Halo: Flashpoint – The Great Journey
16th Oct 2024
Dan Mapleston
Hi everyone,
A different style of update today: let's take a little time...and chat!
Years In The Making
We’ve just announced what’s coming post-launch for Halo: Flashpoint, and it feels like this game has been on the way forever. And in a way, it has.
Our earliest conversations about bringing Halo to tabletop began an amazing seven years ago. The amount of thought, collaboration, and tweaking over the years has been pretty mind-boggling and we believe the results speak for themselves.
This isn’t something that happens by accident. So many of our team have loved playing Halo during the game’s long and excellent history, and they had favourite maps, weapons and moments they could recall at the drop of a hat. (Seventeen years later, we're still smiling at the memory of picking off friends at an unbelievable distance across 'Sandtrap' with the Spartan Laser...)
And that's the point - this is a universe and experience that makes a serious impression that players remember vividly, so that became the design benchmark…no pressure then!
We always knew the game would be fun, accessible and play really well. And Flashpoint delivers, with Halo-specific game mechanics built gracefully on top of Deadzone's excellent 'rules engine' that’s had an enviable 12 years of testing and refinement.
The minis and terrain are detailed, fun and quick to get on the table - though that's just the start.
What we had to really nail is how playing the game makes you feel. So it’s the ultimate compliment that after many months of running preview demos at shows around the world, players just keep on turning to us with an uncontrollable grin and say those magic words – ‘It feels just like Halo!’.
Boom - mission accomplished. Right?
Nope - you could say...we're just getting started!
A Bright Vision
The Halo Universe is vast and rich, and we’ve not even set your Spartans free from their training academy...yet. Heck, the game only comes out next month!
It's a few short weeks away, but already the word is getting around online and Flashpoint is quickly taking on a life of its own. It's a very, very exciting time.
Our dream here is for a massive global tabletop Halo community, offering everything from casual fun (for us mere mortals) at stores and clubs around the world, all the way up to super-competitive events played between players of quite unbelievable levels of skill - pulling off fast-paced tactics and synergies that make us all whoop and our jaws drop!
At the beginning of next year we’ll be getting the very beginnings of organised play started, upgrading your arenas, and putting powerful new weapons and customization options into the hands of players…but even then that’s only the very start.
The Journey Begins
You know that lance of drop-dead gorgeous Banished Elite miniatures in the Spartan Edition? They’re the tiniest of sneak peeks of where Flashpoint can go, the point of the spear, the tip of the iceberg.
Halo: Flashpoint isn't just a game, it's going to be an amazing community journey for us all together into the Halo Universe whether you're a full-on tabletop gamer already, someone brand-new to the hobby (a huge welcome!), or a figure painter, or a collector of all things Halo, or....you get the idea.
Long story short, we want you to join us - because it's going to be a lot of fun!
Still waiting to take the plunge? Hopefully by now you can feel how much passion is going into this game, just how much people love it, and how game-changingly-simple it is to open the box and get playing your first matches.
So know that you're welcome here, and we'll respect your time and decision by delivering a truly great gameplay experience that stands the test of time...
...just like Halo.
Team Mantic