Warning: this will likely become a very long post. Move away now if you’ve not the time.
Halo 5 has been with us for several years, and now that the rage and hate has finally simmered down to a civilised level, I’d like to talk about and hear from others regarding Halo 5. If you don’t particularly care for what I have to say, no problem, move on ahead and I’ll catch you next time. =)
So let’s start with what worked. I firmly refuse to define myself by what I hate and wish others would too, so focusing on the positive, with some mentions of what I’m not too fond of, here we go;
Gameplay – I love the gameplay in Halo 5. It’s so fast and frantic and through the controller I feel every bullet I hit. Do you remember how frustrating it was fighting the Prometheans in Halo 4? The little ones were flighty as f**k and dear God the knights were so overpowered. It was much like fighting Brutes in Halo 2, where every one of them wasn’t quite optimised to perfection. Not to mention they constantly teleported out of danger only to return having healed. It made fighting them really annoying. With Halo 5 came the soldiers, much easier targets to take care of, and very satisfying to fight. When their armour was down it would shatter and you’d be rewarded with a solid thunk and crash when you got the kill shot on their glowing chassis. It enabled you to plan your very next move knowing when your kill shot would be, just like all previous Halo games. The little ones weren’t so difficult to hit and the Knights were utilised like Hunters, and no longer teleported every five seconds.
Shall I also mention Promethean weapons in Halo 4? Remember the Suppressor? How God awful annoying was that weapon? Its inaccuracy was ungodly, not befitting a powerful species of ancient but advanced aliens. The pistol, with its shotgun ability, wasn’t too bad, but because all the Knights were armoured like a battlecruiser getting close enough to use it was usually a one way trip. The only weapon I really liked was the Light Rifle, and though the other weapons were decent the suppressor and pistol were enough to make me live to avoid forerunner weaponry. I would honestly prefer risking insta-death slapping a Knight with any empty weapon than risk picking up that nearby suppressor. It had a higher success rate. However, this is changed in Halo 5. The Suppressor has gone from the worst weapon the games have ever produced to one of its best. The heat seeking projectiles are so satisfying and easy to use, and the pistol follows suit. They completely compliment a sniper rifle capable of disintegrating the target, and a shotgun with rebounding buckshot. In Halo 5 there isn’t a Forerunner weapon I don’t greatly enjoy using.
Art Style – I agree. I’m not a huge fan. Whereas I’ve never been fonder of Master-Chief’s armour in Halo 4 and Halo 5, and I’m sad to see it regress to the old in Halo Infinite, the rest of it does bother me. I can get behind the Storm Covenant having less advanced equipment, armour less effective with more open joints and weaknesses. But the issue is that, in Halo 4, flashbacks showed the Covenant always using this equipment and looking like they do now. I took issue with that. I understand development constraints, as is the case with the Arbiter, using the new Elite phenotype because of lack of time, but I’m of the mind that if you can’t do it properly, don’t do it at all. If you have to generalise with a single model type, don’t bother changing it. The old Covenant was far more advanced. If these new Covenant are not, make sure only they are seen that way. I personally wouldn’t mind the new Elite design, with their sharper mandibles (Elites have been redesigned with EVERY Halo game) but that 343 tried to justify the change in wake of fan criticism by saying it’s a different phenotype of Elite annoys me. If that’s the case, where were all these guys in the 30 years of war with humans? Just admit this is the new Elite design. Its fine, 343. Honestly. We don’t hate you for experimenting. The same can be said for the Jackals. I hate the new Jackals, but at least they can legitimise the story of a new phenotype because Bungie once did it themselves, with Skirmishers.
Now you might say, why doesn’t the inclusion of Forerunner soldiers annoy me in the same way? The answer is because they did not replace Knights completely. Both Knights and Soldiers were featured. These new Kig-Yar have entirely replaced the old. I get it…these Kig-Yar come from a different continent (or planet, not certain) and perhaps none of the other Jackals cared for Jul Mdama. But it needs a mention. Halo 5’s first encounter with a Knight provides the dialogue of “It’s that new model of Knight we’ve seen before” to justify the differences. In that moment, it was not necessary. They had just been redesigned for gameplay. But introducing these Kig-Yar required a moment of Cortana going “Da f**K are these things? Kig-Yar we haven’t seen before? God, what other new horrors do these Covenant have?” Imagine the terror you’d have felt in Halo 4 if she’d said that. You’d have been checking every corner. 343 realised they needed justification for changes, but they still haven’t figured out which changes need them.
Grunts I’m still not happy with. No matter the adaptation, Grunts have pronounced chins and prominent heads. This saggy frog neck just isn’t right. It needs to be done away with. I’m sorry, 343. I just don’t like it.
Sound Effects – Not much to say here except just to point out Covenant weapons. Remember the old games? Plasma weapons were very byoo byoo sounding. Very fun. Halo 4 utterly changed that and gave us a horrible dul chah chah sound. I hated that, and though Halo 5 went more laser-like, with somewhat of pew sound, it still wasn’t right. I love the music. A perfect blend of Halo 4’s mournful melodies and the epic, awesome original score.
Locations – This is my highlight. The first planet, Kamchatka, is -Yoink!- brilliant. Snow everywhere, ridges to tumble to your death. Covenant and Prometheans at war with one another. Then Miridian – a planet completed glassed; for the first time we truly see what glassing does. We’ve seen planets being glassed, but never have we been made to look at the grey, dead husk of a world. It’s a stark reminder that, even though we now have allies among them, the Elites are not good people. They don’t care about life. We’re also treated to Genesis, a beautiful Forerunner planet. And then the crown jewel…Sanghelios. Can you name a better location to finally send players? I definitely can’t. It was just as it was described in one of the books I read many years ago (Cole Protocol, I believe) and Sunaion was so brilliant. I cannot believe we finally got to see the Sangheili homeworld. Thanks, 343. That entire chapter in the game was phenomenal.
We got to see a lot of different places in Halo 5. Only Halo Wars 1 has done anything similar. Usually we have no more than one or two locations in any given Halo game. I loved going from planet to planet like in Halo Wars. We got to see a forbidding inhospitable planet plagued by war. We got to see Humanity trying to recover its lost world. We finally got to see the home of a different species. We got to see the Domian. Just brilliant locations.
TBC