Fans combined played more than 20 million matches and spent more than 2.5 million hours on the Halo 5 multiplayer beta earlier this year. Now all of that data and feedback is making its way back into the game.
343 Industries, in its latest blog post, has revealed what changes are being made to Halo 5 multiplayer as a direct result of the beta, and it's a long list. From weapon changes to presentation, nearly every aspect of the game is being touched in some way.
One of the biggest tweaks will be to Spartan abilities and movement. Fans seemed overall pleased with new options like the thruster pack, sprint and the ability to "clamber" up platforms, but the developer says there are still a number of Halo fans who would rather play without the ability to sprint around the map. To appease these hardcore fans, 343 is increasing the base movement speed of players and reducing the top sprint speed. Players can also turn off the ability to sprint entirely in custom games. Ground pound controls will also be modified so they are no longer in conflict with crouching.
On the weapons side of the game, it is mostly smaller adjustments to various weapons. The only weapon in for a major update is the Hydra, a brand new grenade launcher weapon seen for the first time in the beta. The weapon proved initially confusing to use and not immediately helpful. 343 Industries plans to make the weapon stronger and make it more effective when its zoom function isn't being used.
Also subject to change is the post-game celebration scene after each match. In it, the victors would congratulate each other in what people began to call "bro" moments. 343 Industries says the victory scenes will still be around, just to expect less "considerably fewer chest bumps and high fives."
343 Industries also revealed tons of stats taken from the beta, ranging from the most popular weapons to the total number of kills. In doing so they may have answered an age old Halo question: who is the superior team, Red or Blue? According to statistics from the beta, team Blue won 52.55 percent of all matches, as opposed to Red's win percentage of 47.45 percent.
Be sure to check out our Halo 5 beta impressions here.
