Halo 5, the good the bad the ugly and the uglier

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Hello.

Halo 5 is landing soon, and I just want to point out that it looks amazing and it will probably hold a place in the top 5 most played games. But there are still certain things which hold it back from being a great game. Let me start off, if you have been freed from the nostalgia halo the mcc has given you, halo 5 is the game for you. The problem is, not everyone is ready to just let go, and then go to a game which has all these abilities, which certain people might argue all these abilities do not belong in halo.
So what’s good, its a new game! Something which is not the same from other halo’s, its a new challenge. With exciting game modes such as warzone. The fun seriously won’t be ending for a long time. The campaign looks versatile and has a great potential to be a great game.
So what’s bad? The fact its only catering to a small amount of the community. Halo 3 was catering to everyone! It was a ferocious lion, but nice. Halo 2 was a ferocious lion.
When you cater towards a certain amount, people will start hating or even worse, blind hating.

Let me know what you think.

2

> 2533274949192941;1:
> So what’s bad? The fact its only catering to a small amount of the community. Halo 3 was catering to everyone! It was a ferocious lion, but nice. Halo 2 was a ferocious lion.
> When you cater towards a certain amount, people will start hating or even worse, blind hating.

I actually disagree on that.

Halo 5 seems to be focusing on a bit of everything, balancing it all pretty well.
There’s some heavy Arena focus with the standard multiplayer mode and features. There’s “casual” or more chaotic focus with Warzone, which offers a lot and stuff for everyone. The campaign players are getting a treat with a massive, co-op focused campaign and what should be a pretty great story too. There are many options for customizing gameplay, like disabling abilities and such, and supposedly forge is getting some nice upgrades too. Once we see more of that, I think that community will be pleased as well.

3

> 2533274907934539;2:
> > 2533274949192941;1:
> > So what’s bad? The fact its only catering to a small amount of the community. Halo 3 was catering to everyone! It was a ferocious lion, but nice. Halo 2 was a ferocious lion.
> > When you cater towards a certain amount, people will start hating or even worse, blind hating.
>
>
> I actually disagree on that.
>
> Halo 5 seems to be focusing on a bit of everything, balancing it all pretty well.
> There’s some heavy Arena focus with the standard multiplayer mode and features. There’s “casual” or more chaotic focus with Warzone, which offers a lot and stuff for everyone. The campaign players are getting a treat with a massive, co-op focused campaign and what should be a pretty great story too. There are many options for customizing gameplay, like disabling abilities and such, and supposedly forge is getting some nice upgrades too. Once we see more of that, I think that community will be pleased as well.

Yeah, but still, people aren’t willing to let go. 343 needs to pull off something big.

4

> 2533274907934539;2:
> > 2533274949192941;1:
> > So what’s bad? The fact its only catering to a small amount of the community. Halo 3 was catering to everyone! It was a ferocious lion, but nice. Halo 2 was a ferocious lion.
> > When you cater towards a certain amount, people will start hating or even worse, blind hating.
>
>
> I actually disagree on that.
>
> Halo 5 seems to be focusing on a bit of everything, balancing it all pretty well.
> There’s some heavy Arena focus with the standard multiplayer mode and features. There’s “casual” or more chaotic focus with Warzone, which offers a lot and stuff for everyone. The campaign players are getting a treat with a massive, co-op focused campaign and what should be a pretty great story too. There are many options for customizing gameplay, like disabling abilities and such, and supposedly forge is getting some nice upgrades too. Once we see more of that, I think that community will be pleased as well.

Yeah, but still, people aren’t willing to let go. 343 needs to pull off something big.

5

> 2533274949192941;1:
> So what’s bad? The fact its only catering to a small amount of the community. Halo 3 was catering to everyone! It was a ferocious lion, but nice. Halo 2 was a ferocious lion.

