Halo 5's new Warzone mode is a bit of a departure for the series. Its use of neutral enemies, capture points, home bases filled with AI defenders, and the inclusion of optional microtransactions might seem more akin to something like League of Legends or Dota than players are used to. Multiplayer director Kevin Franklin recently told gameson.net that the Halo 5 team isn't afraid of those comparisons.
"When we started with Warzone, we just wanted to put everything in the Halo sandbox into one single game mode," Franklin said. "What we started off really early with was the AI bosses, they took a little while to come together, but you could definitely make parallels with MOBAs there which we’re not shying away from."
Franklin also explained that the team experimented with sending the AI Marines forward in waves like minions in a MOBA, but this was eventually scrapped. "We couldn’t just recreate Summoner’s Rift into Halo. We had to make sure it supported all of our weapons, vehicles, AI, in a way that was distinctly Halo. So while I’m not afraid of any possible similarities, I think that we really had to set ourselves apart and build something that was right for our game."
Franklin went on to say that while there's "nothing really stopping" the team from spinning off Warzone into its own standalone product and he personally would not object to such a course of action, he admits that fans have an expectation of an all-in-one package. "There’s something about launch day that only comes every three years for Halo," Franklin said. "That's kind of magical for me."
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