Halo 5: Guardians Campaign Review

The Verdict

Halo 5: Guardians’ story and structure will likely be divisive among fans of the franchise, but I absolutely loved it. It breathes new life into a franchise whose traditional structure was beginning to get stale. 343 Industries has made some bold changes to the franchise in attempt to evolve Halo into a more modern-feeling game, and most of these changes have been for the better so far.

The systems introduced in Halo 5: Guardians are building toward a brighter future, much like the story is building toward something bigger. There’s certainly still room for 343 to improve upon many of these newly implemented features, but it’s certainly the right step in a promising direction. It's still the same Halo we've grown to love over the years, but better, more evolved.

Stay tuned tomorrow for our review on Halo 5: Guardians' multiplayer. Spoiler: It's always very good from what we've played.

Positives

• Halo 5 continues the franchise’s tradition of smooth, polished gameplay. It doesn’t get much better than this.

• I’ll admit, Halo 4’s storyline dragged for me. Halo 5 is much more enthralling and captivating. It’s short, sure, but it’s definitely entertaining.

• Despite how quickly the campaign flew by, for much of it, I felt, “Where is this going? Nothing’s happened yet.” Then, boom. It happens. The last four or five missions will keep you on the edge of your seat.

• The environments are spectacular, both aesthetically pleasing and functional from a gameplay perspective. The massive set pieces are breathtaking and the planets you’ll visit are varied in look.

• Most maps (missions) are designed the same way — tight corridors that open up into sprawling multi-level areas where you’ll engage in combat with many, many enemies. It feels like Halo 5 was built with co-op multiplayer in mind, giving players multiple routes and options, with plenty of space fight.

• Most of Halo 5’s missions are linear in design. Go from point A to point B, fighting off waves of enemies. However, there are a few missions that suggest something bigger is on the horizon. There are at least two missions that instead of fighting see you walk around and talk to characters. This is unlike anything I’ve seen in past Halo games, and while Halo 5 doesn’t fully tap into this potential, it does suggest something bigger may be on the horizon for the franchise. At this point, it seems like a missed opportunity that 343 Industries hasn’t fully explored, but could we be headed to a more open Halo in the future?

• The soundtrack is perfection, really setting the tone of the game.

• Nathan Fillion’s character, Edward Buck, is probably the most entertaining in the game.

• For years, fans have grown accustomed to the one-on-one time with Master Chief and Cortana. The addition of squadmates allows for new voices and stories to expand upon Halo’s universe. Hearing the back-and-forth is a nice change.

• It just looks so damn pretty in 60 frames per second.

Negatives

• Squad commands, while an improvement to the “Hey, give me your gun” in past games, are still bland. The basic commands — “go there,” “shoot that enemy,” and “revive me” — are functional, but it’s clear Halo 5 is meant to be played with other humans players.

• Your squadmates aren’t the smartest. They are certainly efficient in combat, but if you need reviving they’ll largely ignore the enemies and come to aid you. Unfortunately, because they don’t kill the enemies first, they end up dying in the process.

• The whole Spartan Locke/Master Chief rivalry was a bit disappointing and lackluster in general.

• Master Chief’s Blue Team is far more boring than Spartan Locke’s Fireteam Osiris.

• Would’ve liked to see more “character” from Spartan Locke instead of a guy whose main goal is to just complete the mission assigned to him. With all the personality within Fireteam Osiris, it’s a shame he didn’t get some of it.

Neutral

• Fans of the Halo franchise might be a bit taken aback that Spartan Locke gets the majority of screentime in the campaign. Master Chief may be the poster boy of the franchise, and he’s still the main character (as it’s largely his story), but he’s not the character you play most as in the campaign.

• I know Halo is all about alien technology, but I wish I could use the standard UNSC weapons more. Maybe I’m just a boring traditionalist.

• There must be a bigger purpose for Spartan Locke and Fireteam Osiris. To exist solely as a team to hunt Master Chief just seems like a wasted opportunity. As Halo 5 is largely a story about Master Chief, I’m not sure why it would split so much time with you as Spartan Locke. In fact, the same story, with largely the same premise (minus the whole hunting Master Chief thing), could exist without Fireteam Osiris, so I’m expecting something bigger planned in the future.

• If you’re okay with cliffhangers, you’ll love the ending. There’s no big resolution, but it’s satisfying regardless. Like I said, it’s The Empire Strikes Back.

If Halo is Star Wars, then consider Halo 5: Guardians the equivalent of The Empire Strikes Back. Much like the sequel to A New Hope, Halo 5 is bigger, bolder, and darker than its predecessor. And while ranking the original Star Wars trilogy is always a debatable subject, Halo 5 is undoubtedly a better game overall than Halo 4, and possibly any of the previous games in the franchise, which dates all the way back to 2001.

Halo 5: Guardians is the continuation of the Reclaimer Saga, which began with Halo 4 in 2012. As such, it continues the story of Master Chief and the battle against the Prometheans. The big difference is Master Chief now shares the spotlight with newcomer Spartan Jameson Locke, leader of Fireteam Osiris.

Throughout the seemingly short campaign, you’ll switch off playing as both Master Chief and Spartan Locke, as each have their own missions that intertwine with one another. And though Master Chief has been the face of the Halo franchise for years, Locke surprisingly gets more screentime.

Halo 5 is built with multiplayer in mind. As such, both main characters command their respective teams. Though undoubtedly a better experience with the drop-in/drop-out multiplayer, I played the campaign alone, assigning orders to my squadmates. This new “mechanic” coupled with excellent gunplay, varied maps, and a captivating storyline make Halo 5: Guardians an impressive addition to the already stellar franchise.

Note: This review is for the campaign portion of Halo 5: Guardians. We are waiting for servers to go live to fully review the multiplayer component.