You and I remember Halo 3 very differently. Sadly, people these days tend to equate popularity with quality, and I can think of dozens of examples in the gaming world where just the opposite is true. Of course, it’s all subjective, and a little off the topic.

As far as Guardians goes, I feel like, even with the beta behind us, it’s just way too early to opine about how good or bad the game will be. Two months before the launch of Halo 4 everyone thought that game was set to be the be-all-end-all Halo. That’s what history’s taught me.

6

> 2533274873843883;5:
> > 2533274949192941;1:
> > So what’s bad? The fact its only catering to a small amount of the community. Halo 3 was catering to everyone! It was a ferocious lion, but nice. Halo 2 was a ferocious lion.
>
>
> You and I remember Halo 3 very differently. Sadly, people these days tend to equate popularity with quality, and I can think of dozens of examples in the gaming world where just the opposite is true. Of course, it’s all subjective, and a little off the topic.
>
> As far as Guardians goes, I feel like, even with the beta behind us, it’s just way too early to opine about how good or bad the game will be. Two months before the launch of Halo 4 everyone thought that game was set to be the be-all-end-all Halo. That’s what history’s taught me.

Hmmm, I remember the community being trash when halo 2 was shut down, but halo 3 was still pleasing to everyone. The stats were really high, people had invested 69,000 years into the game.

7

> 2533274949192941;6:
> > 2533274873843883;5:
> > > 2533274949192941;1:
> > > So what’s bad? The fact its only catering to a small amount of the community. Halo 3 was catering to everyone! It was a ferocious lion, but nice. Halo 2 was a ferocious lion.
> >
> >
> > You and I remember Halo 3 very differently. Sadly, people these days tend to equate popularity with quality, and I can think of dozens of examples in the gaming world where just the opposite is true. Of course, it’s all subjective, and a little off the topic.
> >
> > As far as Guardians goes, I feel like, even with the beta behind us, it’s just way too early to opine about how good or bad the game will be. Two months before the launch of Halo 4 everyone thought that game was set to be the be-all-end-all Halo. That’s what history’s taught me.
>
>
> Hmmm, I remember the community being trash when halo 2 was shut down, but halo 3 was still pleasing to everyone. The stats were really high, people had invested 69,000 years into the game.

I invested millions of hours into Halo 3. If you’d asked me at the time, “Hey recon, do you love Halo 3?” I’d have said, “Hells yeah.” And I did. But I was also highly and vocally critical of many features of that game, and my opinion of it in retrospect is mixed at best. Yes, everyone played it. Yes, everyone was invested in it. But that doesn’t mean it did a great job of being all things to all players. It didn’t.

Now the following is strictly my personal opinion, so don’t read too much into it, but: I thought the Halo 3 ranking system was probably the single worst feature of the game. I know a lot of people loved it, but a lot of other people genuinely despised it. I felt more than a little vindicated when Bungie stopped visible ranks for Reach, and 343 stuck by the decision for Halo 4. Clearly time has proven that the majority of players would rather have a bad ranking system than no ranking system at all, but the majority of Americans also believe in alien abduction and that angels are real. There is little correlation between what people think they want and what works well. Popularity does not necessarily equal quality. Halo 3 had a lot going for it, but it left a lot of room for improvement.

8

> 2533274949192941;1:
> Hello.
>
> Halo 5 is landing soon, and I just want to point out that it looks amazing and it will probably hold a place in the top 5 most played games. But there are still certain things which hold it back from being a great game. Let me start off, if you have been freed from the nostalgia halo the mcc has given you, halo 5 is the game for you. The problem is, not everyone is ready to just let go, and then go to a game which has all these abilities, which certain people might argue all these abilities do not belong in halo.
> So what’s good, its a new game! Something which is not the same from other halo’s, its a new challenge. With exciting game modes such as warzone. The fun seriously won’t be ending for a long time. The campaign looks versatile and has a great potential to be a great game.
> So what’s bad? The fact its only catering to a small amount of the community. Halo 3 was catering to everyone! It was a ferocious lion, but nice. Halo 2 was a ferocious lion.
> When you cater towards a certain amount, people will start hating or even worse, blind hating.
>
> Let me know what you think.

