Halo 5 Review & Suggestions

Games Halo 5: Guardians
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Its been two weeks since Halo 5’s release and the game being somewhat “messed” up for some folks. Yet, I thought I give my personal review and possible suggestions that would make Halo 5 a better game to play. I should mention that as of now, its slowly getting boring and may consider moving over to Star Wars: Battlefront 3. Overall, I really love the way this game was done, but wanted to point out a variety of things that could be changed. Anyhow, to begin with my review, I will start off with Campaign, Multiplayer, Customs, and then will add another post with a list of possible suggestions mostly for Multiplayer (Arena, Warzone, Customs, Forge, and REQS).

CAMPAIGN:

  • After playing solo Legendary (without doing other difficulties), some of the enemies seem to have a high defense, thus making it extremely difficult to take down. Example: After counting shots (yes, I count shots), I takes a whole cartridge to take out one Promethean Soldier with an Battle Rifle while aiming for the head. I believe the defense should be decreased a bit when using Precision weapons when aiming for the head. Basically, if you were to use a BR against a Promethean Warrior, hit them with 9 rounds and the 10th round is the final kill (3-Shot Semi). - Promethean Knights…our dearest enemies of Halo 4. As cool as they can be, the way to kill them now is just a waste of time. Hitting them in both shoulders, then going behind them to hit the “glowing” area is a waste of bullets. The original way of killing them back in Halo 4 was easier using less bullets. Now, not only are you wasting bullets, you are pretty much losing the use of picking up more weapons. If I recall on the beginning of Glassed, I pretty much went through hell picking up almost every weapon and by the time I picked up my last BR, I had Knights appearing giving me little option on what to do. Not to mention, one of them was using an Incineration Cannon. - The Warden Eternal…I can assure you and many would agree. He is a -Yoink- to kill. Its like trying to kill Superman with everything you got. He, in general is extremely overpowered and I believe he should be slighty nerfed. Him making one hit kills is somewhat unfair (however the one hit kill is acceptable when he hits you with his sword). With his beam-eye, however, the first shot should be a EMP shot, and then the second would be the killer. Now, taking him out is the biggest problem, in my opinion. Hitting him in the back is very difficult, especially on Legendary. I had expected the black orb to be on the chest and the back giving you the opportunity to shoot him facing you. Just revealing the orb on both sides of his body would make the battle much easier. I was going to mention decrease his defense slightly because taking him out with Rockets and the Promethean Cannon (the name escapes me), but I think the idea on revealing the orb on both the front and back of Warden’s chest would be a better challenge than decreasing his defense. - Now, I decided to put this on the bottom because its not as important as the three primary issues above. This one is very…very simple. Storyline. Halo 5’s campaign is way too much like Halo 2’s campaign, especially the bad and I mean bad cliffhanger. Now, not to go overboard but as a writer (fan fic), I can tell you that Halo 5’s ending could’ve been better…much better. To have Locke confront Chief and inform him that Cortana’s gone, then Cortana to appear on Infinity only for her to disappear is “eh”. And the part where Locke and Chief to walk off the Pelican and see Dr. Halsey only for her to say “Took you Long enough” then to go black screen into credits, that was really bad. In addition, the Legendary ending with a 10 to 20 second clip of an unknown Halo ring seemed to be one of those “Let’s just through that in there for the hell of it” type of thing. Personally, i would’ve replaced that with a 1 to 2 minute scene with the Arbiter, Chief, Locke, Palmer, and Halsey discussing what could be Cortana’s next move, and towards 1:40, have Halsey conclude the Campaign revealing the Halo ring (basically, combine the current Legendary ending with an idea I came up with). That would be more of an open-ended conclusion on what could happen next. Now remember that this is the way I would’ve done the ending. I can only say that Halo is perfect for Cliffhangers, but the way they are executed is terrible. MULTIPLAYER:

