Halo 5 multiplayer: First impressions

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

So I booted up Halo 5 yesterday and activated a free 14-day Gold trial that came with the game. Main reason being that an Xbox friend of mine wanted to play H5 with me. Now, I only bought this console bundle last week on Labor Day weekend, but hadn’t touched Halo 5 until now. Only did a few Slayer matches and two Free-For-All matches. So, as a long-time Halo fan who has just now picked up Halo 5, here are my first impressions:

  • The first thing that hit me was the title screen/main menu. I was thrown off by the gigantic menu letters. It just didn’t look right to me. And knowing how little the Infinity actually does in H5’s campaign, I was confused as to why the ship was featured so prominently on the main menu. I have to say, Halo 4’s title screen was far more impressive, with the ominous Requiem in the background and the haunting music piece “Atonement” (I believe that’s the name?). Now I see why people complain about the UI. - The biggest shock for me was the controls. I didn’t have much time to look over the controller setup and, having played Halo 4, I didn’t expect there to be much difference. But as soon as the first game started, I was crouching when I wanted to zoom in, throwing grenades near my teammates, and many other stupid moments due to unfamiliarity with the controls. It certainly did not feel like “Halo” at all to me. Later I switched my controls to “Recon”. The only downside to that setup is that sprint is “X” so I have to remove my thumb from the right analog stick to use it. Although, growing up with Halo, I’m used to not having any sprinting abilities. - The motion tracker! Now I see that people have not been exaggerating at all! It really is so limited as to be practically useless. Eventually I stopped even looking at it because it didn’t help me much. I felt that I might as well be in a SWAT match, you know? - When my Fireteam was going to get us into a Warzone match, I got a giant message on my screen telling me that my console had an internet issue, even though I had an ethernet cord plugged in. After that happened, I was stuck in the Warzone lobby while the rest of my teammates were fighting, and it was stuck on “Retrieving Data”. When I tried to exit to the main matchmaking lobby, it told me there was a problem with Halo 5’s servers. It also somehow kicked me out of my Fireteam and I couldn’t rejoin. So I quit Halo 5 from the Xbox dashboard and started it back up again and it fixed the issue. But I didn’t play any Warzone after that. - I chose the darkest green available, “Moss”, as my Spartan’s primary armor color, wanting to evoke the traditional Mjolnir color, but in the FFA maps (when we retained our custom colors) it looked like lime green in the lighting. It makes me want to change my primary color to either dark blue or black. Very odd! - On the topic of appearances, I really do see why people complain about the graphics in multiplayer. A few maps did literally look like plastic, with unnatural colors. Even grass looked plastic. It was a bit off-putting, I admit.So…yeah, not very positive first impressions, unfortunately. And I haven’t even played the Campaign yet, even though I’ve studied the story and cutscenes before.
2

Well I can’t wait to see the full impression blitz, now you’ll know exactly why people hate halo 5.

3

Well, that is indeed a pretty poor impression. Overall, I feel like your experience won’t get much better from here, as you discover more and more issues with Halo 5, especially when you play the campaign (which is very poor). Sure, you’ll see some of the highlights of Halo 5 as well, but if your experience was that low to begin with, I would not expect it to change for the better.

4

> 2533274887950450;1:
> - The biggest shock for me was the controls. I didn’t have much time to look over the controller setup and, having played Halo 4, I didn’t expect there to be much difference. But as soon as the first game started, I was crouching when I wanted to zoom in, throwing grenades near my teammates, and many other stupid moments due to unfamiliarity with the controls. It certainly did not feel like “Halo” at all to me. Later I switched my controls to “Recon”. The only downside to that setup is that sprint is “X” so I have to remove my thumb from the right analog stick to use it. Although, growing up with Halo, I’m used to not having any sprinting abilities.

Well you know you could have change your control scheme to Halo 4 right?

5

> 2533274808386392;3:
> Well, that is indeed a pretty poor impression. Overall, I feel like your experience won’t get much better from here, as you discover more and more issues with Halo 5, especially when you play the campaign (which is very poor). Sure, you’ll see some of the highlights of Halo 5 as well, but if your experience was that low to begin with, I would not expect it to change for the better.

