There are a number of people getting a hands-on look at Halo 5: Guardians before it makes its appearance at E3 2015. With tons of information pouring out in long format articles, sometimes it's nice to sit back and read it all one bullet point at a time.
A majority of this information will more than likely be reiterated during E3, but you can catch a glimpse of what is to come right now!
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Halo 5 takes place 8 months after the events of Halo 4.
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The campaign is played from two different perspectives: Master Chief's Blue Team and Agent Locke's Fireteam Osiris (as the trailers suggested).
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Each member of Blue Team has a different set skills, although whether or not you will make use of them is unclear – it might simply be a plot point.
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Fireteam Osiris is made up of Agent Locke, Kelly-087, Tanaka and Edward Buck (Nathan Fillion will be reprising his role as Buck).
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While playing solo in the campaign, you can order the rest of the Fireteam using commands like: go here, attack that, revive, drive vehicle.
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Reviving squad members offers you a reward.
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Fireteams have dynamic conversations, reacting to what's happening around you.
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The Covenant are an enemy once more.
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Promethean enemies (and weapons) return, with new enemy types.
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The Arbiter is fighting against the Covenant.
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Campaign Spartans are given extra abilities on top of the multipler ones: revive and tracking.
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Cortana returns in some respect, saying "The Reclamation has begun" in a cutscene that could be a hallucination or dream.
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Single player maps are bigger than usual, with alternate routes to take and multiple ways to complete objectives.
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Difficulty scales depending on the number of human players. The amount of enemies, and their skill levels are raised or lowered.
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In co-op, players are encouraged to work in pairs going down different routes.
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Graphics-wise, it is "a huge step forward."
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The campaign takes you onto Research and Development vessel, the Argent Moon.
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The soundtrack has been re-recorded at Abbey Road, with a piano motif added to the familiar main theme.
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There are 40,000 lines of dialogue in the game.
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Sound effects have been re-recorded in multiple locations.
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Locke has his own militaristic theme tune.
[The Guardian // GamesRadar]
