‘Halo 5’ December DLC Teased: Forge Mode Returns, Classic Weapons, New Skins

Halo 5: Guardians developer 343 Industries keeps on bringing quality DLC to the game. According to Microsoft’s Xbox Wire, Halo 5 was both the best-selling Halo game and the largest Xbox One-exclusive game to date, earning more than $400 million USD in its first week.

343 Industries seem determined to keep supporting Halo 5; as the Inquisitr recently reported, a new, free update for the game dropped last week. Called Battle of Shadow and Light, the free DLC included Big Team Battle mode, which includes the Capture The Flag, Slayer, and Stronghold game types. It also included numerous fixes and tweaks, and reintroduced four fan-favorite maps from previous games in the series – The Basin, Deadlock, Guillotine, and Recurve, recreated in a collaboration between 343’s multiplayer team and top map creators from the Forge map-making community.

Now, according to a report from Design & Trend, Forge Mode – Halo’s built-in map-maker, first introduced in Halo 3, will be making its return. Forge Mode essentially allows players to make their own new maps or tweak existing ones, either alone or in a team with other players. It also allows for numerous rules changes and tools that aren’t available in normal Halo multiplayer; Forge Mode still functions as a normal multiplayer environment, allowing players to test their new maps and make tweaks on the fly, or just to play around with the game’s rules.

Design & Trend indicated that the first “canvas” to be teased was the Space tileset. According to rumors on the Halo Waypoint forums, the Space canvas was used to create Halo 5‘s Breakout map, and that all maps in the game will have their own canvas, which will be usable in Forge. In addition, it is also suggested that every item in the game will be placeable on any map, allowing for some considerably-unique creations in Halo 5.

As per Gamespot, Halo 5‘s iteration of Forge mode will be “a giant leap forward” from past Forge modes; already a very powerful map-development tool for something built into a console property. After its release, Forge will continue to be supported as an ongoing service, rather than just a tool; and Microsoft has no plans to charge for it.

“The creativity of the Forge community knows no bounds and our goal was to give them more power and control than ever before. We wanted to remove as many constraints as possible so they can create high quality maps that rival the ones that we are shipping with the game.”

“Halo 5’s Forge is the biggest evolution of the feature since the original was released with Halo 3. Rather than just tack a handful of new features on top of what’s already there, it was important to examine every nook and cranny to make sure even the foundations for building with Forge were up to snuff.”

Also according to Design & Trend, the M41 SSR rocket launcher appears to be making its return to Halo, as well as a Mark IV Helmet skin; often mistaken for Master Chief’s original helmet, the Mark IV apparently shows up in fiction outside of the games themselves. That said, it’s hard to tell the difference.

Finally, the teaser showed new, highlighted black-and-gold skins for existing weapons.

It looks like the December update will be bringing Halo 5 a lot of retro love, and that the new Forge tools are going to allow custom map-making on an unprecedented level. That, more than anything else, will likely extend Halo 5‘s life cycle significantly.

[Image courtesy 343 Studios/Microsoft, via YouTube]