Introduction
With the release of Halo 4, 343 Industries established that they were capable of taking over the important franchise and steering it in a new direction. While the multiplayer strayed from its roots, the campaign elevated the game considerably. Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3 were all about the struggle against the Covenant and did not focus on Master Chief as a character or even delve deeper into his relationship with Cortana. Halo 4 provided a proper glimpse into the mindset of both of these iconic characters.
Themes of sacrifice, friendship, and love were explored in a mature and respectful manner. At the end of the game, we discovered that Cortana was more human than even the Master Chief. She was prone to the same traps and mistakes all of us are capable of. If you took anything away from the campaign, it would have to be that. In my opinion, the Reclaimer Saga is all about addressing what it means to be human and the challenges that come with it. War is a natural part of human existence and power corrupts everyone, no matter who they are.
Campaign
Despite all his efforts, the Master Chief could not save Cortana and she sacrificed herself to protect him from harm at the end of Halo 4. It was a truly touching moment that every Halo fan will never forget. How do you continue the story from there? How do you think Master Chief will cope without her? Many of these questions are answered during Halo 5’s campaign but, above all, Halo 5 marks the beginning of a new chapter for the franchise. It introduces a threat that affects the entire galaxy—humans and Covenant alike—and introduces us to the series’ first proper villain. The Halo universe is changing and it is a treat to be along for the ride. Halo 5’s campaign is one of the best ever made and it is just as shocking and emotional as 343 Industries said it would be.
While Halo 5’s story focuses on the Master Chief, it is told through the eyes of Fireteam Osiris. As you know from the countless trailers, Osiris are tasked with bringing in Master Chief after he is declared Absent Without Leave. This is a serious offense when it comes to the military and he must explain his actions. Master Chief has always been presented as a leader, but in the other Halo titles he seems more like a follower to me. He either follows orders from superiors or does whatever Cortana tells him to do. However, Halo 5 paints him in a new light. We see Master Chief commanding other Spartans and his authority is evident in the way his team interacts with him and how others view him. As Spartan Palmer says, “the Chief does whatever he wants”. It is a refreshing change because Master Chief finally feels like he is in charge. Be sure to listen to the dialogue among the characters even when you are playing as Spartan Locke because a lot of background is revealed about Master Chief and his relationship with Blue Team.
The campaign can be experienced in a number of ways. You can either rush through it or take the time to carefully plan your attacks and move forward. I completed the campaign on Normal difficulty to get a sense for the story and then went back to finish it on Legendary difficulty. Unlike other games that just make enemies stronger by granting them additional health, Halo 5 focuses on enemy intelligence as an indicator of the challenge presented to the player. I would recommend playing it on at least Heroic difficulty to get a sense of how advanced the computer-controlled enemies are in the title. The Halo series has always been known for its clever enemies and Halo 5 elevates that even further. Multiple bosses even work together to take you down.
Halo 5 offers a multitude of ways to tackle any given combat scenario. There are numerous path and secret entrances to maneuver through. The levels are the biggest they have ever been in a Halo game. Be sure to bash through crumbling walls and other peculiar structures to discover all of their secrets.
Halo 5 introduces numerous pieces of intel that play an integral part to the story. Players will be tempted to rush through the campaign because of their desire to know how it ends. Doing so will result in missing large parts of the story. Be sure to examine every corner in the vast levels because they contain artifacts and data pads that give context to the unfolding events. Remember to talk to various characters on Meridian and Sanghelios to get an understanding of how they feel about it all. They can offer clues as to what is going on when other channels fail.
The most interesting addition to the campaign has to be the co-op aspect and the ability to revive players. Not only does it add an additional level of engagement with your teammates during combat, but it also signifies larger changes in the Halo universe. Playing with your friends makes Halo 5 a particularly rewarding experience because you do not have to constantly dish out commands and can just talk to one another while taking down Covenant or Forerunners soldiers. Playing alone is very different especially at higher difficulty settings where you have to guide your computer-controlled teammates constantly. While having incredibly smart computer-controlled Spartans would take away from the challenge, the other Fireteam members sometimes feel too lost and confused. Giving them constant targets, locations, and weapons is necessary when you play the campaign. With this addition, Halo 5 becomes an even more tactical game even though I wish my digital friends were as intelligent as my enemies.
