Dear Friends, Players, Romans, 343,
Let me start off by saying that I’m a fan of the games, and the early books. I’ve been playing since Halo CE and spent countless hours in 2,3, Reach, and a little bit of 4.
So what I’m trying to say is… this post is out of love, and in love sometimes you need to be brutally honest, like the time I had to tell my gf that her beta fish had “gone to heaven” because I cleaned the tank and forgot to take the fish out first.
So here goes.
I think Halo 5 has some serious issues.
First, the campaign. it’s too short, the “hunt the truth” marketing was a hair short of BS, the repeated Warden fights offered nothing new, your AI squadmates are about as smart and as interesting as a sack of bricks (except Buck), not to mention the unexplained plot points and characters-- and no, you can’t use “read the books and comics, find all the intel, watch the movies, have lunch with the writers” as an argument. Ain’t nobody got time for dat, and even if they did, the fact remains that the storytelling here is probably the weakest in the series.
This is disappointing because Halo 4’s campaign kicked -Yoink-. It had emotion. It had ups and downs and surprises. I’m not saying Guardians has none, but IMHO its campaign falls short of its predecessors in nearly every way. Every other game in the series also made you feel like you were dealing with a galaxy-level threat. More than just telling you, it showed you. Halo 5 kinda leaves the latter part out. The story more or less shoves it down your throat after 10+ missions of Hide n’ Chief. Plot-structure flaws could easily be overlooked if the characters were interesting, but they’re just not. Blue Team? Who Team? There’s almost no complexity; Cortana’s rampancy had potential, but again, too little too late. Even the minor characters sucked. Seriously, think back to Halo CE, 2, 3, and even some of 4. The marines had great dialogue and made for awesome comic relief and cannon fodder, instead of the awkward and shoehorned dialogue you get from the soldiers on Meridian. It takes itself too seriously for having so many characters. Halo 4 could do serious because it’s mainly about MC and Cortana, but in Halo 5 you’ve got enough Spartans to party. It’s like Buck is the only one who’s having fun amid all the crazy -Yoink- going on, and that’s only because he’s still secretly the space cowboy from Firefly. I understand that 343 had a lot to touch on this time around, but it was just all executed so… blandly.
Don’t get me wrong, the campaign does a lot of things well. The worlds are beautiful and the level of care that went into designing every asset is obvious. Here’s hoping for a better campaign in Halo 6.
As for multiplayer… it’s really -Yoink!- sweet. When it comes to the feel, handling, and balance, I think 343 knocked it out of the park and into the next one. My only critique at launch would be that the map and game type selection feels really really limited.
Maybe throw in a little BR Slayer or Team DMRs here and there, you know? I’m excited to try out Shotty Snipers this weekend, and I really hope Snipers becomes a permanent playlist. Speaking of which, I think Halo could use a few more casual playlists. I’ve seen the custom game settings. We can get real freaky here. Cause let’s be real, action sack in Halo 4 was pretty much casual-ish slayer. I think what a significant number of players want to see (that aren’t dedicated enough to go on this forum and say it) is the option of totally whacked out game modes. I’m talking Tower of Power (though on what map, I dunno right now), Zombies, those types of games. Anybody remember Grifball? How awesome would that be with the new movement mechanics and breakout maps? We don’t have rocket league on Xbox One yet so 343 could fill an important niche with warthog soccer. Heck throw in some vintage juggernaut. Honestly I don’t know why these types of games weren’t included at launch, because from experience they’re the ones that my friends would see me play and go “dang, that looks fun.” My point is, we’ve got this huge focus on eSports and making Halo competitive again after it was taken off the MLG circuit, and that’s great, but we can’t forget to have some balls-out crazy fun, because that keeps a community together just as much as wanting to be l33t and all that -Yoink-.
PS 343 yall need to find Martin O’Donell
PPS on a serious note, split screen. Please make sure Halo 6 has it. That’s AT LEAST a 25% increase in fun right there.