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[soulassssns]

100% Disagree.

Thanks for your opinion I guess.

Smh

 

[Frog-fu]

343i have now for the second time made it perfectly clear that they are so far up their own asses that they think their lorecraft is more important than their game narrative.

They did it Halo 4, and now they've done it with Halo 5.

The end result? A confusing mess to the vast majority of players and a stellar campaign only to those relatively few up to date with their novels and comics.

Any game that requires homework to comprehend and fully drops you into the story like Halo 5 does is a narrative failure in my opinion, and it so disappointing to see 343i make the same mistake all over again.

Also, for shame that they misled fans for so long. What the Halo 5 campaign gave us was not the "greatest hunt in gaming history" it was hyped up to be. Not even close.

Locke didn't so much as hunt Chief as he repeatedly tried to ask him to come home - nicely.

It's disheartening that Hunt the Truth was so phenomenal and the game didn't even come close to matching the quality or tone it set.

 

[DJ_Lae]

I really enjoyed the campaign, which surprised me - my only complaint is the Warden fights, which are not fun (and there are way, way too many of them).

Would have liked some more larger vehicle arenas as the ones included were a bit one-note - and there's basically only one large open environment in the campaign. But that's not unique to Halo 5 and it didn't detract much.

The story is not great overall and is not told in a particularly interesting way, but I also don't think any Halo game has done a good job with that. They've always been gameplay first and then randomly sprinkled with nonsense storytelling. The only one that did a good job of it is ODST, and it was still a little on the awkward side.

 

[CassidyIzABeast]

Best Campaign since CE. Best playing game in the franchise.

 

[Sojgat]

Halo 5 campaign was right up there with Halo CE.

Warden fights were no worse than fighting the Flood.

I enjoyed fighting the Flood though.

 

[Twilight Gap]

100% Disagree.

Thanks for your opinion I guess.

Smh

The quality of the AI isn't really a matter of opinion so I don't see how it's possible to 100% disagree with the OP.

 

[Defect]

Not having a HALO killed it for me, I love landing and exploring new HALO's, after all that's what the game is called.

It should have been named "The adventures of Master Chief and Crew."

More like "The Adventures of Locke and a few others."

 

[Future PhaZe]

Worst campaign yet imo. Invasive forced coop, a head scratching story, very small scaled fights, etc.

343 have been a truly miserable baton catcher for the series, and I say that with a lot of disappointment.

 

[Outrun]

I cannot help but think that the OP made a list of attributes that they regard as quintessential Halo and then claim that Halo 5 did not possess those characteristics.

IMHO, H5 was stellar.

 

[Jack The Nipper]

There are a lot of missions in the franchise that felt like "tunnels", that's not necessarily a bad thing. Not every level has to be a mini sandbox. In any case, every mission [sans something like The Silent Cartographer/Halo] is ultimately a tunnel, some with more wider areas to engage enemies in. I felt the passageways made things more interesting personally. The more open ended levels like Meridian Station, Sanghelios and Battle of Sunaion had awesome methods of engagement.

I think whittling down any of levels that hundreds of people worked on to "can be designed in 10 minutes with pretty graphics" isn't fair or justified.

I am trying to be fair but I honestly feel I could design some of those basic layouts just in 10 mins, that is what makes so many of these new games of today so bad imo, not just halo. And you are right, there are some more straight forward levels in halo but they just connect to the game better, artistically feel better in design.


I know you get excited about a lot of games and I saw your excitement and want for this game before it was out and there is nothing wrong with that. I feel you play a lot of games as do I.

 

[tiredheadcrab]

I really liked the campaign.

It still felt rushed to me though. And while I loved the twist at the end

Spoiler

Yes, I love Evil!Cortana

, it being a cliff hanger ending was really my only gripe. It'll be another 3 years before we get Halo 6, which sucks.

I also wasn't following any of the supplemental stuff like the Hunt the Truth podcasts so I was lost on a few specific plot details and was missing some occasional context.