  • Now, I can rain all hell on this issue, but I can honestly say I’m enjoying this multiplayer more than previous titles. (And this is a guy who was a DMR, Sniper, and Camo user, but at least I used them correctly unlike most players, sadly). Anyhow, for this part, I will be brief, but the next post will be the suggestions for Multiplayer. This area is more of the issues I see within Multiplayer. - To start off, I would like to begin with Arena. Arena for the most part is perfectly fine. The only flaw I see in Arena are the lack of maps and gametypes. For maps, I believe we should have more maps (yet with the assistance of Forge in the coming month would perhaps make it better). Yet, it would be nice to add maps from previous titles, basically fan favorites. With gametypes…yeah, we really need more gametypes, because it gets boring once in a while, playing over and over again. If those two things are resolved, then I see no further problems in Arena. - Warzone and Warzone Assault. This bulk of the problems begin, and I believe many players would highly agree with me. First I would like to begin with Warzone alone which, in my opinion is really fun, but after a few games I’ve slowly noticed issues developing within the game. Personally, A.R.C is really broken. Worst I have seen. I can go forever on that issue, but I think most of us already know what the problem so let’s leave it for 343 to solve. Warzone Assault, same issue, only worse. On a lesser note, Warzone needs more maps. (7 extra maps). I’m hoping for an underwater map and a space map. - Forge, we already known is coming soon so as I mentioned before, I’m hoping to see forge maps in arena. I have not mention customs because I have gone through its options yet, but if you see problems, and offer suggestions, I would be more than happy to post it here or on the next post.

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SUGGESTIONS (this is only partial but I am open to more suggestions):

Multiplayer:

  • Arena - - More maps are required. (A variety of future Forge maps, with some familiar ones from previous titles). - - More Gametypes should be added (four of them permanent). Ex: Grifball, Oddball, Regicide, Team Snipers, Action Sack. (BTB was already announced so no worries) - - Gametype: SWAT: Needs SWAT DMRs, SWAT BRs, and SWAT Magnums in order. Basically, if you play SWAT, you begin with SWAT DMRs, then the next would be SWAT BRs, and lastly SWAT Magnums. After that you repeat process. Ex. SWAT Magnums is appearing too many times. - VETO option is REQUIRED. Kinda sucks to play the same game on the same map over and over again. Same strategy, same movements, same “sweet spots”. Gets boring sooner or later. - Warzone/Warzone Assault - - More Maps. No excuses. - - Req level ups should be faster. Ex. Every base you capture is an immediate level up. With loadout weapons, you get 10%, power weapons, 25%, vehicles, 50%, Sprees 75% (yes, I put sprees). Killing enemies should be 100 Exp ONLY. The only one who should be 150 Xp is Warden Eternal, the rest should be between 25xp to 100xp. - Vehicles you spawn with via REQs should always begin at your home base (The map with the garage, please excuse I forgot the name of the map) has vehicles spawning there, and easily destroyed by players jumping on board and bombing it. Pretty much getting robbed 6 Req levels or more. Firefight:

  • Very Simple. As much as Warzone is fun, Firefight would be a perfect game to add in Halo 5. Especially having Promethean enemies and making it challenging for us. Only thing I would love to see…Good Old Fashion ODST firefight. No infinite bullets and raining Fuel Rod Capsules at enemies back in Reach. Its all about surviving and getting points. That I find quite interesting and challenging. Customs

  • OPEN FOR SUGGESTIONSForge

  • If there is one thing I enjoyed from Halo 4 was the three different Forge environments, giving us the ability to be more creative and adding not only blocks, walls, windows, etc. but adding computers, chairs, and so on.

