Halo 5...single player is great, multi, not so much

[littlebib]

Just a quick review...

I just finished the campaign and really enjoyed that. A lot better than I expected. I went in thinking it was going to be another Halo 2 but the plot was really quite enjoyable despite not playing as MC. Graphics and such are as good as I expected.

Multiplayer - I really enjoy the new Warzone mode. The Requisition system takes a bit to get used to but overall I think it offers a pretty interesting twist. It's basically an enhancement from the card system in Titanfall. Warzone can be won a couple of different ways which I think adds some variety. Part of it is base capturing, part AI killing (the game spawns in powerful AI enemies), and part Slayer.

With the normal multiplayer (Arena), I think they took about 10 steps back. True Halo multiplayer fanatics will take this as heresy, but frankly, it sucks. Every match starts with only the assault rifle and pistol. No more loadouts. While maybe that's great for the true competitive players, I find it really annoying. I want my battle rifle. I doubt that I'll continue playing much Arena MP. It comes down 100% to memorizing the maps and knowing exactly what spawns where. They need to have just a separate spot for the hard core vs. the rest who actually want to use other weapons.

 

[Keith Wallace]

Campaign: I disagree with a lot of it. The Warden was a horrible primary antagonist, and his fights were both really easy and really boring. That they killed the Didact without any real mention between 4 and 5 was really stupid and disappointing, because he was at least interesting, compared to this generic guard who didn't really serve a purpose in the story. Playing as Locke and his crew for 80% of the mission (12/15, though 2 of those 12 were just walking) was bothersome, and that they said Halo 5 was twice as long as Halo 4 (which was too short) was a joke, because it was significantly SHORTER than Halo 4 (5-6 hours, versus 8-10 with 4). That, and the overall campaign just felt like it didn't need to exist. There wasn't much in the way of character progression beyond Cortana, and nothing significant really happened. You could have taken the whole campaign, made it the first two missions or so of the next Halo, and it all would have made perfect sense, because the rest was such pointless filler. The Arbiter's presence meant nothing, Warden meant nothing, and basically everyone but Cortana meant nothing in that game. Blue Team felt like it was forced in for a co-op campaign, and their backstory was retconned rather poorly, IMO.

Warzone, it's too much of a yawnfest. You say there are multiple ways to win, but it's not really true. It's all Legendary Boss luck--if you get all 3 kills, bases mean nothing, and who gets the kill is pseudo-RNG luck on whose bullet gets the last hit. If it weren't 4 maps with canned AI spawns that are too easy to kill, it might be different. However, the non-Legendary Bosses are incredibly easy, save maybe the Hunters at the Spire in one of them. Then all of the maps have Warden as a boss, and he's again a terrible enemy. It could be a great mode, but it mostly ends up a lucky mess of bullets where I never feel meaningfully engaged. I don't use REQs ever because they have so little effect on the matches that selling them to get more points for cosmetics feels more useful.

As for Arena, I'm mixed. The maps are garbage, with Fathom as one of the worst FPS maps I've every played, and almost certainly the worst non-Forge Halo map. Not replacing quitters screws over whole teams in a ranking system based 100% on wins and losses. Winning with going 4-12 because you were carried should never be considered better than losing while going 14-3 because you played with bad teammates who didn't communicate. That, and the idea you can't rank down after hitting something is dumb. I was at Diamond 1, lost several times, and never went down, while my friend was sent down multiple Gold rankings in that time. No loadouts? I'm fine with that. The AR is quite powerful, especially with the ADS option, and the pistol is still strong. Much worse than that (Which, again, I don't consider bad) is how bouncy and far-reaching frags are, along with how many grenade spawns are on maps. That makes matches too much of a grenade mess and not enough of a shooter.

 

[RUCKUS_US]

Multiplayer is amazing in my opinion.

 

[Duvi]

I've played it once or twice... I played SWAT. Being a COD player, I enjoyed the headshot only mode.