My only real complaint were those walk and talk missions. They were extremely jarring when compared to the rest of the experience.

And the Prometheans were much better this time around when compared to what we had in Halo 4. Not liking the Prometheans is perfectly okay but 343i did a lot to improve their mechanics and they felt much much much better to fight this time. I also didn't mind fighting Warden Eternal a million times because I liked him and each fight changed it up enough to keep you on your toes. I really like the last fight with him, especially on the harder difficulties - that shit keeps you at attention.

You would love

Spoiler

Evil Cortana

just by looking at your profile pic LOL. I did as well and thought it was a nice twist.

Overall i thought the story needed more work. But the gameplay was fantastic. The shooting felt solid. The only thing is the warden fights and the story. Halo 6 really needs to focus on better story telling.

Multiplayer is amazing. I hope it gets multiplayer game of the year.

 

[Poodlestrike]

343i have now for the second time made it perfectly clear that they are so far up their own asses that they think their lorecraft is more important than their game narrative.

They did it Halo 4, and now they've done it with Halo 5.

The end result? A confusing mess to the vast majority of players and a stellar campaign only to those relatively few up to date with their novels and comics.

Any game that requires homework to comprehend and fully drops you into the story like Halo 5 does is a narrative failure in my opinion, and it so disappointing to see 343i make the same mistake all over again.

Also, for shame that they misled fans for so long. What the Halo 5 campaign gave us was not the "greatest hunt in gaming history" it was hyped up to be. Not even close.

Locke didn't so much as hunt Chief as he repeatedly tried to ask him to come home - nicely.

It's disheartening that Hunt the Truth was so phenomenal and the game didn't even come close to matching the quality or tone it set.

Halo 5 does not, in any way shape or form, require you to know outside lore to get the story. Not even sorta. That's simply untrue, and I challenge you to provide one thing that can't be either answered in game or easily glossed over.

In all fairness to the marketing, they did call it the "start" of the greatest hunt in gaming history. Story's not over yet

Locke uses a light touch because a) Chief is a hero to millions and b) when he tries to force the issue

Spoiler

he gets his ass kicked

, so caution was probably the right call there.

 

[EGM1966]

The campaign was awesome. Just can't please everyone.

Their issue though is they're clearly pleasing less people percentage wise than before.

Having no played the SP I'd say OP is a bit harsh but general it's obvious the SP campaigns just aren't clicking as well as they used to. TBH Halo in its entirety isn't clicking as well as it used to.

H5 felt like an improvement from H4 but not enough overall to repair the knock to the franchise H4 delivered.

 

[mcrommert]

The quality of the AI isn't really a matter of opinion so I don't see how it's possible to 100% disagree with the OP.

The thought police have arrived

 

[Black Mantis]

Disagree, but to each their own.

 

[TheDarkKnight774]

It was ok but not great. Outside the ridiculous story elements that make this game more filler than anything my biggest gripe was the Prometheans. Just when we finally got rid of the flood these idiots has to show up and drain the fun out of every encounter. The game really picks up and becomes fun during covenant fights and then when they show up the fun fades away

 

[Jack The Nipper]

I'd take a flood like moment in halo, like halo 1 did. It doesn't have to be the flood but something scary and sort of alien inspired feels pretty cool.

THe flood wasn't good cause they were the flood, it was always their introduction that was fun.

Sadly, 343 just gave us some dogs, and some nighcrawlers.

 

[Future PhaZe]

Halo 5 does not, in any way shape or form, require you to know outside lore to get the story. Not even sorta. That's simply untrue, and I challenge you to provide one thing that can't be either answered in game or easily glossed over.

In all fairness to the marketing, they did call it the "start" of the greatest hunt in gaming history. Story's not over yet

Locke uses a light touch because a) Chief is a hero to millions and b) when he tries to force the issue

Spoiler

he gets his ass kicked

, so caution was probably the right call there.

