*** SPOILER ALERT! ***
Disclaimer: This is not a bash at 343, I will make most comparisons with halo 4 to keep it fair.
Halo 5’s campaign is the worst in the series so far. This is a breakdown of why it failed.
> TL;DR
> 1. The story as a stand alone game
> 2. The story as part of the reclaimer saga
> 3. Character development
> 4. Gameplay
> 5. Graphics
1. Halo 5’s story as a stand alone game
As part of story development, there was no main antagonist. Cortana could, and did stop the prometheans if they became too much of a real threat to blue team, she was just having fun. We only had to ‘save’ chief in the last mission.
Essentially, between the campaign of halo 4 and 5 we had spartan ops where we chased Jul mdama for most of the missions, now we have another LONG term chase, this time after chief. Seriously, this story is getting old.
Cortana is possibly evil, we’re not too sure of her motives. She wants to police the galaxy and suppress any threats with the guardians. If cortana held the mantle of responsibility before the human-covenant war, how many trillions of lives would have been saved? Surely this motive is not evil. However if cortana really is evil, we’re heading for a human-machine war like terminator or the matrix. Which of those franchises ENDED well?
The change in the balance of power between the storm covenant and the swords of samghellios develops too fast and is not at all convincing. We have to rescue the arbiter from certain peril in one mission when the storm have surrounded him. Then in another mission, the table has suddenly turned and we destroy the storm.
Lasky tells Osiris that humans cannot get involved in the war, yet they still help to defeat the storm despite them having the upper hand. The arbiter is nothing more than a cameo. He is not integral to the story, we could have gone to any other planet and ‘not get involved’ in some other war.
2. The story as part of the saga
We leave halo 4 with the second season of spartan ops, and Halsey vowing for revenge. Suddenly her loyalties have switched back and as part the main installments, it lacks continuity.
What 343 have not set up now potentially, is (as mentioned before) a human-machine war. Which franchise has successfully ended this war, and how will 343 develop this story differently?
Lastly, halo 5 has ended the war between humans and covenant once and for all. There has never been a halo game without some sort of covenant in it. I am not against the war finally ending, I’m just very cautious with how 343 will deal with this. Will 343 follow through with this or will they just back track like with cortanas death and also chief being MIA (ending halo 3).
3. Character development
As a long time loyal fan of the franchise, the character development in this game disappoints me. There is very little interaction with blue team. Blue team grew up together, fought the covenant together and died together. They are closer than family, why did this game not reflect that? Cortanas motives are very unclear, this is the worst part of the campaign, is she the antagonist or not? She was not portrayed well. Arbiter played nothing more than a cameo. The foundations for buck were laid in ODST yet we saw very little in his characters development, Locke had his foundations laid in nightfall yet he appears to be a boring version of chief. As for the rest of Osiris, they could be killed off in the next game and in wouldn’t care.
4. Gameplay
This was my biggest gripe of the campaign.
Firstly, I completed the game in just over 4 hours. Granted it was on normal, but it shouldn’t be this short.
Next, where were the missions with the unique gameplay, by this I mean things that can only be done in the campaign. For example, in halo 4, we got to drive an overcharged ghost, we got to fly a pelican and a broad sword. In reach, we got to drive a civilian vehicle, operate a MAC canon and fly a falcon with nade launchers, heck there was even an easter egg to fly a pelican/phantom.
I know that in halo 4 QTE were controversial, but in my opinion, I like them. This game had a lot of first person cutscenes or QTEs without any player interaction. This is totally boring. The whole game is cutscenes and ‘point and shoot’, that’s it.
The campaign is 343 to show of their creativity, they have it in them just look at halo 4. There wasn’t even a stealth mission. The only flying mission was part way through with a banshee.
5. Graphics
The graphics in this game are disappointing. It is acceptable to achieve 60fps in the multiplayer, but is 60fps really necessary in the campaign. I’d rather have a solid 1080p in the campaign with great effects with a solid 30fps or even 40fps. While destiny has poor gameplay, the skyboxes were amazing, even considering it was released a offer a year ago. For a flagship game, I’d expect particle effects of the same caliber of batman arkham knight. Even star wars battlefront has better graphics than a flagship game built for one console. I just think that 60fps is not worth it for the campaign.
Also the prerendered cutscenes could be better considering that they are as stated, prerendered.