Eh…no. Not really at all. I, for example, played Halo 4 first. I hated it. I almost never played another Halo. It wasn’t until I played a game of Halo 3 at a friend’s house (which I won’t be able to do in the future, thank you H5:G) that I realized what I was almost missing.

See, I have no problem with a lot of these abilities. It’s not like they’re burning incense to the altar of a false god, or anything like that. On paper, I think most of them work pretty well. The issue comes with implementation. I like a fast Spartan. I like that Sprint makes me faster. Sprint only works in a single direction and without a gun. Worse still is that every map must be scaled to accommodate it, so moving in more than one direction with a gun becomes slower than it’s ever been in the past. I like an accurate Spartan. I like that ADS allows me to zoom. But it’s on every gun, even the ones that don’t really need it…(on the Sword!?) I found the SMG to work quite a bit better when scoped, so I’m beginning to wonder how this will affect Shotguns, Needlers and Plasma Pistols. It’s a concern, little more. I like a vertical Spartan. I like that clamber gives me verticality. Of course, I can’t shoot when I do it and certain areas are quite difficult to reach without it. That reduces the amount of versatility it could have had.

So no. It’s not nostalgia, it’s just someone who thinks there could be better alternatives to some unnecessary and worrying features.

9

I agree that there is blind nostalgia fan boys and I am more on their side, the original trilogy will never be dethroned in my eyes such as the ocarina of time will never be knocked off as my favorite game of all time. Maybe it’s because I am older now but I haven’t been blown away by a game the way I was with Halo or The Ocarina of time. I just want to point out that there is blind fan boys that love everything they see and hear about new games as well, just because it’s newer doesn’t mean it’s better by any means, the original trilogy still holds up to this day. I also respect your opinion and I am glad you are looking forward to Halo 5 so much and I am looking forward to it as well, I just want you to remember how hyped everyone was for Halo 4 and that was a failure in almost every aspect apart from the graphics, sound, and an above average campaign. Don’t be so sold on the game at this point. I hope that Halo 5 does blow me and everyone else away to the point of putting in the conversation of the first three Halos. Trailers, advertising, and betas are supposed to make you want the game and Microsoft and 343 know how to promote a game to make you seem like everything about the game is perfect. 343 is 0 for 3 at this point with a terrible remake of Halo ce (from a multiplayer standpoint, campaign was incredibly re-skinned), Halo 4, and the horribly botched launch of Halo MCC.

10

I agree with almost everything 343 is making for Halo 5, I think lots of people dont like Spartan Abilities for 2 reasons: A) they are too much nostalgic, B) they just want it to be like older games to jump straight into multiplayer and win everything without having to learn new mechanics that improve the game, they would rather prefer Spartan Abilities to not be in the game…

Then my main complaint about the game is the lack of Firefight - AGAIN - they just should have already made it for Halo 4 at launch instead of Spartan Ops and keep it in Halo 5 instead of forgetting it (Alongside Warzone)
My other complaints are:

  • The Arbiter having a different face because of H4 style mandibles - that could be fixed by making him and the swords of sanghelios like they are in the H2A cutscenes with Locke - too much limited armor customization - still acceptable though, since we’ll have lots of armor sets, skins and attachments for weapons and vehivles and assassination animations - Ground Pound on melee (I prefered it on crouch, we should have the option to choose between them, I dont need duck jump if I have clamber) - Colored highlight outline should be a toggleEverything else is perfect, this will probably be the best Halo game EVER.
11

> 2533274892367695;10:
> I agree with almost everything 343 is making for Halo 5, I think lots of people dont like Spartan Abilities for 2 reasons: A) they are too much nostalgic, B) they just want it to be like older games to jump straight into multiplayer and win everything without having to learn new mechanics that improve the game, they would rather prefer Spartan Abilities to not be in the game…

I literally just said it has nothing to do with nostalgia. Allow me to reiterate - I have no nostalgia. It has nothing to do with nostalgia.