Literally dropped into a squad of ORIGINAL spartan II's with Chief right from jump when we've gone through how many games of him riding solo?

 

[uncledonnie]

I think the levels being mostly cramped is pretty inarguable. For instance when you have to blow up the 3 stargates. That area is laughably compressed. Why even put ghosts and mongeese in there? Maybe level size is the wrong way to describe it. There's plenty of terrain in the game. Level width is the problem, and how it is used.

I guess it is arguable since I and many others are arguing it. Swords of Sanghelios, Battle of Sunaion, Meridian, etc. did not feel cramped to me at all. And the last level especially did not feel compressed -- I mean if anything that was an open level with complete control over how you decide to tackle it. And I used a vehicle for everything but the last encounter.

What % of enemies would you say are covenant? I'd say 25% max. I can only think of one or two fights that featured both covenant and prometheans, and they usually would all ignore each other and start shooting at me when I showed up.

There's no way it's just 25% Covenant. Argent moon is all covenant and several other levels are majority covenant. There were plenty of times the two factions were fighting each other all the way through until the last couple levels.

You can argue the game isn't mostly ugly but the snow areas and the glassed planet and genesis are all pretty dull looking to me. Sanghelios being as stunning as it is makes the other areas look even worse in comparison.

Genesis is dull? That level was gorgeous.

 

[Unity2012]

I havent finished the SP but what I've played has been fun, different yet fun.

I keep asking myself, if 343i would have made a game similar to Halo 4 or 3, would we be happy or would we be here complaining about how is more of the same?

So far I'm very happy with the SP.

 

[TheOhrenberger.]

I disagree with almost everything you say.

 

[Outrun]

Halo 5 does not, in any way shape or form, require you to know outside lore to get the story. Not even sorta. That's simply untrue, and I challenge you to provide one thing that can't be either answered in game or easily glossed over.

In all fairness to the marketing, they did call it the "start" of the greatest hunt in gaming history. Story's not over yet

Locke uses a light touch because a) Chief is a hero to millions and b) when he tries to force the issue

Spoiler

he gets his ass kicked

, so caution was probably the right call there.

I agree.

I am just scratching my head with some of the criticisms leveled on this game.

This ain't Halo 4. It is better in every way.

 

[MauroNL]

While I agree that the Wardens are a little annoying, the only real challenge was the triple fight near the end of the game. That part took me a long, long time. The other encounters are do-able, they just require some tactical movement and your teammates are helpfull in that.

My only real dissapointment is that Master Chief is also in a team now, which I think is lame. I get that it had to be done because of co-op but I like the chief fighting solo because he's a super badass and cool super soldier so I can beat everything by myself dammit!

Overall this campaign was fairly good, defo better then 4 but I think its still behind the Bungie games. I had a great time though, finished my heroic solo playthrough in less then 12 hours and 54 deaths

Spoiler

Got a little carried away with finding the intel and skulls

 

[MattKeil]

The main problem with the campaign is that the story is an Act 1 dragged out across an entire game. After the initial complication, nothing of note happens until the end, and what happens at the end should have happened around Mission 4.

 

[darthbob]

Disagreeing without providing a counterpoint isn't helpful.

 

[Outrun]

Literally dropped into a squad of ORIGINAL spartan II's with Chief right from jump when we've gone through how many games of him riding solo?

You missed the part where Locke provides back story on Chief and his relationship with Blue Team....

 

[Kyzon]

I played with friends the entire way. Loved everything. Warden fights weren't bad for us either. It's basically break his shield with a power weapon and lay into his exposed core. The gameplay areas were also maswivel apart from some areas. So many multiple paths

I disagree with all of OP

 

[Frog-fu]

Halo 5 does not, in any way shape or form, require you to know outside lore to get the story. Not even sorta. That's simply untrue, and I challenge you to provide one thing that can't be either answered in game or easily glossed over.

