Here’s What’s Changing In Halo 5 After The Beta (Spoiler: Sprint Is Getting Tweaked)

For three weeks in late December and early January, 343 Industries opened up Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer to the masses. During the beta test, the team was studying player behavior and, in response, has made some changes.

The team learned through surveys of its Halo Community Feedback Program that 11 percent of respondents wanted sprint excised from the game. While it won’t be eliminated entirely, custom games will be able to toggle the ability to jog around the map. Other Spartan Abilities will also be moved to optional status for custom matches.

To compensate, players will have faster base movement speed and top sprint speed will be reduced. This puts a smaller gap in between regular running and and accelerated movement.

Additional changes include improved strafe acceleration and improvements to ground pound controls so it no longer conflicts with crouch jumping.

Halo 5 will also be presented a bit differently in final form. 343 is toning down the “Halo bro” moments for fewer chest bumps and high fives upon victory.

Post-death replays are moving into the “optional” column. You’ll have a choice of whether you want to see a traditional follow cam or a replay from your assassin’s perspective. You’ll also be able to turn off “Spartan chatter” if your teammates’ AI dialog starts to grate.

343 Industries is making some changes to its ranking system, also. When it arrives this fall, Halo 5 will do a better job of using the CSR skill system in matchmaking. The developer also says it will be preventing skill boosting and punish those who quit with matchmaking bans and CSR penalties.

Click to enlarge.

For more on the beta, 343 Industries has revealed an infographic. While most of the stats are the typical fluff we see, there is some information we can pull out.

Ground pounds were credited with .3 percent of of the 181,389,366 kills. Spartan charge fared better, but still failed to crack 1 percent of the kills with only .7 percent. In other words, your guns are likely to be your best bet except in extremely specific situations.

Halo 5: Guardians is due out this fall. For more, check out our hands-on impressions from the beta. 

[Source: 343 Industries]

Our Take
These takeaways from the beta seem to address a number of player concerns. However, the largest one still lingers: the performance of Halo: The Master Chief Collection. As I’ve said before, there is a lot riding on Halo 5 for both 343 Industries and Microsoft this fall, and it needs to be great.