Halo 5: Guardians Review
By Lee Marcussen
Halo Multiplayer Shines in the Current Generation
I have been a fan of the Halo series since I first picked up the original Xbox controller and started Halo 2. With that being said I’ve played all of the Halo games in the series, but I don’t remember every piece of the story so bare with me. For this review, I decided to split it into two portions Campaign and Multiplayer.
*Note: This review contains mild spoilers and story details. Read at your discretion.
*Note: This review contains mild spoilers and story details. Read at your discretion.
Campaign
Blue team, lead by Master Chief, is trying to reach Cortana. She is trying to use the Guardians and Prometheans powers to take over all Artificial Intelligence, while taking over all UNSC ships. Cortana is trying to manipulate Chief into joining her. While this is going on Team Osiris is trying to reach Chief and stop him from helping Cortana. This ends up being a big game of cat and mouse. Cortana uses the Prometheans along with the guardians to protect her from Team Osiris. Warden Eternal (Who is this big Forerunner dude) acts as Cortana’s bodyguard (You fight him like 10 times…). Team Osiris teams up with the Arbiter to defend his home from Prometheans and Covenant. Once Chief reaches Cortana he confronts her about her plan and she then freezes him because she thought she could trust him. At this point, Team Osiris is right on Blue Teams tail and encounters Cortana’s forces with her shields. They are helped by this Forge Style bot named “Exuberant” who helps Team Osiris take out Cortana’s forces. From there Locke reaches the core where Cortana is at and destroys it and Exuberant regains control. The Blue Team is reunited with Team Osiris and meets up with the Arbiter and Doctor Halsey. Then Cortana begins shutting down UNSC ships and the Main UNSC ship fleas through different slip space.
Overall I enjoyed playing the Campaign it was very well constructed. I enjoyed the whole idea of the chase that Osiris was after Blue team. It has a good mystery of what you’re exactly after Chief and Cortana for. There were really nice cut scenes between missions and some in-game ones. The gameplay itself is very action packed. The spartans are equipped with new combat features that change the traditional scheme. The ground pound is a cool feature and if timed right can really clear a crowd. The sprint feature is great add on making gameplay more fast paced. The jumping stabilize is hard to get used too but when in the air your spartan hovers while aiming down the sites to steady your shots. There is constant fighting and searching for intel. One of the coolest features I think is the computer system that displays enemies, ammo, and mission objectives. It was very helpful throughout the game. The new vehicles in the game were exciting and evenly balanced. Another change is instead of just dying and restarting at your last checkpoint you can become downed and then one of your team members can pick you up in a certain amount of time.
Blue team, lead by Master Chief, is trying to reach Cortana. She is trying to use the Guardians and Prometheans powers to take over all Artificial Intelligence, while taking over all UNSC ships. Cortana is trying to manipulate Chief into joining her. While this is going on Team Osiris is trying to reach Chief and stop him from helping Cortana. This ends up being a big game of cat and mouse. Cortana uses the Prometheans along with the guardians to protect her from Team Osiris. Warden Eternal (Who is this big Forerunner dude) acts as Cortana’s bodyguard (You fight him like 10 times…). Team Osiris teams up with the Arbiter to defend his home from Prometheans and Covenant. Once Chief reaches Cortana he confronts her about her plan and she then freezes him because she thought she could trust him. At this point, Team Osiris is right on Blue Teams tail and encounters Cortana’s forces with her shields. They are helped by this Forge Style bot named “Exuberant” who helps Team Osiris take out Cortana’s forces. From there Locke reaches the core where Cortana is at and destroys it and Exuberant regains control. The Blue Team is reunited with Team Osiris and meets up with the Arbiter and Doctor Halsey. Then Cortana begins shutting down UNSC ships and the Main UNSC ship fleas through different slip space.
Overall I enjoyed playing the Campaign it was very well constructed. I enjoyed the whole idea of the chase that Osiris was after Blue team. It has a good mystery of what you’re exactly after Chief and Cortana for. There were really nice cut scenes between missions and some in-game ones. The gameplay itself is very action packed. The spartans are equipped with new combat features that change the traditional scheme. The ground pound is a cool feature and if timed right can really clear a crowd. The sprint feature is great add on making gameplay more fast paced. The jumping stabilize is hard to get used too but when in the air your spartan hovers while aiming down the sites to steady your shots. There is constant fighting and searching for intel. One of the coolest features I think is the computer system that displays enemies, ammo, and mission objectives. It was very helpful throughout the game. The new vehicles in the game were exciting and evenly balanced. Another change is instead of just dying and restarting at your last checkpoint you can become downed and then one of your team members can pick you up in a certain amount of time.