In all fairness to the marketing, they did call it the "start" of the greatest hunt in gaming history. Story's not over yet

Locke uses a light touch because a) Chief is a hero to millions and b) when he tries to force the issue

Spoiler

he gets his ass kicked

, so caution was probably the right call there.

I'm sure I can think of a couple examples, but just from the top of my head: players going in without any book or comics knowledge regarding Blue Team are going to be wondering who they are, where came from, what were they doing up until Halo 5 and when they reunited with Chief. Suddenly plopping a bunch of Spartan IIs into game without any explanation was shitty, and that's just one example.

Locke isn't going to be hunting Chief again. No way 343i will be reusing that plot point again, not after they hyped a bomb ass hunt for Halo 5 and thoroughly failed to deliver on it.

Asking nicely the first time was the right move. After Chief made it clear he wasn't going to comply, that's when the niceties should have ended.

Spoiler

Also, Locke/Team Osiris was hyped up to be Chief's/Blue Team's equal due to superior tech. We saw little to no evidence of that aside from Locke being able to hold his own against Chief for a minute before he pissed Chief off and got whooped.

 

[PetulantChild]

Halo 5 does not, in any way shape or form, require you to know outside lore to get the story. Not even sorta. That's simply untrue, and I challenge you to provide one thing that can't be either answered in game or easily glossed over.

It's never explained in depth what the mantle is, or even why it's important (even though it really isn't, and is one of the dumbest plotpoints and concepts ever), why Cortana would all of a sudden become EVIL! when in contact with the Domain (which also is something that is glossed over despite being important) despite not becoming EVIL! when in contact with Gravemind. Either way it's incredibly apparent that they hired on the same hack comic book writers from Halo 4 to write Halo 5s gobshite "story".

 

[Chaos2Frozen]

You need to listen to the podcast, follow Bonnie Ross on twitter, have read all the novels and dug through Phil Spencer's garbage to fully understand the lore.

Sounds troublesome.

Brutes are too busy killing the fuck out of each other to bother with the rest of the galaxy. When their civilization-wide civil war(s) wrap(s) up, they might be back.

Sigh. For what possible meta reasons would 343 take out the Brutes?

Oh wow I didn't even realize there weren't any Brutes.

Really? Cause that's the first thing that bothered me about this new Saga.

Okay. Bring back the flood? Close the thread. SHUT IT DOWN. FOREVER.

Honestly why not? Bring back all the warriors. This series needs more Aliens and enemy types, not less.

 

[Betty]

I agree with everything except one small point

No Halo in Halo 5

This is a GOOD thing. There should have always been only 1 Halo ring, we shouldn't have to visit one every damn game just because the game is named Halo.

Especially when all the Halo rings are so visually similar.

 

[amardilo]

I was OK with the Halo campaign. I would have liked a few more bigger environments/fights (not taking what they have away just adding 1 or 2 extra areas/levels).

 

[Outrun]

I'm sure I can think of a couple examples, but just from the top of my head: players going in without any book or comics knowledge regarding Blue Team are going to be wondering who they are, where came from, what were they doing up until Halo 5 and when they reunited with Chief. Suddenly plopping a bunch of Spartan IIs into game without any explanation was shitty, and that's just one example.

Locke isn't going to be hunting Chief again. No way 343i will be reusing that plot point again, not after they hyped a bomb ass hunt for Halo 5 and thoroughly failed to deliver on it.

Asking nicely the first time was the right move. After Chief made it clear he wasn't going to comply, that's when the niceties should have ended.

Spoiler

Also, Locke/Team Osiris was hyped up to be Chief's/Blue Team's equal due to superior tech. We saw little to no evidence of that aside from Locke being able to hold his own against Chief for a minute before he pissed Chief off and got whooped.

Yep, you missed the part where Locke provides exposition on the origins of Blue Team and the idea that this was the Chief's family.

Don't sure what more you want in a shooter...

