14 DAY TRIAL // No modern video game with a multiplayer component can get away without a strong social component these days and the development team at 343 Industries is determined to integrate a complex new system into Halo 5: Guardians to give gamers the tools to interact with friends and enemies in interesting ways.
The Spartan Companies are the game's equivalent of clans, designed to make it easy for players to gather into a solid group, share their identity with each other and the wider world, plan sessions for the various modes and then discuss their performance and improve it.
343 Industries is offering a video that explains that way the concept will work in Halo 5: Guardians and why the studio is encouraging all players interested in playing to become part of one.
And free REQ pack is offered to all those who create or join a Spartan Company, and one of them cannot number more than 100 players.
The development team adds, "Customization will let you check out your new cosmetic goodness and select, equip and preview your armor like the selfish, vain peacock you are, but companies are really designed as a communal gathering place – and each Company includes its own private forum for setting up matches, scrimmage, practices, customs and Warzone sessions, as well as providing a clean, well-lit place for planning and strategy."
As always user feedback is expected, and 343 Industries will use it in order to improve all aspects of the Spartan Company system in Halo 5: Guardians once the shooter is actually out.
Master Chief and Locke will get purely exploratory levels
Spartan Companies, the new REQ system, and the Warzone mode are all solid arguments for those who want to focus on the multiplayer elements of Halo 5: Guardians but 343 Industries knows that plenty of gamers will first play the single-player story.
The 15 chapters are designed to offer a new look at the extensive universe of the franchise, this time powered by the Xbox One hardware, focusing on the two very different perspectives offered by Master Chief, who leads Blue Team, and Agent Locke, the leader of Fireteam Osiris.
The developers want to give gamers a wide variety of experiences, and they are even including purely exploratory moments, which will feature no actual combat.
Gamers will have to move around the environments, listen to conversations, and look around in order to get more information about the events that are taking place around them and their importance.
343 Industries has previously said that Halo 5: Guardians offers more lore than any other entry in the franchise.
The company is using the Hunt the Truth podcast to make sure that gamers understand the situation in the universe of the game at the start of the campaign.
343 Industries and Microsoft are also launching a new Fall of Reach animated series to deliver more details and books are also coming out this year, delivering background for some of the involved characters.
Halo 5: Guardians will be launched on the Xbox One on October 27.
