Halo 5: Underrated

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

I’ll start off by saying that I’m not all that competitive of a player. I think of myself a bit higher than casual.

For years I was a PC only gamer. I picked up an xbox one just about a year ago and have been playing Halo 5 for a few months now when I picked it up on a pretty good sale. Also, I played through Halo 1 and 2 on the remastered Halo: MCC. So I can’t say I’m a long time halo player but I thoroughly enjoyed those campaigns and have since picked up a few books. Also picked up Halo Wars (can’t wait for HW2). So that is to say I’ve become something of a new blood halo fan. There are series I played through and I can understand if people miss out on something or just have a really nostalgic memory of a certain entry in the series.

On point. I think Halo 5 is great MP. Campaign was disappointing, really only just got a few levels in and was completely bored with it… doubt I’ll ever finish it so it certainly could be knocked for the campaign side, which is seriously disappointing given how good the other halo campaigns I’ve played are. The online is outstanding though IMO. All the “remove sprint/ledge grab/boost etc” threads are way off base. Halo 5 has one of the most balanced, accessible, and appropriately challenging online environments that I have played in years. And you can choose either arena for competitive or warzone for relatively casual. It’s not the best “friend environment” as I usually play solo on it. I sometimes wonder if a Battlefield like squad spawn system would be good in warzone but that’s neither here nor there. The req system isn’t exactly perfect either but it does keep me coming enticed (I think it would be just about perfect if you could purchase individual items at a premium but that’s just me).

Just saying. Halo 5 gets a lot of flak and I don’t think it deserves it. It’s way ahead of CoD in my book (CoD was basically dead to me after MW2). And I just haven’t played any other shooters that are comparable. There’s also nothing on the horizon that really piques my interest - BF1 I am disappointed in you.

I can appreciate all you old time fanboys who might be disappointed with the MP. But as a new blood fanboy I have to say I really enjoy Halo 5 and would like to see all the spartan charge/sprint etc features stick around.

2

You know you’re about to wake up the dragon, right?

3

I have to agree with you. It has been the only MP I’ve seriously played since launch.

4

This game, as well as the master chief collection, are literally the only games I consistently play

5

Don’t worry, new blood. There are CE vets who love this game too. Like me, for example.

6

It deserves some criticisms but it doesn’t deserve the irrational hate it gets…

It’s like people come on here to hate on Spartan Abilities after being Ground-Pounded or falling victim of a crafty flank due to Clamber or something… because “it didn’t used to be this way in past Halo games.”

Well now it is this way… and YOU even have all of the same abilities too, so you have to play smarter and consider other factors when you navigate the map! I mean it’s like, “If you didn’t like the possibility of being 1HK’ed from above, maybe you shouldn’t have bought the game huh? But you did…”

The majority of the time I get angry while playing this game, I’m usually angry at myself… for messing up, not hitting my shots, being out of position… I only really get angry at Spartan Charge because it allows people to mindlessly sprint into an area and get kills with a very minimal margin or chance to counter. It’s imbalanced and cheap, and maybe even more so when you’re aware and facing the enemy.

But these are maybe 5% of your overall encounters in the game… it’s a legitimate gripe, but it doesn’t affect my overall enjoyment of the game. H5 is one, if not THEE most balanced game in the series so far. The gameplay is fluid and fun… When server connectivity is good, the shot-detection is crispy… The 60 FPS feels amazing… The maps generally have interesting sight lines and crafty jumps and routes that are fun to execute time and time again.

Content and playlists leave a lot more to be desired though, but we have a lot of content in place regardless of how you feel it was handled, and it’s not the biggest deal in the world.

Idk man, I think people have to get with the times on this one… It’s Halo at its core but with some progressive elements thrown in. It’s not the perfect game, but when you look at it as an entire product and see the quality in the gameplay and understand it from a design standpoint, it’s a VERY good game.

I don’t expect people to see it the way that I do either… but as someone who has played the series since the beginning, this was a logical direction to take the series in and it really brought some additional excitement and intensity to the gameplay. It’s still very easy to predict an enemies behavior based on the situation, but the new abilities throw little curveballs into the mix in a refreshing sort of way… mid-combat Thrusts for example…

Idk, very exciting and competitive MP… I’ve kinda lost interest in the campaigns over the years, but MP is where the real meat of the game is IMO.

7

Its always good to see new players. And welcome aboard! As far as Spartan abilities…eh each to there own. To understand Halo fully you had to of been there in the times the games were produced to fully understand Halos evolution and meaning. While the Spartan abilities add some flair to the game they also seem noobish to me. Back in the day it was all about weapon skills that did the job. Now when two are having a good shoot out all of a sudden out of the clear blue someone comes in and Spartan charges one or another… I call that cheap and noobish. But with the way todays games are I can totally understand why some like it and why the abilities are there. If the game functions and performs well for you I say enjoy it while you can. The game is fun to play when its performing well…

Zippy.

