Halo 5: Guardians

 Xbox One
User Score
6.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 3713 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,945 out of 3713
  2. Mixed: 747 out of 3713
  3. Negative: 1,021 out of 3713
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  1. Doktor_Vehicl3
    Oct 29, 2015
    6
    Halo 5 is all in a polarizing experience. One the one hand you have a finely enhanced formula that allows for spectacular feats of gameplay, and on the other hand you have a by-the-numbers single player experience and a multiplayer component that takes a step back for every step forward. While Halo 5 continues where Halo 4 left off and expands on it in a number of ways, the final productHalo 5 is all in a polarizing experience. One the one hand you have a finely enhanced formula that allows for spectacular feats of gameplay, and on the other hand you have a by-the-numbers single player experience and a multiplayer component that takes a step back for every step forward. While Halo 5 continues where Halo 4 left off and expands on it in a number of ways, the final product never escapes a level of being simply passable, failing to transcend itself to greatness.

    The single player begins by cruelly cauterizing the open plot threads left by Halo 4's single player and Spartan Ops modes. The state of the Covenant leadership, the situation with Halsey and ONI, Cortana's death, Master Chief's newfound augmentations from the Librarian - all of these elements see an abrupt halt to their existence with one exception that I won't spoil, which has been re-purposed here. It should be noted that the marketing campaign for the single player, hinting towards conspiracy, political intrigue, and confrontation between the game's two pivotal characters Locke and the Master Chief, sees the most minimal development and feels the most shoehorned-in aspect of the single player. The plot is largely forgettable, and squanders the potential the rich Halo universe could have provided here. In place of mystery, intrigue, and the nature of an evolving humankind is a predictable, by the numbers affair filled with one dimensional characters, banal dialogue, and a villain so disappointingly superficial and evil as to evoke the Sith characters from George Lucas' Star Wars prequels. While the game manages to pack in quite a bit of lore from Halo materials far and wide, the result is rather soulless as 343 is in pandering mode almost the whole way through.

    It is surprising, then, that the Master Chief and Blue Team see the least development. Rather than assigning compelling personalities to the most decorated and fearsome soldiers humanity has ever seen, Blue Team simply exists to uphold the co-operative mechanics (for providing real friends different bodies) in place, while Locke's team sees the most screen time and dialogue, with just as little personality. Fred in particular exists almost as a ghost - this Spartan, who is in his skill set the most similar to Chief, doesn't have a moment in my memory where I even remember him speaking.

    Where the story may not be able to keep your interests, the gameplay will probably suffice. Halo 5 makes some fairly well implemented changes to the formula, which results in a more mobile brand of Halo's kinetic action. Level design in the single player works best in the game's "corridor" sequences, which put players at the top of a sloped, wide corridor filled with platforms and corridors of varying elevations, goodies to pilfer, and collectibles to unlock. The artificial intelligence across the board seems to have been simplified, probably to create for a more freely flowing experience whose pace is dictated by the player themselves. While the addition of collectibles into the missions is a nice touch, the developers could have used some restraint to avoid crippling the pacing of the game more than the mission structure does so already.

    Of the fifteen missions in the single player, there are a number of fairly short intermission sequences that allow the player to explore a small environment and get their healthy dose of exposition and worldbuilding. The unfortunate result is a product that is no more effective than the environmental storytelling and ambient worldbuilding found in the preceding Halo titles. I feel that 343 wanted so badly to cement its universe by packing it so densely with lore that it overused this liberty and vacated any sense of mystery or intrigue in its world. While there is some cool lore to chew on from time to time, these sections could have been foregone in favor of a better traditional experience. Instead, the single player never feels like it leaves its first act, simply dumping the player off of a cliff the moment their intrigue is sparked.

    The multiplayer component is similarly hit or miss. While the new 12v12 Warzone mode can provide some tense moments and exciting action, the scoring system in the AI infused mode is easily exploitable, and the lack of variety in maps sorely hurts the experience. In regular modes, social playlists are lacking entirely, leaving a roster of small team competitive modes and a currently broken free-for-all mode. The map designs in Arena are fitting of the mode's name, but feature visually bland designs and not many of them. While 343 plans to add free DLC content, the custom map editor forge is missing from launch, and a number of the total maps promised for Halo 5 will be created using said tool. I believe maps generated in forge are no substitute for in-house content - whether the content is free is no excuse.

    In the end, Halo 5 plays it safe and expects its fans to wait patiently for things to improve. I feel many won't.    … Expand
  2. Lumpy999
    Oct 30, 2015
    6
    Halo 5 is solid game but is the most disappointing entry in the series. The multiplayer has improved from past games but the multiplayer is the only thing that this game has improved on in any way.

    Halo is about its universe and this game has the worst story in the entire series. 343 has put so much focus on the multiplayer they have forgotten what made Halo so great in the first place.    Halo 5 is solid game but is the most disappointing entry in the series. The multiplayer has improved from past games but the multiplayer is the only thing that this game has improved on in any way.

    Halo is about its universe and this game has the worst story in the entire series. 343 has put so much focus on the multiplayer they have forgotten what made Halo so great in the first place.

    I still feel this game is worth a play but it is recommended you not buy the game just rent it.

    Somehow Halo 5 manages to make Halo 4 seem like a masterpiece. Despite this games many flaws it does still have some neat moments but very little makes this game worthy of the Halo franchise.    … Expand
  3. llMasterBetall
    Oct 29, 2015
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. TL;DR Campaign 4/10 | Mutiplayer 7/10 - - Overall 5.5/10

    Review (Campaign) The Halo 5 Campaign had a very good start especially when 343i showed Hunt The Truth. The idea of having all of these intertwining problems (Civil War, Promethean Threat, the Return of the Flood, etc.) sped up the hype train very much. It was also cool to see 343i go back to the roots of Halo 2 by having a second main character in the campaign. Unfortunately at release, it all fell apart. The problems with Halo 5's campaign fall under two categories, the gameplay and the story, with the latter being the worse of the two.

    In Halo 5 Guardians, you have access to squad commands, this is where the person playing as Locke or Chief can command his AI allies to move to position, to attack a target, pick up a weapon, or to revive a fallen teammate. The problem with this though is that the AI do not respond to threats and only follow the specific orders. For example, if you get downed, you can call an ally to revive you. Most of the time, they won't sprint towards you and they won't avoid hostile fire. They're very slow and very very stupid but this can avoided if you do coop. Humans > AI always.

    There are a number of problems however with the story itself. The first is that the Master Chief is not a main character of Halo 5 Guardians. If we consider Locke and Chief as main characters, they should both have an equal amount of game time. Out of the 12 actual gameplay misssions (15 total but 3 are just walk around cutscenes for Osiris), only a 4th of the game has Blue Team involved. I feel like 343i wanted to replace the Master Chief which is very hard to do. Bungie did a very good job at making the Arbiter a main character by giving him good dialogue, good background, and good story revolving around the covenant. Locke on the other hand is a very bland ONI agent that doesn't really get me to have any emotional attachment whatsoever. Campaign is pretty short for a Halo game but it's really the reveal of the villain which sucks the most. A lot of people wanted the flood, mendicant bias, and/or insurrectionists in this Halo and all we get is more prometheans, this time with Cortana as their leader. Most people were tired of the cheesy love story between Chief and Cortana. To top it all off, they end the game in a cliffhanger that doesn't really get the feeling of a good (But annoying) cliffhanger like Halo 2 "Sir, Finish this Fight.". In short, Characters are bland, the story is bland, and the cliffhanger is disappointing. I guess 343i is really related to Bungie (See Destiny).

    Final Score: 4/10

    Review (Multiplayer)

    Unlike the abysmall launch of Halo: Master Chief Collection, Halo 5: Guardians had a very solid launch with little to no server issues (EAST US). As a person who bought MCC day one, I felt that 343i didn't do a satisfactory job at fixing the game (With coop not even having a stable frame rate above 10). I was really concerned that the same may happen with Halo 5 but luckily I was wrong. With that being said, the game doesn't really innovate beyond Warzones which is the redeeming factor of the game.

    Almost all the spartan abilities (Thruster Packs, Ground Pound) were either already in the game or are just gimmicky and unnecessary. There is no real use for Ground Pound and for Spartan Charge whatsoever and yet people claim that these changes are innovative. It feels as if that 343i couldn't add in anything new to improve the game but tried to balance what features were already in Halo 4 (Thruster Pack [AA] and Sprint). Due to this, grenades are much more powerful and you die much faster than in other Halo which is disappointing. Despite these changes, Warzone is without a doubt the most innovative addition to the Halo franchise and I love it a lot.

    Warzone is a 12v12 game mode that pits 1 team vs 1 team vs neutral enemies. This forces players to not only kill the enemy team and secure bases, but to work with others at taking out AI enemies that spawn in. There is a problem with this which whoever gets the last hit takes all the points (Someone can snipe an enemy from a mile away and take all the points) but it is a really cool idea. I loved it the moment I saw the game mode at E3. If 343i can fix some of the balance issues in the game and make more warzone maps (Or even allow us to make them in forge), they've got a really good game ahead of them.

    Final Verdict 7/10

    Conclusion: Halo 5 is another divisive game just like Halo 4. There are the fanboys on Metacritic who give the game 9's and 10's blindly buying whatever 343i gives them and the haters who give this game a 0. I don't think either of them should be allowed to review games because Halo 5 needs criticism but not hatred. 343i is improving Halo but I do not believe that this is the game that will turn the franchise around after Halo 4/MCC. Hopefully they'll get it right next time with Halo 6. Good luck Spartans!

    Final Verdict 5.5/10 - Better luck next time!    … Expand
  4. bennibop
    Oct 29, 2015
    6
    The worst Halo for me and cannot understand any publication giving this game 9/10 as this game is definitely not nearly perfect. I play Halo for the story and its rich universe and this is the weakest entry yet. The plot is convoluted and you spend little time as the main character which is just bizarre. Graphics are just OK, as game contain low res textures, poor lighting and have seenThe worst Halo for me and cannot understand any publication giving this game 9/10 as this game is definitely not nearly perfect. I play Halo for the story and its rich universe and this is the weakest entry yet. The plot is convoluted and you spend little time as the main character which is just bizarre. Graphics are just OK, as game contain low res textures, poor lighting and have seen lots of pop-in. Multiplayer is the games saving grace but warning to any new Halo players it is very competitive. The lack of local co-op is also very annoying as it has been a staple of my Halo experience for years. IF you buying Halo 5 for the campaign AVOID, if you are buying for multiplayer it maybe worth your time if you are very good at fps.… Expand
  5. Falleax
    Oct 27, 2015
    7
    General game play:
    -Movement feels decently fast and fluid.
    -Almost every gun is viable and worth using in a variety of encounters, yet lack the "oomph" that makes firing a gun fun. -Vehicles are durable and easy to control, with the exception of the Scorpion tank, which has awkward turning. -The HUD is very clean and informative, but some of the HUD's sound elements are annoying. Too    General game play:
    -Movement feels decently fast and fluid.
    -Almost every gun is viable and worth using in a variety of encounters, yet lack the "oomph" that makes firing a gun fun.
    -Vehicles are durable and easy to control, with the exception of the Scorpion tank, which has awkward turning.
    -The HUD is very clean and informative, but some of the HUD's sound elements are annoying. Too many bleeps and bloops for dealing and receiving damage.

    Performance:
    -You will need to download a 9 GP patch on day one.
    -The game runs at a consistent 60 frames per second for the most part. Unfortunately it sacrifices resolution, texture quality and animation to achieve this.
    -The textures themselves are pretty bad, texture popping is everywhere and things in the distance are blurry.
    -Load times are surprisingly fast.

    Audio:
    -Halo 5's music has no identity. Most songs are either poorly made remixes of older Halo music, or just wander aimlessly until they end.
    -Voice acting is poor. This is not the fault of the voice actors, they clearly have talent, but whoever directed them did a poor job to capture my attention.
    -Grunt voices are annoyingly high pitched and try too hard to copy the humor of the grunts from the original trilogy. Jackals sound like cartoon birds.
    -General sound effects are pretty good.

    Campaign:
    -Halo 5's story is a confusing mess. It relies far too heavily on the assumption that the player is familiar with the expanded universe from the novels.
    If you haven't read any of the books, you wont have a clue who half the characters are. It just meanders along until it ends abruptly, almost as if a final level was cut.
    -The characters in the story are boring and lifeless, they never have anything clever or memorable to say and provide little reason to care about them.
    -Level design is mediocre. Most environments consist of hallways that lead into large open hallways with platforms to climb on.
    -There is a very good amount of enemy variety. The Forerunner enemies are especially improved since Halo 4, as are their weapons.
    -Enemy AI is nothing particularly impressive, yet some mechanics are very welcome. For example, a Hunter will now go berserk when their bond brother dies, becoming much more aggressive and powerful.
    -The 3 AI teammates are incredibly stupid and basically worthless.
    -You only play as Master Chief for 3 levels out of 15.

    Mutliplayer:
    -Most maps are too small and have poor map flow.
    -Spawning needs some work, especially for FFA. Too often have I spawned right next to an enemy player, or even in the middle of a gunfight and gotten killed.
    -Warzone is very fun. The maps for this gametype are very large and have a variety of paths to choose from to reach the objective.
    Fighting NPCs along with enemy players is a refreshing experience and very tense. Teamwork is especially important in this mode, though almost nobody every uses a mic to communicate with their teammates.
    -The matchmaking lobby is awful. When you join a lobby, nobody's name is visible, only their emblem. It's impossible to mute players in the lobby as well, so if someone is eating their mic, you have to wait for the game to start to mute them.
    -Matchmaking is pretty fast and runs on dedicated servers, so game ruining lag is rare.
    -Forge will not be in the game until December.

    Overall, Halo 5 is an alright game by itself, but a poor addition to the Halo series.
    It lacks the love and care that was put into the original trilogy and suffers from 343 Industries' attempts to make their version of Halo unique to the original Halo.    … Expand
  6. diehard-gamer
    Oct 28, 2015
    6
    Its graphically very pretty, but the maps feel close and confined not open and epic. The audio is good and the voice acting is good, but the characters spout a lot of gungho militaryish jargon one liners. The game plays fast and smooth.

    Unfortunately for me, I play games for the stories and characters not the AV bling or multiplayer bragging rights and, several missions in, I'm yet to    Its graphically very pretty, but the maps feel close and confined not open and epic. The audio is good and the voice acting is good, but the characters spout a lot of gungho militaryish jargon one liners. The game plays fast and smooth.

    Unfortunately for me, I play games for the stories and characters not the AV bling or multiplayer bragging rights and, several missions in, I'm yet to be hooked by HALO 5.

    I'm playing on for 'the Chief''s sake because we go back a long way and I want him to look good to inspire his squad. Locke, well he just feels like just another generic supersoldier and I don't really care how many times the aliens shoot him down and he squeals for his bros to save him.    … Expand
  7. Andre_Antunes
    Oct 28, 2015
    6
    Worst campaign in the series, poor resolution and texture quality (Sub 1080p). No Split Screen...Good Multiplayer and performance (60Fps all the time).
  8. EasyTab
    Oct 27, 2015
    5
    Really? Really? This is what i have been hyping up for? Jesus. Never have i been this disappointed in a game. Im a big Halo fan, i absolutely adored all the Halo's up to reach, i even liked Halo 4 to an extent. Then along came Halo 5. The story is stale, flat and mediocre, the characters are weak, the multiplayer feels boring, heck the split screen co-op is gone too! This game just doesn'tReally? Really? This is what i have been hyping up for? Jesus. Never have i been this disappointed in a game. Im a big Halo fan, i absolutely adored all the Halo's up to reach, i even liked Halo 4 to an extent. Then along came Halo 5. The story is stale, flat and mediocre, the characters are weak, the multiplayer feels boring, heck the split screen co-op is gone too! This game just doesn't make you wanna play it. Man, if i had to some up this game in 1 word it would be "pretentious". Just because it sticks itself with the "Halo brand" doesn't indicate that it is anything special, well atleast this game doesn't.… Expand
  9. ExecutionDHG
    Feb 29, 2016
    5
    This is the most frustrating halo game ever.I had hopes for this aspecialy for campaign.But 343i disaipointed me once again.Lets start with campaign.Hunt the truth made me hype for this game.There was a conspiracy going on about oni and how they hide the truth about master chief and spartan II project from public.And Live action trailers showing rivaly between chief and locke and unscThis is the most frustrating halo game ever.I had hopes for this aspecialy for campaign.But 343i disaipointed me once again.Lets start with campaign.Hunt the truth made me hype for this game.There was a conspiracy going on about oni and how they hide the truth about master chief and spartan II project from public.And Live action trailers showing rivaly between chief and locke and unsc announcing chief's dead.Made me hype for H5's campaign then its mutliplayer.But guess what we didnt see any of these in campaign.No rivaly,no conspiracy nothing.Not to mention levels are too short.All of the levels are feels rushed and two levels are hub levels where you just talk to 2 people.I expected a bigger campaign but it was slightly bigger then halo4.Although level design is 2x better then halo4.And art direction was amazing I personaly enjoyed the campaign but it was too short and story was disappointing.Soundtrack is amazing.Kazuma Jinnouchi did a great job by bringing classic halo theme back and making new ones even better.Remember when 343i first revealed main menu of the game?And they said they worked hard for it?Guess what they f***ing lied.It feels like menu of a f"""ing arcade game.Remember when they said they made it halo 5 for hardcore halo fans they f"""ing lied agian.This game is made for newcomers.343i seriously doesnt know what "if ain't broke don't fix it" means.Beta's aim system was awsome but they f"""ed up in final game.Now because of their f"""ed up aim system i cant aim properly and now they bring up this stupid aim acceleration.I know old halo's had it too but it wast f"""ked up like this.And i noticed even with this f"""ed up aim system i can get one shoot sniper kills and it not suprising because everybody can aim in this game.Arena maps are garbage they are basicly like cod maps .There are just too many covers to people hide and avoid getting killed.Also who ever tells you that thuster adding new strategies to the game they either 343i fans or they are just keep escaping from battles.Thrusts are free ticket to get out of bad choices.When my oponent is one shot he/she just thursts away and escapes.Whic its doesnt awards skilled players that took good positioning.Now they are showing where the power weapon spawns whic help noobs to know and rush to the power weapons.I know power ups and shotguns or hydra are not shown but most sinces maps are too s"""ty and small everybody can know where power weapons are know.And since maps are too small and s""ty you cant doge grenade's.And now because of this everybody just smaping grenades and getting kill free kills just like cod and now since ttk is low and maps are small and s""t like cod maps when somebody shoots you first you are done.There is like low chance of you getting that reversal kill just like in cod.That was not the case with previous halo's.When somebody shoot you first you had chance of reversal.Warzone had potential but there were like 2 f"""ing maps at launch.And both of those maps are garbage feels like they just mixed bunch of maps.Speaking of maps Halo 5 has the lowest content of any halo game whic explains the free dlc and its just funny those free dlc maps are just remakes of maps.And they removed the split-screen.Split f"""ing screen.Splitscreen is the must feature for any halo game.And they just **** removed it so that we can buy more console to play this game.But guess what.Halo 5 is not worth geting xbox one.instead of buying this garbage buy mcc or black ops 3.Or continue playing halo reach.Even 3arc would have done better job then stupid 343i… Expand
  10. Crussh
    Oct 28, 2015
    6
    Halo 5 is what any Halo fan will need this winter. I'll split up my review in 2 parts.

