14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at 343 Industries and publisher Microsoft have pledged to make Halo 5: Guardians interesting in the long term for fans of the series, and that means a full stream of new content is required for the multiplayer side of the experience.
The two companies are announcing on the official site that they plan to introduce new modes in the February update and that they will also be built around ball-based mechanics.
The first of the bunch, according to Max Grossman, a multiplayer designer, will be simply named assault and is designed to replicate some of the classic moments from previous titles in the series.
343 Industries explains, "We went back to the drawing board on when and where the ball spawns, the abilities of the ball carrier, and the arming process itself. When the game starts, the ball will spawn at a unique location each time it spawns throughout the match. The order of locations is always fixed so players can learn to predict the next spawn. Once a team establishes control of the spawn location, they can pick up the ball."
The player who has the ball has an instant kill melee strike and extra movement options to make the role fun for all those who try out the new modes coming to Halo 5: Guardians, and the experience also has other tweaks based on community feedback.
To deliver a more relaxed experience for the multiplayer, 343 Industries is also bringing back Griffball, which is boasting gameplay tweaks and a map that's been designed from the ground up to use them.
Finally, the February update for Halo 5: Guardians will also feature a Fiesta mode, which should appeal to those players who are not interested in heated competition.
At the moment, the coming new content for the game does not have an official name or a release window, but it's likely that it will arrive around the 15th of the month.
Halo 5: Guardians will also get more REQ cards and other tweaks
The Achilles armor and the Halo 2 Battle Rifle that arrived in January as part of Infinity Armory were well received by the community, and it's likely that 343 Industries will introduce more content that's based on the history of the franchise and that can offer unique battlefield looks.
The studio is also working on tweaking the price of various weapons while also improving the overall matchmaking system for its shooter.
The entire REQ card system is being expanded with each new update to give players more options in both Warzone and Arena, with the later mode getting a new special Premium bundle in the official store starting February 16.
Revenue obtained from its sale and the other real-money transactions will expand the prize pool associated with the World Championship finals for Halo 5: Guardians, which will take place during March.
At the moment, fans of competitive play can see matches from Cologne, where some of the best teams in the world are showing off their unique strategies in Arena.