Firefight has long been one of my favorite parts of the Halo games. It arguably reached is zenith in Reach and I still go back and jam on it now and again. I tried Halo 5's version of this last night when I got home and I have to say... it's not fun. Granted, I didn't really enjoy Warzone much to begin with, but I thought they could at least nail the way it felt to get a few friends together in an enclosed space and hold off hoards of enemies. Not so much in this one.

You get a team of 8 and do essentially what you do in Warzone mode proper, just without an opposing team and with five increasingly difficult challenges to meet and a very short time to get it done in. My team of rando's got through the second one and failed on the third. The respawn time is still long, you spawn far away from the action so a lot of sprinting is involved (since it's the same maps from Warzone, spawning far away is a big deal), you still have to deal with the stupid REQ system... Just a real let down for me. I kind of hoped this would get me back into Halo 5 and it just doesn't seem like it's going to.

Anyone else tried it? Have a different experience from me?

Hmm... I love Firefight and I love Warzone.

Is your primary issue the REQ involved or the timer? I read something about challenges rather than survival, which seems more like Mass Effect 3's mp. I guess to balance out constantly dropping tanks?

Firefight was at its best when you were just trying to survive. Haven't played this beta since there's a lot going on, but is it just one gametype?

That's too bad they didn't really do a Firefight mode proper.

@csl316: As far as I can tell, it's one game type and one map (granted, it is a beta, but one map?). Each game has 5 challenges, you have 5 minutes to complete each one, if you fail any, you're done. There's no survival mode, you have infinite spawns. The respawner takes 10 seconds and you cannot chose where you spawn, it's automatic. This frequently means a couple of hundred meter sprint back to the action where you might be killed almost instantly again and repeat. The teams I've won with seem to be ones that spawn in tanks as soon as they can, which makes the game little fun for people like me who don't play enough to have those kinds of REQs unlocked or prefer to get headshots. Also, it's an 8 Spartan team, so you really don't feel like you're contributing, you're just one part of largeish squad. Also, the end boss can be everyone's favorite Halo enemy, the Warden Eternal...

I think I'll just boot up my XBone compatible copy of Reach instead. Give it a try though. If you enjoy Warzone, you might get a kick out of it.

It's a beta, I wouldn't look too much into it.

I really like it, it's something different and new feeling.

However; I was never the biggest Firefight fan, I enjoyed it but when comparing it to something like Gears 3 Horde Mode (which I absolutely loved) it just didn't hold me like that did.

In every match I played, the first half or so was fantastic. As soon as you get the ability to spawn in heavy vehicles, though, this mode gets absolutely torn to shreds.

The crazy on-foot req weapons seem decently balanced because no matter how dope your weird legendary sniper rifle is, it's still limited by how much ammo it comes with. Eight dudes with infinite ammo Scorpions, however, are damn near unstoppable against AI that can't seem to properly target vehicles. It gets kinda rote and lame after the second time you stomp the ending boss wave with a million shots from 5+ tanks planted behind cover.

I don't envy anyone who has to figure out how to balance spawnable vehicles in Firefight but man, if they can get that right I could get really into this mode.

I didn't like it at all, its so brief and nothing like Firefight in Reach.

I probably won't play it much, didn't feel strategic or tense at all, you just spawn and go. Die and go again.