After all this waiting, halo 5 is finally upon us! I was able to beat the campaign on normal and I thought I’d talk about what I like and did not like in the campaign.
The Halo 5 guardians campaign is a fun and enjoyable experience but at the same time it is somewhat incoherent and I feel does not quite deliver what a lot of us were expecting after hunt the truth and Microsoft’s marketing.
The story
This is probably halo 5’s weakest point, which is unfortunate after all the hype and all the epic trailers. I think many of us were expecting an epic, emotional story that would have us at the edge of our seat and enthralled in the halo universe like never before. The story has been marketed as the greatest hunt in gaming history but I have to say it is barely a hunt at all.
Osiris and blue team. I have to say I really liked both. Osiris had a cool sort of special ops vibe which was very cool. I quite liked all the members of blue team, they all had an interesting background and unique personalities. It’s awesome that buck is now a Spartan. Blue team team wasn’t quite as developed but still cool.
My main gripe with the story is that, as I stated above,it’s incoherent. You go from planet to planet without really being explained why and many story points are just under developed. For example, there is one point where chief brings up his past and how he never had a choice to join the Spartan program when he is talking to Cortana. This seemed out of place since at no point in the game (or the series for that matter) has chief ever seemed to be bothered by this or even talked about his past. I think the theme of chief’s should have been explored more throughout the game instead of just one pointless line from chief. Another time in a cutscene Osiris is on the infinity talking to some captain guy (don’t remember his name) and they decide they need to get to a guardian on sanghelios. The conversation basically went something like this
Osiris: “we really need to get to that guardian on sanghelios before chief activates it”
Captain: “Sanghelios is off limits, there is a civil war”
Osiris: “please, we REALLY need to go there”
captain: OK
I really felt like all the cut scenes in halo 5 were just too short. I think if they were longer they would seem more natural and it would help explain the story much better. They all just seemed really rushed which is extremely bizarre as this was never a problem in past halo games. However, there is one cutscene where chief and locke fight and it is absolutely epic. I had a big smile on my face the whole time. Best part of the entire game in my opinion. But it sucks because this fight means nothing because as I said before, the hunt for blue team is barely a hunt at all. Osiris goes from hunting down chief to being on his side so quick it is insane. I honestly think this game should have been 2x longer than it was, with 2x the cut scenes. I think it would have flowed much better and made more sense.
And then at the end of the game you realize that halo 5 is just a set up for halo 6. Just like how halo 4 is a set up for halo 5.
I also think it weird how little hunt the truth ties in with halo 5. I honestly think I enjoyed HTT’s story more than halo 5’s.
Stuff I liked
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Team osiris is very cool - Epic chief v. locke fight scene - Sanghelios is a really cool location and I enjoyed these missions a lot - when you arrive at genesis Stuff I did not like
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not enough explanation, cut scenes too short - Barely a “hunt for the chief” - repetitive. I feel like the Prometheans just arent that fun to fight. - Towards the end feels just like halo 4. Shooting Prometheans in forerunner structures. - ending kinda sucks, whole game sets up for halo 6 - Hunt the truth?