Grifball and more coming to Halo 5 in Hammer Storm update

Keeping up with their promise of free monthly updates to Halo 5: Guardians, 343 Industries has just announced the return of several classic gamemodes and features to the game. This February, you can expect to be able to grab all sorts of giant, explosive balls in Grifball, Assault, and Fiesta with the Hammer Storm update.

Of course, you may ask, “But how are we going to smash Grif if there aren’t any Gravity Hammers in the game?” Simple: along with the customary bevy of new armor sets, emblems, weapon skins, and Warzone weapons, 343 Industries is adding the classic Gravity Hammer as well.

Speaking of classics, Halo 5 will receive a massive Quality of Life overhaul in the Hammer Storm update in the form of UI improvements and emblem and armor colorization. While the term “UI improvements” is rather ambiguous, it could technically mean that things like the pre- and post-game screens could return to their classic look and functionality. However, this is mere conjecture, so take that with a grain of salt.

Fortunately, it has been explicitly stated that the emblem and armor colorization mechanic will be changed to more resemble the mechanic that existed in the Bungie-era Halo days. In other words, the amount of colors that you can choose from for customization will be doubled to 60 colors, and you will no longer have to choose from a restricted combination of preset colors. Instead, you can mix and match any combination of colors you want to create whatever Spartan you desire.

And no update would be complete without new maps, so to that end, a brand new map dubbed Torque will be added to the game. As one can expect from the name, the map will be based on a human space station (maybe even the top of a space elevator?) that features a couple of rings.

Presumably, this might result in a circular arena map (which might be slightly odd) or more likely, something that resembles a remake of the Halo 3 map, Orbital.