The campaign all though very action packed but you fought the same dudes over and over again, especially the Warden. The cutscenes are very well detailed, but I think some interactive ones would have made the player more engaged rather than me checking my phone or shoving another chip in my mouth. The team members across both groups are really fucking dumb. For example while letting one of them drive as I shoot, they just run into walls, but thankfully you can order them to go to points which can assist their horrible driving. The team members all have different weapons, but none of them really specialize with them. The sniper is running at enemies and not keeping a distance. The campaign to me felt repetitive basically following what Blue Team did and repeating it from Osiris' perspective. It didn’t really bring me in as well as I hoped it would. I honestly will say I didn’t enjoy the campaign as much as I wanted to. Other Halo campaigns have been better. I know there are a lot of gamers who only play Halo for the campaign, I feel they will be disappointed.
Multiplayer
There are two modes for multiplayer in Halo 5. To start there is the Arena which mixes in all types of multiplayer like Slayer, Free for All, Swat, and a new style called Breakout. Breakout is very fun and high action, you have no shields, weapons are stronger, and melees are one hit. Reminds me a lot of a hardcore search and destroy match of Call of Duty. I really enjoy Breakout and Swat the most. The ranking system changed up where you need to play 10 games to be qualified to rank up and from there it’s based on kill/ death ratio and wins / losses. The other side to the multiplayer is a new match type called Warzone. In Warzone its 12 vs 12 big team battle style with points to capture for points, headquarter cores to destroy and AI enemies to kill for points. This mode is a lot of fun and includes tons of action. Along with the Warzone mode comes the introduction of the Halo requisition (REQ) packs. You receive points for these in both Arena and Warzone along with earning packs from leveling up. These packs are redeemable for Power weapons, in-game vehicles and Spartan cosmetic items such as Armor, weapon skins, emblems, etc. The Power weapons and vehicles are playable in Warzone maps from accessing REQ stations that allow you to spawn with the weapons or vehicles using your REQ points. The REQ point system awards points based on player performance. Earning lots of points allows you to use higher powered weapons and vehicles.
There are two modes for multiplayer in Halo 5. To start there is the Arena which mixes in all types of multiplayer like Slayer, Free for All, Swat, and a new style called Breakout. Breakout is very fun and high action, you have no shields, weapons are stronger, and melees are one hit. Reminds me a lot of a hardcore search and destroy match of Call of Duty. I really enjoy Breakout and Swat the most. The ranking system changed up where you need to play 10 games to be qualified to rank up and from there it’s based on kill/ death ratio and wins / losses. The other side to the multiplayer is a new match type called Warzone. In Warzone its 12 vs 12 big team battle style with points to capture for points, headquarter cores to destroy and AI enemies to kill for points. This mode is a lot of fun and includes tons of action. Along with the Warzone mode comes the introduction of the Halo requisition (REQ) packs. You receive points for these in both Arena and Warzone along with earning packs from leveling up. These packs are redeemable for Power weapons, in-game vehicles and Spartan cosmetic items such as Armor, weapon skins, emblems, etc. The Power weapons and vehicles are playable in Warzone maps from accessing REQ stations that allow you to spawn with the weapons or vehicles using your REQ points. The REQ point system awards points based on player performance. Earning lots of points allows you to use higher powered weapons and vehicles.
The new modes are very fun to play and are easy to get into. I think the REQ packs are a good way to make sure that the powerful weapons and vehicles are distributed evenly against the teams, rather than the better players rushing these weapon spawns and out playing lower-skilled ones. The Breakout mode is one of my favorite models because of how fast paced action it is. I still love the Swat mode from past Halos and I’m really happy the added it in as a permeant multiplayer mode. I like that 343 Industries announced that all DLC for Halo 5 would be free. This is great because I hated not being able to play maps because my friends didn’t have them or vice versa. Although the REQ packs is a nice add on I really dislike the whole idea of paying money for in game power weapons / vehicles. I don’t like that more and more games are going to the style of pay to win, but in Halo 5 you still have to earn those REQ points in order to use them which helps the pay to win players from ruining multiplayer experience.
Overall I enjoyed playing both campaign and multiplayer of Halo 5. The campaign to me could have been a better, more diverse story, not the repetition of same situations with both Blue team and team Osiris. The Multiplayer is very fun, although I get really frustrated when I suck lol. I like the new game modes especially the Breakout mode. I am looking forward to the DLC maps and the addition of Forge mode.
Overall I enjoyed playing both campaign and multiplayer of Halo 5. The campaign to me could have been a better, more diverse story, not the repetition of same situations with both Blue team and team Osiris. The Multiplayer is very fun, although I get really frustrated when I suck lol. I like the new game modes especially the Breakout mode. I am looking forward to the DLC maps and the addition of Forge mode.
Final Score: 6.5/10
|
+New Multiplayer modes
+ Change up of old weapons,and addition of new weapons + Spartans are more customizable |
- Campaign is repetitive
- Campaign team AI sucks - REQ packs are purchasable - Forge mode not available when at release |
Release Date: 10/27/2015
Developer: 343 Industries
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Developer: 343 Industries
Publisher: Microsoft Studios