Halo 5 has been a very enjoyable experience for me thus far. I have had a blast playing both Arena and Warzone multiplayer matches. The modified weapons that you can utilize in Warzone are very cool, and add a new dimension to the old, “get power weapons and dominate” strategy.
Arena is fun and fast paced, while still staying true to the teamwork based fighting style which Halo 2 (BEST) and 3 utilized. The addition of sprint is controversial to say the least. While I’m not a huge fan of it, I don’t think it detracts from the game so much that I don’t enjoy it. This evolution is necessary to bring newer, younger blood to the series.
Spartan charge, dash, clamber, and ground pound also receive mixed reviews. These abilities are simply part of the game now; once you get used to them, they are fun and add more variety to the expanding arsenal of ways to murder other Spartans. Does it suck when a guy runs around the map spartan charging people constantly? Hell yes. But if you aren’t good enough to deal with a player like that, then I pity you.
Forge, which just dropped in yesterdays free DLC update, is massively complex. I don’t even know where to begin, and that’s a good thing. Some very talented people are going to create many amazing maps with this tool. Someone will create a Lockout remake that utilizes clamber and sprint, and it will provide glorious feelings of nostalgia.
Custom games are very limited at this time, almost to the point of unplayability. There simply aren’t enough gametype options to allow users to recreate the great Customs that they’ve enjoyed in years past. However, these options are coming.
343 will be releasing free DLC every month for almost 12 months. Lot’s of people are upset by this claiming that 343 is only releasing them for free because they are features that should have been in the game since day 1. I’m in the camp that thinks this isn’t so bad. Not only will Halo have new content every month to draw players back in and keep the population at a healthy level, it also gives the developers time to tweak their designs and implementations in order to perfect them prior to release. They will continue to review player feedback and use it to create an improved product month by month.
I have not played the campaign, but I’ve heard it isn’t very long or very engaging. The ad campaign didn’t align with the actual gameplay or story at all, but I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve played it. I’m also not convinced that the campaign that was included at launch is the complete version. My guess is that more missions will be released at some point in the future and the Halo community will utter a collective “Ohhhhhh” when everything starts coming together. I could be totally wrong, only time will tell.
Overall I’m very pleased with the Halo 5 experience at this point, and I think it will only get better as time goes by. If you’re a former player from the glory days, give it a try. You won’t be disappointed.