Halo Flashpoint: the best Halo game at launch in years
A reader explains why they think board game adaptation Halo Flashpoint is the better than any of the recent video game entries.
Halo’s had a rough time of it for at least a decade now, with unstable and sparse launches and one campaign taking the focus off of John Halo himself. But recently a new Halo game dropped that has a lot of different modes to try out and there are plans to implement more as the year progresses.
It you’ve seen the title, you know I’m referring to Halo Flashpoint, the new board game from Mantic Games. Flashpoint is based on the multiplayer skirmishes of Halo, rather than anything to do with the campaign, so don’t expect any kind of story with this; it’s just classic Red vs. Blue action. Or Elites if you opt for the bigger starter boxset.
The boxsets come with a set of red and blue Spartan models, with various different weapons from the classic BR55 battle rifle to the Cindershot. These models look nice as is, but they can be painted to add some extra flair to the game. The boxsets also have a lot of terrain which you can set up in whatever way you want, which really helps keep things varied from game to game – since you’re not limited to the same few maps, like Halo Infinite at launch.
For just being cardboard the terrain looks really good and feels stable; the bulky resin models can stand on crates without fear that everything will collapse. The game is played on a board made up of an 8×8 grid and you move around the grid at various different speeds, depending on how nippy your model is, picking up weapons and items as you go along. Then you can shoot your opponent, so long as you can see them and your weapon has enough range – a shotgun won’t make it halfway across the board but rifles will.
This is where things get really fun and tactical, as initially when taking a shot you and your opponent have three dice each, but if nothing blocks your line of sight you get two extra dice and if you have the high ground you get one extra dice, so position really becomes key to taking out the enemy.
And then, of course, you can take the fight straight to the enemy and start hitting them, not just with the trusty combat knife but also the energy sword or gravity hammer if you’ve managed to pick one of those up – which, just like in the game, can do a lot of damage in no time at all.
When you start playing you’ll probably want to stick to Slayer initially, just so you get a feeling for how everything works. Officially games are meant to be played up to four, eight or 12 kills, but I’ve been playing to six kills, as I find this is the perfect middle ground of feeling neither too long nor too short. Then, once you’re into it, there’s Stockpile, Strongholds, Griffball, and Capture the Flag to mess around with, each making you concentrate on the objective while still slaughtering your opponent.
Also, while this is in no way official, if you assign weapons at random, rather than stick with the default, you can make any game a Fiesta, which just adds to the chaos of it all. If the above sounds like I’m explaining typical games of Halo multiplayer that’s because in many ways I am. The guys at Mantic have done a great job at bringing the action off of the console and onto the table, so if any of the above appeals to you then I can’t recommend the game enough.
By reader Sunny
Halo Flashpoint: the best Halo game at launch in years