 

[Jack The Nipper]

I guess it is arguable since I and many others are arguing it. Swords of Sanghelios, Battle of Sunaion, Meridian, etc. did not feel cramped to me at all. And the last level especially did not feel compressed -- I mean if anything that was an open level with complete control over how you decide to tackle it. And I used a vehicle for everything but the last encounter.




There's no way it's just 25% Covenant. Argent moon is all covenant and several other levels are majority covenant. There were plenty of times the two factions were fighting each other all the way through until the last couple levels.



Genesis is dull? That level was gorgeous.

j

yes, it was dull and it just looked ok.... other than that maybe you need a replay.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Even though I wouldn't put Halo 5 as the best in the series, it was still an enjoyable game. So, I'm gonna have to disagree with the OP.

EDIT:

j

yes, it was dull and it just looked ok.... other than that maybe you need a replay.

At some point you might have to accept that your opinions are in the minority lol.

 

[mcrommert]

It's never explained in depth what the mantle is, or even why it's important (even though it really isn't, and is one of the dumbest plotpoints and concepts ever), why Cortana would all of a sudden become EVIL! when in contact with the Domain (which also is something that is glossed over despite being important) despite not becoming EVIL! when in contact with Gravemind. Either way it's incredibly apparent that they hired on the same hack comic book writers from Halo 4 to write Halo 5s gobshite "story".

Other than rpg's like mass effect complicated science fiction is never going to be presented in a game...especially a shooter

For most people halo is a chance to shoot some aliens...if you care about lore you will read some books

This thread is complete dogshit

 

[The_Almighty_Swan]

I personally loved it. My only gripe would be to make the Wardens and Prometheons more difficult to deal with. Other then that this was a great campaign.

 

[Black Mantis]

Literally dropped into a squad of ORIGINAL spartan II's with Chief right from jump when we've gone through how many games of him riding solo?

Explained by Locke in a talk with Osiris, when Vale asked why Blue team would join MC in going AWOL.

 

[soulassssns]

The quality of the AI isn't really a matter of opinion so I don't see how it's possible to 100% disagree with the OP.

Its my opinion so......

 

[jet1911]

Loved it overall. The Warden fights got dumb as fuck though. And you get to fight his ass in almost every Warzano matches too? Bleh.

Other than that I thought it was great. Loved Genesis and Sanghelios, loved the gameplay, the fluidity of the movement. The sound, the weapons were great too. Needed a lot more exposition though. Don't be afraid of explaining what's going on 343.

 

[Pilgrimzero]

Halo 4 completely killed my interest in the franchise. I am still shocked at how bad it was.

Glad to see the new studio is still on par with ruining it.

 

[pj]

People hated fighting the Prometheans in Halo 5? Seriously..?

They were ten step ups from Halo 4. Crawlers weren't obnoxiously strong, Knights were given a nice upgrade to mini-boss status with tactical weak points, and Soldiers were great leader units akin to Elites.

How can people criticize Prometheans so badly when the Covenant have some of the same types of stuff? OP calls Crawlers worthless, yet the most abundant enemy in all of Halo - the Grunts - are pretty much equal. Both are laughably weak enemies whose strength is found in numbers and grouped peppering at the player, yet people have always been okay with Grunts..?

The grunts are probably my favorite enemy in all of halo behind the elites. Their main purpose is color commentary and lightening the mood. That kind of fell away in later games as the tone got more serious, but watching them run away in fear or go double fisted grenade suicide bomber was always entertaining. Crawlers are uninteresting AND unchallenging.

Another difference is that a LOT of the encounters in H5 are structured like this (top down view):
x..................x...........- Snipers
..........x.................... - Knights
....x.........x............... - Captains
x........x.......x............- Soldiers

x..x..x..x..x..x..x........- Crawlers

..........o......................- Player


There's very little co-mingling of unit types. The crawlers are almost always charging out in front so they're basically all gone before you even start thinking about killing other units.

