343 Industries has struggled to demonstrate to the fans of the Halo franchise that they can truly develop a strong title. Halo 4 was a huge success but failed to sustain the online play of it's players. Halo 5 was 343's chance to turn the tide and show the giant Halo community that they have the capability to create a new game worthy of the great franchise. Not only did 343 want to make its mark on the franchise, Microsoft needed a first party title to display the power of their next gen console the Xbox One. Halo 5 is Just what they both needed.
"Halo 5: Guardians" follows two simultaneous storylines told through the perspective of teams of spartans. Blue team, Master Chief's original fireteam from the beginning of the human covenant war. Fireteam Osiris, an ONI special forces team of spartans led by Jameson Locke. Each team of spartans contains a total of four soldiers including a cameo from Buck, leader of your ODST team in "Halo 3: ODST". You start the game as fireteam osiris with a mission to retrieve Dr. Catherine Halsey, creator of the spartan project, and bring her back to the UNSC Infinity. Blue Team is dispatched to secure a captured UNSC base where the Master Chief hears a familiar voice. From there the chief decides to ignore all orders to investigate the message of this familiar voice. Fireteam osiris is then charged with locating the Chief and bringing him home.
The game as a whole is beautiful. The enemies are challenging and the level design is incredible. The environments are stunning which has become a large characteristic of the games since 343 has taken the helm. I found myself at many times stopping just to admire everything in my environment. However, it's not just the environments, the backdrops and every other piece of art are spectacular. The animations of enemies and friendlies are well designed and the cutscenes are breathtaking.
The only negative to the game is the story. The story is somewhat linear and lacking in content. It seemed like the whole story could have been summed up in about 6 missions and left the rest of the game to conclude a meaningful plot. In past halo games each instalment left you with a sense of start and finish. However, Halo 5 seems to blur the start and abruptly end the story. You seem to jump around the galaxy and spend way too much time running errands for other people. All while trying to accomplish your vague mission. You have no sense of whether the two teams are allies or enemies. Throughout the game you spend too much time doing insignificant things making you wonder if the time could have bent spent elsewhere. The story was better put together than Halo 4's but still was unable to fully immerse the player in the world that is Halo.
On top of the lack of story the characters seem underdeveloped. Of course we all know the Master Chief and his strong silent type but we hear little of his team (assuming that you have not read the Halo books). Other than some dialogue the characters are not introduced in a way that makes you understand why they follow Chief on his wild goose chase. The same happens to fireteam osiris where little info is given and it is up to the player to dig deeper in order to understand the characters.
Although there are some flaws, Halo 5's gameplay is phenomenal. The weapons are fun, the movement of enemies is fluid, and the addition of the thruster pack helps to make the gameplay much more varied than its predecessors. Halo hasn't seen this good of a multiplayer since Halo: Reach. The arena has a great ranking system which helps secure Halo 5 as a top E-sport. On top of the arena, Halo 5 introduces a brand new game type of online multiplayer called Warzone. Warzone is massive battlefield game type where the player fights through objectives, AIs, and other spartans to secure the victory. 343 also has been providing the game with free DLC every single month with new weapons, new maps, and new armor which keeps the game feeling fresh. The only down side is a lack in split screen capabilities which is an extreme con to the gamers who enjoy couch multiplayer.
Halo 5: Guardians was a beautiful well designed game full of addicting gameplay and incredible art. Overall, this game was just what 343 needed to prove that they are ready to hold the mantle that is the Halo franchise. The multiplayer shines bright among the other features of the game. I cannot wait to see what is in store for the future in Halo 6.
