New Halo 5: Guardians Highlights Include Free DLC, Blue Team

A few important details of Halo 5-related news have been announced regarding Halo 5: Guardians. According to Game Informer's July Cover, the crew contacted 343 Industries for a hands-on approach to Master Chief's campaign in Guardians.

Here are the highlights we fans have been dying for:

• Master Chief is accompanied by the Blue Team in single-player and four-player co-op. Story-wise, Linda, Fred, Kelly, and John all were abducted at age six to be transformed into Spartan-II soldiers. Throughout the series, the team trained and took part in many adventures together, but Linda, Fred, and Kelly played a less significant role. Halo 5: Guardians will mark the first time these characters will step up to a more important role. In single-player mode, Master Chief commands these Spartans via D-pad, but in co-op mode, players take control of each member, who are equipped with a unique load-out.
• An early mission, set before Master Chief and Blue Team are declared AWOL, follows Jameson Locke, who appeared in Halo: Nightfall, as he hunts down Master Chief with his team, named "Fireteam Osiris." This team consists of the high-tech Spartan-IVs, equipped with ATS (Artemis Tracking System) on their armor to draw out points of interest.
• Audio has been reworked from the ground-up just for the Xbox One.
• Difficulty scales dependent on number of co-op members.
• There will be multiple routes to take in order to fulfill objectives.

Oh, and it's still exclusive to the Xbox One.

Below you can find the coverage trailer:



In addition to these details, a NeoGAF user revealed before the release of the GI article, that Halo 5's multiplayer modes will include "over 20 maps," and over 15 additional maps will become available as free DLC "by July 2016." Unfortunately, friends who want to team up and play co-op together will require an Xbox Live Gold subscription. Versus multiplayer modes follow the same route, demanding subscription.

In an interview with GI, 343 Executive Producer Josh Holmes stated that the developers saw a lot of problems of dividing the player base. Before, all DLC packs required payment, which split up the player-base, but releasing the upcoming DLC packs as free is "really important to having a great multiplayer ecosystem."

Definitely agreed there.

Halo 5: Guardians will release October 27, 2015. Expect the reveal of the new multiplayer experience at E3. In the meantime, you can check out our All Hail the Conquering Halo 5 Speculation article.