    Single Player The single player is nice. It plays well from the beginning. The storyline is somehow simple, but keeps you on your feet. I really liked what they did with both teams and the fact that Osiris is looking for Chief was interesting. The only sour note, is we don't see as much of    Halo 5 is what any Halo fan will need this winter. I'll split up my review in 2 parts.

    Single Player

    The single player is nice. It plays well from the beginning. The storyline is somehow simple, but keeps you on your feet.
    I really liked what they did with both teams and the fact that Osiris is looking for Chief was interesting.
    The only sour note, is we don't see as much of masterchief. Locke is taking much space, but I quickly come to like
    his character. I would have liked more missions with Masterchief. Also, note that the campaign is short, but legendary mode
    is super difficult. So if you're like me and want to enjoy the story without getting too much trouble, play on normal. Give it
    a second hardcore pass on legendary to make sure you satisfy your needs afterward. I won't give any spoilers, but the ending
    will give alot of avenues to explore on Halo 6.

    Multiplayer

    What a surprise. After Halo 4 and MCC, I wasn't looking for something great to be honest. Halo 4 had too many power weapons
    and I really didn't appreciate the multiplayer experience in a whole. Anyone who has bought MCC knows that it was broken for
    a long time after the release. Halo 5 however is a gem. The gameplay is so smooth. It plays very well. They purified the
    weapons (there's some power weapon left, but they take less space then in Halo 4). The navigation will seems complexe at the
    beginning, but as soon you play a few time, it will come second nature and really enjoyable. The ranks are giving a competitive¸
    side I had never seen before on a Halo game. I must say, being placed in a league after 10 games is better then a simple number
    next to your name. Your rank will go up really fast when you win. The maps are beautiful and really fun to play in. But there's
    a mode that will take alot of your time once you'll buy the game; Warzone. This mode is just addictive.
    You play against NPC and players alike while you must complete objectives on both side. I don't want to take much time explaining
    it, but it is really, really, really incredible.

    Overall, the game is a success. It does change course from other Halo games, but I don't mind at all. It will be a nice winter,
    with new Halo memories.    … Expand
  11. vgmkyle
    Oct 28, 2015
    6
    I know some still love the series, but I find each new installment more boring than the last. The Halo 5 campaign is the worst yet. It's one of the most linear games I've played, and with no split-screen offering I can forget popcorn and dew with my homie on the couch next to me. The new multiplayer experience is okay... War Zone is by far the best element of this game. Even with thatI know some still love the series, but I find each new installment more boring than the last. The Halo 5 campaign is the worst yet. It's one of the most linear games I've played, and with no split-screen offering I can forget popcorn and dew with my homie on the couch next to me. The new multiplayer experience is okay... War Zone is by far the best element of this game. Even with that said, there are actually way better games to choose from on the Xbox… Expand
  12. JoshLuck1995
    Oct 28, 2015
    7
    Finished Halo 5 on Saturday. Here is my thoughts -- don't worry no spoilers.
    ill give my thoughts on the story. Its good but does not live up to its potential and I believe the ending will be quite divisive.
    Positives - + Nice graphics & beautiful cinematics. + Beautiful audio + Locke + Super fast loading times + Fireteams add a new feel to the game Negatives - - Not enough play    Finished Halo 5 on Saturday. Here is my thoughts -- don't worry no spoilers.
    ill give my thoughts on the story. Its good but does not live up to its potential and I believe the ending will be quite divisive.
    Positives -
    + Nice graphics & beautiful cinematics.
    + Beautiful audio
    + Locke
    + Super fast loading times
    + Fireteams add a new feel to the game
    Negatives -
    - Not enough play time as Chief
    - Parts of the game feel VERY repetitive
    - No STAND OUT enemies/ enemy fight. (Not saying there isn't one)
    - Fireteams can be very dumb at times
    - Misleading trailers prior to release

    Multiplayer aspect for me isnt a positive or negative, its OK but it doesn't stand out in my opinion.

    Overall the score I would give the game is a 7.5/10.    … Expand
  13. DJ-Clazzi
    Jul 22, 2020
    6
    The gunplay is absolutely amazing, pretty much one of the best fps experiences on console, fantastic work 343, can't wait to get more time into th fnatastic MP mode this weekend

    The campaign is absolutely embarassing tho
  14. chaddaddy
    Oct 28, 2015
    7
    So many people who complain about the story.. well, let's be honest here, Halo never had a really good or amazing story, it was always simple and ok at best.

    The reason why I play Halo is the gameplay, and if you played the game, you just can't say that Halo 5 is bad. Sure, the story is a bit more complex and harder to understand for newcomers or people who don't care about the lore,    So many people who complain about the story.. well, let's be honest here, Halo never had a really good or amazing story, it was always simple and ok at best.

    The reason why I play Halo is the gameplay, and if you played the game, you just can't say that Halo 5 is bad.
    Sure, the story is a bit more complex and harder to understand for newcomers or people who don't care about the lore, but in terms of gameplay or multiplayer, this is easily the best Halo game to date and as a result, also the best FPS game since 2001.    … Expand
  15. Idlemind
    Jan 24, 2016
    6
    Focus is just not on the weapons. Pistol is hand downs the best weapon in the game and you start with it, reducing the value of most other weapons on the map. Anyone who argues differently need only turn up their speakers to hear the pistols going off non-stop.

    Short radar range is crippling. Thrusters are gimmicky. Clamber is annoying. Sprint speed builds up over several seconds,    Focus is just not on the weapons. Pistol is hand downs the best weapon in the game and you start with it, reducing the value of most other weapons on the map. Anyone who argues differently need only turn up their speakers to hear the pistols going off non-stop.

    Short radar range is crippling. Thrusters are gimmicky. Clamber is annoying. Sprint speed builds up over several seconds, also annoying.

    Save your money, buy old copies of Halo 2 or 3 instead.    … Expand
  16. Borgees
    Sep 25, 2016
    5
    Esse e The Order andam de mãos dadas. As maiores decepções de 2015. O Marketing totalmente voltado para a luta de Chief x Locke e quando você chega na batalha é uma completa decepção, a campanha foi extremamente fraca. Única coisa boa do jogo foi o Online porque de resto...
  17. ChaseInY0Face
    May 27, 2016
    6
    Disappointing, 343 hasn't lived up to Bungie at all. I bought this game thinking it would occupy a lot of my free time like Halo 3 or Reach, and I was optimistic after Halo 4 even though it wasn't as good. Then they release this mediocre game that has no real point of existing. The campaign is the worst Halo campaign I've ever played, the multiplayer while good, doesn't have the addictingDisappointing, 343 hasn't lived up to Bungie at all. I bought this game thinking it would occupy a lot of my free time like Halo 3 or Reach, and I was optimistic after Halo 4 even though it wasn't as good. Then they release this mediocre game that has no real point of existing. The campaign is the worst Halo campaign I've ever played, the multiplayer while good, doesn't have the addicting feel of 3. I bought int the hype of this game only to be massively disappointed.… Expand
  18. shipoopy
    Jul 21, 2020
    6
    Weak story. The whole thing being after master chief saved humanity half dozen times now he is being hunted as a fugitive and cant be trusted is stupid. I am sure half the people buy it for the campaign and it is just terrible.
  19. Blindpilot20
    Jan 23, 2017
    6
    This game is nothing but a micro transaction mess and a slap in the face to all fans of the Halo series. Do yourself a favor and never play this game.
  20. VeryShway
    Mar 26, 2016
    5
    Halo 5 Guardians was a HUGE disappointment. The only redeeming thing it has going for it is the gameplay for MP is actually fun. Overall the story was a complete mess and all over the place. In Halo 4 they had a beautiful ending with Cortana but now it seems that means nothing because she has a cyber suit and is ready to "RULE THE GALAXY" I wish I was joking but she actually says that inHalo 5 Guardians was a HUGE disappointment. The only redeeming thing it has going for it is the gameplay for MP is actually fun. Overall the story was a complete mess and all over the place. In Halo 4 they had a beautiful ending with Cortana but now it seems that means nothing because she has a cyber suit and is ready to "RULE THE GALAXY" I wish I was joking but she actually says that in Halo 5. Brian Reed has completely butchered the Halo story and needs to be replaced ASAP if 343 has any common sense. The story can still be patched if given to someone like Joseph Statin or Eric Nylund who actually knows how the Halo universe works. As for the MP it is tons of fun but sadly the graphics were a huge step down. Halo 5s graphics are comparable to Halo 2 classic and even Combat evolves dare I say it. I think this may have been due to the first time trying to get the game to play at a higher frame rate. So if you want a game for story play the MCC but if MP is all you care about and graphics isn't an issue then Halo 5 is worth a try.… Expand
  21. SparkzPlayzGame
    Jan 20, 2018
    5
    The Game is something

    Graphics=9, Graphics are very good but not the best Music=7, MEH, ok but not very good Story=2, BAD, VERY VERY BAD Replayability/Length=3, Short and not good Gameplay=8, Actually quite good, I enjoy it This leads to a grand total score of ...... 52! Not a halo game, the story is awful and there is no reason to replay and it is short, but the    The Game is something

    Graphics=9, Graphics are very good but not the best
    Music=7, MEH, ok but not very good
    Story=2, BAD, VERY VERY BAD
    Replayability/Length=3, Short and not good
    Gameplay=8, Actually quite good, I enjoy it

    This leads to a grand total score of ......

    52!

    Not a halo game, the story is awful and there is no reason to replay and it is short, but the multiplayer is pretty good    … Expand
  22. CYurk
    Jan 25, 2020
    5
    Lacking in a lot of what makes Halo, Halo. This game is the beginning of a loose grip the developers at 343 are starting to acquire with the Master Chief franchise. The story is uninspiring and dull, the mechanics have strayed far away from its roots and the micro transactions have imposed greed and lacks true commitment to pleasing its fan base. The game still applies an easy andLacking in a lot of what makes Halo, Halo. This game is the beginning of a loose grip the developers at 343 are starting to acquire with the Master Chief franchise. The story is uninspiring and dull, the mechanics have strayed far away from its roots and the micro transactions have imposed greed and lacks true commitment to pleasing its fan base. The game still applies an easy and some-what enjoyable play through of the main story, it still graphically climbed new heights, and added some new interesting game-modes that can still be kind of fun. Sadly, the multiplayer is not what halo used to be. If you take away split screen multiplayer, add micro transaction, and make the Master Chief a sensitive wimp with human like traits... Then you have just made a recipe to kill that Halo magic that made us all get an Xbox in the first place. This is by far the worst Halo game ever in my opinion.… Expand
  23. twinklyten
    Jan 25, 2020
    5
    Although the shooting and movement mechanics are the best in the series everything else drowns this title in mediocrity. Awful campaign, no loadouts in multiplayer, lootbox systems, pay to win systems and no split screen.
  24. DarkReaperV3
    Jun 29, 2016
    5
    los graficos son excelentes, es lo unico bueno que puedo decir del juego, desde que Bungie dejo se producir esta saga se volvio malo con halo 4 y ahora con halo 5 aun peor pues su modo historia es aburrido y el multijugador pesimo!!! ultimamente industrias 343 ha tratado de cambiar el modo de juego en el mando y tratando de agregar el estilo de juego de call of duty y al hacer eso halo 4 ylos graficos son excelentes, es lo unico bueno que puedo decir del juego, desde que Bungie dejo se producir esta saga se volvio malo con halo 4 y ahora con halo 5 aun peor pues su modo historia es aburrido y el multijugador pesimo!!! ultimamente industrias 343 ha tratado de cambiar el modo de juego en el mando y tratando de agregar el estilo de juego de call of duty y al hacer eso halo 4 y 5 dejo de ser halo.....… Expand
  25. Cjreviews11
    Nov 12, 2015
    5
    I don't why people find this game excellent PLEASE STOP FANBOYING over this!!!. First I want to explain the Campaign, I didn't find it that good at all because the story was weak and underdeveloped. The ads for this "story" was a LIE completely mislead, it is short, I manage to complete it within 4 hours and 20 mins on normal. The boss battle was a joke, it kept on repeat on and on, It wasI don't why people find this game excellent PLEASE STOP FANBOYING over this!!!. First I want to explain the Campaign, I didn't find it that good at all because the story was weak and underdeveloped. The ads for this "story" was a LIE completely mislead, it is short, I manage to complete it within 4 hours and 20 mins on normal. The boss battle was a joke, it kept on repeat on and on, It was **** I really find this the worst campaign in the Halo Franchise I was truly disappointed. Lets talk about the multiplayer oh boy get ready for a rant for the REQ System, I find 343 a money grabbing company who doesn't give a **** about anyone who don't like the system, I got news for you 343 F*ck you with that video you put on YouTube, your attitude is UNACCEPTABLE!!. Why can't you just earn these things by going up in Spartan ranks but no they decided to be like FIFA and use a terrible card system that is Microtransactioned and only for WARZONE. That's another thing I want to talk about Warzone was depressing, that all I have to say. Last thing I want to talk about before I say the only good things about the game is that the map rotation is weak and bland. Good things is the graphics, classic modes, gameplay, voice acting and sounds/music. This is game that is one big LIE to the Halo fans, learn your MISTAKES 343!!… Expand
  26. HaremJesus
    Nov 29, 2015
    7
    Halo 5 was just dissapointing.
    The game has fantastic graphics. That's a given. The gameplay is pretty solid and the pack opening reminds me a ton of CS:GO. However, this won't be able to hold your attention for long. The story is relatively boring and almost non-existent. But at least you have missions you can play with your friends online. ONLY ONLINE. Here's where my biggest    Halo 5 was just dissapointing.
    The game has fantastic graphics. That's a given. The gameplay is pretty solid and the pack opening reminds me a ton of CS:GO. However, this won't be able to hold your attention for long. The story is relatively boring and almost non-existent. But at least you have missions you can play with your friends online. ONLY ONLINE. Here's where my biggest disspointment stems. No local couch multiplayer. No forge mode either. The two best things about Halo 3 and Reach are gone. It's so sad to see these features removed. Just play Reach or Halo 3 if you want to play with your friends without playing online. Overall, the game is a bit over average and if Halo 6 evers shows up, let's hope these features return.    … Expand
  27. ShakyWanderer1
    Nov 3, 2015
    6
    As a Halo fan this game is really disappointing both the campaign and multiplayer. Similar to Halo 4 this campaign itself is decent in terms of game play but the actual story that is there is very boring compared to Halo 4 which is due to the main character being Locke. The multiplayer on this game isn't very good compared to past Halos due to it being very unbalanced with so many littleAs a Halo fan this game is really disappointing both the campaign and multiplayer. Similar to Halo 4 this campaign itself is decent in terms of game play but the actual story that is there is very boring compared to Halo 4 which is due to the main character being Locke. The multiplayer on this game isn't very good compared to past Halos due to it being very unbalanced with so many little things constantly bugging me when I play and if you play in the higher skill ranks (diamond and platinum) some people use some of the cheapest tactics on a Halo game. People just constantly spam grenades which are massively overpowered with a huge blast radius and high damage, the maps are very bad compared to past Halo games with teams just camping in one room during entire matches in slayer, you can't recharge shields during sprint which wouldn't be so bad if you didn't in like a second when people use precision weapons, you zoom out every time you get shot so if the enemy is far away you almost always lose the battle and it's essentially like call of duty first shot wins almost all the time rather than skill based like previous Halos and whilst this zoom out when shot feature has been in previous halos it was bad then too but now it's made worse by the fact that precision weapons kill you in 4 shots to the head. The only good game mode appears to be capture the flag considering it's mode people camp the least on.… Expand
  28. funkymonk18
    Nov 12, 2015
    6
    Halo 5 is a step forward from the tragic halo 4 game play and brings the series back to familiar territory for old fans and the controls are surprisingly smooth. However the story is poorly written sure 343 have acknowledged the lore of halo but it doesn't make up for bad writing a plot twists that aren't congruent with the Halo universe and neither does Nathan Fillion with all hisHalo 5 is a step forward from the tragic halo 4 game play and brings the series back to familiar territory for old fans and the controls are surprisingly smooth. However the story is poorly written sure 343 have acknowledged the lore of halo but it doesn't make up for bad writing a plot twists that aren't congruent with the Halo universe and neither does Nathan Fillion with all his charming roguishness. The overall length of the campaign is poor although there are 15 levels 2 of them are just talking to people it shouldn't take more than 4 - 5 hours to complete. The level design is better but still no levels seem iconic or even memorable, there are no flood or brutes and very few covenant levels leaving us to battle the Prometheans t this time around they are much better enemies to fight and no but sadly still not that fun or engaging. The campaign frequently forces you to pick up Promethean weapons like the suppressor and boltshot guns which have heavy auto aiming features and it just kind of feels like the games holding your hand. In multiplayer mode the lack of splitscreen options is disappointing as well as the lack of arena game modes missing out lots of standard Halo game types like big team battle, doubles, zombies, multi team, invasion i could go on. The multiplayer maps seem like they repeat and all tend to feel similar to each other again nothing really iconic. The Warzone game mode is pretty fun it has moba elements and you can score high on the leader board by simply playing objectives you don't even need a good k/d. Warzone is also the best way to score requisition points for your rng packs that have some variety and add depth to the whole Spartan customization of halo mp sadly the best way to get req points is warzone so you will find yourself grinding warzone to get weapons so you can play the same 3 maps on warzone ... it becomes shallow very quickly. The thing that bothers me about Halo the most is that Halo used to be at the cutting edge of fps shooters each game was genre defining and pushing the limits of what console fps games could do from halo 1 through to Reach Halo used to set the standard but now after it's adoption by 343i halo is no longer ahead of other shooters as 343 struggle to find their take on halo whilst doing right by the fans they are borrowing ideas from other shooters instead of creating ideas and adding content that other fps games will copy later they are not ahead of the curve anymore and that is why Halo is no longer as great as it once was.… Expand
  29. Bertoflyingfox
    Nov 14, 2015
    6
    Been a Halo fan since the beginning and campaign-wise, I would say Halo5 is the weakest the franchise has ever gotten. Clambering barely works, the teamAI that are supposed to be "spartans" are no more than blind fools who toss grenades at grunts you can two shot with a handgun. This isnt "artificial intelligence" it's just 3 dumb ragdolls that follow you around and get in the way.

    The    Been a Halo fan since the beginning and campaign-wise, I would say Halo5 is the weakest the franchise has ever gotten. Clambering barely works, the teamAI that are supposed to be "spartans" are no more than blind fools who toss grenades at grunts you can two shot with a handgun. This isnt "artificial intelligence" it's just 3 dumb ragdolls that follow you around and get in the way.

    The plot is pure crap, they should've grabbed the writer currently working on the Halo comics. Brian Reed really just sucks at telling a story (Halo4 had a crap story too, and he was co-writing).

    Now for the saving grace of this game, the online portion. Here's where all the good things can be found. I like how REQ packs work and that I dont have to wade through crappy microtransactions to obtain them (although the option is still there, which personally kinda blows). My time with the usual TDM and CTF matches have been a blast, but Warzones is really what surpassed my expectations.