As for the second point? Bull crap. Skill gaps have been added and removed to Halo before. I just played a few games of Halo 3 the other day and got my -Yoink- handed to me. Later I played a few games in Reach and dominated. I still prefer Halo 3.

12

> 2743710844422774;9:
> 343 is 0 for 3 at this point with a terrible remake of Halo ce (from a multiplayer standpoint, campaign was incredibly re-skinned), Halo 4, and the horribly botched launch of Halo MCC. (personal opinion of course)

You damn know that if they took Halo: CE and revamped it like what the Coalition just did with Gears of War. The Halo community would have lynched 343I on the spot. Polishing the engine, fixing the mechanics, debugging 10 year old glitches to the campaign. I know, seeing how people react to H2A multiplayer, that the community would have gone insane and called for blood. The love for bungie was still fresh and strong. Unlike Gears of War where Cliffy B left Gears and a long period without a good gears game. So the Coalition was free to move on Improving the Original gears with techiques learned from 9 years of Gears and use them to improve it.

Yes they did the cheep move to just add to the Reach Multiplayer with the Anniversary Map pack. But the Halo Reach population was still fairly strong and they didn’t want to take away from it. But at least still add to it. Which they played fairly well. It was cool to see old Halo CE and 2 maps redone and improved with the use of AA’s like sprint and Jet Packs or the use of the protube or a real marksmen rifle over the Pistol and BR. I enjoyed it.

So Halo CE was the Original Game untouched with a improved graphics engine thrown on top of it and a Halo Reach Map pack. I honestly don’t see how that is a failure. And on Halo MCC, the campaign plays wonderfully and looks amazing in its Reach graphics. Just makes me really want them to do the Reach Campaign in 1080p and 60fps.

Now would I would have loved it if they took Halo:CE Campaign and went all away to the core and completely redid the whole engine and did away with all the old. Hell yes. But I truly don’t believe it would have flew with the “truly die hard” and they would have started a flame war with lynch riots.

Halo 4 that’s on personal opinion. Honestly to my opinion that game was a vast improvement to Halo 3 and Reach. I thought Halo 3 was completely lack luster going from Halo 2. Compared to Halo 2, It was slow, had Boring campaign, sloppy controls, and Nothing done to fix weapon balance. Did love the equipment ideas. Some better then others (Hated how they nerfed the landmines from the Beta and took them out from many BTB maps. And could they just have used a emp type flashbang instead of the flair?) But compared to other games that were out at the Same time, Gears of War and CoD 3. (Which was truly the last good CoD game) Halo 3 to me just felt like it came.

Reach improved some of these and and Halo 4 was a further evolution of what Halo: Reach was going for. Something to me what Reach should have been. If 3 played like Reach, we all know Bungie would have made Reach just like Halo 4. It was natural evolution.

So to me Halo 4 was a success and has given 343I building blocks to even better improve Halo.

