer experience.
Josh Holmes, one of the leading developers working at the studio, talked to the official Xbox channel during Gamescom 2015 in order to show off a new The Rig map which will be featured for the Arena mode.
The action will take place on the Meridian planet, which will also play a major role in the campaign side of Halo 5: Guardians.
The Rig has been specifically designed to be asymmetric, and 343 Industries has tested it a lot during the development cycle to make sure that it is balanced and gives gamers a unique experience.
Josh Holmes also talked about the ways his company is trying to make the multiplayer of Halo 5: Guardians appealing to a wide range of players.
Arena will appeal to those who want a pure competitive experience, and all the maps associated with it reflect the focus on dynamic and fast engagements.
For the more complex Warzone, which mixes Player versus Player and Player versus Environment, the environments are larger in order to accommodate the various Artificial Intelligence-powered enemies that gamers will have to deal with.
Halo 5: Guardians will also have an extensive single-player campaign
For a few weeks now, 343 Industries has been talking a lot about the multiplayer side of its shooter, trying to focus on how it can become an engaging eSport in the long term.
But there are plenty of fans who will only be interested in Halo 5: Guardians for its single-player campaign, which will once again follow Master Chief.
Gamers will be able to control both the series stalwart and the newly introduced Agent Locke Spartan as they chase each other across the known universe and seek to unravel a new mystery.
The entire single-player campaign can be played cooperatively by gamers, and 343 Industries has suggested that it is bigger than any other the franchise has featured.
Halo 5: Guardians will be out only on the Xbox One on October 27.
