I'll add my own little review into the pot.
When the game is played, you can tell that it is a Halo game, considering how the enemies are still the same; Forerunner Prometheans and Covenant Loyalists.
However, a lot has changed in the formula. For die-hard Halo fans who aren't willing to adapt to the new playstyles, this could be viewed as an extremely negative thing. Your Spartan can now shoulder charge if you've sprinted long enough, or you can hover in air if you hold the trigger, likewise, you can launch yourself at the ground and do a ground pound if you hold a specific button.
This makes your Spartan feel more versatile and powerful. Unfortunately, the enemies themselves seem to fluctuate on difficulty themselves. When Vale, my younger brother, and I went through the Campaign on Normal, we felt extremely powerful, but there were some foes that were exceptionally difficult. Some of which were Hunters, others were Forerunner bosses I won't mention right now.
No matter how powerful your Spartans felt, there were some enemies that, even on Normal, could one-shot you. On the brighter side, you could revive downed allies, but it was annoying in some instances.
Continuing on, there were fourteen missions total in the Campaign. Many of them definitely hyped the game's plot up. While Locke was still hunting Chief, it wasn't the major plot-point in the story. That's where Blue Team's missions came in. The only time it actually felt like Halo was when you were playing as Master Chief, and perhaps that's what 343 was after.
I'm not necessarily saying that's a bad thing, it's all about what your consider a 'Halo' experience. What WAS a bad thing, was that out of these fourteen missions, four of them were just walking and talking with Marines/Colonists.
Not that that isn't cool, having a nice quiet time between battles, it just felt out of place and unnecessary. I've been told that you could find skulls and intels within these missions, not to mention rare/hilarious dialogue easter eggs.
The ending, which I will not spoil, also left a lot to be desired. 343 attempted to produce a cliff-hanger ending very similar to Halo 2's, which is commendable. They wanted to try and be like Bungie at the prime of the Halo series, but they ended up pissing a lot of people off more than they should.
Again, without spoiling too much, I'll just say that these Guardians they've been hyping up? They don't show you much of what they're capable of. They only briefly tell you what their function is, and if you sneeze while it's explained, you'll miss it.
Overall, the Campaign was explosive and enjoyable. It left a lot to be desired, and personally I would have rathered those 'walking' missions' time be used to actually introduce the Guardians and give a BIT of closure at the end of Halo 5, instead of that completely hacked off ending we got. It felt odd not playing as Master Chief all the time, but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing in my mind.
Each character had their own loadout and abilities. The two Spartans I focused on were Fred from Blue Team and Buck from Osiris. Vale will likely explain his time as Vale and Kelly respectively, so I'll just go over my two characters.
Fred had more melee damage when he punched or Spartan Charged/Ground Pounded. He also had faster health regen because of his Spartan II augments. He could carry more explosive ammo, and always spawned with an extra Frag grenade.
Buck was similar in the fact that he could do more melee damage than the others in Osiris due to his armor modifications. His specialty, however could recharge his shields and the speed at which he could shoulder charge much faster.
Moving off of the Campaign, the Multiplayer is interesting. I'll admit that the amount of Gametypes is a little annoying. So far, there is only Breakout, Slayer, FFA, CTF, Shotty-Snipes, and one other I can't recall the name of. 343 has said that game types like Big Team Battle and Assault will be on their way in the future for free, but I dunno when they'll be released.
Gameplay is pretty balanced, although you are still practically a god when you pick up a DMR or BR from the map. Likewise, even though the AR is very powerful now, it can still be trumped at mid to short range. Even worse, the Pistol itself can five shot. This of course is to allow you to stand a chance against BRs or ARs, but at the start of a match could make or break the game.
When you aren't being pistol killed, or rinsed by a BR or DMR, you have the Power Weapon horders. Not to say that they are completely over powered, but the new mobility functions such as clambering make it that much easier for your team to be annihilated by Power Weapons.
Speaking of mobility functions, the amount of Spartan Charger, pistol headshot comboers is ludacris. Vale and I went into Custom Games to prepare him for the multiplayer, so to show him what he would be dealing with, I would Spartan Charge him out of the wood work, and pop him in the face with a pistol before he knew what hit him.
To my discredit, this was the most cheap combo in the game, but he needed to know that people in Multiplayer did that- A LOT. Overall, Arena multiplayer is pretty balanced, minus the fact that your Pistol can readily be the next BR/DMR from spawn. The Spawns themselves are pretty bad, which I hope might be fixed for the future.
Finally comes Warzone, the new 16vAIv16 gametype. You and a team of fifteen others fight to control three points. You already own a base from the start, this will count as your Home Base. As the game progresses, AI bosses will spawn on the field. These could be Hunters, Elites, Prometheans, etc. Killing those gives you points, as will killing opposing Spartans.
Ultimately, the goal of the game is 1000 points. You can only earn points from killing AI bosses or Spartans. However, there is an alternative to killing 1000 points worth of AI bosses or Spartans. If your team is fortunate enough to control all three neutral bases, the enemy team's Base Core will open. At this point, your goal is to kill the Core.
If you kill the Core, it's an automatic win for your team. However, if your Team is leading in normal points, but the enemy team gets all three neutral bases and kills YOUR core, they win the game.
The gamemode is fun, but I'll also admit that it's a bit of a cluster fuck. Once you've first encountered the enemy Spartans, you'll see a lot of them. People in this game mode have already found the best camping locations. To add insult to injury, they've added a Req system.
Req cards are given when you open Req packs, which can be earned through points for clearing matches, or by buying them from the Xbox store. These cards come with vehicles, weapons, power weapons, and armor.
Armor is a permanent unlock, but the weapons and vehicles are one time use cards only for Warzone multiplayer. So as you progress through a Warzone match, you earn Req Levels. As you go along, these Req points allow you to use one of your Req cards for a Power Weapon or vehicle. This can either help the campers, especially when they perma req BRs, or they can help your team with the use of active camo and shotty.
The gamemode doesn't differ much from actual Arena multiplayer, but now adds Heroic level AI to spawn every now and again. I've enjoyed the game mode a lot, even if it can be a bit one sided at times. The nice thing about Req cards and the game mode itself, is it's a game of teamwork and strategy, if you aren't communicating and working in tandum with your team, you won't win.
My final judgement for Halo 5 is that, at launch, it's pretty decent. It wasn't broken like MCC. The Campaign tells a very rich story, but ends pretty poorly. The Multiplayer is tense and new, though that is much to the discredit of Halo 3 die-hards. Warzone is explosive and fun, but has it's frustrating moments.
Forge will be coming out in December, but from what I've read, the wait is definitely worth it. Overall I give Halo 5 an 8.9/10. It's not perfect, but it's definitely not shit like a lot of people on Waypoint are making it out to be.
It doesn't exactly feel like Halo, which is a bit of a bummer. But times are changing, and we certainly don't want Halo to follow CoD's example of pushing the same shit out every year. I will admit that some changes could have been tweaked a bit, or even left out, but it was a second attempt at Halo from 343 as a company.
In fact, I think it's a bit of an improvement over their attempts at Halo 4.
. All I said is the ending is a massive, useless cliffhanger, and Guardians weren't delved into enough for my liking.