The ability to revive players is a controversial decision because it lowers the difficulty of the game in Normal mode. That is how most players will go through the title. It is a welcome addition in my opinion because it allows you to take risks and adopt approaches you never would have thought of. There is this one area in the game where you have to take down a Wraith. The player can either directly attack the mammoth war machine or take a slightly riskier route through hordes of Covenant to get past the plasma blasts. You might even discover a secret passage with a few secrets while you are at it. Experimenting plays an important role in the campaign and reviving players allows you to do that. It also adds to the campaign’s replayability because all paths offer unique challenges.
The introduction of the four-player co-op campaign and the need to revive gives the sense that the threat Master Chief and humanity face is bigger than what they have encountered before. This is a threat that the Master Chief cannot face alone. He needs all the help he can get. These themes build upon the ending of Halo 4 which left our favorite hero in a vulnerable state after the loss of Cortana. Rarely do a game’s mechanics correlate so well with the story. Halo 5 is the rare exception.
Without revealing details about the story, I would recommend that all of you play Halo 5 on Legendary difficulty to get that extra cutscene you can watch just like previous Halo titles. In my opinion, Halo 6 will focus on humanity’s struggle against this larger threat and how to combat it. It will be about forming alliances and discovering even more secrets the Forerunners left behind. You will be shocked by Halo 5’s ending but you will be excited for what the future has in store. For me, Halo just became the most exciting franchise in gaming after this latest entry in the series. The campaign is one of the best I have ever played.
Multiplayer
Arena
Halo 5’s multiplayer goes back to its roots with emphasis being placed on weapon control more than any other strategy. Everyone starts with the same loadout and it is all about working with your team to ensure you get the important weapons available on the map. It is supremely addicting and my favorite mode has to be Team SWAT at the moment. Abilities that everyone possesses like dash, sprint, ground pound, and clamber increase movement and attack options tremendously. Halo 5 innovates while staying true to what made the series so great in the first place.
One of the greatest additions has to be the multiplayer team chatter that all Spartans say. Many gamers do not really talk to each other when they are playing the game so this helps people like me who need constant communication. You can turn it off if you want but it is an ingenious way to combat a growing problem in multiplayer shooters in my opinion. I remember when I used to play Halo 2 everyone was talkative even if you joined a random game but nowadays the amount of interaction has gone down. Some shooters like Star Wars: Battlefront do not even feature in-game chat anymore.
One of the most noticeable improvements from previous Halo titles has to be the refinement of the shooting mechanics. This is not just about bumping up the speed to 60 frames per second, it is about the extreme precision the player is able to shoot with because the controls are so spot on. For example, if you compare it to Halo 4 in Halo: The Master Chief Collection which also runs at 60 frames per second, Halo 5 feels smoother and the shooting is more precise. The fact that Halo 5 is locked at 60 frames per second and does not fluctuate like other shooters promotes this precision. 343 Industries have managed to enhance the engine and it is even better than the build everyone played during the Halo 5 multiplayer beta. Accuracy of weaponry is more valued than fire rate in Halo 5.
I will be honest, I used to think that Call of Duty featured the best mechanics and exactitude when it came to console shooters but Halo 5 has refined combat like no other title I have played this year. I recently tested Rainbow Six Siege, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, and Star Wars: Battlefront and none of these games come close to the exactness I experienced when I played Halo 5. It sits at the top in my opinion.
There are also numerous diverse maps to play on. So far Plaza has to be one of my favorites because it offers a lot of verticality, close combat scenarios, and long sightlines in certain areas. 343 Industries will add even more maps for free for all Halo 5 owners after the game releases. This is a practice everyone should follow in the industry. Halo 5 is a phenomenal multiplayer game and all the improvements 343 Industries have made to the title since the beta make you want to keep coming back for more.
Warzone
As you all know, Warzone is the new multiplayer mode in Halo 5. It offers massive 24-player battles that also include numerous computer-controlled enemies and guards. It is utter chaos but it does not have to be. Teams that work together and communicate about what requisitions to call in and whether their approach will be geared towards offense or defense do well.
Legendary bosses spawn across the massive battlefield and the objective is to control certain outposts and eventually destroy the enemy’s core. Apart from that, the team that scores enough points also wins if the match is at a stalemate. Warzone gives everyone a chance to contribute no matter their skill level.