Then again, this is all my opinion also

13

> 2533274803137071;12:
> > 2743710844422774;9:
> > 343 is 0 for 3 at this point with a terrible remake of Halo ce (from a multiplayer standpoint, campaign was incredibly re-skinned), Halo 4, and the horribly botched launch of Halo MCC. (personal opinion of course)
>
>
> You damn know that if they took Halo: CE and revamped it like what the Coalition just did with Gears of War. The Halo community would have lynched 343I on the spot. Polishing the engine, fixing the mechanics, debugging 10 year old glitches to the campaign. I know, seeing how people react to H2A multiplayer, that the community would have gone insane and called for blood. The love for bungie was still fresh and strong. Unlike Gears of War where Cliffy B left Gears and a long period without a good gears game. So the Coalition was free to move on Improving the Original gears with techiques learned from 9 years of Gears and use them to improve it.
>
> Yes they did the cheep move to just add to the Reach Multiplayer with the Anniversary Map pack. But the Halo Reach population was still fairly strong and they didn’t want to take away from it. But at least still add to it. Which they played fairly well. It was cool to see old Halo CE and 2 maps redone and improved with the use of AA’s like sprint and Jet Packs or the use of the protube or a real marksmen rifle over the Pistol and BR. I enjoyed it.
>
> So Halo CE was the Original Game untouched with a improved graphics engine thrown on top of it and a Halo Reach Map pack. I honestly don’t see how that is a failure. And on Halo MCC, the campaign plays wonderfully and looks amazing in its Reach graphics. Just makes me really want them to do the Reach Campaign in 1080p and 60fps.
>
> Now would I would have loved it if they took Halo:CE Campaign and went all away to the core and completely redid the whole engine and did away with all the old. Hell yes. But I truly don’t believe it would have flew with the “truly die hard” and they would have started a flame war with lynch riots.
>
> Halo 4 that’s on personal opinion. Honestly to my opinion that game was a vast improvement to Halo 3 and Reach. I thought Halo 3 was completely lack luster going from Halo 2. Compared to Halo 2, It was slow, had Boring campaign, sloppy controls, and Nothing done to fix weapon balance. Did love the equipment ideas. Some better then others (Hated how they nerfed the landmines from the Beta and took them out from many BTB maps. And could they just have used a emp type flashbang instead of the flair?) But compared to other games that were out at the Same time, Gears of War and CoD 3. (Which was truly the last good CoD game) Halo 3 to me just felt like it came.
>
> Reach improved some of these and and Halo 4 was a further evolution of what Halo: Reach was going for. Something to me what Reach should have been. If 3 played like Reach, we all know Bungie would have made Reach just like Halo 4. It was natural evolution.
>
> So to me Halo 4 was a success and has given 343I building blocks to even better improve Halo.
>
> Then again, this is all my opinion also

Again personal opinions are fine and I am glad you liked all those games and I did as well, but Halo 4 was a failure in a bigger aspect, it lost of 80% of its population in just under six months that’s how it was a failure, less than a year after launch Halo 3’s population was higher than Halo 4. It took over 4 years and another Halo game before Halo 3 lost 80% of its population. I agree on your points and I even said that in my original post that the campaign looked great but we will always be able to play the campaign, people wanted to play Halo ce online, they didn’t even need to re skin the graphics just make the mp online and you made a good point that it would have pulled people away from Reach but the thing was Reach was starting to fade and that was bungies game not 343’s, if anything that would have made fans love 343 before they even made their own game.

14

You know what, I don’t need a big explanation to tell you, but please keep your reviews to your self until you play the FULL game.

15

> 2535421619942348;11:
> > 2533274892367695;10:
> > I agree with almost everything 343 is making for Halo 5, I think lots of people dont like Spartan Abilities for 2 reasons: A) they are too much nostalgic, B) they just want it to be like older games to jump straight into multiplayer and win everything without having to learn new mechanics that improve the game, they would rather prefer Spartan Abilities to not be in the game…
>
>
> I literally just said it has nothing to do with nostalgia. Allow me to reiterate - I have no nostalgia. It has nothing to do with nostalgia.
>
> As for the second point? Bull crap. Skill gaps have been added and removed to Halo before. I just played a few games of Halo 3 the other day and got my -Yoink- handed to me. Later I played a few games in Reach and dominated. I still prefer Halo 3.

Well, but you said you have no problem with most of Spartan Abilities, I read you have some legit doubts about Smartscope on some weapons (I don’t understand either the animation being on the Sword,but it’s not a big deal, then I think if the Shotgun or other weapons result being too much OP they’ll nerf them, as it was in the Beta everything was mostly perfectly blanced, so I think 343’s got this, they know what they’re doing :slight_smile: )