We all know some sort of Firefight/Spartan Ops will be in Halo 5. Using the power of Xbox One, we could bring this up to a whole new level like how Halo 5’s arena is such a step up from Halo 4’s. I’ve listed down several ideas I want to see in Halo 5: Guardians for large-scale firefights. This new Firefight would place your Spartan and fireteam into huge battles and missions, where you try to survive, kill the opponents, or complete the mission.
Modes:
Operation-
Operation is is like the new Spartan Ops. Instead of cutscenes and a major storyline, Operation would be broken down into a smaller campaign. Each mission would just drop you into a battle with a small ingame cutscene. Palmer (or someone) would just give you a task to complete. The maps here would be linear, with specific objectives or bosses to kill in certain areas. Completing these will allow you to rank up your SR faster than in an multiplayer arena battle. This would support up to 4 players.
Holdout-
Holdout would be a type of Firefight where you, your fireteam, and a bunch of AI must holdout in an area for an unlimited amount of rounds. You only have 1 life, so if you die you are out for good. When everyone dies, the game ends. The game would start out with an ingame cutscene where your Pelican crashes into the ground, leaving you stranded in the wild. As the rounds progress, many dynamic events may happen. Each round will feature enemies that will attack you in huge amounts. Every 10 or so rounds, a boss will drop down. The bosses can either be a Scarab or two, a War Sphinx, or a Flood Juggernaut. Also, every few rounds you can get allies from either the Arbiter’s Covenant or UNSC marines. These would be dynamic battles, meaning AI would be greatly increased so Prometheans would focus on Flood if they appeared instead of you, for example. This mode would support 8 people.
Elimination-
Elimination is kind of the opposite of Holdout. Instead of being defensive, you must wipe out a large amount of enemies with a huge arsenal of weapons. You have unlimited lives and a bunch of allies to help you, too. The game would start with an ingame cutscene of a large amount of Pelicans starting to attack a huge group of enemies. After you start playing, all hell breaks loose. You can either drive a Pelican, or board a Scarab and destroy it, or just go around on foot with a sniper. If your AI allies start to die, reinforcements would arrive once. This would also support 8 players.
Classic-
Classic is, as it says, classic Halo: Reach Firefight. This has a limited amount of lives while you play on smaller maps with smaller battles. The dynamic events can happen, but not on the scale of Holdout or Elimination. Basically this would be the same as Halo: Reach and ODST.
Enemies:
Storm Covenant-
The same group you fight in Halo 4, they would be the majority of enemies in the Firefight modes. You have the Elites, Jackals, Grunts, Hunters, and Drones. Instead of Halo 4’s AI, where they kind of bumble about unorganized, the new AI would have them be in groups and line up in strategic positions across the map. They would use weapons and vehicles to their advantage. It wouldn’t necessarily be harder, just more realistic. In Holdout, they would attack in waves that drop from Phantoms and Liches. Every once in a while, a pair of Hunters would be used. Also, Drones would reappear, and use their numbers to try and confuse you on the battle. The Covenant’s bosses would be a Scarab or a Lich, with Wraiths appearing more frequently.
Prometheans-
Obviously these enemies are back, due to Halo 5 having Forerunner weapons. The classic Promethean Knight, Watcher, and Crawler would be back, with a possible new type if 343i decides to elaborate. These enemies would be another group of enemies to fight in the different modes, but less common than the Covenant. They are also allied with the Covenant, and a Knight, Watcher, and some Crawlers would sometimes merge with an Elite and his platoon. They are also enemies to the Flood and would kill them before any other opponent. Knight Commanders would act more like strategic commanders overseeing the battle, and won’t usually attack you. If you go to them and kill them, the Prometheans would become a little easier to fight with less AI. The boss that you would fight is (presumably) a War Sphinx. This would be a little tricky, but if 343i could incorporate that (or whatever else was in that E3 trailer), it would be extremely fun. You would have to use strong weapons to kill the Sphinxes, like the rocket launcher, Hydra, and sniper. They would have weak spots so you can kill them easier. War Sphinxes would only drop by rarely, one at a time, and fly around the map. Sometimes they would land (I’m thinking like Skyrim’s dragons) and try to do a melee attack.
Flood-
The Flood is back, if they (hopefully) make a return to Halo 5. The Flood would be the rarest enemy, but if encountered they can do large damage on the enemy. They would start off mid-game in the middle of the Covenant forces, coming out of the ground. If you wipe them out quick, they won’t be a problem. But if you can’t reach the Infector forms in time, you may find that the Covenant army has become a Flood army. The old forms are back, with the Infection, Carrier, and Combat forms. Pure forms (Tank, ranged, etc.) may return if there is a Gravemind in Halo 5. New AI would cause massive groupings or the Flood to swarm the closest enemy. The Flood will now be able to infect all forms of Covenant, so you may face Flood Grunts, Jackals, Drones, and possibly Hunters. The Flood boss would be 3 or so Juggernauts that attack when the Flood have made a good stand. If you don’t know, Juggernauts are scrapped Halo 2 forms that we’re giant and powerful, but not finished. They could be really unique assets should they exist.
Allies:
UNSC-
This would be the bulk of your AI allies. A bunch of marines in teams, with the uncommon Spartan team to help. They would be dropped off with you, or later on in battle from Pelicans. The AI would now allow the marines to be in fireteams that move strategically around the map. If there are a lot of enemies, they would camp out near you. Once the enemy movement lowers, though, some of them may move out to different areas of the map to kill off some other enemies all by themselves! (wow, I’ve never thought marines would ever help in a Halo game!). There would also be a lot of UNSC vehicles to use in battle.
Swords of Sanghelios-
This is the Arbiter’s Covenant. Every once in a while, the Arbiter may send some of his forces down (composed of the same species as the Storm Covenant, only wearing different armor). They would work the same as the marines, really. The Phantoms and Liches that they use would be green or gold (whatever color they actually use in Halo 5).
Other Gameplay Elements:
Loadouts and Weapons-
Loadouts would be used in Firefight. This would compose of your choice of primary weapon- AR, SMG, DMR, or BR. The secondary would just be a Magnum. Ordnance with UNSC power weapons would be dropped off each round. Marines may hold stronger weapons, too.
So what do you think of this proposed Firefight mode? Would you want to play it? Would you REALLY want to play this? I got this idea from Halo 4’s 1st Spartan Ops mission where there are a lot of unorganized Covenant to kill, but in fun waves. Leave a Like if you support this, and comment any suggestions below!