    Overall, a slightly above average game. It could've been better if they nixed my team of blind brainless mice and replaced them with local co-op. And if they made clambering and dodging much more responsive, and actually fun to pull off.    … Expand
  30. liquidy
    Nov 6, 2015
    6
    Let me start off by saying I have owned every Halo game. I have preordered every halo game since halo 3 including this one. I am about as big as a Halo fan as one can get. Now let me review this game the way it should have been reviewed.
    The story is weak. I think 343 went the wrong direction by making the forerunners the main threat in the Halo series now. To me even in Halo 4, which I    Let me start off by saying I have owned every Halo game. I have preordered every halo game since halo 3 including this one. I am about as big as a Halo fan as one can get. Now let me review this game the way it should have been reviewed.
    The story is weak. I think 343 went the wrong direction by making the forerunners the main threat in the Halo series now. To me even in Halo 4, which I enjoyed until the end when you didn't get to fight the boss; don't get me started on that, the forerunner AI knights and whatnot just get boring to kill and the later missions are basically just wave after wave of the exact same enemies. Let's put aside the story. Let's look at the actual gameplay and level design of the story missions. This campaign doesn't play like any other halo, and I mean that in a not so good way. There are missions with vehicles yes, but, 343 is pretty much try to show off their new addition of wall smashing that gives you the advantage of flanking enemies. It's a nice new feature, but not at the expense of not being able to drive around like a maniac in a warthog. There is basically no time at any point in the game you can use your Spartan abilities to commandeer enemy vehicles. If I hadn't played previous Halo’s I would have no idea that you can jump on enemy vehicles and smash them, blow them up, steal them, etc. There just isn't enough vehicles for that to even happen.
    I was expecting this game to be like Halo Reach; I thought Halo Reach campaign was one of it not the best in the series. I wasn't even expecting Master Chief. I had initially thought that 343 would go the route of every other year would be Master Chief. That didn't happen and it hurt the game. Master Chief is seen as a lone wolf throughout the entire series. He works with some people on and off, but, basically they are all fodder and he does everything alone. He is seen as someone quiet and mysterious and suits his character. In this game he is commanding fellow Spartans and constantly talking. He gets downed and he’s like help me up and then he’s like I’m up. His entire unit takes off their helmet and is talking and he just sits there like an idiot with his on. It works when you are lone wolf it doesn’t work when you’re with your peers or as they say in the game “Chiefs family”.
    This game unlike any of the Halo games is designed purely for co-op. Playing this game alone on legendary is extremely difficult. Not because the game is so much harder than other series but because you have to get behind a lot of mobs and flank them which is extremely hard to do when the AI dies nonstop, and if you get downed they all rush to revive you which usually ends with them all dead or them all dragging the mobs onto you. The AI is glitchy. I get that there is a lot for this AI to do. They need to fly, they need to jump, they need to climb etc. but if you’re going to make a game that is so dependent on the AI you better make the AI much stronger and smarter. They are basically the same as you they get hit a few times and they drop like flies. There are bosses called wardens that you need to shoot in the back and as the game progresses you need to fight the same guy over and over with more and more of him at once. You can’t get behind him if the AI is dead; they die with one hit of his sword and they don’t dodge so if you go down they run, at least try to, through him and end up getting downed and you wipe. One great example of the AI being totally idiotic is near the beginning of the game there is a part of the game you need to fly around in banshees and blow up cooling rods and I get hit bad in my banshee so I bail and get downed on a top of a platform. I call for help knowing that I will likely die but it was worth a shot. There is an AI flying around in a banshee and when I call for help she’s like I’m coming Chief and just bails out of her banshee and I watch her fall to her death. Although this is hilarious these types of things happen way too often to find funny as the game progresses.
    The game is glitchy. I encountered many glitches throughout the game. The most I have ever seen in any Halo. One really annoying glitch was near the end one of the missions the screen would go almost all black in the middle of a fight and I would have to push the Xbox button bring up the menu and open Halo in order to fix it, which would result in my dying most times.

    The multiplayer is just as bad as the story. I liked the direction Halo 4 went. They were going more towards a COD style, and I think that's exactly what Halo needed in order to survive. They just needed to take another step towards that in this game but instead they stepped back. They listened to what a small minority, that will never allow this game to be great, and reverted back to a Halo 3 style of MP. Bungie did one thing right and made their "halo" Destiny much more like COD and look how successful that has been, even after **** over their players.

    Out of characters, game =average    … Expand
  31. frankwild
    Nov 8, 2015
    6
    Positives:
    1. Graphics are amazing
    2. A full movie of cutscenes 3. Brought back all the guns we love 5. The ability to hop in a handful of different vehicles is satisfying Negatives: 1. Only 3 missions as Master Chief 2. Getting downed then getting revived = Less Badass 3. The story is a pointless, nothing was accomplished during this whole game. The master Chief was in the end    Positives:
    1. Graphics are amazing
    2. A full movie of cutscenes
    3. Brought back all the guns we love
    5. The ability to hop in a handful of different vehicles is satisfying

    Negatives:
    1. Only 3 missions as Master Chief
    2. Getting downed then getting revived = Less Badass
    3. The story is a pointless, nothing was accomplished during this whole game. The master Chief was in the end actually not successful in this game.
    4. Can't stick hunters on their backs anymore!?
    5. Cheif vs Locke? I think this rivalry is just plain awful, how can any spartan compete with 117?
    6. Full fireteams now, reminds me of reach and everyone knows how that game went.    … Expand
  32. Guin2514
    Nov 2, 2015
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Ok so lets start with the pros of this game:
    The game play is smooth the 60fps really does pay off

    The gun play is nice and smooth

    The traditional fps controls make this game nicer to play for new players

    The story is well written and told even though the ending is controversial

    The multiplayer is more fun than campaign

    Cons:
    The campaign is in my opinion the shortest of all the halo's so far

    There is no split screen co-op mode !!!!! This is what halo is known for you can always have fun with your friends in split screen co-op so they should of kept it

    Forge mode is currently not present and should of been from the start again its another core piece of halo

    There is only 15 missions 3 of which is go talk to some Npc for an achievement which is pretty weak

    You play as Locke for a majority of the game the Master chief is pretty much non existant this game was advertised as Master Chiefs story with some amazing trailers and non of it really happens apart from a punch up between Locke and Master Chief that isn't really exciting

    The AI are not the best they can be pretty dumb at times

    Last but not least Micro transactions are in the game i am not a fan of them full stop in any game

    As a long life halo player and fan i must say this game let me down a whole bunch and its sad to say that after all the success halo had with bungie in the original trilogy    … Expand
  33. Aflyinavocado
    Nov 2, 2015
    5
    I love this series too much to write a fully blown harsh review, so I'll just give footnotes.
    Pros: Great visuals, New game play mechanics are fun, set pieces are large and breathtaking, mo-cap and voice acting are splendid, chief's story gets interesting, warzone is hella fun, arena is fast paced and hearkens back to halo 2 multiplayer, guns sound amazing and feel great, New weak spots    I love this series too much to write a fully blown harsh review, so I'll just give footnotes.
    Pros: Great visuals, New game play mechanics are fun, set pieces are large and breathtaking, mo-cap and voice acting are splendid, chief's story gets interesting, warzone is hella fun, arena is fast paced and hearkens back to halo 2 multiplayer, guns sound amazing and feel great, New weak spots on enemies are cool, Nathan Filion is the best thing to happen to halo since Keith David.

    Cons: NO SPLIT SCREEN!!!! (wtf 343), the presence of the blue team is never explained (it's assumed that you kept up with the outer lore), the game is way too easy, recycling one boss way too many times, MICROTRANSACTIONS IN MULTIPLAYER!!!!!!, 20% of the game is walking and talking (no literally 3 of 15 missions=20%), only 20% of the game is spent as master chief who is a million times more interesting than Locke!, stabilizers are jarring rather than useful, no truly stand out moments in campaign, capaign is ony about 6 hours long, cliff hanger ending, using cutscenes rather than gameplay (Jul Mdama I've wanted to kill you since spartan ops, but why did it have to be a cutscene?), watchers still exist, there's no real stand out moments in the game like 2's scarab battle or 3's final mission or even 4's pelican ride, smart scope is practically useless, gungoose is just a hard to aim version of the ghost, MICROTRANSACTIONS IN MULTIPLAYER!!!!! (needed to say that twice).

    P.S: Exuberant Witness beats Guilty Spark any day.
    P.P.S: MICROTRANSACTIONS IN MULTIPLAYER!!!!!    … Expand
  34. donnelbr
    Oct 30, 2015
    5
    I hate playing video games by myself. I frankly feel sorry for the folks who sit alone in front of their TV's playing games. For me, it's an enjoyable experience with my wife, or my sons. Unfortunately, there's now one less platform for that enjoyment. That Halo now no longer offers split-screen couch coop is a franchise destroyer for me. The games producers certainly didn't have thisI hate playing video games by myself. I frankly feel sorry for the folks who sit alone in front of their TV's playing games. For me, it's an enjoyable experience with my wife, or my sons. Unfortunately, there's now one less platform for that enjoyment. That Halo now no longer offers split-screen couch coop is a franchise destroyer for me. The games producers certainly didn't have this consumer base in mind when they scrapped that feature. I played the first couple of levels BY MYSELF, and do think the designers did a fair job with the next iteration. However, I won't continue the game, just find it too boring to do by myself. ...shame.… Expand
  35. Sharkey1337
    Nov 1, 2015
    5
    This game was such a disappointment for my wife and I. We've always played through each Halo game together on the couch via split screen, not so with Halo 5 as 343i decided to gut the feature, which I've always seen as an essential pillar for the series. The mediocre campaign is just no fun playing by yourself, and no matchmaking for co-op absolutely requires you to have friends online toThis game was such a disappointment for my wife and I. We've always played through each Halo game together on the couch via split screen, not so with Halo 5 as 343i decided to gut the feature, which I've always seen as an essential pillar for the series. The mediocre campaign is just no fun playing by yourself, and no matchmaking for co-op absolutely requires you to have friends online to play together. I'd rather be playing with strangers than the brain dead squadmates you're stuck with. Warzone is a fun concept, but in practice I found it incredibly boring as the large map makes fight encounters few and far between. We'll be trying out Black Ops 3 instead this week as Treyarch was able to pull split screen campaign, multiplayer, and 4 player split screen zombie mode!… Expand
  36. warren-trouble
    Nov 9, 2015
    5
    Disclaimer: I'm not one of those people who hate 343 or love Bungie for biased reasons. I think 343 has been doing an excellent job managing the franchise across various media. This game is just bad.

    Don't buy unless you're a Halo fan and you need it, or if campaign doesn't matter to you and you just want another PVP for some reason? I am the biggest Halo fan I know and even with    Disclaimer: I'm not one of those people who hate 343 or love Bungie for biased reasons. I think 343 has been doing an excellent job managing the franchise across various media. This game is just bad.

    Don't buy unless you're a Halo fan and you need it, or if campaign doesn't matter to you and you just want another PVP for some reason?

    I am the biggest Halo fan I know and even with Halo green tinted glasses on this was the worst Halo ever, right up there with Spartan Assault! How they can vow to do better then Halo 4 (which I enjoyed playing), but perhaps at 343 they view Halo as a Call of Duty and its PVP first then tack on a **** campaign to justify the $60 price tag and the vow to be better was only referring to the PVP?

    1) the loss of split screen was a disappointment and probably, especially considering the games history with it. But I also understand the business decision that statistically most gamers don't use it or use it often, and even most modern games don't have it anymore. But Xbox used to be a company that knew what the gamers wanted (kind of like Sony nowadays) and gave us split-screen instead of being the company that tells us what's best.
    2) The story was the weakest I've seen in the franchise, I felt it often didn't make since and didn't seem to follow 4. I was hoping to know at least how blue team got back together, why they suddenly trust Halsey, what was going on with Palmer's Spartans, where's that dickhead that's in charge of the infinity, is the Didact dead, what's going on with the librarian, is the other Didact dead, you know without reading a bunch of novels.
    3) it did really need more aggression between Locke and Chief leading to a fight (like the ads suggested), and a guardian boss battle, and probably could have used a halo and some flood. The ending was just awful.
    4) The levels felt the smallest and most guided in the franchise. Even the vehicular levels didn't feel large enough to accommodate them. And game has zero replayability!
    5) The player AI was terrible, and 343 gloated in a viddoc about how useful they would be!
    6) The audio and visuals were amazing, even the controls and feel of the game were excellent!
    7) I haven't bother playing the PVP because I just couldn't look at the game when I was done, which is a shame because i hear its the best part.
    8) the req system, maybe it need to be tweaked to feel more rewarding and less grindy and i agree that it has potential to be abused in future titles but we should really worry about that when that time comes and fight that battle then, cause currently its not bad and if it keeps the maps free I'm happy    … Expand
  37. JV1107
    Dec 16, 2015
    5
    Halo 5 is a weak entry into the series, campaign is easily the worst we've seen in a halo game. Poor writing from an already establish terrible halo writer, pacing issues throughout the story, lack of character depth and development, cliche plot, and boring characters. The hunt for chief that was advertised was lackluster and poorly executed. Fan favorite blue team might as well not evenHalo 5 is a weak entry into the series, campaign is easily the worst we've seen in a halo game. Poor writing from an already establish terrible halo writer, pacing issues throughout the story, lack of character depth and development, cliche plot, and boring characters. The hunt for chief that was advertised was lackluster and poorly executed. Fan favorite blue team might as well not even be in the game since they have no importance to the plot whatsoever and are just kind of there. Osiris who is the new team in town is bland, and boring with the exception of Buck. The campaign is also fairly short, at least compared to past titles. I was able to complete it in 6 hours on heroic while looking for collectibles and taking my time. Game play is fun, and level design is A+, but it doesn't make up for the rest of the campaign's many shortcomings.

    Multiplayer is a blast, weapon balancing and gameplay is easily the best. Every weapon feels useful and no one weapon overpowers the others. Gametypes are fun, and warzone is a welcomed edition to the franchise. But so far from launch up until December there is a severe lack of gametypes (missing many core halo gametypes that should never be missing), and it's missing maps. There are 28+ maps, some are re-skinned versions like truth and regret, some are forged, and some are specifically for breakout. Most maps are fairly small as well. Warzone only has 3 maps, 4 since today's update and 2 of which are not very good at all.

    Forge (which just came out today), is great. controls are wonky and this upgraded version definitely isn't casual friendly. The forge specific maps are also very tiny compared to previous halos and the file share is a downgrade from Reach's file share/browser. Another disappointing aspect is that all those warzone req weapons/vehicles/variants aren't able to be forged which just doesn't make sense.

    Armor customization is worse since Halo 3. only 3 points, helmet, armor, and visor. Plus, you can only unlock armor through RNG/Random through the req system which is a terrible addition to halo. Armor is no longer unlocked by skill, or rank but rather random luck. It's just a terrible idea.    … Expand
  38. maximumgame
    Nov 7, 2015
    5
    Mediocre. Campaign was half-assed, the story overall is just a setup for the next game. Not much of anything happened and should be a $20 prequel/teaser for halo 6. This game was a tech demo, you get 60 fps almost always thanks to their dynamic resolution but I paid for a game, not a tech demo. The requisition system is there for money grabbing, you get far too little for the amount ofMediocre. Campaign was half-assed, the story overall is just a setup for the next game. Not much of anything happened and should be a $20 prequel/teaser for halo 6. This game was a tech demo, you get 60 fps almost always thanks to their dynamic resolution but I paid for a game, not a tech demo. The requisition system is there for money grabbing, you get far too little for the amount of hours you put into the game to unlock packs. This is to be expected so that you can be squeezed for cash once you get fed up with the grind for req points.… Expand
  39. Lycria
    Nov 3, 2015
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Coming from the Master Chief Collection, this is another disappointing games from 343. On legendary if you have played the previous Halos, the game will take between 6-8 hours depending if you play solo or coop. The single player campaign seemed to be designed around coop only, as your teammates seem pretty useless. If you use the team commands and focus targets it does resolve some of the issues, but if you get downed you will frequently find yourself with one of your teammates standing next to you or stuck on a wall refusing to revive you. They don't seem to know how to use cover at all, as when you assign a target they will run right into the heat of battle and die pretty quickly on legendary. It just feels tacked on as it was worked on by the people who did Republic Commando.

    Another issue is the boss fights, or fight I should say. One of the bosses - one of 2, is recycled about 3 or 4 times, the last being a difficult encounter due to the fact that there are multiple copies of him and he has 3 abilities that will kill you in 1 hit. He has a single weak point, overly aware of where you are at and will always target you over that of your AI teammates whenever possible. This makes for a very frustrating fight, and not in the Dark Souls kind of way. It just feels cheap and is a pretty big difficultly curve.

    Overall the story is lackluster and left me not caring. You will spend most of your time playing as Locke and Osiris Team, rather then the games staple hero Chief and Blue Team, though with Blue Team having no backstory or as far as it seems interesting characters outside from Chief you wont care much. I've been told they have a great backstory in the extended canon, but extended canon should addon to the story, not be where the story is located. This makes it hard to care about Blue Team, which you only play for 3 of the 15 missions anyways.

    Overall the story and single player experience is a 4/10 for me.

    As far as the multiplayer experience goes, the game basically has 2 modes - Arena and Warzone.
    Arena is the closest thing you'll get to class halo, though its been "Call of Dutyfied" with sprinting, aiming down the sites and able to grab ledges. It makes the game faster paced then any of the previous Halos, seeing a lot of people running and gunning. Now it inst as bad as call of duty, and the smaller teams of 4 do make it feel more like a Halo then a Call of Duty game where everyone is playing on their own, but the maps do not seem to accommodate the change in game play making it feel a bit cramped. The gunplay all feels really good, except the aim down the sights for me, at least, feels like a tacked on feature kinda like Destiny where I like how Halo was original and didn't have that up until now, but its a minor complaint that some will absolutely like.
    Warzone is the new game mode for Halo 5 where it is PVPVE. It feels a lot like Titanfall for those who played it with a 3rd component, the Covenant that you will face for points. It is 12v12 with friendly AI "grunts" that are kinda like fodder, which helps to fill up the massive map. There will be random boss spawns that can be killed for points along with capturing points and getting normal player kills. The game mode is fun, but also comes with the new requisition system where you will need to buy packs with in game credits or real money to buy packs with will give XP boosts, vehicles, power weapons, weapon skins and armor pieces. Now this does not unbalance the game, but it feels like a cheap gambling simulator once again like Destiny where armor and weapon skins are no longer earned by doing achievements in single player and multiplayer, but just by luck. The time it will take is between 600-800 hours or about 1000 USD if you want to unlock everything, and once again this is not based on leveling up, or any type of skill or achievements, its only done via luck on what you get in each pack.
    The multiplayer experience is a 7/10 for me, being a bit faster paced and some of the weapons like the AR being made a bit more useful will be a godsend to newer players that cannot use the BR or DMR. The game will feel more newer player friendly then the previous Halos, but if you're a fan of Halo 2 or 3, this will most likely not be the game for you, i'd say stick with the Master Chief Collection.    … Expand
  40. JustSayNo
    Nov 1, 2015
    6
    TL:DR
    -Short Campaign
    -Hardly play as Chief -Weird multiplayer (for Halo) -Micro Transaction RNG -$99.99+tax for 3 packs of said DLC and Red+White Assault Rifle!? Did you think this was a game about Locke rescuing Chief's sorry ass? If so I can only assume you work for 343 because that is not at all what the trailers or game play or interviews ever hinted at. First of all the main    TL:DR
    -Short Campaign
    -Hardly play as Chief
    -Weird multiplayer (for Halo)
    -Micro Transaction RNG
    -$99.99+tax for 3 packs of said DLC and Red+White Assault Rifle!?

