Halo 5 Adds Forge Maps to Big Team Battle and Grifball

Published: March 26, 2016 11:21 AM /

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Halo 5 Sandtrap

On the eve of the upcoming Ghosts of Meridian update in early April, 343 have refreshed the Big Team Battle and Grifball playlists of Halo 5: Guardians with a number of new maps created by the community with the game's impressive Forge tool. ForgeHub assisted in the process of picking some of these maps out, and created a great introductory trailer to the new battlegrounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ypqR8kOAFU

On the Big Team Battle side of things, the two maps that veterans will immediately celebrate over are Altar and Viking. These are remakes of Halo 3's signature Big Team playgrounds, previously known as Sandtrap and Valhalla respectively. There are four other maps to check out as well, including two new urban levels to complement the Headlong remake that is already in the playlist.

Halo 5 grifball Arbiter

Grifball gets nine new courts to add to its repertoire, including a few remakes of old Halo: Reach favorites. The standout for me is Blue vs Red 2003, a map that takes place above Blood Gulch and features three giant floating Spartan heads silently judging the violent sport below. There is also The Arbiter's Court, which is pretty standard gameplay wise, but decorated with an 8-bit rendition of Keith David's favorite space hero.

Halo 5 Mythic Gravity Hammer

Elsewhere in the update, 343 gave a few scant hints about the contents of Ghosts of Meridian, including teasing a few of the more rare REQ unlocks you have a chance of earning come April. There will be a suite of upgraded Gravity Hammers to try out, as well a Mythic alternate Mark V armor to obtain and a reminder of the existence of new map Skirmish at Darkstar for Warzone. More details will be revealed soon, as the release of the update is approaching rapidly.


Quick Take

I thought I would get a break from Halo 5 over the next couple of weeks since Ghosts of Meridian had been delayed into April, but 343 pulls me in again by almost doubling the amount of maps in one of the best playlists in the game. Guardians has made me happy to be a Halo fan multiple times over, and 343 are doing the "Live Game" thing perfectly. There are still plenty of updates to go (although I don't know if anything can top the addition of the Halo 1 Pistol) , and I hope that 343 can continue mopping up issues and forging Halo 5 into the best Halo multiplayer experience that it can be. 

Are you still playing Halo 5: Guardians? Do you think that Microsoft will cave and eventually port the game over to the Windows Store? Are you a fan of Needlers? Answer these questions and more in the comments below!

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Alex Santa Maria TechRaptor
| Staff Writer

Alex Santa Maria is TechRaptor's former Reviews Editor (2015-2020) and current occasional critic. Joining the site early in its life, Alex grew the review… More about Alex