8

> 2533274795501334;7:
> Its always good to see new players. And welcome aboard! As far as Spartan abilities…eh each to there own. To understand Halo fully you had to of been there in the times the games were produced to fully understand Halos evolution and meaning. While the Spartan abilities add some flair to the game they also seem noobish to me. Back in the day it was all about weapon skills that did the job. Now when two are having a good shoot out all of a sudden out of the clear blue someone comes in and Spartan charges one or another… I call that cheap and noobish. But with the way todays games are I can totally understand why some like it and why the abilities are there. If the game functions and performs well for you I say enjoy it while you can. The game is fun to play when its performing well…
>
> Zippy.

But Halo players say the same thing when each new game comes along. I remember in Reach everyone was complaining that the armor abilities, especially Armor Lock and Active Camo, were ‘noobish.’

9

H5 is a solid game. People give it a lot of grief and they all have their own reasons. Unfortunately, the developers can’t please everyone all the time. Anymore, I think people have a shortened attention span. We are always waiting for the next best thing to come out then we bash it for not having everything we think it should have had.

I really enjoy H5. I was 18 when CE came out and I have been a loyalist ever since. It’s a great story and the games have been just as awesome.

SIDE NOTE: I would thoroughly enjoy a sequel to ODST.

10

How is it underrated?

The story is by far the worst in the series.

Warzone is a snoozefest and was only designed to sell req packs.

No split screen.

The req system is a joke and makes unlocking the armor you want nearly impossible without playing the game constantly.

The lack of maps in arena is a joke. It has been the same 4-5 maps over and over since launch.

Sprint still has no place in a Halo game. Neither does thrusters, ground pounds, spartan charges, etc.

11

Let me just say that everything you just said is purely an opinion, and one that doesn’t understand the types of arguments that go on over these topics. This goes deeper than what you “feel” during this game and calling others opinions “way off base” makes zero sense if you actually take the time to read what people have to say and understand what it means.

Also, though you may say the MP is good I absolutely hate it, I think its the worst in the series. What do you say to that? will you call me irrational? a hater? a fanboy? will you ignore me? or will you respond with some positive opinionated post with nothing backing it?

Either way, try to refrain from acting as if your opinion makes more sense than others if you haven’t even tried to understand the other side or listen to what they had to say, especially if you have zero logical reasons to back it other than “I like it”.

12

> 2535406272231884;11:
> Let me just say that everything you just said is purely an opinion, and one that doesn’t understand the types of arguments that go on over these topics. This goes deeper than what you “feel” during this game and calling others opinions “way off base” makes zero sense if you actually take the time to read what people have to say and understand what it means.
>
> Also, though you may say the MP is good I absolutely hate it, I think its the worst in the series. What do you say to that? will you call me irrational? a hater? a fanboy? will you ignore me? or will you respond with some positive opinionated post with nothing backing it?
>
> Either way, try to refrain from acting as if your opinion makes more sense than others if you haven’t even tried to understand the other side or listen to what they had to say, especially if you have zero logical reasons to back it other than “I like it”. 21 days of mm

13

> 2533274873580796;6:
> It deserves some criticisms but it doesn’t deserve the irrational hate it gets…
>
> It’s like people come on here to hate on Spartan Abilities after being Ground-Pounded or falling victim of a crafty flank due to Clamber or something… because “it didn’t used to be this way in past Halo games.”
>
> Well now it is this way… and YOU even have all of the same abilities too, so you have to play smarter and consider other factors when you navigate the map! I mean it’s like, “If you didn’t like the possibility of being 1HK’ed from above, maybe you shouldn’t have bought the game huh? But you did…”
>
> The majority of the time I get angry while playing this game, I’m usually angry at myself… for messing up, not hitting my shots, being out of position… I only really get angry at Spartan Charge because it allows people to mindlessly sprint into an area and get kills with a very minimal margin or chance to counter. It’s imbalanced and cheap, and maybe even more so when you’re aware and facing the enemy.
>
> But these are maybe 5% of your overall encounters in the game… it’s a legitimate gripe, but it doesn’t affect my overall enjoyment of the game. H5 is one, if not THEE most balanced game in the series so far. The gameplay is fluid and fun… When server connectivity is good, the shot-detection is crispy… The 60 FPS feels amazing… The maps generally have interesting sight lines and crafty jumps and routes that are fun to execute time and time again.
>
> Content and playlists leave a lot more to be desired though, but we have a lot of content in place regardless of how you feel it was handled, and it’s not the biggest deal in the world.
>
> Idk man, I think people have to get with the times on this one… It’s Halo at its core but with some progressive elements thrown in. It’s not the perfect game, but when you look at it as an entire product and see the quality in the gameplay and understand it from a design standpoint, it’s a VERY good game.
>
> I don’t expect people to see it the way that I do either… but as someone who has played the series since the beginning, this was a logical direction to take the series in and it really brought some additional excitement and intensity to the gameplay. It’s still very easy to predict an enemies behavior based on the situation, but the new abilities throw little curveballs into the mix in a refreshing sort of way… mid-combat Thrusts for example…
>
> Idk, very exciting and competitive MP… I’ve kinda lost interest in the campaigns over the years, but MP is where the real meat of the game is IMO.

