Halo 5 is supposed to be about change. All the Halo fans out there, I once felt your similar pain. I once thought that Halo 5 was going to wreck the series, that Halo 5 was going to be the worse Halo game. But I read something about 343i. The comment said that 343 is simply trying to make Halo next generation. Sure, it may or may not have four player split screen, or your common No Scope Assault Rifle, but does that mean the game is going to be bad? Here is my answer.
No.
343 have been hard at work with Halo 5, and they are still a newer company, I mean, they have only come out with a few Halo games, one of the bigger ones obviously being Halo 4. And I do know that it lost a major amount of players. But that may or may not have been for Halo reasons. Who knows, maybe someone accidentally wrecked their Xbox while playing the game and it took them a month or two, maybe longer to get it back? Not everything is on 343i’s side. Sometimes, the player can make the wrong choice about what they play.
As a proud Halo fangirl, I did get irritated in the beginning when they introduced us with the Thruster that used to be an armor ability that is now currently in your Default Controller Scheme. But, after looking at opinions towards Halo 5, some good and some bad, I started to feel really bad about the hate that 343i was getting. In fact, I nearly wanted to shout at everyone who said something bad. And I mean bad, not Constructive Criticism that the good players give to the new owners of Halo.
After doing some more research on the Halo 5 topic, I am curious about the story and how that goes. Will Cortana come back? Is the Didact still alive? How big of a role does Agent Locke play with the Chief? Why is Chief upside down on the cover with Locke on top? Why is it called Guardians, like Destiny? All these questions to be answered but only discovered on the day of release. Nothing we can do about these interesting topics other than bring together clues about why or how the answers to these are possible.
So the Multiplayer for this game is rather set. Thrusters, slight parkour, new Smart Scoping, all of this stuff just to make Halo the more modern, next generation game that it needs to be to set itself a good spot in the shelves. And I used to think it was all stupid. I did, I really did. But when I played the game, it felt like something, not what the players did, I didn’t feel like I was a floating character above the map, just with some cute animations. I felt like I was a Spartan. The way the game is meant to be played.
Sure, people have been complaining about the ending graphics, and how they don’t like the Spartans in-game voices telling you, “Hey, nice headshot!” or “Thanks for the assist,” and total crap like that. But to me, it makes the characters around to feel more… alive. They aren’t walking, silent bones not noticing what your Spartan does on the field. The ending graphics make sense, guys! Maybe Master Chief wouldn’t clap hands with everyone in the end of a fight, but that’s Master Chief, the silent, Lone Wolf Spartan. Think about Kelly-087 from the Halo comics/novels. She has a big sense of humor and she often cracks many jokes with her team about their mission or their current position. This end graphics when you win the match really bring out the hidden human that the Spartans have. It’s a good thing. And the characters telling you about nice grenade kills, well this encourages you as you play, even if you find it annoying and distracting, it gives players like me the urge to fight better, just so our Spartans can be complimented by the other team members. Tell me, did it not make you happy when the headshot came by your Battle Rifle and the Spartan next to you told you well done?
Yes, I know that some of the weapons in this game are a little powerful, like the Battle Rifle, but they may get debuffed and ready for a fair game when the full release comes around. This is the Beta version of the game Halo 5, not the full, complete, ready-for-action version that you hope and picture for in your mind. This game nearly has a year before the actual release. Bugs, glitches, op weapons will all be fixed. And the Battle Rifle starts, I am pretty sure that is limited to a few maps and only on a trial version at the moment. Not the full thing.
The REAL Halo fans would be noticing the change, accepting the change, and moving with the change. As Halo Evolvers, we have been here since CE and all the way to the MCC. And we have noticed change already. Sprint was added, SMGs were taken away in a few games, maybe just Halo: Reach and Halo 4, the gameplay runs differently, the graphics are better, the story gets better as it goes on, and new, awesome Spartan abilities were added in Halo 5. That was just big change, and the newer Halo fans were not ready for that approach.
If you are a real Halo fan, you would agree with me, maybe with a few flaws. Sure, you don’t have to like Halo 5, just accept that its a TRUE Halo game! And the Halo series will always be Halo unless you make it another game series, like Call of Duty. Halo brothers and sisters, accept the change, and give 343 a chance. Just give the a better shot than you gave them Halo 4, and maybe this will be an even better Halo game than 4 was…