Halo 5: Guardians Xbox One X Enhanced Preview

Halo 5: Guardians is the latest of Xbox's flagship series though with it releasing a couple years back now there were limited changes with this improvement. The Halo 5: Guardians Xbox One X enhancement brings 4k (3840x2160) textures to the game while keeping the 60fps performance across the board.

No HDR support is currently available as there were some issues integrating that into the experience. With this update the game also received some new fixes as part of its long running post-launch support and the classic mode Oddball. For those that don't know about Oddball, it's a game about carrying a skull and one of my favorites.

The key changes here for what I saw seemed to be with the details of the world, the increase of render distance for some multiplayer aspects and weapons which are now sharper. It's really great to take a look at the AR or BR and see that screen have a fresh shimmer to it.

When playing through the campaign it definitely looked more vibrant, yet I wasn't entirely blown away by the changes there. Most aspects looked solid whether that was with Osiris or jumping down the spine of the Guardian. It however make some of the slightly less appealing textures seem more out of place. The biggest improvements definitely seem to be for the multiplayer and Forge aspects.

Halo 5: Guardians Xbox One X Enhanced Screenshot
It all runs very well with items rendering better in the far distance and this is in everything from staple Forge levels to the Warzone multiplayer. At times you'd often see the phasing of certain distant object and that seems greatly improved here.

There's also a better look to the Forge blocks for Big Team Battle making them look less plastic-like having a better styled texture to them. The shadows did seem somewhat weird on certain buildings and I'm not sure why it exactly looks like it does. It's not jagged or anything, but perhaps it is just the block shapes that make it look off.

The textures were really stellar for some of the multiplayer levels as Midship is clean with a sparkling galaxy ceiling and intense ringed back drop. Then you have Molten with the flowing glow of lava coming across as just enchanting. I was particularly impressed with the sharpness of weapons and character models.

They look very clean and colorful making that intense futuristic design that Halo 5: Guardians carries shine through there. It's quite sleek and should help make this slightly older game have better longevity to it. This may not be revolutionary for the game though it will look better for a long time. The 4k resolution jump was certainly appreciated and with the 60fps this is one of the best looking, best performing Xbox One X titles.

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Gamerheadquarters Reviewer Jason Stettner