Nobody has to get with anything they don’t like,maybe people don’t like new abilities because they are gimmicky and weren’t needed to keep the franchise relevant,or maybe they don’t like that dumpster fire of a campaign.Halo 5 deserves all the hate it has received

14

> 2535467131658127;10:
> How is it underrated?
>
> The story is by far the worst in the series.
>
> Warzone is a snoozefest and was only designed to sell req packs.
>
> No split screen.
>
> The req system is a joke and makes unlocking the armor you want nearly impossible without playing the game constantly.
>
> The lack of maps in arena is a joke. It has been the same 4-5 maps over and over since launch.
>
> Sprint still has no place in a Halo game. Neither does thrusters, ground pounds, spartan charges, etc.

What about clamber?I’m actually ok with it (And I’ve been playing since CE)

15

> 2533274795501334;7:
> Its always good to see new players. And welcome aboard! As far as Spartan abilities…eh each to there own. To understand Halo fully you had to of been there in the times the games were produced to fully understand Halos evolution and meaning. While the Spartan abilities add some flair to the game they also seem noobish to me. Back in the day it was all about weapon skills that did the job. Now when two are having a good shoot out all of a sudden out of the clear blue someone comes in and Spartan charges one or another… I call that cheap and noobish. But with the way todays games are I can totally understand why some like it and why the abilities are there. If the game functions and performs well for you I say enjoy it while you can. The game is fun to play when its performing well…
>
> Zippy.

I feel like the abilities in halo 4 and 5 were added just to stay relevant and keep up with the times,not because halo needed them

16

Baton down the hatches! A storms’ a brewin’!

17

> 2533274830166194;13:
> > 2533274873580796;6:
> > It deserves some criticisms but it doesn’t deserve the irrational hate it gets…
> >
> > It’s like people come on here to hate on Spartan Abilities after being Ground-Pounded or falling victim of a crafty flank due to Clamber or something… because “it didn’t used to be this way in past Halo games.”
> >
> > Well now it is this way… and YOU even have all of the same abilities too, so you have to play smarter and consider other factors when you navigate the map! I mean it’s like, “If you didn’t like the possibility of being 1HK’ed from above, maybe you shouldn’t have bought the game huh? But you did…”
> >
> > The majority of the time I get angry while playing this game, I’m usually angry at myself… for messing up, not hitting my shots, being out of position… I only really get angry at Spartan Charge because it allows people to mindlessly sprint into an area and get kills with a very minimal margin or chance to counter. It’s imbalanced and cheap, and maybe even more so when you’re aware and facing the enemy.
> >
> > But these are maybe 5% of your overall encounters in the game… it’s a legitimate gripe, but it doesn’t affect my overall enjoyment of the game. H5 is one, if not THEE most balanced game in the series so far. The gameplay is fluid and fun… When server connectivity is good, the shot-detection is crispy… The 60 FPS feels amazing… The maps generally have interesting sight lines and crafty jumps and routes that are fun to execute time and time again.
> >
> > Content and playlists leave a lot more to be desired though, but we have a lot of content in place regardless of how you feel it was handled, and it’s not the biggest deal in the world.
> >
> > Idk man, I think people have to get with the times on this one… It’s Halo at its core but with some progressive elements thrown in. It’s not the perfect game, but when you look at it as an entire product and see the quality in the gameplay and understand it from a design standpoint, it’s a VERY good game.
> >
> > I don’t expect people to see it the way that I do either… but as someone who has played the series since the beginning, this was a logical direction to take the series in and it really brought some additional excitement and intensity to the gameplay. It’s still very easy to predict an enemies behavior based on the situation, but the new abilities throw little curveballs into the mix in a refreshing sort of way… mid-combat Thrusts for example…
> >
> > Idk, very exciting and competitive MP… I’ve kinda lost interest in the campaigns over the years, but MP is where the real meat of the game is IMO.
>
>
> Nobody has to get with anything they don’t like,maybe people don’t like new abilities because they are gimmicky and weren’t needed to keep the franchise relevant,or maybe they don’t like that dumpster fire of a campaign.Halo 5 deserves all the hate it has received

The only gimmick is Spartan Charge… The campaign gameplay was decent for the most part, better than H4.

