LIKE A BOSS

Since E3, Warzone has enjoyed quite a bit of buzz around the Halo community, and while the brand new mode is making an understandably big splash with the multiplayer-centric realms of fandom, the exciting addition to AI-controlled enemies and allies to the fray have piqued the interest of many a story-lover. This week we thought it would be nice to give you another peek into some of the fiction behind some new additions in Halo 5: Guardians, this time focusing on how the Warzone “Bosses” fit into the picture. Here’s some context…

War Games simulation technology has become increasingly sophisticated, with the UNSC leveraging it at all stages of training. Spartans are almost constantly engaged in War Games, familiarizing themselves with new weapons, enemies, and environments to solve the progressively complex and hazardous tactical problems they will face in the field. In effort to more accurately synthesize live fire battlefield conditions, and with new threats constantly emerging, the programmers and training personnel aboard the Infinity have enhanced their simulation scenarios to create Warzone, a combined-arms training program that pits Spartans against a wide range of Covenant and Forerunner enemies, as well as each other.

With Infinity at the tip of the spear, their Warzone designers have access to many of ONI’s internal War Games map datasets and technical intelligence reports, allowing them to pull together data on hundreds of different combat encounters, think-tank exercises, and secret observations to create unique high-threat enemy simulations. These “Boss” constructs can be representative of a singular exceptional opponent, or an amalgamation of multiple combatants created to test particular combat strategies and threat-response loops by UNSC troops. For training purposes, these Bosses are identified by specific colorations within Warzone to indicate their threat level.

An example of one of these bosses is Baron ‘Sraom, based off the exploits and experience of an ace Banshee pilot from the renowned house of ‘Sraom. Trust me when I say, whether of Covenant or Forerunner origin, these boss units will begin to develop their own personalities among Spartans as they are encountered throughout various Warzone scenarios. You’ve only seen the tip of that iceberg. And yes, you’ll notice an slightly adjusted spelling of the aforementioned Baron’s name. We hope you’ll pardon the E3 vowel movement.