If you’ve been an active forum member since before Halo 5 launched, then you’ll probably recognize me as I was very active here. I’m gonna write a summary of what I think of this game. OPINIONS and Spoilers incoming.
Campaign:
Honestly, this Campaign was one of my least favorites in terms of story and character development. Master Chief was not featured nearly as much as I had hoped and I didn’t see any struggle with his character. The “greatest hunt in video game history” lasted for about 3 missions. My personal favorite part of the campaign (and arguably the most interesting part) was when Locke and Chief fought each other. Fireteam Osiris is not bad and I enjoyed playing as some new blood. Locke needed more motivation than just being Master Chief Jr. because that’s exactly what he is. He is pretty much the same character, with no real motive besides wanting to complete his mission. Cortana coming back this soon and also becoming the new villain really left a bad taste in my mouth too. Don’t get me wrong, I still want to see what happens in the future but this is not how I would have liked it. This story felt like fan fiction and I expected way better character development based off of what we got in Halo 4.
As far as the gameplay in the campaign goes, I think it is superb. Having massive areas to explore was really fun and designing the game around 4 players was a good choice. However, the Friendly AI is atrocious. Play with friends on higher difficulties or you will have a bad time. The Prometheans were much better this time around and Knights are actually a massive threat. Having weak spots on their bodies was a good call and added more depth to encounters with them. Hunters fared much worse. I understand that Hunters should be a force to be reckoned with, but 343 really took it too far this time around. You can’t be anywhere near them at all or you’re just dead. No cover? You’re shredded in half a second. Try to get in close for a few shotgun blasts? You’re about to become paste. The only way to take them out reliably is to bombard them with everything you’ve got while camping somewhere safe at a distance. To me, that wasn’t fun. The campaign also didn’t have too many memorable action sequences besides the Kraken.
Arena:
For me, Arena is the best part about Halo 5. This is where all the design choices and weapon balancing really come out to shine. Matches often get extremely competitive and the game feels balanced and fair. This is where all the great moments are made and it’s not because I don’t like other modes. It’s because Arena is very well done, a great experience and the ranking system gets everyone serious about winning (I still want social playlists).
However, nothing is perfect. The lack of playlists is greatly disturbing and the map rotation is awful. I’ll often get Slayer on -insert map- 3 or 4 times in a row before I get something new, it even happens in Team Arena. Orion got removed for being horrible and I feel that Pegasus is bad too. My favorite maps are Truth and Empire, it’s no wonder that they were chosen for the beta. We need more maps, not Forge maps. Also, if you’re going to highlight the power weapons locations, please do it for ALL the power weapons. The Hydra is never marked and even powerups like Cloak/Overshield are hidden. I understand not wanting to clutter the game up even more but there should be something there to tell us, even if it’s really subtle.
Warzone:
Oh boy, Warzone is a mess. I enjoy the rules, capturing bases, opening the core, having numerous variations of vehicles and weapons and just having more of a chaotic mess. I love the idea of having Covenant/Promethean enemies to kill and bosses too but I often find myself seriously questioning some things. Some spawns are terrible and the last hit on bosses can be really cheap. There’s no way that a team can be expected to keep the boss area so clean of enemy players that no one can steal the kill from miles away with a Spartan Laser. The REQ system, while good in theory, is taking away from teamwork. Players are too scared to do anything with their new tank because they know that once it’s gone, it’s gone. It feels like people are just worrying about themselves and their own shiny toys. Whenever I see a Ghost Ultra I have to blink back tears because I know that there’s pretty much nothing I can do to stop it. I don’t want to call in something equally powerful to take it out because I know that I’ll just get sniped as soon as I leave my base or get shredded by Battle Rifle fire (everyone has one). See? This is how Warzone makes you think: Warzone makes you worry too much about your own stuff when the only thing you should be worried about is winning the match.
Everyone has a BR, you can’t ever risk going out into the open because you will die instantly. Grenade spam in bases is ridiculous and spawning with certain weapons such as the Plasma Caster is a death wish. No one will ever use a Carbine or Lightrifle because you can just spawn with a BR for free starting at REQ level 3. Also, an ONI/Ultra variation of a vehicle being deployed at the same cost as the standard versions is completely unfair. Seeing a Ghost Ultra or ONI Warthog early in the game is not a good thing and it just shows how stacked people are getting with their collections. Warzone is fun to play casually, which I’m guessing is the point but it has some flaws if you want to get serious with it.
Breakout:
Not much to say here. It’s fun, it’s balanced. The bland maps are probably turning people off and if you ever expect to win then you have to play with a full-coordinated team. There’s no casual play here.
Big Team Battle:
This mode is tons of fun and the maps are decent. I tend to have the most fun when it’s CTF. Slayer matches usually get boring and if you’re playing it on Deadlock then it’s just not fun at all. Hopefully we can get some actual maps that aren’t Forge. Forge maps don’t always look bad when done right like Basin and Deadlock but looking at Guillotine is painful. Absolutely painful. We need more modes in BTB like Assault and King of the Hill.
Conclusion:
The game is great but could use much more maps and playlists, which I’m sure 343 has planned already by releasing free updates every month. Getting more game modes into the game like Oddball, Infection and Assault is very important. Each mode should have its’ own playlist in matchmaking. Make a Team Objective for Arena ASAP. Let us use all the different vehicle/weapon variations for custom games and Forge. There’s a lot of potential there, don’t waste it.