Oh, I have had low expectations from the beginning, since I had watched the campaign cutscenes and read many different synopses and reviews. And even though I took people’s complaints about multiplayer on this site with a grain of salt, I knew that most had elements of truth. Just was surprised to see how the complaints about “plastic looks” and the motion tracker were not exaggerated.

6

> 2533274808386392;3:
> Well, that is indeed a pretty poor impression. Overall, I feel like your experience won’t get much better from here, as you discover more and more issues with Halo 5, especially when you play the campaign (which is very poor). Sure, you’ll see some of the highlights of Halo 5 as well, but if your experience was that low to begin with, I would not expect it to change for the better.

But do you really stick to that wrong first impression and decide not to play the game? If he likes Halo he will give it a shot and eventually like me and many other just get stick to it…

7

> 2533274872647908;4:
> > 2533274887950450;1:
> > - The biggest shock for me was the controls. I didn’t have much time to look over the controller setup and, having played Halo 4, I didn’t expect there to be much difference. But as soon as the first game started, I was crouching when I wanted to zoom in, throwing grenades near my teammates, and many other stupid moments due to unfamiliarity with the controls. It certainly did not feel like “Halo” at all to me. Later I switched my controls to “Recon”. The only downside to that setup is that sprint is “X” so I have to remove my thumb from the right analog stick to use it. Although, growing up with Halo, I’m used to not having any sprinting abilities.
>
>
> Well you know you could have change your control scheme to Halo 4 right?

The closest I could find to traditional Halo was “Recon”, so I’m using that right now. I brought up Halo 4 here because even though it was a 343i Halo it didn’t deviate too much from Halo CE-3.

8

> 2533274887950450;7:
> > 2533274872647908;4:
> > > 2533274887950450;1:
> > > - The biggest shock for me was the controls. I didn’t have much time to look over the controller setup and, having played Halo 4, I didn’t expect there to be much difference. But as soon as the first game started, I was crouching when I wanted to zoom in, throwing grenades near my teammates, and many other stupid moments due to unfamiliarity with the controls. It certainly did not feel like “Halo” at all to me. Later I switched my controls to “Recon”. The only downside to that setup is that sprint is “X” so I have to remove my thumb from the right analog stick to use it. Although, growing up with Halo, I’m used to not having any sprinting abilities.
> >
> >
> > Well you know you could have change your control scheme to Halo 4 right?
>
>
> The closest I could find to traditional Halo was “Recon”, so I’m using that right now. I brought up Halo 4 here because even though it was a 343i Halo it didn’t deviate too much from Halo CE-3.

Control wise I agree, but gameplay wise H5 is much more closer to Halo 3 than Halo 4 is

9

After seeing the Beta Menus…they def. dropped the ball on that one. They should’ve kept that the same. Or at least put some spartan battle scenes or something interesting

10

> 2533274872647908;6:
> > 2533274808386392;3:
> > Well, that is indeed a pretty poor impression. Overall, I feel like your experience won’t get much better from here, as you discover more and more issues with Halo 5, especially when you play the campaign (which is very poor). Sure, you’ll see some of the highlights of Halo 5 as well, but if your experience was that low to begin with, I would not expect it to change for the better.
>
>
> But do you really stick to that wrong first impression and decide not to play the game? If he likes Halo he will give it a shot and eventually like me and many other just get stick to it…

Exactly. However, I’m mainly playing it because it essentially came free (along with MCC) with the XB1S bundle I bought. So if I end up really not liking it, no harm, no foul. Didn’t lose anything other than the time waiting for it to install to my system. I will at least use up my free trials and play the Campaign, and that way I can have a more concrete opinion of the game instead of throwing opinions around with no evidence.