    Did you think this was a game about Locke rescuing Chief's sorry ass? If so I can only assume you work for 343 because that is not at all what the trailers or game play or interviews ever hinted at. First of all the main campaign is abysmally short. I hear all the time that people say "it has to be played on heroic or legendary" that heroic is "the way 343 intended", but even then me (a person who works 9-6 p.m.) was able to beat it on launch day before even midnight on heroic? I call shenanigans.

    The game play is fine I suppose but there are a few things that irked me a little more than they should have. If you've ever played Destiny in pvp I'm sure you are well aware of the titan shoulder charge ability (the one where a titan runs for a bit and gets 1-hit k0's with 0 effort?) Some way or another 343 looked at that and said "LET'S GIVE EVERYONE THAT!" And then there's the levitating while aiming nonsense, which just feels very out of place but can be used to also smash into the ground allowing for another 1 hit ko, albeit harder to pull off so it isn't as widely used.

    For me this game also just didn't feel like Halo, many people praise this game for being fast and fluid I found it to be awkward and clunky more often than not, almost as if they wanted a fast breakneck halo game but didn't want to completely alienate long term halo players. Oh another personal bias here but for a game that I spent $99.99+tax for I feel extremely ripped off. All of my bonus purchases equated to a red and white gun and some micro transaction DLC?    … Expand
  41. VeeGuz
    Nov 12, 2015
    5
    I feel as if this game suffers from the "Hitman Absolution dilemma", if you dont know what that is, it's basically when someone who has NEVER played a previous installment of the series plays the most recent game and thinks it's good, but veterans of the series such as myself shake our heads in dissapointment.
    Halo started to fall off the rails after bungie sold out to 343, Halo 4 was a    I feel as if this game suffers from the "Hitman Absolution dilemma", if you dont know what that is, it's basically when someone who has NEVER played a previous installment of the series plays the most recent game and thinks it's good, but veterans of the series such as myself shake our heads in dissapointment.
    Halo started to fall off the rails after bungie sold out to 343, Halo 4 was a massive dissapointment that strayed away from the core aspect of what made Halo 'fun' so much that it's not even in the same star cluster anymore, the thing about the Halo franchise that I loved so much was the LORE, I currently own all of the novels that are considered cannon and I just love the covenant Hierarchy, but in this game it just destroys the lore in place of a 2 dimensional story. Halo just needs to die now, it pains me to watch this incompetent studio flail thier arms trying to make a game, Micro$oft needs to just pull the plug on this entire thing.

    also I have a particularly strong greivance with the gameplay, why is there ADS and other flat COD elements in this game now? Rediculous 343, just kill the series, don't make us fans have to painfully sit through another Halo,    … Expand
  42. Angron
    Nov 4, 2015
    6
    I never really write reviews and I'm quite sure I will not say anything that hasn't already been said but here goes. This is easily the most disappointing release since Destiny, the campaign is a funless soul sucking slog of an event. Even as short as it is it just seems to drag on and on, fighting the same enemies over and over and the same boss 5 or 6 times. The AI went full retard,I never really write reviews and I'm quite sure I will not say anything that hasn't already been said but here goes. This is easily the most disappointing release since Destiny, the campaign is a funless soul sucking slog of an event. Even as short as it is it just seems to drag on and on, fighting the same enemies over and over and the same boss 5 or 6 times. The AI went full retard, there is far too much focus on Locke, and two entire missions are just "talk to this guy." The promised showdown between Locke and Chief? wait for it... of course there is no split screen or Forge, Arena pvp gets old very quickly and Warzone of course is pay to win. If this wasn't Halo no one would be reviewing this so highly, I give it a 6 rather than a completely average 5 because of the beautiful graphics and sound, the only bright spot in this game.… Expand
  43. 9breaker
    Dec 1, 2015
    5
    343 set out to create a Star Wars saga, but ended up with something more akin to a Twilight Fan fic. They tried to pander to every possible audience, and it ended up as a jumbled mess. On the story front, you play mainly as Agent Locke. The guy is more of a Mary Sue than the Chief was. Seriously, a Spartan IV going toe to toe with a Spartan II? And then he ends up SAVING the chief at the343 set out to create a Star Wars saga, but ended up with something more akin to a Twilight Fan fic. They tried to pander to every possible audience, and it ended up as a jumbled mess. On the story front, you play mainly as Agent Locke. The guy is more of a Mary Sue than the Chief was. Seriously, a Spartan IV going toe to toe with a Spartan II? And then he ends up SAVING the chief at the end, while he was held hostage.

    As far as game performance goes, you can tell they listened to the vocal minority that is the "competitive' halo players. The game play is tight and you can tell the put a lot of effort into perfecting the multiplayer aspect of it.

    I wish 343 had split this into two games. A top notch multiplayer FPS and a half baked story aimed at tweens. That way we could all just skip the campaign and play the multiplayer. But as it is, we are stuck with a product that has solid game play and serious potential as a multiplayer game, that is dragged down but a poorly executed campaign and a cringe worthy storyline.    … Expand
  44. FabulousPenguin
    Oct 31, 2015
    5
    My advice; don't buy this game. A plain underwhelming story campaign with a Halo 2 ending where it just feels... inconclusive. Not revealing anything to spoil the game, but do you remember when you finished Halo 2 and thought, "That was it? Really?" Well, prepare yourself because this game takes underwhelming to a new level.

    Remember how you used to be able to unlock new armor styles    My advice; don't buy this game. A plain underwhelming story campaign with a Halo 2 ending where it just feels... inconclusive. Not revealing anything to spoil the game, but do you remember when you finished Halo 2 and thought, "That was it? Really?" Well, prepare yourself because this game takes underwhelming to a new level.

    Remember how you used to be able to unlock new armor styles for you multiplayer character? Armors used to be unlockable through achievements, ranking up, completing Legendary mode, etc. In Halo 5 however, if you want armor other than the default. you either have to: Preorder from Best Buy / preorder from Gamestop / preorder from Walmart / or get the Halo edition XBox One console / buy AND watch their Halo Nightfall series (which isnt even good) - All of which gives you DIFFERENT armor styles. Meaning if you want to get everything in the game, you will have to preorder 3 of the same game, watch a mediocre series, and get the limited edition console. Also in multiplayer; pay to win. This game feels like it should have been DLC for Halo 4, rather than an entirely new game. What on earth happened to Halo? This game is just... disappointing.

    In multiplayer you can buy REQ packs using points earned ingame, or you can spend some cash to get them instantly. These packs include items that can boost your chances of winning in a multiplayer game, such as being able to summon a Scorpion tank or a Gauss-hog earlier than usual in a match. So if you don't buy REQ packs, you can't win against players who do. You then buy REQ packs to beat those players but in the process, you become the player that causes others to spend money. Also, the contents of said packs are random, so even if you buy a good pack, it does not necessarily mean you will get good items.

    Saying this game is good because the graphics are spectacular and the enemy AI are amazing is not saying much to the actual abilities of the game. Also, the AI in this game is god awful - and I am not talking about the enemy AI (which is pretty damn good, I have to say) The computer controlled teammates you have run into danger, is blocked by pebbles, and lack basic comprehension as they dive into a room full of knights to revive a teammate that is doomed to die. This effectively made the game unplayable for me as a play on Legendary difficulty. I also died a lot because my teammates were blocked by a railing when attempting to revive me (JUMP OVER THE FU-- and I'm dead...).

    Another problem with the game is that it seems to have been design solely for Normal difficulty, where the enemies serve as a small challenge you have to encounter. But as you play in legendary, that is where you wonder whether anyone actually play tested this game. It is absolutely the most difficult game in the Halo series, as you can pretty much die at any given moment in a split second even with full shields (and the checkpoint system they have going on is just terrible, causing you to go WAY back). Being a player who played through every single Halo game on Legendary, I can honestly say, this campaign was just not thought out properly. One section you have to dodge the bullets fired by enemy aircrafts as you kill enemies in a tower. Fun in normal difficulty, pain in the ass on Legendary as you can die in less than a second if the aircraft decides to shoot at you.

    Now onto the enemy. All in all, the computer controlling the enemy is excellent; they duck under thrown grenades and weave to avoid bullets. But that is pretty much a standard in the Halo series. The two new enemies you will encounter in this game are the Promethean Soldiers and the Warden Eternal. Soldiers are basically those dudes in Call of Duty campaigns that serves no purpose but to slow you down or kill you because they simply have overpowered weapons. The Warden eternal on the other hand... I find engaging the Warden a fun challenge, especially since I play on Legendary mode, and I'm not going to complain on how you actually can beat him. However, as you progress through the game, it presents you with a challenge of fighting not just another Warden, but TWO simultaneously. Again, they die and I progress through the campaign after many deaths, BUT THEN; you walk into a closed area where you fight - drum roll please - ... Three Wardens. Really? I mean really? Also the Wardens' cheesy one hit kill abilities make these parts excruciatingly painful to play, especially when facing three of them in a confined space.

    As a die-hard fan of the Halo series - it being the first console game I ever played, arguably the first actual GAME i ever played (if you don't count that odd pinball game that comes with the computer) - this game just breaks my heart and I hope they do something spectacular for Halo 6. just to make up for this... atrocity.    … Expand
  45. Yeppers
    Oct 30, 2015
    6
    Story review only:

    Short (6 hours) single player story, of shallow, generic story line, of which you only get to play the Master Chief for 3 out of the 15 missions, (Saying "15 missions" would be generous, has at least three of those "missions" are just walking around, and talking to people.) Without spoilers, the story itself barely matches that which was represented in advertising,    Story review only:

    Short (6 hours) single player story, of shallow, generic story line, of which you only get to play the Master Chief for 3 out of the 15 missions, (Saying "15 missions" would be generous, has at least three of those "missions" are just walking around, and talking to people.) Without spoilers, the story itself barely matches that which was represented in advertising, and stretches on only for the sake of inflating the game out, so has not to be a total joke SP content wise. The story could easily be condensed down to 6 missions, without losing anything.

    If this had been released has a separate spin-off, like Reach, this would have been O.K. in my book, but has a numbered Halo release, it's disappointing. The lack of Master Chief missions alone brings this review down by two points

    Game-play itself isn't bad at all, with two exceptions:

    For one, your fellow A.I. Spartans are idiots, who will walk right into your field of fire, while you're obviously plugging away at a target, among other things of equal idiocy.

    For two, many of the major climatic points of individual missions are handled by way of cut scene, rather than leaving it to the player to "make the kill", leaving the player with a feeling of disconnect at times.

    Overall though, if you just want to shoot stuff, the game is good for that. Never the less remove another point for the idiot teammates lack of player involvement in key events.

    Graphic wise, the game looks pretty good. Sound isn't bad either. Neither are spectacular however, so I have nothing else of note to say on either.

    Levels do tend to get repetitive though. Although the scenery changes, pretty much each mission is more or less the same, with the same basic repeating "boss fight" sprinkled in every so often. (It's literally the same boss, over and over.) Minus another point for the repetitive, shallow level design.

    That leaves it at a final rating of 6. Unfortunately, since this website has turned into a mindless, emotion driven 10 vs 0 rating war, people trying to make a buy decision probably shouldn't really go by the overall score, much less many of the "reviews". I would strongly suggest finding a friend with a copy, or renting. There is a potential for fun from this game, but this is definitely an "opinions may vary widely" type situation, and any pre-purchase hands on time would be strongly advised.    … Expand
  46. GAMER01
    Nov 4, 2015
    6
    Disapointing,not badass at all,not good multiplayer,good graphics.Sometimes stupid AI.In a nutsell D-I-S-A-P-O-I-N-T-I-N-G OK XBOX fanboys so shut your mouth up!!!!!! Haters gonna hate !
  47. rsccrplyr
    Nov 4, 2015
    5
    *Story was crap
    - Master Chief has straight up ignored orders before, but this time they have to send a special Spartan after him? Also Fred, who is an officer and technically the highest ranking Spartan, follows Chief around along with his other friends from the Spartan II program. Does no one else care what they do, and only care that the chief is ignoring the orders? Won't go    *Story was crap
    - Master Chief has straight up ignored orders before, but this time they have to send a special Spartan after him? Also Fred, who is an officer and technically the highest ranking Spartan, follows Chief around along with his other friends from the Spartan II program. Does no one else care what they do, and only care that the chief is ignoring the orders? Won't go further on here to avoid spoilers.

    *Cutscene transition
    - Older Halo games would be badass with a cutscene with black borders around the T.V. like a movie and would slyly transition to fullscreen where you enter the game. This kept you immersed into the game. This one does have badass cutscenes, but how they come about totally take you out of your immersion. They make it Call of Duty-esk where you do some stuff and then you go to a location and stand there for a couple seconds while a fade to black just happens and you're like oh, ok i guess that's it for that level.

    *Guns and characters were not remotely close to previous games
    - Yeah, as a Halo player I know that Halo varies in how guns look or act (duel wielding and not) and so on, but... The needler does not sound anything like how the needler used to sound (Which is the coolest sounding gun ever) The plasma pistol is not near as good as it used to be. The boltshot can't be charged up to shoot like a shotgun like Halo 4, and it doesn't shoot like a pistol anymore more like a pistol/kinda needler hybrid. Lastly, the rocket launcher. What the hell was that thing? That was not remotely close to what the rocket launcher used to look like at all, and I guess we have vehicle locking again because sure why not. Now for characters. I'll start with Jackels. What happened to those things? They look like they were turned into some sort of weird blobs. Several of the levels I thought I was shooting scientists in the face because they were all grey and human shaped (the scientists where white lab coats). Hunters act totally different. From not taking a one shot in the back from a pistol or sniper anymore to hitting back grenades at you and firing a weird machine gun shot as well as a charged shot.

    *No cool vehicle mission in campaign
    -The more laid back missions of the previous Halo games were the vehicle missions, not this walk around and talk to everyone (Dr Halsey, and several other characters) **** The vehicle levels were easy, sure, but they were a fun and stress relieving part of the game.

    *No split screen
    - I tried split screen on Halo 4, and I think MCC as well and I don't believe it worked there either, but that doesn't mean it should stay that way. Halo grew from playing it on split screen. I and several of my friends would have never even bought Halo if I never played it at a friends house first on split screen. In order to physically hang out and play Halo with a buddy now i have to unhook all of my setup for my Xbox, grab a T.V. drive over to my friend's house, find a way to set up two T.V.s in one room with outlets for all my stuff as well has his, and then we have to join together on live... Just for that **** to get thrown out the window because either his internet is down, or the Xbox just wants to act up because it decides to constantly.

    *Micro transactions
    - REALLY?!?!? I do understand that games are not easy to make, especially AAA titles. I also understand that games have cost the same price for a very long time. $60 for a game has been the standard for years, but if you need extra money to make your game, I think there's better ways to do so. For instance, make such a good game that everybody and their brother just has to have it. I know it isn't technically a pay to win thing... yet. But that's just it, I don't want to support it because then they'll end up doing more and more with micro transactions until we end up just having a POS mobil game that's just a pay to win.

    *The good
    - Some cool guns have been added/re-added. The Answer is basically like the SAW but with explosive rounds. The Covinent gun that basically shoots plasma grenades is back. The Forerunner grenade is not a useless pile of garbage.
    - The cutscenes, while out of nowhere, are beautiful. The graphics in general and detail to the environment is great.
    - Multiplayer, as usual is solid. Along with the promise of free DLC maps.
    - People like it. I'm not saying that it is a great game by any means. What I am saying is, Halo will continue on, it did not crash and burn like I think this game kinda did itself. But because people liked it, we have another chance at a great game in a couple years. I do not criticize this game because it's fun to bash games. I did it so hopefully someone could see what Halo needs again, what it deserves, what the fans deserve. Hopefully others agree that Master Chief needs to come back strong in Halo 6 in order for the series to survive, and if we make enough noise about it, developers might listen.    … Expand
  48. Aladgar
    Jan 16, 2016
    5
    Halo series is my favourite but this game was a bit hang-up. First they showed in the trailes Chief vs. Locke but in the game that was a big nothing. The trailers can be the 6th game or idk but this game was really something else what they lied to us on those trailers. Anyway the story is just short and it was not so good like in the other Halo games before. The multiplayer is better forHalo series is my favourite but this game was a bit hang-up. First they showed in the trailes Chief vs. Locke but in the game that was a big nothing. The trailers can be the 6th game or idk but this game was really something else what they lied to us on those trailers. Anyway the story is just short and it was not so good like in the other Halo games before. The multiplayer is better for me somewhere but the maps are really small so I still don't like that. Other Halo games are all 9/10 for me (10/10 but I don't really enjoy the multiplayers except when I play with my friends for fun) but this game is erm... I don't know what happend with the making team but I think they need to go back to the start than check everything until this game and than make the 6th. I hope that will bee cool again and they can forget this fail.… Expand
  49. oDjento
    Nov 3, 2015
    5
    For all those who are angry about the lack of splitscreen fear not, there is a petition that you can sign online to add splitscreen into the game. Go sign it!
    Now quickly:
    +Warzone is awesome
    +Nathon Fillion
    ~Graphics are decent, but kinda unsatisfying
    ~Mediocre plot for campaign
    -Campaign is technically a teaser for Halo 6
    -No splitscreen
  50. Sammiches
    Oct 29, 2015
    6
    Halo 5 is the least complete Halo game to be released since Halo 2 way back in 2004. 343 definitely focused their efforts on tweaking the formula to get the game to play the way it does now, and in its own right it's a fun shooting experience. The problem with Halo 5 is that it doesn't see unification of the various elements that comprise it, and feels rather soulless as a result.

    The    Halo 5 is the least complete Halo game to be released since Halo 2 way back in 2004. 343 definitely focused their efforts on tweaking the formula to get the game to play the way it does now, and in its own right it's a fun shooting experience. The problem with Halo 5 is that it doesn't see unification of the various elements that comprise it, and feels rather soulless as a result.

    The game's single player is rife with banal dialogue, interchangeable cookie-cutter characters, and a meandering story that's constantly broken up, seemingly never leaving its first act. I don't understand the high praise the storytelling has been getting: Cortana's back in the picture, shattering the impact of her death in Halo 4, and what's done with her character is nauseatingly trite, as is the big bad of the story, the utterly unimaginative Warden.

    While the focus of the marketing for Halo 5 was directed on the confrontation between Locke and Chief, the result of this conflict is almost laughable and forgotten in favor of a larger plot thread that begins to materialize as the story progresses. Along their journey players will run into characters from established Halo canon such as Halsey, The Arbiter, Blue Team, Buck, and everybody's favorite, Sarah Palmer. The new and returning characters from Halo 4 lack any depth or charisma, existing as vehicles to ferry the character from mission to mission. You may have even forgot, for instance, that Halo 4 had a shipboard AI that would interact with you every now and again in that game. The AI appears here to deliver a couple of lines of dialogue before disappearing, never to be seen again. I see this as a missed opportunity, since the nature of artificial intelligence seems to be such a big part of the story.

