An opening cinematic for Halo 5: Guardians was released today and boy howdy, does it look good.
In it we see Fireteam Osiris receiving a mission brief from Commander Shepard, I mean Commander Palmer (performed by Jennifer Hale), before skydiving through a space battle to the planet’s surface. It’s fast-paced and thrilling. Everything a good opening should be.
The motion-capture faces of actors of the characters (like Nathan Fillion!) totally bypasses the uncanny valley, and their banter is pretty charming. I love seeing a team of mixed genders and races like this. Their neck-things look a little uncomfortable, but I guess we all make sacrifices in fashion when we’re about to jump out of a moving aircraft.
Guardians is the fifth main game in the Halo series, and it follows up on the end of Halo 4, which sees Master Chief missing and disgraced. In Halo 5, players will continue to play as Master Chief in the single-player campaign. In co-op gameplay, other players can join as members of Blue Team or Fireteam Osiris.
There 20 multiplayer maps available at launch, with more to come. Multiplayer modes include the traditional Arena play, as well as a new 24-person team match called Warzone.
In Warzone, Red and Blue teams of 12 will go up against each other, with A.I. opponents thrown into the fray as well. Big Team Battle won’t be around at launch, but it will be supported eventually.
Guardians will be the first game in the main Halo series to get a T for Teen rating. Back when the original Halo game came out, first-person shooters weren’t nearly as commonplace as they are now, and the ESRB filed it under an M for Mature rating that would endure for 14 years.
Halo 5: Guardians isn’t expected to be much less bloody than the previous games (it’s a difference of “large blood spatter” and “occasional blood spatter”). We’ll keep you posted with our review as soon as the game comes out on October 27, 2015.