11

> 2533274887950450;10:
> > 2533274872647908;6:
> > > 2533274808386392;3:
> > > Well, that is indeed a pretty poor impression. Overall, I feel like your experience won’t get much better from here, as you discover more and more issues with Halo 5, especially when you play the campaign (which is very poor). Sure, you’ll see some of the highlights of Halo 5 as well, but if your experience was that low to begin with, I would not expect it to change for the better.
> >
> >
> > But do you really stick to that wrong first impression and decide not to play the game? If he likes Halo he will give it a shot and eventually like me and many other just get stick to it…
>
>
> Exactly. However, I’m mainly playing it because it essentially came free (along with MCC) with the XB1S bundle I bought. So if I end up really not liking it, no harm, no foul. Didn’t lose anything other than the time waiting for it to install to my system. I will at least use up my free trials and play the Campaign, and that way I can have a more concrete opinion of the game instead of throwing opinions around with no evidence.

Understandable. Only the installation process might have take half of your trials…

12

> 2533274872647908;6:
> > 2533274808386392;3:
> > Well, that is indeed a pretty poor impression. Overall, I feel like your experience won’t get much better from here, as you discover more and more issues with Halo 5, especially when you play the campaign (which is very poor). Sure, you’ll see some of the highlights of Halo 5 as well, but if your experience was that low to begin with, I would not expect it to change for the better.
>
>
> But do you really stick to that wrong first impression and decide not to play the game? If he likes Halo he will give it a shot and eventually like me and many other just get stick to it…

Or he might end up like me and stick to it, just for the sake of it being Halo, only to realize after too much time of playing that his first impression were right, and the game just isn’t fun like Bungie’s Halo games.

13

The utterly useless motion tracker is my #1 complaint about H5. Its very much like what you have in COD games. I have adapted. But if you quit playing the game because people are constantly popping up out of know where to assassinate you or spartan charge you I will not be surprised in the least. I think this one thing alone has made many people move to other games. In prior Halo’s, you only got jumped from behind if you were completely blind or double teamed. Now its a common occurrence. It has made Halo that much more generic just like every other shooter out there instead of being very different.

Its also too bad that hardcore players will probably insult your post and 343 will completely ignore it and continue to wonder why they can’t get more people to play.

14

> 2533274887950450;1:
>

2: I used recon up until the H5 beta. I had quite a bit of trouble with most of the control schemes. None of them worked for me, until I tried Halo 4. The control schemes are going to take you a bit to get used to.

3: Yeah, the radar is pretty bad. It isn’t useless, but it can be particularly when people have a sword or speed boost and they can literally close on you quick enough that they don’t show up on it.

4: WZ can be fun. Not sure about your internet issue, but when you aren’t running solo and stuck against a full team it is quite enjoyable. You might try giving it another chance before your gold trial dies.

15

> 2533274808386392;12:
> > 2533274872647908;6:
> > > 2533274808386392;3:
> > > Well, that is indeed a pretty poor impression. Overall, I feel like your experience won’t get much better from here, as you discover more and more issues with Halo 5, especially when you play the campaign (which is very poor). Sure, you’ll see some of the highlights of Halo 5 as well, but if your experience was that low to begin with, I would not expect it to change for the better.
> >
> >
> > But do you really stick to that wrong first impression and decide not to play the game? If he likes Halo he will give it a shot and eventually like me and many other just get stick to it…
>
>
> Or he might end up like me and stick to it, just for the sake of it being Halo, only to realize after too much time of playing that his first impression were right, and the game just isn’t fun like Bungie’s Halo games.

She and her*

Youd think the girl part of her name would make it obvious, lol.

Well as you said blitz no harm no foul since the only thing you lost was the few hours of installing halo 5, at least you’ll have MCC so you can play through all of it again. More scattershoting knights on heroic for you.

16

> 2533274879407634;15:
> > 2533274808386392;12:
> > > 2533274872647908;6:
> > > > 2533274808386392;3:
> > > > Well, that is indeed a pretty poor impression. Overall, I feel like your experience won’t get much better from here, as you discover more and more issues with Halo 5, especially when you play the campaign (which is very poor). Sure, you’ll see some of the highlights of Halo 5 as well, but if your experience was that low to begin with, I would not expect it to change for the better.
> > >
> > >
> > > But do you really stick to that wrong first impression and decide not to play the game? If he likes Halo he will give it a shot and eventually like me and many other just get stick to it…
> >
> >
> > Or he might end up like me and stick to it, just for the sake of it being Halo, only to realize after too much time of playing that his first impression were right, and the game just isn’t fun like Bungie’s Halo games.
>
>
> She and her*
>
> Youd think the girl part of her name would make it obvious, lol.
>
> Well as you said blitz no harm no foul since the only thing you lost was the few hours of installing halo 5, at least you’ll have MCC so you can play through all of it again. More scattershoting knights on heroic for you.