    In fact, much of the single player is filled with missed opportunities. Here we have the Master Chief and Blue Team, the most decorated group of Spartans in existence, and the game can't even devote half its time to filling their shoes. What's worse is that the Spartans of Blue Team are characterized even more poorly than their counterparts in Locke's squad, Osiris, existing merely to provide co-op players with vessels to play the story without cloning the Chief. The Arbiter, in the meantime, wages war against a dying Covenant on his home world, which sees its newfound leadership terminated (in hilarious fashion, destroying an entire game mode's worth of setting up from Halo 4), and the faction on the brink of collapse. The Elites probably feature the most banal characterization of the bunch, almost bordering on self-parody with their references to honor at all costs, death and glory in battle, suicide over capture, the list goes on. The worst part of Halo 5's story is the Guardians themselves. We're told but never shown the capabilities of the colossal constructs, which simply float around in the skybox environments silently. While an attack from the Guardians should seem an ominous threat from an invincible foe, the story manages to generate no tension because so little seems to be at stake. We're never really given a look at humanity at large, so it's hard to get a grasp on what you're fighting for here. The most destruction you ever see one cause is when it happens to knock a few platforms loose on an elevator.

    Fortunately the core mechanics of Halo 5 are tight and fairly sound. Shooting is responsive, and the entire arsenal of weaponry is effective in specific areas. Sprinting, clambering, boosting, and ground-pounding add a bit of extra spice to the formula, and the single player level design accommodates for the new range of movement abilities. Much of the levels in the single player are simplified into very large, down sloping corridors with a number of elevations and side-paths filled with goodies for the player to pilfer. Though this design is repeated throughout almost every level, it is these sections which are the most fun part of the game: they fit with the evolved with the shooter mechanics, unlike the boring vehicle sections or gauntlets where the player is restricted to just a couple of weapons poorly suited to the task at hand. Legendary difficulty in Halo 5 definitely feels the most artificially so of any Halo game as a result of the Promethean enemies, who are almost improved from Halo 4. Another trouble area is the collectibles: their inclusion into the main story mission breaks the pacing of the game further, as the player is ignoring the task at hand (and the three or four characters trying to direct the player if he/she wanders off for more than a few minutes) to find them. These really should have been saved for the "hub" missions, which are short intermissions meant to pad the mission list, or provide a "breather" from what's been happening in the story, I guess.

    The multiplayer is missing features and sees one of its major modes infiltrated by the dreaded random number. I won't say much more about it - it's incomplete, and disappointing at launch    … Expand
  51. Tubey
    Nov 2, 2015
    6
    Desperately disappointing. What was billed as a system seller instead turns out to be a mediocre offering in terms of a lacklustre campaign that screams "we're not arsed" from the developers, a mess of microtransactions and a plethora of removed features - crucially, no local split screen, which will kill the game right off the bat for many who adored this series for being able to have aDesperately disappointing. What was billed as a system seller instead turns out to be a mediocre offering in terms of a lacklustre campaign that screams "we're not arsed" from the developers, a mess of microtransactions and a plethora of removed features - crucially, no local split screen, which will kill the game right off the bat for many who adored this series for being able to have a drink and play with their mates.

    A semi-decent online multiplayer saves this game from being actively bad.    … Expand
  52. Maxson
    Nov 1, 2015
    7
    Not the best halo game in my opinion. The story was weak compared to Halo 4, but everything else was good. The graphics are much better than Halo 4, and the levels are much bigger and grander. Gameplay wise, the game plays better than Halo 4. As for the multiplayer, it's nothing like the Master Chief Collection. There's no lag or any online issues, which is a huge plus for all the halo players.
  53. macker2298
    Nov 2, 2015
    5
    It is a bit repetitive, you never have a spartan fight which makes the game deceptive, graphically it is good but there are sections where you see very low res. The multi is ok however the micro transactions ruin it a bit; seems like a bit of a cash grab.
  54. he110me
    Oct 29, 2015
    6
    The following is only a review of the campaign on Legendary.

    I'll start with the positives. In true Halo fashion, the encounters you'll face in Halo 5 are incredibly diverse with interesting enemies and smart enemy AI. Every fight feels crafted to challenge the player, while still having more than 1 solution. The guns, while less imaginative as previous Halo titles (half the weapons are    The following is only a review of the campaign on Legendary.

    I'll start with the positives. In true Halo fashion, the encounters you'll face in Halo 5 are incredibly diverse with interesting enemies and smart enemy AI. Every fight feels crafted to challenge the player, while still having more than 1 solution. The guns, while less imaginative as previous Halo titles (half the weapons are just some variation of the assault rifle), handle really well and encourage movement and precision. From a gameplay standpoint, I'd say the campaign gets a solid 9/10.

    But that's about the end of the good stuff. Here come the negatives.

    There is no splitscreen co-op. Honestly, I think the Halo series has probably been the best co-op experience up to date, and if your friends have XBones and a copy of the game themselves, you can still play co-op via Xbox Live. However, nothing beats the co-op experience of sharing a big screen sitting next to each other on the couch passing the controller off to the 5th guy on every death. I remember having a blast spending hours with my friends tackling the Halo campaigns every time a new title would come out. I was looking forward to doing the same here, but sadly, Halo 5 is devoid of this experience. The reasoning for the absence of this core feature is because they wanted to keep the game at 60FPS. If your wondering why they couldn't just bite the bullet to include the feature, it's because ---the gameplay is tied to the frame rate---. This means that if they reduced the framerate to 30 FPS for splitscreen, the game would move at half the normal speed. This is a problem that could have easily been fixed early in development if they just based the game's pace on the XBone's internal clock, rather than the running frame-rate, but they didn't. Instead, they made the biggest rookie mistake a game developer could make and shipped the game without fixing it. Inexcusable.

    The story doesn't make a whole lot of sense at first. In nearly every other Halo game, they've done a good job at introducing the setting to the player. In previous Halos, the player knows who they are fighting and why before the first mission. In Halo 5, they throw you into the middle of a battle between Forerunner dudes and Covenant on the first mission. Are these the same Covenant we were fighting in Halo 4? Why are the Covenant shooting at the Forerunner dudes? Why is Dr. Halsey in Covenant Custody? Where did the Arbiter go and what happened to the peace between Humans and Elites at the end of Halo 3? All these questions will be buzzing in your head as you mindlessly shoot at the shiny things that shoot back at you.

    The graphics are bad. Now hear me out: I don't mean this from a technical standpoint. If you look closely at your character's hands and weapon, you will notice a lot of fine details (such as leather wrinkles, carbon fiber materials, etc.) that were definitely not present in previous Halo games. There are also many points where there are lots of particle effects flying around, yet performance remains stable. What I mean when I say the graphics are bad is that it is often very hard to discern important features from the visuals. For instance, in true halo fashion, different elites will have different strengths based on the color of their armor. However, you really won't be able to tell red armor from silver armor unless you stand right next to them. If you're sniping or just shooting from a distance, all you can really see are silhouettes and weapon fire. This is a result of poor lighting, which was not present in previous games.

    Additionally, there are a few spots where environment textures get blurry and you can see vertices on environment features (such as rocks).

    In the end the game is a resounding "Okay." The lack of core features, bad writing, and poor graphics are offset by the quality of the gameplay itself, which remains fantastic. If you were hoping for a split-screen experience, you can skip this game, because 343 Industries doesn't know how to use a goddamn internal clock.    … Expand
  55. thedirtyrussian
    Oct 30, 2015
    7
    While a seven out of ten may seem only mediocre, I can promise you this game is highly entertaining and will give you many hours of fun gameplay. However, there are just one too many mistakes made to give this game anything higher than a seven for now. Let's cover the good and the bad.

    Let's start with all the good in this game. First, the graphics are very nice, and the frame rate is    While a seven out of ten may seem only mediocre, I can promise you this game is highly entertaining and will give you many hours of fun gameplay. However, there are just one too many mistakes made to give this game anything higher than a seven for now. Let's cover the good and the bad.

    Let's start with all the good in this game. First, the graphics are very nice, and the frame rate is always steady. the soundtrack of course is amazing, and the customization goes deep this time (like it always should have been). Although yes the small micro-transactions in-game are a bit sketchy, it's nothing too game altering or invasive. The multiplayer is as fun as ever, and warzone is a much better tweaked version of the previous FireFight mode. Warzone incorporates large team battles with A.I marines to capture and defend bases with vehicles and all. It's a very glorious game mode indeed. Theater mode also makes an appearance and proves once again to be a key feature.

    Now for the bad. These are the things that hold the game back from being rated any higher. First off, no split-screen local play. Seriously? Halo essentially invented co-op online play, and it has also been a key feature separating it from Battlefield or other Call of Dutys. If you have a friend over, you can no longer play split-screen. Shame on you, 343. Another thing that disappoints is the campaign. I'm going to be honest, I haven't finished it yet...and that's because it is not very compelling to say the least. Only getting to play as the Master Chief sometimes isn't very fun, and the character development is non-existant once again. Why do I care about any of these other Spartans? They are made of cardboard and have zero personality. Also shooting hordes of robots doesn't have the same effect as fighting flesh and blood creatures. The cutscenes are also lame and over the top at times; the campaign I truly did not care for. Maybe the last missions are amazing though? I wouldn't know. Another nagging issue that holds this game back a bit - no map veto's for online multiplayer. Ready for Swatnums on Orion again? Because ya can't veto the map selection. Also no forge mode...what's up with that?

    All in all, this game is very good, and I would recommend it to anyone. There are some small issues here and there, but with more practice, 343 I'm sure will one day make a Halo masterpiece.    … Expand
  56. Toophat82
    Oct 29, 2015
    7
    Honestly very disappointed for an exclusive and got hyped for nothing while halo 5 isn't a bad game per say it's nothing great either and surely nothing special like it was hyped to be and should being an exclusive and all. It's not suppose to be just another average shooter like CoD or other shooters on the market that you can play across multiple platforms it's halo a title that isHonestly very disappointed for an exclusive and got hyped for nothing while halo 5 isn't a bad game per say it's nothing great either and surely nothing special like it was hyped to be and should being an exclusive and all. It's not suppose to be just another average shooter like CoD or other shooters on the market that you can play across multiple platforms it's halo a title that is suppose to be more and draw people over to Xbox one. At end of the day they took more steps back then forward and tried to play it safe and copy and pasted other shooters on the market versus what they at least have done with past sequels and did with halo 4 where while not mine or most halo fan's favorite with halo 4 they at least tried moving forward with more customization and progression then ever before while still maintaining that halo feel but just was poorly executed in the end. With halo 5 they decided to remove a lot of that customization and progression that they added to multiplayer and instead went backwards while copying and pasting from other shooters on the market and it shows as it's not only nothing new and special but lacking in comparison to last halo 4 for sure. Even cod bo3 will have more customization and progression with its multiplayer and campaign then halo does now which is sad considering the story and lore behind halo that devs could use to draw creativity from with everything and not just story.

    For example Spartans should not all be identically the same and they should have some form of different progression towards each Spartan that makes each Spartan and character feel like who they are lore wise like they tried to do with classes in halo 4 but just poorly executed the idea and could have been fixed and improved upon with halo 5 instead of taking the easy route like older shooters normally do and just make everything identical and the same. This is suppose to be Xbox one's biggest exclusive and they not only remove spilt screen which was one of its biggest draws that set it aside from a lot of today's games and shooters but they developed a poor story and campaign that is just average and what you expect from other shooters but not the halo franchise and honestly it isn't nothing special visual wise for next gen consoles that is for sure as I own both Xbox one and PS4 and honestly halo 5 looked like halo 4 visually in my opinion but just slightly better which I am sure had to do with the decision to go with 60 FPs versus better visuals at end of the day. Honestly not like people game at 4k resolutions no matter what gaming platform as the average person/gamer games on 1080p for the most part or even 720p for some so anything 30 to 60fps would have been more then fine on the average TV and still run smooth while looking good.

    Bottomline while it is smooth running and still halo it is nothing special with a sub par campaign and story that does nothing to draw you in and a multiplayer that is lacking and just a copy and paste job of other shooters in the gaming market and considering the the track record of 343 studios and the mess that MCC was I would say Microsoft needs to hire new team to take over Halo franchise before it's too late as 343 studios clearly not fight team of devs for halo franchise. Even the new microtransactions in multiplayer are a copy and paste job lol. So unless your fanboy who has halo goggles on you will be better off looking for another shooter and it pains me to say this since I disliked both ghosts and advanced warfare and wouldn't normally reccomend this franchise but you gonna be better off with Black ops 3 from the beta I played and what I have seen and read about the campaign or this fun and pretty successful franchise of Rainbow six with titles siege and division that's for sure.    … Expand
  57. ChazzRabble
    Nov 4, 2015
    5
    Halo has to be one of the most over rated games I've ever played. I own an xbone and really expected this to be really impressive. There are a few things I like, the solid frame rate, some of the graphics look impressive. But once you get into the meat of the game it just feels really uninspiring. Don't get me wrong, people will no doubt love this, but its absolutely not for me. ReallyHalo has to be one of the most over rated games I've ever played. I own an xbone and really expected this to be really impressive. There are a few things I like, the solid frame rate, some of the graphics look impressive. But once you get into the meat of the game it just feels really uninspiring. Don't get me wrong, people will no doubt love this, but its absolutely not for me. Really dislike the art style, the chunky space suits look ridiculous, some of the gun designs are so terrible too.… Expand
  58. Averix_
    Nov 2, 2015
    6
    Anyone who is reviewing the campaign as "fantastic" or "amazing" can't be a long time Halo fan or is too delusional to call it what it is. The campaign is a truly lackluster story that flips back and forth between two semi-generic fire teams. You only get to play the Blue Team (Master Chief) in a small number of missions. I really have no idea why they felt the need to split this into twoAnyone who is reviewing the campaign as "fantastic" or "amazing" can't be a long time Halo fan or is too delusional to call it what it is. The campaign is a truly lackluster story that flips back and forth between two semi-generic fire teams. You only get to play the Blue Team (Master Chief) in a small number of missions. I really have no idea why they felt the need to split this into two teams since the story would have been far more effective with one. The full story of this game could have been compressed into 5 missions max. Then they could have actually fleshed out the story and done the rest of it in the other 10 missions rather than string us along for Halo 6 and recycle the same uninteresting "boss" 5 times. The graphics are a great improvement over previous Halo games, but still suffer some really poor textures on things like rocks and walls. Go look inside the Argent Moon at the walls as a prime example of some terrible compression textures. Overall, a very disappointing and lackluster campaign with a drawn out story that has no climax.
    Multiplayer is where the game shines. Everything feels pretty balanced and definitely a blast to play. I just don't want Halo turned into another Titanfall where the story is just an afterthought.
    While I applaud 343/MS for saying they will provide DLC maps to everyone without charging, they're making up for it with the horrible "pay to win" REQ packs. Warfront is run by people spending a ton of money to get the equipment to win. This may be the future of multiplayer transactions and that is not a good thing.
    Bottom line, if your prime focus is multiplayer, buy the game and enjoy it. Spend your REQ points sparingly so you don't end up breaking the bank. If you're looking for a good single player or co-op campaign, hold off for a Thanksgiving weekend sale.    … Expand
  59. justdoit
    Oct 29, 2015
    5
    No mention of master chef
    He was the best cook though!
    Why Microsoft why! I loved his show on fox soo much.
    much better than the stupid hells kitchen
  60. Phangled5
    Oct 28, 2015
    6
    Don't be fooled by either trolls giving a zero or blind fanboys giving a 10. In my opinion this game is good, but good is about it.

    Gameplay is excellent and my favourite part. Physics and shooting mechanics are spot on. I like how they have continued to modernise the game. The sound and music is also great and epic. Story is OK but not as good as past halo games. After so much    Don't be fooled by either trolls giving a zero or blind fanboys giving a 10. In my opinion this game is good, but good is about it.

    Gameplay is excellent and my favourite part. Physics and shooting mechanics are spot on. I like how they have continued to modernise the game. The sound and music is also great and epic.

    Story is OK but not as good as past halo games. After so much hype I don't understand why they couldn't write a decent plot. Also the 15 hour campaign thing was a lie. It takes around 7 hours to beat on heroic.
    Personally I have no problem controlling Locke. it is fps so who cares, most of the time you are looking at a UI and a gun.

    Graphics are truly terrible. The gameplay is smooth, but it honestly looks like a 360 game. This isn't opinion, it is fact. Anyone who tells you different is lying to you. I have decent vision and a good tv and the graphics are horrible. And yeah I know that graphics are not everything, but you would expect more from xbox one exclusive flagship title.

    Multiplayer I personally don't care that much for, but warzone is fun. However I predict that it won't last very long. Titanfall was also good multiplayer but look what happened there. I'm sure that people will enjoy the multiplayer.

    So there you have it. It's a good game, maybe wait till it goes down in price.    … Expand
  61. Chuggowitz
    Oct 29, 2015
    6
    - The backstory (and thus much of the story throughout the game) is a complete unknown unless you've invested yourself in the expanded halo universe (i.e. the novels, comics, shows or movies)

    - All of your new Spartan abilities are neat, but for some reason they decided to that maintaining ADS while being struck had to go in this game, after introducing it in Halo 4. Effectively    - The backstory (and thus much of the story throughout the game) is a complete unknown unless you've invested yourself in the expanded halo universe (i.e. the novels, comics, shows or movies)

    - All of your new Spartan abilities are neat, but for some reason they decided to that maintaining ADS while being struck had to go in this game, after introducing it in Halo 4. Effectively guarantees that if you're at medium range and you get caught out, you're dead. It is also incredibly jarring, and ruins the flow of combat in both the campaign and online.

    - No split-screen co-op for Campaign because apparently 60fps is more important than actually enjoying a large chunk of the game with a friend. This fact is not widely advertised, and unless you read Video-game related media (I.e. IGN, Destructoid, etc.) you will have no idea going in.

    - REQ system basically ensures that if your team is at all behind in online, you're going to stay there and lose the match.

    - Graphics still aren't even on par with many PS4 exclusives or other XBOX exclusives (or multi-platform titles on PS4). Cinematics and facial graphics are stellar, but beyond that this doesn't look like a flagship game in 2015.

    - All of the story elements advertised for the last few months are completely missing in the game itself.

    - If you are playing solo, the AI which controls your squad mates is less competent than AI from a PS2 game.

    - New weapons (like the grenade launchers) are pretty useless. Very limited splash damage, take too long to be of any use in fast-paced online combat

    - Actual game mechanics are incredibly solid, and there is still a lot of fun to be had so long as you learn to tolerate the sometimes frustrating issues.

