A matter of hours ago 353 Industries gave us all an enticing look at their newest offering, Halo 5: Guardians. In what looks to be a tantalising move, 343 Industries have adopted vertical gameplay dynamics from the riotously popular Titanfall and the more recent Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. It’s very fashionable right now to have fluid, almost graceful traversal of the maps in multiplayer and fingers crossed the Halo 5 multiplayer has nailed that.

Seasoned Halo multiplayer aficionados will be used to picking up the various boosters or jetpacks which modify your base speed or jump distance. The Halo 5 multiplayer looks to shake this up with every Spartan starting off with access to six supercharged forms of movement from the start of each round.

“You see Chief coming down from orbit and hitting the ground and doing all of that. And we want to bring that into the gameplay itself,” says 343 Industries, referring to new Halo 5 multiplayer abilities. “We wanted to have these Spartan abilities as a fourth layer that everyone has, so it’s equal footing. Every single person who wants them, can have them”

A sample of new Spartan abilities offered in the new Halo 5 multiplayer are:

Smart Scope: Finally, Halo 5 has iron sights!

Finally, Halo 5 has iron sights! Stabilizer: which suspends you mid-air for more focused aiming.

Thruster Pack: A shiny super-sprint command – thrusters also allow side-to-side movement like CoD:AW.

A shiny super-sprint command – thrusters also allow side-to-side movement like CoD:AW. Ground Pound: Straight out of Titanfall (this has been a gameplay dynamic since Yoshi’s Island in fairness)

Straight out of Titanfall (this has been a gameplay dynamic since Yoshi’s Island in fairness) Clamber: Sees Spartans gripping edges they would otherwise slip off.

Sees Spartans gripping edges they would otherwise slip off. Sprint: Sprint as long as you like, but shields don’t recharge whilst sprinting. Sprinting stacks into:

Sprint as long as you like, but shields don’t recharge whilst sprinting. Sprinting stacks into: Slide: Crouch from sprinting to execute a slide. Nice speedy CoD feature that will sit well.

Crouch from sprinting to execute a slide. Nice speedy CoD feature that will sit well. Charge: Melee from sprinting, like the energy sword attack from Halo 2, but this attack pops shields.

343 Industries are ensuring that Halo 5 multiplayer provides solid foundations for the eSports community. When the game launches, there are seven gameplay tiers based on skill rating. The top tier is even called Pro, furthering 343’s hope for Halo 5 mutiplayer being a regular fixture on eSports coverage going forward.

A long-standing bone of contention of mine has been Halo’s tired gameplay. Despite being as fun as it ever was (we even rated it as one of the best co-op experiences on a console), is really starting to creak. With the inclusion of some 21st-century games design, vertical traversal and the adoption of CoD-esque speed and grace (along with the ability to finally use iron sights), the Halo 5 multiplayer experience could see Halo taking back the crown for online multiplayer and perhaps even regaining it’s King of Shooters mantle.

The beta Halo 5 multiplayer experience will be open from December 29th to January 18th for those who purchase the Halo: The Master Chief Collection. If you want to get to hands with those Halo 5 iron sights in the Halo 5 multiplayer then picking up Master Chief collection is a must.