Oh, I didn’t actually look at her gamertag. My apologies!

17

> 2533274879407634;15:
> > 2533274808386392;12:
> > > 2533274872647908;6:
> > > > 2533274808386392;3:
> > > > Well, that is indeed a pretty poor impression. Overall, I feel like your experience won’t get much better from here, as you discover more and more issues with Halo 5, especially when you play the campaign (which is very poor). Sure, you’ll see some of the highlights of Halo 5 as well, but if your experience was that low to begin with, I would not expect it to change for the better.
> > >
> > >
> > > But do you really stick to that wrong first impression and decide not to play the game? If he likes Halo he will give it a shot and eventually like me and many other just get stick to it…
> >
> >
> > Or he might end up like me and stick to it, just for the sake of it being Halo, only to realize after too much time of playing that his first impression were right, and the game just isn’t fun like Bungie’s Halo games.
>
>
> She and her*
>
> Youd think the girl part of her name would make it obvious, lol.
>
> Well as you said blitz no harm no foul since the only thing you lost was the few hours of installing halo 5, at least you’ll have MCC so you can play through all of it again. More scattershoting knights on heroic for you.

Haha, yeah. I may wait a while before attempting any of the MCC games on Heroic this time, just take it casually on Normal so I can enjoy the experience of 1080 and 60fps, lol. Those Knight-heavy H4 levels on Heroic gave me nightmares! XD

> 2533274808386392;16:
> > 2533274879407634;15:
> > > 2533274808386392;12:
> > > > 2533274872647908;6:
> > > > > 2533274808386392;3:
> > > > > Well, that is indeed a pretty poor impression. Overall, I feel like your experience won’t get much better from here, as you discover more and more issues with Halo 5, especially when you play the campaign (which is very poor). Sure, you’ll see some of the highlights of Halo 5 as well, but if your experience was that low to begin with, I would not expect it to change for the better.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > But do you really stick to that wrong first impression and decide not to play the game? If he likes Halo he will give it a shot and eventually like me and many other just get stick to it…
> > >
> > >
> > > Or he might end up like me and stick to it, just for the sake of it being Halo, only to realize after too much time of playing that his first impression were right, and the game just isn’t fun like Bungie’s Halo games.
> >
> >
> > She and her*
> >
> > Youd think the girl part of her name would make it obvious, lol.
> >
> > Well as you said blitz no harm no foul since the only thing you lost was the few hours of installing halo 5, at least you’ll have MCC so you can play through all of it again. More scattershoting knights on heroic for you.
>
>
> Oh, I didn’t actually look at her gamertag. My apologies!

Haha, no worries! Halo is still mostly a male’s game, so even I will make an assumption that a player or Waypoint user is male at first. I guess with that reality in mind, that’s why I added “Girl” into my gamertag. :wink:

18

Hey, you’re in an interesting spot right now, having seen all the cutscenes but just now getting to play through them. Personally I play on Halo 4 controls, but recon is another good choice. Also, as much as I…dislike the campaign, if you play it co op with some friends( 4 people is best, three is also good, two is better than one), and are not concerned with paying attention to the story, then this game is actually really fun. Arbiter’s sections are probably the best sections in a Halo game since the OG trilogy, and that is no easy feat. Plus looking for Intel and easter eggs is pretty great in this game.
Now that I think of it, if the game had just been missions with no story and cutscenes, I would have enjoyed it way more because I wouldn’t have to deal with characters saying stupid stuff. Hell, Blue Team never said anything in the game anyways.

Halo 5 is by no means a bad game(aiming is weird though), and once you forget about the bad story, it is really fun.

…But y’know…just my opinion.

