I certainly hope 343 looks at Campaign/story story feedback as well as they’ve been doing with multi-player.
Pros:
Great visuals & Amazing Audio design.
60fps
Huge and sometime massive environments
Much more enemies on screen in certain environments
Great level design with non-linear multiple paths to attack the enemies.
Covenant speaking English again (though I wish they would speak both English & their alien languages simultaneously)
The levels Swords of Sangheilios, Enemy Lines, and The Battle of Sunian were the best levels in the game.
031 Exuberant Witness was an adorable & awesome new character. Would love it if 343 brought her back somehow.
Audio logs were great addition.
Great dialogue on the non-combat missions.
Skulls: the fact that we get to FIND the skulls now is an amazing return.
The soundtrack was superior to Halo 4’s.
The Swords of Sangheilios vs The Covenant Remnant sub-plot was the best thing about Halo 5’s Campaign/story.
Cons:
Brian Reed being the writer. His reputation has gotten worse & worse after Spartan Ops & Escalation.
30fps enemies and allies (as well a multi-player) REALLY takes you out of the immersion and looks silly.
Warden Ethernal: Where did he come from? No back story was given on him.
Once again a big lack of massive battles with so many things happening onscreen.
Cortana being the main enemy.
Little to no character development. Characters like Tanaka & Vale being the most underdeveloped. Hell, even Locke.
You’re basically forced to know the Extended Universe/lore to know the characters and their motivations. Not a problem for me whatsoever, but to the casual fan, it’s really bad. 343 lied and said this was not going to be a problem again like Halo 4 & the Didact.
The entire HUNTTHETRUTH marketing campaign was a complete lie and false advertising and a waste of time. Had nothing to do with the game at all. How could 343 & Microsoft think they could get away with that?
Too many repetitive, boring Warden Eternal boss fights. So unnecessary.
Completely cliche/unoriginal ending with AI’s taking over the world (In this case the entire galaxy) from their creators. As much as I love that idea, I’ve seen it enough in Terminator, Mass Effect, and Battlestar Galactica, etc.
Only 3 Blue Team missions in the game. This is a big no-no.
343 once again making requiring players to read the novels to know the characters like Blue Team. (Not a problem for me, but it is for the casual players).
Soldier Prometheus: No explanation of how they were created and came to fruition.
Terminals: The terminals were greatly missed in Halo 5.
Skulls: Lack of any new skulls.
Arbiter: Thel not having the biology/physical appearance of a Sangheilios Sangheili, but instead (thanks to the laziness of 343) he has the appearance of a Hesduros Sangheili. Stop -Yoinking!- with my Canon!
Not a whole lot of variety in level design.
There’s no CAMPAIGN SCORING mode.
There are no PAR SCORE OR PAR TIME modes & achievements.
There’s no CAMPAIGN THEATER mode.
The revive mechanic might as well have been disabled on Legendary difficulty.
No origin on Fireteam Osiris and how they came to be a team.
Bad Friendly AI squadmates. They were only useful in the gunner seat of a Warthog & when you give them commands. They revived you maybe half the time.
No subtitles for INTEL. Can’t tell you how often I missed some of the dialogue with the audio for them being so low.
Comments:
Where is the Ur-Didact? What has happened to him since he was “contained” in Halo: Escalation? Will Mendicant Bias make his return in game-form? Where is the Librarian and how come the Janis Key & absolute record play a part in the story? Where is the return of Guilty Spark now that we know he survived Chiefs Spartan Laser?
The Precursors: Where are they? Still outside the galaxy? Do they have anything to do with the new godlike Cortana and her claiming of the mantle? Was she infected with the logic plague same as Mendicant Bias?
The Flood: Is it still possible they could still return (possibly along with Precursors)?
IsoDidact & the last surviving Forerunners: Are they still alive & Will they hear of Cortana’s doing & return to the milky way galaxy to assist Humanity?