Halo 5 Beta Week 2 Multiplayer Update

The Halo 5 beta week 2 is starting soon, with the first week closing up on January 5, 2015. The Halo 5 beta runs through January 18, 2015 for those who have a copy of Halo The Master Chief Collection. 343 Industries, the developers behind the Halo series, are going to be adding things to the beta for each week, encouraging players to continue checking it out throughout its run. Weapons that will be staying in the Halo 5 beta are the battle rifle, magnum, DMR, energy sword, sniper rifle and SMG. New weapons entering the battle are the Light rifle and UNSC Hydra. The Light rifle is a semi-automatic Forerunner weapon first available in Halo 4. It will fire in a three shot burst when fired from the hip however. The UNSC Hydra is a counterpart to the Covenant Plasma Launcher although is smaller in size. The weapon can fire 6 lock on missiles and can kill an opponent in two shots.

Some new maps are also being introduced, starting off with Regret, a close quarters jungle with no hiding spots. Instead it’ll have tight corners and a power weapon at bottom mid. Eden is another new map with big focus on verticality, with two locations located high above the fights and a sniper rifle and energy sword spawn below. Crossfire is inspired by competitive paintball fields, and will feature trenches and a push for cover-based combat. Crossfire is also being pushed as a way to show off the Breakout mode, which has players facing off in five rounds, with one life per round and weakened shields. Trench is the final new map and is best played with team tactics. Flanking paths are only available if you eliminate a hostile which will require focused fire according to 343’s blog post.

The Halo 5 beta is now on day five, with many players streaming the game on their Twitch accounts, allowing them to share the new gameplay mechanics with those who do not own an Xbox One and Halo The Master Chief Collection. Halo 5 Guardians is still a long ways out as the title releases fall of this year, and we are sure to see more of its single player at E3 of this year.