This is why I'm so excited.

What they call “Arena” - a kind of throwback in a way, focusing on 4v4 combat - is probably the best competitive shooting experience in history. That’s not an exaggeration. I talked before about Destiny, I play it a ton, and they incentivize campaign play with its profound mysteries, its legibility, its tangibility, and its brutal psychometric flensing of the brain’s reward structures. Everything is close and real. But the Crucible - Destiny’s multiplayer component - is not good. You may disagree. Like bad things if you want to; it’s mush. Trials of Osiris is getting to something. But Halo 5 Arena is getting to something fundamental. The addition of carefully metered advanced movement techniques like hover, omnidirectional boost, and thrust assisted melee make the moment to moment toolkit incredibly deep. There was a prerelease playlist for Arena that was just amazing mode after amazing map after amazing mode; I hope they leave it in for launch. Breakout, a single elimination mode with a central flag played in game-grid lookin’ purpose-built zones, is a revelation. Everything has weight and reinforces everything else in a predictable, masterfully curated physical simulation. You can trust it. That’s not an accident - it’s mastery.

In the same way that Pac-Man Championship Edition DX or Crossy Road distill the very pure, very fine liquor of engagement with a system, Arena does the same for games with guns. It is That Which Casts The Shadow, and it doesn’t need any of its competitors’ Criss Angel street magic bullshit to trick you into playing it. You’ll play it for the sheer joy of testing yourself against it. When you win, you’ll know why. And when you lose, you will scrape your edge against it, and become sharper.