The first 30 minutes of Halo 5: Guardians has been leaked, showcasing the game's opening cinematic sequence and the gameplay of the first level. There aren't many spoilers to be had but it does setup the story and give gamers a fresh look at the gameplay.
All Games Beta posted up the video, and you can check out the uninterrupted half-hour of gameplay from Halo 5: Guardians for the Xbox One, below.
The main campaign starts with the opening cinematic that we usually see and it immediately transitions into the actual gameplay where players will assume the role of Spartan Locke. Their objective is to get to Dr. Halsey, the one who originally created Cortana and helped with the Spartan program that made John 117, the Master Chief.
Majority of Locke's gameplay is all standard fare. The first mission features a classic Halo situation where players will be embroiled in a fight between the Covenant and the Prometheans. This opens up the opportunity to either let the enemies duke it out amongst themselves or for players to intervene and mix it up with the baddies.
There's nothing particularly new about the gameplay in the first half hour. Of course, instead of having Cortana to open doors and access terminals. Locke whips out Artemis, a modified ONI tool to open the doors.
The first mission is only 20 minutes long. After completing Locke's mission the game switches over to Master Chief and Blue Team.
The opening sequence for Blue Team is pretty funny in the sense that they don't go in fancy, blasting things apart or beating people up. Instead Chief and the rest of Blue Team break open the airlock and let gravity do the rest.
It's been a common note of discussion amongst hardcore Halo fans that the difference in depicting the tactics between Team Osiris and Blue Team are readily apparent, with the latter exercising a lot more tact and tactics when battling enemy forces.
New to the series is team commands, but we don't really see the team commands in play all that much in the video above. Majority of the action that we see can be handled with the player just blasting through enemy forces. I imagine on the harder difficulty settings more teamwork may be required, but as the video above showcases, it's pretty easy to just train right through the opposition with a shotgun and a boot to the face.
Halo 5 isn't due out until later this month, so this is a early taste for a lot of fans, as they get to find out what the gameplay is like above and beyond the snippets that were teased at tradeshows like GamesCom or E3.
One thing worth noting is that the soundtrack for Halo 5 sounds righteous. The opening theme for Team Osiris and the first mission track captures a lot of the feeling that made the original two Halo games stand out so much. The swelling crescendo in the second mission with Master Chief is also handled perfectly. It begins to mesh with the intensity and action on-screen, which makes it that much more immersive (gameplay quality aside). Kazuma Jinnouchi did an excellent job with the soundtrack, for as far as I can tell.
Halo 5 is due for release on October 27th for the Xbox One.