    Ultimately, this is a solid game, but it could have been so much better. The confusing story is baffling (even after having just played through the first 4 games in the last 2 months), the characters are deadpan and lack any interesting features (with the possible exception being Buck, though he is underused), and the irritating mechanical choices (i.e. ADS and REQ system) are frustrating. BUT: The gameplay itself is otherwise solid, and if you're playing this purely for the online you should still have some fun. However, it is difficult to recommend at retail price.    … Expand
  62. Rmiles801
    Oct 29, 2015
    7
    The game play feels pretty good, but I'm only in this for the online ranked play, as fluid as the gameplay feels, the maps are pretty terrible from a competitive standpoint, I'm really hoping some DLC or some forge-type stuff will be released soon because the maps that you currently have to play ranked on are some of the worst designed maps I've ever seen in any FPS game ever, I do likeThe game play feels pretty good, but I'm only in this for the online ranked play, as fluid as the gameplay feels, the maps are pretty terrible from a competitive standpoint, I'm really hoping some DLC or some forge-type stuff will be released soon because the maps that you currently have to play ranked on are some of the worst designed maps I've ever seen in any FPS game ever, I do like the gun balance so far though, grenade blast radius is still a little too high, but I know that's not going to change. I could go on and on about minor things (grenades bouncing funny off different surfaces) but I won't, I hope they continue adding stuff, need more than 2-3 maps.… Expand
  63. Finney14
    Oct 29, 2015
    7
    It's hard not to be disappointed by Halo 5's campaign, the story is confusing, requires an understanding of Halo's extended lore and has weak characters that fail to provide you with any emotional connection.

    The game makes a bold choice and relegates Master Chief to the sidelines for the majority of the game, giving you control of Spartan Locke. Master Chief has been the face of xbox    It's hard not to be disappointed by Halo 5's campaign, the story is confusing, requires an understanding of Halo's extended lore and has weak characters that fail to provide you with any emotional connection.

    The game makes a bold choice and relegates Master Chief to the sidelines for the majority of the game, giving you control of Spartan Locke. Master Chief has been the face of xbox for some time now, so to see someone else take center stage is refreshing... or at least it should be. The problem is Locke is just about the most dull character you could possibly imagine. He takes orders without question and has about as much depth as paddling pool.

    The missions themselves are mostly repetitive rooms full of enemies and cover, not nearly as fun as the wide open of spaces of Halo 3. The game does have a few vehicle based levels with wider spaces and these tend to be more fun. Then theres the boss battles, or rather boss battle, ctrl+c, ctrl+v, ctrl+v, ctrl+v.

    There is however a great selection of weapons, that sound great when fired and have plenty of variety. It's also the best feeling Halo game ever made. You feel more like a spartan super soldier here than ever before with charge attacks, boosts and clambering which all aid in feeling like an enhanced warrior. Oh and the super smooth frame rate is not bad either.

    Whilst Halo 5's campaign falters, the multiplayer generally fairs much better. There are two main multiplayer modes as well as a plethora of others, the two main ones being Arena and Warzone.

    Arena is classic 4v4 and it's great, thanks to the new spartan movement abilities the game is fast paced and tactical, as the abilities allow you to dash in and out of cover and away from grenades etc. The maps are well balanced although they do all have a similar feel, not in the way they look but in terms of layout.

    Warzone is a large 12v12 mode with some AI in the mix too. The large scale, AI and plenty of vehicles make it chaotic fun. It also has something called a REQ system. You gain REQ points for completing matches and with them buy packs of cards containing vehicles and weapons which you can all upon during the game. It seems complicated at first but I got used to it after a couple of games. The REQ system is also where things get mirky as you can also buy the card packs with real money. You can only call upon a limited number of weapons and/or vehicles during each match but still, it is dangerously close to pay to win.

    Halo 5's weak campaign and poor story hurts but most people play Halo for the multiplayer and luckily that's the games strongest area.    … Expand
  64. LittleHastur
    Oct 29, 2015
    7
    The campaign of Halo 5 is a real waste of potential, at the end of the adventure you still don't know anything about the story of the majority of the spartans and the adventure is flat and linear, almost boring (almost).
    Fortunately the gameplay is superb, so good that even if you forget why you are fighting hordes of enemies you will never want to stop killing them.
    The multiplayer is    The campaign of Halo 5 is a real waste of potential, at the end of the adventure you still don't know anything about the story of the majority of the spartans and the adventure is flat and linear, almost boring (almost).
    Fortunately the gameplay is superb, so good that even if you forget why you are fighting hordes of enemies you will never want to stop killing them.
    The multiplayer is well made, just like all the others halo Game.
    Ultimately Halo 5 is a good, solid game but not the masterpiece that I was hoping for...........    … Expand
  65. oxXBLADEZXxo
    Oct 30, 2015
    5
    MY GOD, what a **** of a campaign that was. Probably one of the most pretentious, pointless and laughable campaign's I have played, EVER. Designed just to shambolically waste 6 hours of my life that I desperately want back. I shouldn't need to force myself to play Halo, I never had to do that with any of the other Halo's, not even with Halo 4.
    Man, if you thought Halo 4 sucked, wait till    MY GOD, what a **** of a campaign that was. Probably one of the most pretentious, pointless and laughable campaign's I have played, EVER. Designed just to shambolically waste 6 hours of my life that I desperately want back. I shouldn't need to force myself to play Halo, I never had to do that with any of the other Halo's, not even with Halo 4.
    Man, if you thought Halo 4 sucked, wait till you get a load of this....    … Expand
  66. mrw0lfe
    Nov 4, 2015
    5
    Cons
    Forge mode still didn't came on launch.
    No split-screen(given the excuse that "people don't have time"...ye spencer,right...) Campaign a little bit short.The shortest of the whole saga. Campaign will be confusing to newcomers and/or people who haven't read the books/watched the animated series. Some textures seems a little low quality,comparing to the majority. Hard to enter in    Cons
    Forge mode still didn't came on launch.
    No split-screen(given the excuse that "people don't have time"...ye spencer,right...)
    Campaign a little bit short.The shortest of the whole saga.
    Campaign will be confusing to newcomers and/or people who haven't read the books/watched the animated series.
    Some textures seems a little low quality,comparing to the majority.
    Hard to enter in warzone

    Pros

    Visually beautiful
    Warzone    … Expand
  67. DirtyDave
    Oct 30, 2015
    7
    Halo widens it's abilities with impressive additions, but at the same time losses focus and creativity. New modes and gameplay are right up the series ally. At the same time it adds mechanics from other games that take away the 'halo' feel. Still a good game, but at the cost of split screen it makes me worry if 343 industries really knows what the core of Halo is that we love.
  68. TheElusiveMyth
    Oct 29, 2015
    7
    Halo 5 for me is heart breakingly disapointing, yeah it does play very smoothly due to its consistent frame rate, but the graphics are quite lacking to be honest, they are like the frame rate, smooth. But are incredibly low in textures, especially in most of the multiplayer maps. Environments just look bland, like some of the walls are made out of plastic. I have also been having networkHalo 5 for me is heart breakingly disapointing, yeah it does play very smoothly due to its consistent frame rate, but the graphics are quite lacking to be honest, they are like the frame rate, smooth. But are incredibly low in textures, especially in most of the multiplayer maps. Environments just look bland, like some of the walls are made out of plastic. I have also been having network issues, seeing other players magically zip across the map, then being killed by this certain player due to all my seemingly accurate bullets having missed their target due to them lagging out. In every single 4v4 game type i have played, if a player leaves or gets kicked mid-match, never once has the recently departed player gets replaced with another player. Thus leading to lob sided/unbalanced matches. And what comes with that is a domino effect, where due to the fact that one side is down a player, another may quit due to the unfair aspect of uneven sides. Warzone is quite frankly a chaotic mess which is has been solely designed for leg shooting, cod loving 12 year olds. Plus you receive req cards which grant mostly temporary weapons, gear and bonuses like overshields and damage buffs. You can slowly earn these cards through only playing warzone or buying them with real life currency, so if you buy as many packs as you want, that is a lot quicker than earning them through playing the game naturally, so in my mind that's pay to win. I also heard 343 officially stated that the campaign is around 10 hours on legendary difficulty, where its been around 7 for me, which even with modern standards now, that is still short. Also the campaign is fairly tedious with overwhelming amounts of typical and generic shooting gallerys. I also dont like a few npc's within cutscenes saying things like "The master chief just does what he wants" in a disrespectful manner. All in all its a solid shooter with a fair campaign, a good amount of maps, but its one game i'll play only for the next week or so, then trade it in.… Expand
  69. Videogames
    Nov 6, 2015
    5
    Sorry, I hit the character limit

    CAMPAIGN: Halo 5 tries to bring in a greater sense of verticality and team based combat to the campaign, but what follows is a series of shocking blunders. Given the greater emphasis on team based combat, one would assume that the game would support a variety of methods for cooperation, but you’d be wrong. There is no native LAN support in the game nor    Sorry, I hit the character limit

    CAMPAIGN:
    Halo 5 tries to bring in a greater sense of verticality and team based combat to the campaign, but what follows is a series of shocking blunders. Given the greater emphasis on team based combat, one would assume that the game would support a variety of methods for cooperation, but you’d be wrong. There is no native LAN support in the game nor is there split screen. This is shocking, even without this change in focus. Split screen being such an added value as well as one of the key pillars of a Halo game makes the omission of the feature laughably mind boggling. Unless you are a teenager or younger, you probably won’t be playing this game with a friend. This means you’ll have to deal with the atrocious AI partners who consistently get caught behind walls, ignore both you and enemies and get themselves killed. A problem that is only compounded by a change in the respawn system. When you lose all of your health you will be downed and your fire-team will be responsible for reviving you. The implementation of the cooperative elements are shaky at best and broken at worst, removing any real sense of tension from encounters as you and your team can just have one person camp and berate enemies without risk of failure. Thanks to the sound, animation and responsiveness of the controls the game at least FEELS good to play (though mantling can be a bit wonky and there is a strange dead zone in the right stick that makes aiming feel slightly staggered).

    Barely clocking in at 5 hours, the game has no real momentum. You will not be introduced to new gameplay ideas as you move forward or encounter any substantial challenges. For the most part, the game is a random string of set pieces; where you start is where you’ll be until the end. The pacing also suffers from the strange inclusion of…walking (?) missions. You have no control over how these play out, so they are basically glorified cutscenes. I feel that this is emblematic of the key difference between Bungie and 343i as studios. The Bungie games DID have this element to them; you could walk around, listen in on conversations and find easter eggs during the calm moments of a mission, but it was optional. Bungie fleshed out the feel of the world by including details that you could miss. They had confidence in the player that they’d want to explore and take in the world, so they fed that curiosity - encouraged it. 343i seems a bit more insecure in this regard, grabbing the player by the arm and pointing at all of their hard work - leaving nothing to find for yourself. This element of game was a real asset in the way it was implemented by Bungie, but in Halo 5 it only stifles progression. The situation isn’t helped by the fact that there are a few repeat levels that are simply played in reverse the second time through and repeat boss fights that do nothing to change up your approach. All in all the campaign feels flat and thoughtless.

    The plot is a one-note symphony, over almost as soon as it begins. Characters are devoid of personality, motivation or growth. This is Star-Wars-prequels bad. Dialogue is horrid and easily swappable amongst anyone in any context of the story. Gems like, “Are we fighting a losing battle? - Only if we intend on losing.” are riddled throughout the campaign. It doesn’t get much more shallow than what you see here.

    From a technical standpoint, Halo 5 locks down what it needs to...for the most part. There are rare instances of the game spawning you inside of the level geometry or over nothing; this is as bad as it gets within the campaign and is really the only instance of technical mishaps having an effect on gameplay. Other issues are noticeable, but do not affect how you play: The most noticeable of which is jittering in the geometry - similar to what you’d see commonly on a PS1. Eyes shake in a characters head, hands tremble and level details quake. It’s strange. Pop-in is also a common problem regardless of draw distance, even within in-engine cutscenes. Sometimes enemy animations will fall to staggeringly low frame rates. Shadows are also missing in some scenes where god rays are rampant. When there is a large amount of action on screen, the resolution will fall. etc etc etc

    The atmosphere of this game is solid. The sound quality is wonderful, with more variation in design than Halo 4. The score is a great reimagining of past themes, giving new life to what we all know and love. The visual design is still about as convoluted as Halo 4. Colors are muddy - textures are plastic'y with overly complex geometry that fails to direct your eye (this can and does have an affect on gameplay). But in all, the atmosphere is on point.

    MULTIPLAYER:
    - Only 14 unique maps (A-11/ W- 3) making the rotation grow stale
    - Maps are corridor heavy and too similar
    - REQ system is frivolous - does not scale adequately to performance (1.5 hrs = Gold pack)
    - XP system's front heavy
    - Randomized reward=inconsequential    … Expand
  70. PigsR4Eating
    Nov 10, 2015
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is the worst halo game I have played including multiplayer and single player. I have played halo 1 through 4 and reach usually the day they were released. I had high hopes for 343 after reach and halo 4. You barely play as the master chief. Locke is the most uninteresting character in the halo universe. They seem to have made him black for the sake of diversity and decided thats enough we don't need to flesh this character out. I was waiting the whole game for the scene in the trailer where locke is broken down in front of the statue so I could put him down. Sergeant johnson was stereotypical but still a great character. It's like they didn't even try with locke. Anyone in his fire team would have been a better lead. The game play is repetitive. I found myself skipping entire sections of the game as Locke because I had no interest in what red team was doing. Almost none of what 343 led us to believe would be in the game from teaser trailers was in the game. Game was beaten on Heroic. I personally don't mind the absence of split screen but many fans wanted it so it should have been included. There is online co op but no matchmaking. I am likely forgetting more negatives anyway the campaign is a pile of garbage. I purchased an xbox one a week ago for this game and am already considering selling it. I read some of the books, the original spartans ans everyone on his team were given growth hormones as teens and were all typically a head taller than the average adult. In the games the spartans are bigger. Now locke and all the new spartans as I understand are just regular albeit very talented soldiers in spartan suits. Why are they the same size as the originals? The opening scene where lockes team slides down that hill is rediculous. In past games you have hunted down the leader of the heretics, even been in shootouts with him. They have locke or his team kill him off in a cutscene to simply further how badass we are supposed to think he is.

    The multiplayer is also a dissapointment. I don't play much warzone as I consistently find myself getting bored before the match is over. I also have 20+ hours into multiplayer am level 29 and I think I have 2 unique weapons unlocked. I don't have a problem with them charging for requisitions my issue is how long it takes to get them. I don't see the vast majority of players getting very far with this system. I primarily play team arena. Off the top of my head 3 maps are old maps and aside from that while the new maps are well designed they get repetitive very quickly. I don't understand how a series with such a vast majority of maps can fail to utilize them in this game. My biggest complaint however is the matchmaking. I have always been a 1 to 1.5 KD player, lets just say I am average. I got placed as platinum. I am constantly getting placed with opponents who are far better at this game than me. And when that isn't the case my teammate is in that position. I noticed people constantly quitting. 343 doesn't replace team mates who quit they claim so that no one will be put into a losing game and have their rank damaged. Heres an idea idiots replace missing players and just DONT adjust their rank for that game. I initially got frustrated by quitting teammates. I came to realize that matchmaking is broken. So now if my kd drops below .5 I quit. And i quit a lot. I will beat halo 6 someday, I want to see where this story goes. But I will either buy a copy used or play it at a friends. WORST HALO EVER 343    … Expand
  71. dacritic82
    Oct 31, 2015
    7
    Halo 5 is a big disappointment for me in many ways.  Having spent many hours in multiplayer mode, and being almost about to complete the campaign for the second time, I have to say that 343i has learned barely nothing in all these years.

    Let's first talk about the good. - Playing as a fireteam. I truly like it. I'm personally not too fond of the whole 'one guy saving the universe'    Halo 5 is a big disappointment for me in many ways.  Having spent many hours in multiplayer mode, and being almost about to complete the campaign for the second time, I have to say that 343i has learned barely nothing in all these years.

    Let's first talk about the good.

    - Playing as a fireteam. I truly like it. I'm personally not too fond of the whole 'one guy saving the universe' thing we've seen over and over so many times, so this was a great addition. AI works as well as you can expect, so I hope they stick to this for future releases.

    - Warzone. It's great to have a PvP mode with ads storming in. Unfortunately, I've been able to play this mode only twice because of the crappy servers.

    - Weapons sounds. They really sound nice.

    Now, the bad.

    - Graphics. Though the visuals are good, the graphics seem rather outdated. Come on, it's 2015 and most of the metallic surfaces look plastic. Also, some weapons look like toys. There's a general lack of details, which makes look the game a couple of years old.

    - The story. To be honest, it's rather underwhelming (and predictable). The trailers were misleading in a lot of aspects, but I'm not going to go into too many details so I don't spoil anything for you.

    - Microtransactions. This is something very discouraging for a lot of people, me included. When you introduce the pay-to-win concept into your business model, it unbalances the game. Fortunately, it only affects Warzone, so if you want to stay out of it, just play Arena.

    - Couch co-op is gone. Yeah, it's gone. You can kiss the evenings with your pals goodbye. 343i said they were doing this because they were prioritizing graphics quality. I honestly believe it's a ton of horse crap. The graphics are barely acceptable, so I don't see how split screen could possibly harm the quality.

    - Lack of content. After you complete the main campaign, which should take you around 10 hours, you are left with nothing but the multiplayer mode. There's absolutely no end-game content. I know 343i announced content is on the way (probably by December), but I just can't overlook the fact that they shipped the game knowing it wasn't complete.

    - Customization. During the main campaign there's absolutely nothing you can customize. I know this is something that all the Halo share, but I think it's about time to do something in this department. For PvP you can customize your ID, weapon skin (only the color) and pieces of armor, but you can't configure loadouts. I wish we could select the weapons to spawn with from a basic armory (nothing acquirable from REQ packs).

    - A feeling of general underdevelopment. After spending several hours with the game I got the feeling that A) there's little innovation when comparing to Halo 4. B) Most of its competitors have a lot more to offer technically and in terms of content and features.
     
    I can only think of 2 possibilities for this half-assed release: either it was rushed out the door, or this is the best the designers had to offer. In any case 343i should have known better.    … Expand
  72. NekoMike13
    Nov 13, 2015
    7
    You will not be able to fully enjoy this game... unless you are a Halo fanboy. Despite of the awesome movements and the engine, this game expirience is reserved for those who have been with the game since the beginning.
  73. GucciBalboa
    Nov 15, 2015
    5
    The campaign was very disappointing for me the trailers made it look so much better than it actually is. Multiplayer is fun but the absence of split screen seriously hurts the experience Halo has always been a game me and my friends/family would play at home together i cant believe they left out such a crucial feature there's no really excuse for it the other halo's had split screen onThe campaign was very disappointing for me the trailers made it look so much better than it actually is. Multiplayer is fun but the absence of split screen seriously hurts the experience Halo has always been a game me and my friends/family would play at home together i cant believe they left out such a crucial feature there's no really excuse for it the other halo's had split screen on weaker hardware. I have lost all my faith in 343 I gave them the benefit of the doubt with Halo 4 since it was their first Halo game but after this and Halo MCC I've come to believe they haven't got the skill or passion to make a good Halo game.… Expand
  74. MooseSpoon
    Nov 3, 2015
    6
    Good but not great.

    The game has some decent graphics, but at the same time very poor graphics with low res, bad lighting, and pop in. The campaign lets you play as two characters, but the story line is very stretched and convoluted. Campaign levels though very beautiful (particularly Genesis) feel very linear. The campaign also is relatively short. Multiplayer is pretty good. It    Good but not great.

