Halo 5: Guardians is the latest instalment in the Halo franchise and a direct sequel to Halo 4. It sees Master Chief go rogue for reasons I won't spoil here and then get hunted by Spartan Locke, sent by the UNSC. Coming out three years after Halo 4 and a great marketing campaign, promising a rivalry/battle between Chief and Locke and hinting at an antagonistic Chief, does Halo 5 deliver?
First off, I have to put it out there that I am a huge fan of the Halo series and that is for its campaigns more so than the multiplayer. I will always complete the story before moving onto the multiplayer because I am invested in the character of the Master Chief and always excited to see where his character will go or how he will develop emotionally, especially after a rather sad ending to Halo 4.I actually really like Halo 4 contrary to other people's opinions because although the multiplayer had clear, undeniable issues, the campaign was amazing, technically and story-wise.It was almost like a character study of Chief and Cortana as it put them at the forefront so I was hoping for Halo 5 to continue this in its story.
Unfortunately, whilst Halo 5's campaign is beautiful, graphically at a constant 60fps, and has better level design and is probably more fun than Halo 4, its story is a real weakness which dampens an otherwise perfect Halo game. You may be wondering why this is 'unfortunate' since it still sounds pretty great, but if you were hoping for a great story and further development for the Master Chief,you may be disappointed.
The cutscenes, while stunning and impressive to behold, are too short and feel unfinished as they suddenly fade to black, and sometimes it felt like some cutscenes were removed. For example, you never see Locke's team get assigned to tracking down the Master Chief and it is just thrust upon you all-of-a-sudden. The game tries to add a new element which just feels out of place in a Halo game as you go up to people and press 'x' to talk as if it's an RPG game like Skyrim. The problem is this element never goes anywhere and just feels like they were too lazy to make it a cutscene.
The story also feels rushed and is frustrating in the way that it has so much more potential that it never fulfills, but I'm not going to talk about what it should've been, I'll talk about what's there and the problems with it. Firstly, Chief's reasons for going rogue just don't feel near sufficient or important enough to truly get invested in his story and the way he goes rogue is just so anti-climactic and offhandedly done. Moreover, you only play as Chief for three missions out of the 15 missions in the campaign so obviously there's not much time there for proper development of his character.
The rest of the story is with the dutiful, but dull Spartan Locke who, with his team, hunts down the Chief. It starts out that way, but I won't spoil it so all I'll say is the ads and the marketing campaign lied to you. Hell, even the front cover lies to you as this game is not really Chief vs. Locke. Team Osiris, while more interesting than Blue Team in this game, are never fleshed out and have no emotional ties to their mission to hunt down the Chief as they see it as "just another target" as Lock puts it so how are we supposed to care whether they find the Chief or not and root for them. I won't spoil any returning characters in case you don't follow the trailers and advertisements, but it was good to see them, albeit briefly.
However, if you don't care for the Halo story and don't bother with cutscenes there is still lots of fun to be had in the gameplay. The level design is amazing with beautiful scenery and HD graphics, especially on the plant Sanghelios which features great towering stone- statues of Elites that are nothing if not impressive. You also fight a Kraken...enough said. There is not a dull mission and there are a lot of great standout moments in the gameplay which you just have to stop to take in. Although a boss fight with a certain character is repeated quite a bit it doesn't detract much from the fun of it. Also, your teammates do revive you so if you die it's not a definite respawn unless your teammates are all dead and they fail trying to get to yo, which can be frustrating.
I haven't got much to say about the multiplayer, but I had lots of fun on it and it is much better and more balanced than Halo 4, though I've been playing Arena more than Warzone because I just prefer it, but that's just my opinion. I've heard Halo fans who've been playing since 2004 when Halo 2 came out and are saying this is the best Halo multiplayer since then, which must be a good thing.
In conclusion, if you like Halo, this is a must-buy because although the campaign has a weak story, it has some standout moments such as an awesome hand to hand fight between Chief and Locke, but there is also lots of fun and memories to be made in the gameplay. Also, the multiplayer is great which just shows Halo is back baby! If you are not a Halo fan, you will not care about the weak story and you will find lots of enjoyment in the gameplay as well as its impressive graphics and 60fps fluidity so I'd say this is definitely a game worth checking out.
Oh, and the soundtrack is amazing!