Requesting powerful vehicles seems to be the key when it comes to success in Warzone. From the many matches I played, I felt that those teams who were able to call in tanks and Wraiths succeeded. Of course, that was not always the cause but taking on a Legendary boss without some serious firepower behind you is foolhardy.
You can think of the mode as a card game. The enemy plays a REQ, maybe calls in a Wraith. You look at your deck and choose a Scorpion tank to combat the enemy vehicle or a Legendary heavy weapon that is great at taking them down if you unlocked it. The difference is that success is not guaranteed and you must go into the battlefield and properly use the tools at your disposal.
REQ packs that contain items ranging from weapon skins to special vehicles can be earned swiftly through all of your actions in Arena and Warzone. However, you can only use REQ cards in Warzone. REQ packs can also be purchased through microtransactions but since you do not know what is in them, I would recommend just playing multiplayer because you earn an obscene amount of points and can afford the top-tier Gold pack after a few matches. I was initially skeptical and thought Warzone would be one of those pay-to-win situations but it is not. I would recommend purchasing REQ packs only if you want to support the Halo World Championship prize pool because a portion of proceeds go towards that.
Technical Issues
There are some concerns that need to be addressed when it comes to Halo 5 and they mostly pertain to its visuals. As you might already know, Halo 5 sacrifices resolution to preserve frame rate. The frame rate is locked at 60 and never wavers. However, when there is a lot of action going on, the engine lowers the resolution from 1080p and sometimes the image become noticeably blurry. This can be quite a jarring experience.
There are also lighting bugs that have not been fixed since the multiplayer beta landed almost a year ago. Sometimes the armor appears to lack shadows and other details. In other instances when you are customizing your Spartan, a dark shadow will cover the armor so you cannot see how the colors look.
Lastly, it seems that some levels received more attention than others. Sanghelios, the area shown during the Fireteam Osiris trailers, is immaculate. It is one of the most gorgeous regions ever created for a video game. The colony of Meridian on the other hand is riddled with low-resolution textures that look like someone just forgot about them. I understand that sacrifices have to be made to preserve frame rate but surely the texture quality in obvious places could have been improved.
I really hope 343 Industries continues to optimize the graphics engine for Halo 5 and we see improvements before Halo 6. You can tell that it is brand new and some issues need to be ironed out. The foundation is solid but it needs some work in my opinion. I also encountered some stuttering during the opening cutscenes in Warzone and texture pop-in during the campaign.
Conclusion
Halo 5 is a truly astonishing game on multiple levels. Not only does it manage to incorporate a brilliant campaign with stellar gameplay, it also provides a remarkable multiplayer experience. Warzone is the most exciting change to a multiplayer title in years and it will surely be adopted by others. The amazing musical score by Kazuma Jinnouchi makes every battle feel epic and tense. Aside from the visual issues, Halo 5 is perfect on every level. The interactions among Blue Team and Fireteam Osiris feel natural and the voice acting, especially that by Steve Downes and Nathan Fillion, is stellar. Master Chief speaks a lot more in this game and it is a welcome change. I cannot recommend Halo 5 enough to fans of shooters and can definitely say this is the best one I have played in a long time. Do yourself a favor and go pick it up. If you are worried about the servers, you will be glad to know that I encountered no issues and got into games in a few seconds. Halo 5 is by far my most favorite shooter this year, it might even be my most favorite shooter of all time.
Halo 5 takes the series and even the genre to a whole new level through its story and gameplay. 343 Industries took some bold creative risks and they paid off. The studio managed a large leap in just two games which their predecessor could not achieve in five. However, the noticeable technical issues are upsetting and take you out of the experience. If it were not for these problems, the game would garner a perfect score. The captivating story takes Halo in a complex new direction. A multiplayer experience unlike any other this year and the addition of Warzone makes Halo 5 a title you cannot pass up. I cannot wait to see what 343 Industries does with Halo 6.
Additional Information
Halo 5’s Forge mode launches in December. From the tutorials it seems like it is a massive improvement over Halo 4. Forge has always been a robust tool for creating special games and maps so that is another feature to look forward to.
Halo: The Fall of Reach animated series tells the story of Master Chief and Blue Team. It details their origins and backgrounds. If you are unfamiliar with who the supporting characters are, be sure to watch the show. It comes with the special editions of the game.
