Halo 5 Battle Of Shadow And Light Update Adds New Gear And Modes For Free

The Halo 5: Guardians update called Battle of Shadow and Light adds a ton of new features for the multiplayer, including 48 new REQ packs, brand new Shinobi-themed Spartan armor and the Big Team Battle playlist.

The news was made over on a Shinobi-splashed Haly Waypoint, where a giant poster of the new armor leads the story front and center.

The news covers the new legendary REQ packs, the new Shiniobi armor and the Big Team Battle maps. The Big Team Battle mode features 8-vs-8 custom made maps using the new and improved Forge mode in Halo 5. The new maps were made in combination with 343 and the Forge community, with the maps being based around designs from multiplayer maps in Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo 4.

343 and the Forge community worked together to put the map pack together, offering gamers a distinct series of vehicular-oriented maps for the upcoming Big Team Battle playlist.

In addition to the playlist for the new maps, there's also a new series of skins for the weapons and vehicles. 343 Industries have added a new woodland camouflage skin pack for the Moongoose, Warthog, Scorpion and Mantis. They also have a tundra skin for the vehicles as well. There's a goofy little 15 second clip of the new camouflage for the Mantis that you can see below.

They also added a few new designs for the helmets and chest pieces, as well as new emblems for players to mess around with.

They added a new assassination technique as well called “Shove It”. The move sees the Spartan counter a knife strike by kneeing the opponent right in the face.

The highlight of these big new features is that all of this content is free. 343 Industries has really wanted to commit themselves to adding new content, maps and features to Halo 5: Guardians without fracturing the community.

In previous games there used to be DLC map packs that not everyone owned, so some people couldn't play with their friends if they didn't have the DLC. 343 Industries is working around this by releasing the map packs for free.

It's interesting because Halo 5 released with a strong focus on the cooperative campaign mode, which actually turned out to be the most popular and most played feature of the title when it first released.

The game garnered some mixed criticisms about the campaign, but so far the multiplayer has been a solid launch for 343 with minimal complaints. The addition of new maps and new REQ packs coming fast and frequent should help with the game's longevity and replayability.

I don't think Halo 5 will come away with any Game of the Year Awards facing stiff competition from the likes of Black Ops 3 and Fallout 4, but at least it looks like 343 Industries is committed to hanging on to the franchise and doing all that they can to keep the community entertained.