With covenant battles, grunts are sprinkled throughout the encounter and provide a little danger if you ignore too many of them while taking on more powerful units.

Comparing soldiers to elites is a friggin joke, unless you are talking about elites in h5 which are pretty lame. They seemed very easy to kill and didn't have that AI illusion of being a real entity trying to kill me. Elites in H1/2 or Brutes in H3 always seemed like they were working to get at me and kill me.

To me, the prometheans in this game are about as interesting as the flood, but more annoying because they take longer to kill.

What was the lore reasons for not having any Brutes?

They were too fun to fight

Wait, do you mean the last level? That was one of the more wide-open spaces in the game. You even got the freedom to tackle the encounter how you saw fit. About on par with any CE level other than maybe Silent Cartographer.

% wise, I'd put it closer to 35% Covenant, but that's not really a problem 'cause the Prometheans are pretty baller this time around.

And I disagree hugely with saying that Genesis is dull looking. That's just nuts.

Wide open??? Please play it again, "wide open" is the last description I would give it. That entire area takes seconds to traverse by ghost. The objectives were about 250m apart based on what I remember from the HUD markers. Checking the three crash areas in the Halo level of H1 is wide open. Blowing up the 3 star gates on genesis was tiny in comparison.

 

[Outrun]

It's never explained in depth what the mantle is, or even why it's important (even though it really isn't, and is one of the dumbest plotpoints and concepts ever), why Cortana would all of a sudden become EVIL! when in contact with the Domain (which also is something that is glossed over despite being important) despite not becoming EVIL! when in contact with Gravemind. Either way it's incredibly apparent that they hired on the same hack comic book writers from Halo 4 to write Halo 5s gobshite "story".

Did you miss Cortana going crazy aboard the Infinity in Halo 4?

I don't see how Cortana going evil is a stretch considering her journey from Halo 2 onwards.

 

[uncledonnie]

j

yes, it was dull and it just looked ok.... other than that maybe you need a replay.

Heh, I started a replay almost immediately after finishing my first run because it was such a good fun campaign. Maybe you need one.

 

[HTupolev]

I played with friends the entire way. Loved everything. Warden fights weren't bad for us either. It's basically break his shield with a power weapon and lay into his exposed core.

Coop keeps them from being actively frustrating, but it doesn't salvage them as good encounters; instead, they become pointlessly easy.

 

[JaggedSac]

Agree on the warden. Once was enough and even that first one wasn't fun.

Disagree on the prometheans. Much better to fight than in Halo 4. Crawlers are like grunts where it is fun to pop their heads. Knights are more like hunters.

Disagree on promethean weapons. Light rifle us good. Bolt shot is good. Suppressor is good. Scattershot is good.

Thought the story was decent. Wasn't enough vehicle gameplay.

Several levels were great looking. The one where you are travelling down a guardian was quite neat.

Verticality and different approaches to tackle the sandbox areas were quite nice I felt. They utilized the abilities to great affect imho.

 

[jem0208]

Best campaign in the series in terms of gameplay.

Fantastic level design and encounters.

Some of the best art design in the series as well, some of the levels were absolutely gorgeous.

 

[soulassssns]

Did you miss Cortana going crazy aboard the Infinity in Halo 4?

I don't see how Cortana going evil is a stretch considering her journey from Halo 2 onwards.

It's also a good parallel the events of Mendicant Bias/Forerunner and the Precursors/Forerunner. Created vs creators.

 

[Outrun]

Coop keeps them from being actively frustrating, but it doesn't salvage them as good encounters; instead, they become pointlessly easy.

I guess he ain't allowed to like what he likes then?

 

[FeD.nL]

I really don't get the bitching on the Warden fights apart from the fact that you can't be arsed to look around your surroundings. Nearly every fight has an incineration cannon in the area, no they aren't simply given to you but they are there if you bother to look around.

The campaign was great in my opinion. Some of the most impressive set pieces ever in a Halo game and I really enjoyed the way the campaign was structured.