    The game has some decent graphics, but at the same time very poor graphics with low res, bad lighting, and pop in.

    The campaign lets you play as two characters, but the story line is very stretched and convoluted. Campaign levels though very beautiful (particularly Genesis) feel very linear. The campaign also is relatively short.

    Multiplayer is pretty good. It is chaotic and has new game modes. If you're a fan of Halo multiplayer, you will not be disappointed.

    Overall, this game is a solid addition to the halo universe but not one with a lot of luster.    … Expand
  75. Monkiman300
    Nov 12, 2015
    6
    My score averaged my two ratings:

    Campaign - 4/10 Multiplayer - 8/10 The campaign, while visually appealing, is focused more on the new character Locke rather than the fan favorite Master Chief. It also fails completely to deliver any sense of "chase" or such between the two main groups in the game. The advertising gave us an impression of something that just never came to pass.    My score averaged my two ratings:

    Campaign - 4/10
    Multiplayer - 8/10

    The campaign, while visually appealing, is focused more on the new character Locke rather than the fan favorite Master Chief. It also fails completely to deliver any sense of "chase" or such between the two main groups in the game. The advertising gave us an impression of something that just never came to pass.

    The multiplayer however, is a major leap forward for 343. After the horrendous issues with the launch of the Master Chief Collection and the terrible reception of Halo 4, 343 seems to have finally hit their stride when it comes to multiplayer Halo. For those that want classes and crazy Call of Duty gameplay there's Warzone. While the more hardcore players can jump into Arena for some classic and satisfying small team PVP. I haven't enjoyed PVP this much in a Halo game since Halo 3, and it seems my patience has paid off.

    Social playlists are desperately needed however to filter the casual masses from the more hardcore sections of the community. The lack of social playlists and the seeming broken ranking system are the only reasons why I didn't give the multiplayer a 10/10.

    In short, the campaign is barely capable while the multiplayer shines brighter than anything 343 has produced to date. I hope to teabag you on the battlefield spartan.

    Happy with Halo again,

    Monkiman300    … Expand
  76. Gloudemans
    Nov 5, 2015
    6
    Gameplay is solid as usual. Maps are huge compared to past Halos. But Story is just awful and ultimately nonsensical.

    (Why is that Cortana needs the master chief? No answer. Why is it Cortana's minions are fighting him when she wants him close? Nope, no answer. Why is it that its so important to rescue the Master Chief? Nope, no answer agai! Why do the soldiers keep saying that    Gameplay is solid as usual. Maps are huge compared to past Halos. But Story is just awful and ultimately nonsensical.

    (Why is that Cortana needs the master chief? No answer. Why is it Cortana's minions are fighting him when she wants him close? Nope, no answer. Why is it that its so important to rescue the Master Chief? Nope, no answer agai! Why do the soldiers keep saying that only the Master Chief can stop Cortana? Nope -- a bunch of useless suspense to make the game keep moving.)

    The game has also taken an unfortunate campy star treky turn with lots of odd references to characters and events that make no sense unless I suppose you read the comic books. Comic booky, or Japanese Manga really seems the goal of the producers here, replete with the inclusion of "samarai" soldiers wielding swords and Gundum wing style spaceships. I could do without both.    … Expand
  77. leopoldo
    Nov 20, 2015
    7
    Halo 5: Guardians is an exclusive that promised much but accomplished little. The story of the new Halo had a great proposal, however, was very poorly built in the game, the rivalry between Master Chief and Lockey, which was presented in the trailers was very poorly crafted as well. It was a weak story, but at least the gameplay is great, works great and adds positive points in the HaloHalo 5: Guardians is an exclusive that promised much but accomplished little. The story of the new Halo had a great proposal, however, was very poorly built in the game, the rivalry between Master Chief and Lockey, which was presented in the trailers was very poorly crafted as well. It was a weak story, but at least the gameplay is great, works great and adds positive points in the Halo saga. Visually, it's one of the nicest currently is beautiful as well as its soundtrack. The multiplayer is the best thing in the game, but the game has micro-transactions, and it almost forces you to buy, and that's the worst thing in the game.Overall, Halo 5 could be one of the best titles of Xbox one, but the weak story and micro-transactions prevented it, at least the visuals, the soundtrack and multiplayer are great. 7/10.… Expand
  78. K0ntr0LFreakK
    Nov 12, 2015
    6
    All in all i liked the game, as a game it is very enjoyable and all Halo games have been a bit tedious especially in the campaign but still great. The problem I have with the game is a lot of the Halo element was removed, nothing remains stagnant forever but I just do not find a lot of that Halo feeling in the game. Game play is far from the Classic Halo we were promised through the BETAAll in all i liked the game, as a game it is very enjoyable and all Halo games have been a bit tedious especially in the campaign but still great. The problem I have with the game is a lot of the Halo element was removed, nothing remains stagnant forever but I just do not find a lot of that Halo feeling in the game. Game play is far from the Classic Halo we were promised through the BETA (still great but an epic failure promising classic style game play) and it seems 343 went out of their way to change things that really did not need to be and then failed to acknowledge what their fans asked for in a years time since the BETA. For example sounds of the weapons and vehicles (hang whoever changed the warthog engine sound) which are in a sense minuscule but then we have the herculean mistake of adding ADS (aim down sights). Adding ADS is probably the worst decision made in the game. ADS simply does not belong in Halo, especially the atrocious, half-executed, flinch friendly version the game is currently sporting. ADS is useless for 80% of the weapons in the game, and on the weapons you think you found a use for it on you're much better off firing in traditional Halo Style anyway since you'll flinch and none of the maps are really big enough to need it. The ADS system in this game is at best a broken excuse for the scoping mechanism in the past games. So all in all a great game, but for a die hard Halo fan you will find plenty of disappointment, some of it you will get over and some of it you will accept as a the Halo universe being destroyed and assimilated into another dime a dozen COD, Titanfall, and Battlefield shooter designed to exploit a previously flawlessly executed series that is now nothing more than a cash cow.

    As a game 8/10 as a Halo Installment 4/10.    … Expand
  79. Gramalski
    Nov 13, 2015
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. So these are aspects to the game I feel are worth mentioning ( these are based off of my opinion so expect bias. Also, I"m not a good writer)

    Multiplayer. As always, Halo is a fun multiplayer game. I especially like their new game-type Warzone and Warzone Assault (which reminds of me of Reach's Invasion). Breakout isn't half bad either. Furthermore, I think the mobility adds a new twist to the game (over time, it'd be cool if 343 could allow us to toggle these on and off if we want to play old school). That being said, I'm upset that veto's aren't an option. I'm getting really bored of playing Swatnums and not being able to object to this. Also, I'm not too crazy about gradually adding in game-modes like Big Team Battle and Flood (hopefully). Also, WHAT HAPPENED TO SPLIT SCREEN????? I grew up playing with friends and family at my house. This (I think) is the first Halo Shooter to not offer splitscreen (I said shooter because I forgot if Halo Wars had splitscreen). To summarize, there are new improvements to keep the multiplayer fresh, but there are also missing essentials that made Halo exemplary(mainly split-screen). Hopefully with time, 343 will improve on this.

    Campaign. Okay, so I'm curious what happened here. Not only was the campaign uncharacteristically short, but it felt rushed. I always knew that this game was going to be multiplayer heavy, but this was disappointing. I was expecting some kind of battle between Chief and Locke, not an anticlimactic cut scene that lasted for 4 minutes. Moreover, why couldn't they better explain what happened to Cortana? So to wrap this up, the campaign is a mere shell of what it could have been, because it lacks depth.

    Forge. So obviously I can't talk a lot about this because it has not come out yet. Personally, I'm willing to wait for forge as long as it gives what 343 says it will offer.

    Req Packs: I like this new concept. It's new, and it keeps me wanting to get more.

    So finally, if you're looking for a fun multiplayer experience with friends over xbox, then Halo 5 is for you. Otherwise think it over.    … Expand
  80. Nanotyrano
    Nov 22, 2015
    6
    This is the worst Halo, in my opinion.
    For one, the multiplayer does not fell like a halo game. The HP on Spartans is ridiculously low, and basically, whoever has the bigger gun wins. In the biggest attraction, Warzone, weapons and vehicles don't spawn on map. You have to get territories and kills to get anything other than loadouts. Doing anything by yourself, without people behind you,    This is the worst Halo, in my opinion.
    For one, the multiplayer does not fell like a halo game. The HP on Spartans is ridiculously low, and basically, whoever has the bigger gun wins. In the biggest attraction, Warzone, weapons and vehicles don't spawn on map. You have to get territories and kills to get anything other than loadouts. Doing anything by yourself, without people behind you, in unsuccessful. It doesn't feel like Halo, it is not skill based anymore. Too much aim assist and easy-to-use weapons.
    Campaign is just a bunch of levels, tied together by a unfulfilling, cliché, and weird story. If someone played Halos 1-3, than played this, they wouldn't bee able too tell they are from the same game series.    … Expand
  81. AliceinChains20
    Dec 4, 2015
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. (spoilers ahead)
    Disclaimer: I've been playing Halo since Combat Evolved came out in 2001. I know a good Halo when I see it.

    For all the hype this game had, this has been an extreme disappointment.

    Campaign: Story feels like it was written by a 12 year old after his first time playing Halo 2 and watching Age of Ultron in the same day. They marketed it in such a way that implied character development for Blue Team and Fireteam Osiris. They also highlighted the confrontation between Chief and Locke in a ton of their ads, and they end up getting into ONE fist fight and that's it. Lol really? I expected more tension, more buildup. Blue Team goes AWOL after your first mission with them, at the mere possibility of Cortana being around. Haha does Blue Team have like no loyalty to the UNSC? Things like that made it feel rushed and comic booky. And I wouldn'tve minded a Halo game with little character development if Halo 4's story hadn't started fleshing out Chief and Cortana and if the advertising was more like "big explosions and cool gunfights" instead of "complex plot and multi-dimmensional characters". It feels like we were lied to.
    Multiplayer: This is where Halo 5 wins its points for me. It's a HUGE improvement over the abomination Halo 4's MP was and over the retrospectively 'meh' Halo: Reach. Weapon sandbox feels balanced, with exceptions (nerf lightrifle pls) maps are well thought out (tactically, not creatively) gameplay is fast and fluid, and the possibility to turn a fight around even when someone gets the drop on you makes the game feel like Halo again. MP has weak spots too though. No social playlists (other than warzone which draaaaaags) turns everyone into tryhards. They ditched the voting system (thank u) in favor of map rotation because they wanted the game to feel like it has variety. Unfortunately since map rotation was screwed up the game still feels like it's lacking in variety. No king of the hill, oddball, infection etc. adds to that feeling of "no meat on the bones".
    Plus these maps lack environmental detail. Not SUPER important but when maps like Guardian, Lockout, and Blood Gulch exist you'd think they could make these maps a little more fun to look at.
    I really wish they would just fix the Master Chief Collection so we can play CE, 2 and 3 more consistently T_T    … Expand
  82. iamevilhomer
    Jul 23, 2016
    5
    I actually haven't played the game much so I can't give a very accurate review honestly. But there is a reason why I didn't play it that much... Because I'm a old school halo fan who was seriously into halo when bungie ran the show. 343's take on halo has downgraded so much and changed things so much that it hurts to try and play halo 5 since deep down this isn't the halo game that I wantI actually haven't played the game much so I can't give a very accurate review honestly. But there is a reason why I didn't play it that much... Because I'm a old school halo fan who was seriously into halo when bungie ran the show. 343's take on halo has downgraded so much and changed things so much that it hurts to try and play halo 5 since deep down this isn't the halo game that I want it to be at all... We deserve better than this and you know it...

    Lets start with the good.

    It's a very good looking game. Yeah the xbox one is out dated in tech and a PC could make it look better but hey... It still looks really good.

    The music may not be Marty but hey... They did bring in some classic halo music and it's pretty well done.

    Running around in the game doing things feels very comfortable and proper. The game play of the halo games has always been good and it's nice that 343 can keep that fine element alive in their halo games.

    Forge is awesome. Yeah it got there late which is lame and yeah the controls suck but hey... It's still the most advanced forge yet. You can do some awesome stuff in halo 5 forge... Good luck getting a large party to play with you in your maps lol but hey... It's still a very kool mode in halo 5.

    The dlc is free. Yeah it's mostly stuff that should have been there at launch and yeah all of the dlc has annoying issues but hey... It's free... Even if a lot of it is poo poo lol.

    That's about it for the good...

    The bad...

    Terrible campaign... It's factually the worst quality campaign in a halo game yet. Trust me on this... Only the most deluded 343 fanboys think it's good. Characters are boring and don't get fleshed out. Story doesn't make much sense unless you read the books and even then you will be scratching your head. The advertising of the games story was super misleading. Warden Eternal 24 7 ugh... And the ending is so lame lol.

    The game takes influence from cod so it's very nube friendly and doesn't feel like classic skillful halo at all. With aim down sights, heavy bullet magnetism, ar starts, spartan abilities, hit markers, fast kill times, announcers and spartans giving you tips in game, a flawed rank system, no party restrictions, easy to use spray and prey weapons, etc etc all make this a pretty nube friendly halo game which sucks for the competitive players.

    NO SPLIT SCREEN... This alone makes me not want to play it lol. Split screen is the funnest way to do halo after all... I'm not spending 500-1000 more dollars on another xbox one, copy of halo 5, xbox live sub, and TV just so I can replicate the feeling split screen with my brother. That's just microsoft and 343 trying to get me to be a sucker lol. Sorry jerks... I'm too smart for that stupid trick : )

    Little/lackluster content... At launch you had campaign, like 3 modes of arena, and 2 warzone modes. That's it... Fan favs like griffball, btb, dubs, snipes, forge, infection etc etc didn't show up till later and were very lack luster. Dubs was only there briefly and then got taken away. btb is just poorly done forge maps, and forge has bad controls. Warzone fire fight is nowhere near as good as halo reach fire fight since you can't edit the mode at all.

    And worst of all... A huge problem with modern shooters/video games today... Micro transactions... Supporting this game means you support getting wallet raped by the corporate fat cats... This is my biggest problem with halo 5 and other games just like it. The fact that the game has a system designed to pressure players into wasting money is rotten. I never had to unlock/buy my guns in Halo 3 or Reach... I would just find them on the map lol. Why is it stupid like this now? Oh because the corporate jerks want money lol that's right... This kind of thing does nothing good for the player at all. The devs spent valuable time making this stupid micro transaction system when they could have actually made the game not suck. The whole reason why warzone exists is to suck up your money. That's why we didn't get many playlists at launch and when we finally did they were lack luster. Now we got fire fight warzone which is a disgrace to the name of halo fire fight. It too is mainly just there to pressure people into wasting money on crappy micro transaction req packs...

    So I have to say...

    Halo 5 does 5 things well...

    But also does 5 things poorly...

    I'm not really into the game so I can't give a str8 up super accurate review but it's clearly somewhere between a 4-6 lol. Not a very good game and I don't recommend it. I may not have played it that much but it doesn't take a halo 5 player who's played halo 5 a lot to see that this is the product of a company who doesn't care about your level of fun when it comes to playing the game. You don't even have to play halo 5 to see that obvious fact. Micro transactions and the cutting of split screen alone are enough to let any moron know that they are milking halo more so than they are making a good halo game.    … Expand
  83. Neelyry
    Jan 10, 2016
    6
    This is the most disappointing halo I have ever played, coming from someone who used to win tournaments in Halo 1 and 2. The campaign is flat out sub par. I couldn't believe how lame the story was. No spoilers but the game basically ended in the middle of combat, right when **** was hitting the fan. The ending in mass effect 3 was better. I guess they wanted to set it up for halo 6 insteadThis is the most disappointing halo I have ever played, coming from someone who used to win tournaments in Halo 1 and 2. The campaign is flat out sub par. I couldn't believe how lame the story was. No spoilers but the game basically ended in the middle of combat, right when **** was hitting the fan. The ending in mass effect 3 was better. I guess they wanted to set it up for halo 6 instead of giving a good ending to halo 5. Multiplayer tried to go back to original roots but then micro transactions ruin some game modes. After playing this I see why Bungie sold Halo for destiny, Halo was new two generations ago and its having trouble keeping up. Destiny is far superior and I don't even play it anymore either.… Expand
  84. melonboy
    Dec 31, 2015
    7
    okay I am a Halo fan boy but I have to point out a few things first forge is **** for some reason blocks automaticly parent and you can't unparent it so if one block is on a slite angle you have to delete the whole wall that took you 4 hours to make and make it again second multiplayer is awesome but the gun goose is **** when ever I shoot some one with it it does jack **** but when someokay I am a Halo fan boy but I have to point out a few things first forge is **** for some reason blocks automaticly parent and you can't unparent it so if one block is on a slite angle you have to delete the whole wall that took you 4 hours to make and make it again second multiplayer is awesome but the gun goose is **** when ever I shoot some one with it it does jack **** but when some shoots me with a gun goose it kills me instantly. these problems need to be fixed NOW!… Expand
  85. Filmcritic1
    Apr 28, 2016
    5
    The games true pros are when the game hits 1080p and 60FPS and some of the gunplay is fun. But the poor marketing, crap story, Req system and inaccessibility for new players in multiplayer, Halo 5 Guardians fails to be the system seller Microsoft wanted it to be.
  86. ToxicLuma
    Apr 19, 2016
    7
    Campaign first. Despite being advertised as “Hunt the Truth”, where Locke is hunting down a rogue Master Chief, none of that happened. This game even used an intense podcast to show the corruption in ONI and there were so many possibilities for this game to go. So much potential. What makes me furious is how it failed to do that. Halo is remembered as having great campaigns and competitiveCampaign first. Despite being advertised as “Hunt the Truth”, where Locke is hunting down a rogue Master Chief, none of that happened. This game even used an intense podcast to show the corruption in ONI and there were so many possibilities for this game to go. So much potential. What makes me furious is how it failed to do that. Halo is remembered as having great campaigns and competitive while friendly multiplayer. 343i, after taking over from Bungie, has turned that to ****

    The campaign’s story struggled despite being hyped so much. In my opinion, the campaign was one of the largest disappointments I've seen. However, despite its story, the campaign is enjoyable to play. The missions are created nicely and the level design is phenomenal, probably one of the best I've seen in Halo. I have always been a fan of fighting in teams so playing with an entire firefight squad was awesome and greatly appreciated. However, this campaign focused way too much on Spartan Locke and Fireteam Osiris. In my humble opinion: NO ONE CARES ABOUT THESE SCRUBS. From Halo: CE we’ve been playing as Master Chief and he is who we want to play as (and the Arbiter too. Too bad we couldn’t play as him). There were lots of ways this campaign could’ve went. It didn’t go completely south, but it sure got close to it.