19

> 2533274887950450;1:
> So I booted up Halo 5 yesterday and activated a free 14-day Gold trial that came with the game. Main reason being that an Xbox friend of mine wanted to play H5 with me. Now, I only bought this console bundle last week on Labor Day weekend, but hadn’t touched Halo 5 until now. Only did a few Slayer matches and two Free-For-All matches. So, as a long-time Halo fan who has just now picked up Halo 5, here are my first impressions:
>
>
>
> - The first thing that hit me was the title screen/main menu. I was thrown off by the gigantic menu letters. It just didn’t look right to me. And knowing how little the Infinity actually does in H5’s campaign, I was confused as to why the ship was featured so prominently on the main menu. I have to say, Halo 4’s title screen was far more impressive, with the ominous Requiem in the background and the haunting music piece “Atonement” (I believe that’s the name?). Now I see why people complain about the UI.
> - The biggest shock for me was the controls. I didn’t have much time to look over the controller setup and, having played Halo 4, I didn’t expect there to be much difference. But as soon as the first game started, I was crouching when I wanted to zoom in, throwing grenades near my teammates, and many other stupid moments due to unfamiliarity with the controls. It certainly did not feel like “Halo” at all to me. Later I switched my controls to “Recon”. The only downside to that setup is that sprint is “X” so I have to remove my thumb from the right analog stick to use it. Although, growing up with Halo, I’m used to not having any sprinting abilities.
> - The motion tracker! Now I see that people have not been exaggerating at all! It really is so limited as to be practically useless. Eventually I stopped even looking at it because it didn’t help me much. I felt that I might as well be in a SWAT match, you know?
> - When my Fireteam was going to get us into a Warzone match, I got a giant message on my screen telling me that my console had an internet issue, even though I had an ethernet cord plugged in. After that happened, I was stuck in the Warzone lobby while the rest of my teammates were fighting, and it was stuck on “Retrieving Data”. When I tried to exit to the main matchmaking lobby, it told me there was a problem with Halo 5’s servers. It also somehow kicked me out of my Fireteam and I couldn’t rejoin. So I quit Halo 5 from the Xbox dashboard and started it back up again and it fixed the issue. But I didn’t play any Warzone after that.
> - I chose the darkest green available, “Moss”, as my Spartan’s primary armor color, wanting to evoke the traditional Mjolnir color, but in the FFA maps (when we retained our custom colors) it looked like lime green in the lighting. It makes me want to change my primary color to either dark blue or black. Very odd!
> - On the topic of appearances, I really do see why people complain about the graphics in multiplayer. A few maps did literally look like plastic, with unnatural colors. Even grass looked plastic. It was a bit off-putting, I admit.
> So…yeah, not very positive first impressions, unfortunately. And I haven’t even played the Campaign yet, even though I’ve studied the story and cutscenes before.

In spite of the games flaws, there is lots of fun to be had, ONCE, ONCE you get over the learning curve. This is especially true of Warzone. Don’t get discouraged when you die a lot at first and you will unless you are a pro. But it will get better once you start to unlock different weapons.

20

> 2535458356653045;18:
> Hey, you’re in an interesting spot right now, having seen all the cutscenes but just now getting to play through them. Personally I play on Halo 4 controls, but recon is another good choice. Also, as much as I…dislike the campaign, if you play it co op with some friends( 4 people is best, three is also good, two is better than one), and are not concerned with paying attention to the story, then this game is actually really fun. Arbiter’s sections are probably the best sections in a Halo game since the OG trilogy, and that is no easy feat. Plus looking for Intel and easter eggs is pretty great in this game.
> Now that I think of it, if the game had just been missions with no story and cutscenes, I would have enjoyed it way more because I wouldn’t have to deal with characters saying stupid stuff. Hell, Blue Team never said anything in the game anyways.
>
> Halo 5 is by no means a bad game(aiming is weird though), and once you forget about the bad story, it is really fun.
>
> …But y’know…just my opinion.

Yeah, I at least am looking forward to playing through the Sanghelios levels. I can imagine myself getting side-tracked and exploring every nook and cranny and staring at the ancient artwork in the same way I stared for minutes on end at the Halo ring the first time I saw it in 2001. But for now I will focus on multiplayer while I still have the free trial, and story-wise play through MCC. Might as well go through them all in chronological order, right?