So long as the game is fun, the story comes second. The doesn’t mean the story can be subpar, it definitely shouldn’t be, but it’s completely important that we have a fun game, first and foremost. Revive and the Warden fights were the clear low points.

18

> 2535467131658127;10:
> How is it underrated?
>
> The story is by far the worst in the series.
>
> Warzone is a snoozefest and was only designed to sell req packs.
>
> No split screen.
>
> The req system is a joke and makes unlocking the armor you want nearly impossible without playing the game constantly.
>
> The lack of maps in arena is a joke. It has been the same 4-5 maps over and over since launch.
>
> Sprint still has no place in a Halo game. Neither does thrusters, ground pounds, spartan charges, etc.

I would give the MP a 9/10 and the SP something like a 5/10. Like I said having played through remastered H1&2 I was very disappointed with the H5 campaign and probably won’t even finish it. I guess that puts my overall score for this game at about an 7.5-8.0/10. And I actually really hate that new graphics blend of real actors and CGI that they have in the cinematics - it looks so weird and unnatural to me.

I can see how spartan charge is noobish. I’ve felt the same way myself since there’s not really even a way to counter it, which makes it bad. But as others have said it doesn’t happen all that often. It’s not like when noob tubes hit CoD and the whole thing turned into a noob/cheese fest.

I also said in my OP that #1 req system improvement would be to allow players to purchase individual items at a premium. Especially cosmetic items like weapon skins/helmets/armors.

All that said, my statement is just that MP gameplay very well balanced and entertaining. Especially when compared to the rest of the market - granted I haven’t played CoD or battlefield in years but I know that if anything it’s gotten worse .

19

Well, you say Call of Duty is dead since Modern Warfare 2, but a lot of people still play Call of Duty. You are disappointed by Battlefield 1, a lot of people like it (exception of some people). Games are just personal preference, but the reason Halo 5 takes hate (is what you call), it’s because of its brand. People expect certain things from a Halo game and Halo 5 did the opposite. Started with Reach, continued with 4 and 5, to many people Halo is dead franchise like you are saying Call of Duty is dead.

20

> 2533274873580796;6:
> It deserves some criticisms but it doesn’t deserve the irrational hate it gets…
>
> It’s like people come on here to hate on Spartan Abilities after being Ground-Pounded or falling victim of a crafty flank due to Clamber or something… because “it didn’t used to be this way in past Halo games.”
>
> Well now it is this way… and YOU even have all of the same abilities too, so you have to play smarter and consider other factors when you navigate the map! I mean it’s like, “If you didn’t like the possibility of being 1HK’ed from above, maybe you shouldn’t have bought the game huh? But you did…”
>
> The majority of the time I get angry while playing this game, I’m usually angry at myself… for messing up, not hitting my shots, being out of position… I only really get angry at Spartan Charge because it allows people to mindlessly sprint into an area and get kills with a very minimal margin or chance to counter. It’s imbalanced and cheap, and maybe even more so when you’re aware and facing the enemy.
>
> But these are maybe 5% of your overall encounters in the game… it’s a legitimate gripe, but it doesn’t affect my overall enjoyment of the game. H5 is one, if not THEE most balanced game in the series so far. The gameplay is fluid and fun… When server connectivity is good, the shot-detection is crispy… The 60 FPS feels amazing… The maps generally have interesting sight lines and crafty jumps and routes that are fun to execute time and time again.
>
> Content and playlists leave a lot more to be desired though, but we have a lot of content in place regardless of how you feel it was handled, and it’s not the biggest deal in the world.
>
> Idk man, I think people have to get with the times on this one… It’s Halo at its core but with some progressive elements thrown in. It’s not the perfect game, but when you look at it as an entire product and see the quality in the gameplay and understand it from a design standpoint, it’s a VERY good game.
>
> I don’t expect people to see it the way that I do either… but as someone who has played the series since the beginning, this was a logical direction to take the series in and it really brought some additional excitement and intensity to the gameplay. It’s still very easy to predict an enemies behavior based on the situation, but the new abilities throw little curveballs into the mix in a refreshing sort of way… mid-combat Thrusts for example…
>
> Idk, very exciting and competitive MP… I’ve kinda lost interest in the campaigns over the years, but MP is where the real meat of the game is IMO.

Is it weird that I read your post in Faomy’s voice? Foamy the squirrel is a youtube series btw.