Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta Early Access Hands-On Spartacular

The full Halo 5: Guardians beta is set to start on December 29th with 7 maps and 3 game modes to test out across a period of three-weeks. However, BioGamer Girl was lucky enough to go hands-on with the Halo 5: Guardians Beta Early Access on December 19th which is the earliest beta release in the history of the franchise! Read on to learn more.

Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta Early Access was a small selection of content (one week's worth) and allowed select players to experience the work in progress before its official release in Spring 2015. The early access period allowed us to test out the game almost ten days before the official beta release from December 29th until January 18th. While the amount of features was limited in early preview of the game, it served as a small glistening of hope for Halo 5: Guardians, which follows the Halo: The Master Chief Collection release that saw a slew of problems.

The biggest draw of Halo 5: Guardians is the new movement system that utilizes a Thruster Pack to move in a wide array of directions which has completely eliminated Boost Jump. Halo 5: Guardians will feature a wide array of abilities such as the Stabilizer, Clamber, Ground Pound and the Spartan Charge and Slide. We loved the ability to hover in mid-air for several seconds utilizing the Stabilizer and believe it will offer up a fun new experience for getting that game-winning last kill! Gamers will be able to combine several abilities like the Stabilizer with the Ground Pound to create an immersive new level of gameplay. Another great feature is that players can now run anytime they feel like it in Halo 5 which is a welcome new addition to the series. The visuals for the game are already looking pretty impressive as we are reintroduced to the Midship, which is a remake in the map entitled Truth, alongside the new addition of Empire.



Halo 5: Guardians will not only add a ton of new content never before seen in the franchise while completely getting rid of other features like armor protection. Developers 343 are also adding a new scoping feature entitled the smart-link which doesn't disrupt your accuracy or movements when using it. The smart-link will improve the shot spread and features of weapons used in Halo 5 with players risking being de-scoped if they are shot while it is in use.

In the end, Halo 5: Guardians is shaping up to be a great release for the franchise and the early access period showed us that many great things await for the series in the time to come. While we did experience a few glitches and bugs during our time with the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta Early Access period (which is only natural at this stage of the game), we found that the beta offered a great multiplayer experience with its matchmaking and gameplay. Stay tuned as the full beta is right around the corner and we will keep readers updated along the way! Merry Christmas Spartans!

To learn more, visit the official Halo 5 website.