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PLAYER PROGRESSION:

  • After playing more and more multiplayer, I believe the one subject that should be brought up is player progression. First, I would like to start this subject with Req Rewards. As of now Arena offers 1000 Req points after a match and Warzone offers 2000 Req points after a match. Due to the fact, Req packs are overly expensive, in my opinion, I believe the rewards should be increased. For Arena, if you are victorious, you should be rewarded 3000 Req points and the defeated should receive 2000 Req points. The remain Req points are from of course your performance throughout the match. For Warzone/Warzone Assault, if you are victorious you should be rewarded 4000 Reqs, and if you lose 3000 Reqs, with the addition of Req points from your performance from the match as well. With Firefight (hopefully its added) and Customs, its an immediate 2000 Req points (MUST BE A FULL MATCH) with the addition to Req points from your game performance. Makes it easier for use to purchase Req Packs. Originally, I was going to suggest a drop in Price for Req packs, but I believe Req point rewards increase is much better. - With rank ups. Personally, I am not in favor of how Armors are unlocked, because its all random. However, after going through the catalog of Armors, I believe that Armor sets (Non-skins) should be an immediate unlock after ever rank up. Ex. In Halo 4, when you reached Lvl 26, you unlock Recon Standard. Unlocking a Skin required a specific goal. In Halo 5, it should be the same, every rank you get standard armor. If you want skins, grind your way into getting Req points so you can spend them. Same goes for Loadout weapons. - Requisition Packs, in my opinion are absolutely the best, however I’ve noticed some problems with in it. To have only two permanent unlocks from Gold is kind of a rip-off. Instead for gold req packs, you should be rewarded five (4 Rare to Ultras, and the Final a Random Legendary. That final Legendary should be a surprise armor, helmet, emblem, stance, weapon, or vehicle. For the most part the rarity of Leg armors, emblems, helmets, and stances should be low to mid. Warzone Vehicles, P-Weapons, & Boosts, should be mid-high). On the Silver, there should be 3 permanents (2 Uncommon to Rares and the final an Ultra). Bronze, two permanent unlocks. Lastly, it seems Req rewards seem to have “the Curse of the POD’s”. By that I mean Halo 4’s Personal Ordnance problem with Repeated drops. Ex. Mongoose is perhaps the most common and annoying drop to get and sadly three standard ones are rewarded. There should be more random drops, not common drops.
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I agree with a majority of your points, love that you called out how awful Escape from ARC is. Campaign is spot on, even though you did omit the problems with the friendly AI which is a universal complaint. I do agree that it mirrors Halo 2 very much, however you did get more time to play as the Arbiter in 2 than as the MC in 5 (another universal complaint).

I do think that it should be easier to get REQ’s, and that rewards are a little bit imbalanced.However, if you make Gold packs more valuable, and increase the REQs given per game, it takes a little bit away from the point, as they’re just easier to get. There needs to be something that keeps people coming back, because the ranking system sure isn’t doing it. Maybe adding another type of REQ pack, like Platinum that you can’t buy with actual money, but is only obtained by playing the game (say 25,000 REQ points).

Good post! As Battlefront arrives for me today, I think I’m going to switch over to that until the bugs get fixed/new maps and BTB drops. I’m pretty tired of getting Escape from ARC 7 out of 8 times while playing Warzone, and pretty bored of a team not communicating in Breakout, or getting spawn sniped in SWAT. It’s a good game 343, but it needs more to keep that disc in my Xbox for the next three months.

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I kinda like the idea of a slow constant roll out of maps - adding a few every 2 weeks or so. It keeps thing interesting. Once forge rolls out, can see maybe some more variety in there as player made maps might get put in the mix.
That said a slow roll out should also be giving them time to fix exploits on certain maps and warzone assault when they show up. Or to maybe tweak the spawn points for certain maps and game modes

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@Time
Lol, I forgot about the AI’s issue. But indeed, they need to be fixed to make them more useful instead of standing around or doing something foolish. (Never let Tanaka drive the Warthog). As for the Gold Packs, true they are much more valuable, but I like that idea of a “Platinum Pack”. That would be very interesting.

@Evil
Indeed, the spawning problem is bad in Warzone and now in Big Team Battle. They need to be a little more spread out and not next to the opponents spawn points (that one map with the sniper, I spawned right next to an opposing playing).