    Now the bread and butter of Halo 5. The multiplayer. In my opinion, this is one of the best Halo multiplayers. Period. Getting rid of armor abilities was the smartest decision 343i has probably made. Adding in Spartan Abilities: Ground Pound, Spartan Dash, and Spartan Charge were an interesting decision. The first use of aim-down sights in Halo was also a VERY revolutionary thing to be doing in Halo. These quick add-ons done by 343i quickened the pace of the game and makes everything even more hectic than before. Though Halo feels completely different, the multiplayer is a wonder. Split into Warzone and Arena, players can choose what gametypes fit them. As each month comes by, 343i creates even more gametypes and maps to use. Along with this are new and more types of armor and aesthetic options. Yes! The DLC is FREE! Also, players’ Spartans are more customizable than ever. More different armor types, stances, assassinations, etc. There are also REQs (requisitions) that can be called in during Warzone. These include different variants of weapons so there are now more ways to kill. There’s lot to love about Halo 5 multiplayer. However, the biggest downfall is its lack of split-screen...

    Despite what you may think, Halo 5's microtransations are not required to succeed. However, I still wished those microtransactions and REQ points were not a thing.

    In the end, there are lots to love but lots to hate. Halo 5 revolutionized the way we view the Halo Franchise. But the question is, is it good or bad? I'm not entirely sure yet. (Split screen would help)

    *Sorry if I was trying to represent everyone by saying "we". These are my opinions and you may think differently.    … Expand
  87. EcchiMegane
    Nov 25, 2019
    7
    After disliking the direction the story took in 4, I put off playing 5 for the longest time... but finally I tried it. It's actually quite good! The story is much better than in 4, the only big negative for me is the lack of a co-op feature, for which I had to take 3 points off because as a long-time Halo fan, the co-op campaign was very important to me.
  88. Alfa07
    Dec 11, 2019
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The game isn't bad, but far of what Halo saga is.
    And the uggly fake commercial campaign.    … Expand
  89. MisterNguyen
    Oct 28, 2015
    7
    Halo 5: Guardians has a very flawed campaign. The plot makes little sense to those who have yet to acquaint themselves with the various novels and comic books that precede the story. The missions themselves are unmemorable, and they're not worthy of a second run-through; although I might give it a shot for the sake of collecting skulls and intel. For those who are expecting to play more asHalo 5: Guardians has a very flawed campaign. The plot makes little sense to those who have yet to acquaint themselves with the various novels and comic books that precede the story. The missions themselves are unmemorable, and they're not worthy of a second run-through; although I might give it a shot for the sake of collecting skulls and intel. For those who are expecting to play more as Master Chief, you'll be disappointed. You will instead spend roughly 70% of the game controlling Locke.

    The prometheans are doubtlessly the worst enemy type to fight against. It's not that they are difficult to deal with, but rather they provide an unrewarding gameplay experience. 343, can you bring the Flood back?

    Multiplayer is decent, but it no longer possesses that classic Halo feel. 343 Industries had abandoned it for a more fast-paced, Call-of-Duty-esque type of gameplay to attract more casual fans.

    Not worth the $60 price tag. Wait for it to go on sale.    … Expand
  90. H1P1
    Oct 29, 2015
    6
    Dear 343, stop worrying about how to make a halo game and learn how to make a GAME. The only thing that matters is: is the game fun? The answer here is no. First up story: keep it simple and engage players with epic consequences. No one gives a f*** about Cortana! The story is messy, convoluted and boring, with cheesy forgettable characters. Second up gameplay: an improvement on halo 4Dear 343, stop worrying about how to make a halo game and learn how to make a GAME. The only thing that matters is: is the game fun? The answer here is no. First up story: keep it simple and engage players with epic consequences. No one gives a f*** about Cortana! The story is messy, convoluted and boring, with cheesy forgettable characters. Second up gameplay: an improvement on halo 4 (yay) but ultimately still boring as well. All of your levels are just shooting galleries with no creativity. The promethian enemies are boring, which is not helped by the fact you have 3 types of guns for every tier which all do the same thing. Cut the number of guns and instead and make them more diverse to make battles more interesting. The second part to this is stop reusing old ideas! How many times do we need to blow up a reactor? Steal ideas (i.e. put your stamp on it) don't copy them. Multiple perspectives in halo 2 was fun because the covenant was an interesting enemy. Here no one cares about locke! We care about masterchief so let us play as him! Big mistake having no offline co-op as this made the game stand out. On top of that the music scores are pathetic! Take some money out of the graphics budget and pay a proper orchestra instead of this electronic crap with no character. Epic sound enhances the atmosphere of battles! So ultimately what happens when you have a weak story, boring missions, no offline co op and no atmosphere? A boring game that i can't even play with my friend! When it comes down to it, halo exists only to service its most die hard fans because there is nothing here for anyone else.… Expand
  91. DerangedPoteto
    Oct 28, 2015
    7
    Halo 5 is at the lower end of the series for me while the new welcome of war zone is a fun addition and arena is classic halo at it's best. What brings it down for me is the campaign (I don't mind the fact that we spend 80% of the game controlling him it's that it feels really short and it never gives much insite to why so fourth is happening never less I'm really looking forward to halo 6.
  92. Ecto1
    Oct 29, 2015
    7
    Its certainly not a bad game. However, the staples for me are not there any more. No split screen, not a great SP campaign or story and the multi-player just doesn't feel like Halo any more. That said, I'm loving the new mp game types quite a lot, especially the arena based one (except for warzone odly enough, thought I would have liked that the most)

    I don't regret my purchase, but I    Its certainly not a bad game. However, the staples for me are not there any more. No split screen, not a great SP campaign or story and the multi-player just doesn't feel like Halo any more. That said, I'm loving the new mp game types quite a lot, especially the arena based one (except for warzone odly enough, thought I would have liked that the most)

    I don't regret my purchase, but I don't think I'll be buying Halo 6 at launch, nor do I think I'll be playing Halo 5 for much longer.    … Expand
  93. Understated
    Oct 29, 2015
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. "Oh John!" ....... "Cortana?" Some fighting. "Cortana, is that you?" ....... "John". And more fighting and battling. "Cortana, where are you?" ....... "Johhhhn!" And more fighting. Around this point in the game I couldn't help but laugh a little and wonder to myself just how much more convoluted and lacking creativity and inspiration could this series get in its story telling and lore. I mean is this it? The further adventures of an augmented modified hero and his love affair with a neurotic self-aware transcendant turned goddess computer program? 343 is, or has backed itself into a 'virtual' story telling corner. There are certainly interesting 'elements' in the story fabric, but it is not knitted together well. And while the fighting and production value ramp up the heat, the story does not or is it lore I would tell sitting around any campfire. Being an artist/painter I am amazed at what is being done graphically digitally in gaming and this developer has designed an attractive illusion. It was fun to look around in some of the environments, explore a little. Actually, one of the more touching moments in the game was during one of the none fighting missions later in this 'saga'. You are in an encampment with Dr. Halsey, the Arbiter, your team, and numerous elites, grunts, and a few humans gathering and sharing intel and plans for the next operation/mission. Just walking around and listening in as the grunts and elites banter was fun. The music is very good, so much so that at times I felt it overpowered everything else going on in the game. Beethoven experienced this when composing his overtures and oratorios. His musical efforts became stand alone pieces. I completed the campaign in roughly 10 hrs. in normal mode (a bit of looking around for skulls, data caches, and environmental vistas and detail), 1400 kills, and a few deaths caused by falling off some of those beautiful vistas, being pushed off in one instance by team members, and killed by enemies. At times I felt as though I was playing alone due to the 'behaviors' of my team members. Most notably during combat. Sometimes they would just stand around doing nothing behind an obstruction or even out in the open during the heat of action. And of course the enemies would zero in on me primarily. I can't really grade the multiplayer, although I tried to play it. Don't care for micro transactions utilized in competitive modes in any game where it gives advantages other than skill. I enjoy playing Halos' multiplayer modes when it is with known friends only (there continues to remain for me an absurdity in these times that people attempt to destroy each other in the virtual world globally in a game and they don't have any knowledge of who those others may be, and for what?). I played this game in two 5 hr. sessions. A kind of mini-marathon. I have no interest in playng it again. When the next installment arrives, I will probibly play it. But I will be reticent based on what I have experienced with this 'episode'. The story, like the production values, needs to evolve. The writers, like their 'Arbiter', need to have a little grit, courage, risk, and exercise some creativity and not pander to the previous successes, expectations, and influences. How about a story ''arrived at' rather than one 'expected'. There is plenty of nerdy goodness in this fifth episode but little Shakespeare. There could have been some real pathos, but it is only hinted at.… Expand
  94. SydTheDog
    Nov 2, 2015
    6
    Halo V's story mode was very mediocre and a bit boring for me and just found myself having to grind through it. But the multiplayer is not to bad as been having so great fun on it
  95. Alex283zs
    Nov 2, 2015
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Halo 5: Guardians representa la evolución más grande y más arriesgada que 343 industries pudo haber tomado, riesgos que Bungie no se hubiera atrevido a tomar, lo cual se agradece. Sin embargo, fueron sus mismos verdugos al prometer una campaña espectacular, la más ambiciosa hasta el momento y la más oscura de la saga. Desde los tráiler y la campaña publicitaria de Hunt the truth, Halo 5 nos presentaba un panorama completamente terrible para cualquier fan de la historia del Jefe Maestro, presentándonos al nuevo personaje, el Spartan Jameson Locke, el encargado de cazar y matar al Jefe Maestro. Y como fan de Halo, esta campaña es la más espectacular y a la vez, más decepcionante de toda la saga.

    Campaña (Sin spoilers)
    La campaña es dirigida para los fans de Halo, quien no este relacionado con los libros, el comic de escalation y demás, puede perderse en el transcurso de la trama, sin embargo, la historia se desarrolla muy rápida, durante mi paso por las 15 misiones de la historia, que no solo fueron decepcionantes en cuanto a lo prometido, si no que aun en la dificultad Heroica se sienten muy cortas. En cuanto a la dificultad legendaria, esta a la altura del mismo Halo 2. ¿Recuerdan el tráiler anunciando la muerte del jefe? ¿Las 2 verdades, tanto del jefe como de Locke? Nada de esto pasa en la campaña. La rivalidad que se nos fue prometida no solo no cumple, si no que ni siquiera existe en el juego. Y, para terminar de darle el golpe final a un fan de Halo, el legendario Blue Team solo participa en un 20% de la campaña, sin embargo, tienen las misiones más complicadas de no solo el juego, posiblemente de toda la saga.
    El equipo que te acompaña durante las misiones esta bien balanceado, no hacen todo el trabajo por ti, pero tampoco están de adorno, la opción de darles ordenes tanto para atacar como para ir a un lugar especifico hace el juego un tanto más táctico, sin embargo, la IA de estos puede llegar a ser frustrante.
    Los escenarios son enormes, con muchas zonas para explorar y mucho para investigar.

    Se podría decir que la misma publicidad del juego fue el principal problema. Al final resulto ser un fraude. sin embargo, es una campaña que, como fan, disfrute de principio a fin.

    Multijugador.
    El multijugador recoge todo lo bueno de los anteriores juegos de Halo, lo justo para hacer que un veterano se sienta a gusto en las nuevas mecánicas. Adictivo y a la vez muy competitivo.
    Las nuevas habilidades ofrecen mejores formas para enfrentar a los enemigos, estas también ayudan a balancear el juego. A pesar de que el juego tiene pocos días de vida, el contenido que se ira adicionando sin duda lo hará mejor.

    Warzone.

    Warzone es sin duda la carta más fuerte del juego, el modo de juego más adictivo. Las luchas de 12vs12 y los enemigos de la IA lo hace un juego frenético y lleno de acción en cada esquina de los ya enormes mapas. Los cientos de objetos para desboquear, las cientos de variantes de armas y el balanceo del competitivo hacen que este juego pueda estar presente por muchos años. Sera una tarea casi imposible desbloquear todo lo que ofrece Warzone.

    En definitiva Halo 5: Guardians es un buen juego, pudo ser mejor, su pecado fue apuntar muy alto, ofrecer lo que no tenia y entregarnos una historia que no le llega ni a los talones a lo que se especulo con cada tráiler antes de su salida. Sin embargo, el futuro de la saga luce prometedor. El final del juego nos hace ver que la verdadera trama oscura puede venir en Halo 6.
    Como fan de Halo, es un juego que debes tener, a pesar de la decepción, sin duda pasaras un buen rato. Aunque si lo que esperabas era la lucha entre Locke y John, lo mejor será que revivas una y otra ves los trailers, acostarte e intentar no llorar... Y llorar.

    Halo 5: Guardians, como fan, se merece un 8 en general. Juzgando solo la campaña, sin duda seria un 7.    … Expand
  96. aidanpscott
    Oct 28, 2015
    7
    Basically, this game does almost nothing Halo 4 did completely wrong, but does a whole lot of new things to mess up!

    - 1 for having no splitscreen and having only 3 blue team missions! This is ridiculous

    and

    -1 for incorporating microtransactions and the Halo 2 ending redux!!!!!!
  97. TrickierStinky
    Oct 29, 2015
    7
    This really does kill me writing this review as I am a major fan of the series, and so wanted to be in awe of this first next-gen episode in the series but playing the campaign something just didn't sit right with me throughout.

    The gameplay of the campaign lets the series down in my opinion! Don't get me wrong the graphics, sound / score and story are all up there for me but what lets    This really does kill me writing this review as I am a major fan of the series, and so wanted to be in awe of this first next-gen episode in the series but playing the campaign something just didn't sit right with me throughout.

    The gameplay of the campaign lets the series down in my opinion! Don't get me wrong the graphics, sound / score and story are all up there for me but what lets it down is the gameplay of the campaign!

    Most levels if not all seem "grindy" and just filler content to get you to the next cutscene! It almost has a feel of it's the same level just with a different surrounding and sometimes a different skin on the enemies. I would even choose the gameplay of Reach over this as it stands which is saying something!    … Expand
  98. MisterMansfield
    Oct 29, 2015
    5
    Here is a quick summary. Multiplayer is 'fine' you have modes you would expect to see in a halo game. However, the maps are kinda bleh and not memorable, you also have less modes than other halo games. Warzone is.... Boring... It reminds me a lot of how 343 hyped Spartan Ops and it ended up falling flat... Yeah that's Warzone. I much rather have Big Team Battle. That was at least fun.Here is a quick summary. Multiplayer is 'fine' you have modes you would expect to see in a halo game. However, the maps are kinda bleh and not memorable, you also have less modes than other halo games. Warzone is.... Boring... It reminds me a lot of how 343 hyped Spartan Ops and it ended up falling flat... Yeah that's Warzone. I much rather have Big Team Battle. That was at least fun. Single player is cookie cutter storyline and you okay 80+% as Spartan Locke's team... AI is pretty dumb too.

    Detailed.
    Multiplayer. I would have to say with any Halo game I spend most of my playtime on multiplayer. I am always happy to see not only competitive modes, but also fun modes like Griffball or infection. This game just has your standard multiplayer options with an additional mode new to the series called Breakout. It's kind of fun, you have a team of 5 each with one life. As for the other modes they all fall flat since it is just a few of 343 maps which each one lack creativity. They don't even bring back any of the fan favorite maps like what other Halo games have done. It makes even a fun mode like Breakout get old FAST since you're only playing on 3 very similar maps. They don't really even have any landmarks that help you identify position.

    WarZone. A cool idea but really slow and really boring. You capture points, kill 'bosses' that are so far off the battle path it just seems like getting to them takes longer than actually killing them. My biggest complaint with this mode is that when you buy REQ pack 90% of the packs are items belonging to this mode. Granted, you can sell them to earn REQ points back but it's still annoying to get something worth 10,000Req to only get 3,000 back.

    SinglePlayer.
    Typical 343 thinking lack of ammo means challenge basically forcing you into picking up weapons you really don't like because they put more than 3 minutes into coding them. Enemies however do die faster than they did in Halo 4 but the story is sooooooo boring.

    Customization. About the same level as it was in Halo 3 except less customization on Emblems and includes micro transactions that give you random pieces you may not want and won't be able to sell...

    For a Halo game this is disappointing. For a game in general it's OK    … Expand
  99. wtrego
    Oct 28, 2015
    7
    The game is awesome and graphics are wonderful, but seriously, no guests online? I can understand no local offline split screen.. but no guests online for coop or multiplayer is just wrong. Now I can't even play Halo with my girlfriend and she was just as excited to get this game as I was! On the plus side, at least Warzone is a lot of fun and the weapons seem pretty well balanced so far.The game is awesome and graphics are wonderful, but seriously, no guests online? I can understand no local offline split screen.. but no guests online for coop or multiplayer is just wrong. Now I can't even play Halo with my girlfriend and she was just as excited to get this game as I was! On the plus side, at least Warzone is a lot of fun and the weapons seem pretty well balanced so far. If you play strictly online with no family or friends playing as your guests, then I would absolutely recommend buying H5.… Expand
  100. Cale
    Oct 31, 2015
    7
    Good: Excellent story and graphics. Squad commands well-implimented. Destiny-style controls allow Guardians to jump right in without learning new controls. Better implemented weapons than 4, including the best iteration of the assault rifle in the entire franchise.
    Bad: Rare to non-existent UNSC weapons and ammo in story mode, the story is not complete in itself and has quite a bit of    Good: Excellent story and graphics. Squad commands well-implimented. Destiny-style controls allow Guardians to jump right in without learning new controls. Better implemented weapons than 4, including the best iteration of the assault rifle in the entire franchise.
    Bad: Rare to non-existent UNSC weapons and ammo in story mode, the story is not complete in itself and has quite a bit of padding. Multiplayer suffers due to insane sniping ranges, unavoidable sniper alleys and no way to know there is a sniper at all. Way too easy to kill and be killed. PvE elements seem like an afterthought and aren't very persistent. Spawn-camping is very easy to set up and maintain. REQ system makes little sense and leaves you vulnerable.
    Verdict: While I enjoyed myself a great deal, I prefer Destiny's crucible when it comes to multiplayer, which is pretty much the main reason anyone plays any halo game longer than a few weeks. Weak replay value except for completionists and hardcore fans of the series, and still no solo content outside of the campaign. While much better than 4 and the whole of the CoD franchise, it still loses to Reach and ODST within it's own.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

17
#17 Best Xbox One Game of 2015
1
#1 Most Discussed Xbox One Game of 2015
1
#1 Most Shared Xbox One Game of 2015

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
84

Generally favorable reviews - based on 101 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 89 out of 101
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 101
  3. Negative: 0 out of 101
  1. The Jimquisition
    Jan 20, 2016
    65
    Halo 5: Guardians is okay. Its campaign is rubbish, but the multiplayer is solid thanks to the foundation it’s built upon. Warzone is a really enjoyable experience, and while combat is still mostly about tossing grenades and hitting the melee button, the whole Requisition gimmick adds some much-needed flavor to proceedings.
    Read full review
  2. CD-Action
    Jan 12, 2016
    75
    The latest Halo is a big deal only for hardcore Halo fans. For me the single player campaign was unbearably pompous and despite 1080p and 60 fps the visuals are not as breathtaking as they once were in Halo 4. The game builds a solid foundation for Halo 6, but it’s not one of those games you absolutely have to play. [13/2015, p.48]
  3. Pelit (Finland)
    Jan 4, 2016
    91
    With a more accessible and engaging story and solid new designs for the Prometheans, Halo 5 is a major improvement over Halo 4. Warzone is a great addition to the multiplayer, though the mode seems to have some game balance issues. [Nov 2015]
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