User:Wilc0/review

Review Halo 5: Guardians

Don't forgot some kind of huge and unmissable "Spoiler Alert"

My short quote "It feels like Halo 2 2.0, much grander than its predecessor, so grand that it only can tell half of the story."

Campaign gameplay and design The campaign itself is very solid, even though you have these Spartan Teams, it still feels like old times, and you have to fight to survive. While I was a bit concerned about the 'overpoweredness' (is that even a word) of your Spartan team, but it turned out pretty good. Not sure if it was bad AI that keeps them from fighting their own enemies or balancing, but it works out pretty well in the end. I really like the way you can tell your teammates where to go, which vehicle/weapon to take or to engage which enemy. It would've been nicer to make you select which teammate you want to pick up that Sniper, but that may just make it too complicated.

During gameplay you can get your hands on (pretty much) all drivable vehicles, which introduces not only their new visual design, but also the handy 'switch-seats' option. One of my most hated aspects of the previous Halos was, was that it was pretty hard to splatter multiple enemies after each other, as your vehicle tended to tumble. Now this is fixed, you can more easily splatter, and then flee the scene to splatter someone else later on. There is one change in vehicle design they made that I am not a fan of, and that is the reversed seat on the Mongoose. It may work exactly the same, but the character models look pretty bad when the Spartan on the back is point his/her gun directly into the driving direction.

Also the new enemies, which have not only been given a new skin, also some behavioural changes have been applied. While the Hunter was pretty intimidating, it used to be very easy to deal with one, even if you just used melee attacks. Now however, I feel fear every time I see Hunter approaching, as their new abilities and hitpoints make them much more dangerous. This makes them more of a threat, while still keeping the rest of the Covenant Remnant as a threat on their own. I am not a fan of the new Promethean soldiers, while they look nice, and behave very good, they are too easy to deal with, they are too weak. It only takes a few long-ranged rifle shots before they are down.

In short, they have made some changes that I really like (e.g. no tumbling vehicles) and some I don't (e.g. Promethean soldiers)

4/5 stars

Story I have only played through the story once, so I have probably missed a lot of details, but my overall experience is very good. While I have been left with some questions, my feeling was that the story provides those gamers without a canon understanding a basic idea. But that was also something that bothered me, some of the (major) events in the campaign were straight against the canon. One of these would be the Domain, which exists in Halo 5: Guardians even though it had been destroyed back at the end of the Forerunner era. Another thing that bothered me was that Linda would just leave her precious Nornfang while she went underground, I don't think she would ever leave her weapon lying around.

But those are specific events, more generally speaking, I really enjoyed the campaign. You can see that they have spent a lot of time on designing the backdrop, which paid out hugely. Switching between Fireteam Osiris and Blue Team not only provides a difference in story-telling, you are also given tiny bits of information about what Blue Team's mission is really about. It is not until much later in the campaign that you actually see what John has been up to and why. And then, when Locke finally figures out what they have been doing, Osiris goes to rescue Blue team from their Crypt. This shift is major, as during the first encounter of John and Locke, they not only fought but John cursed (!) at him. It was then that I thought both Spartan teams would clash, but that did not happen.

But I don't praise Halo 5: Guardians to the sky, as it did not deliver on its massive marketing campaign. The entire campaign did not feel so much as a cat-and-mouse game, but more of Locke running after John. I can't think of a single moment in the campaign that John even tried to evade Locke, in the scene with the teleporters Blue Team just kept moving like they were doing anyway. Even the short appearance of Thel did not change much, because it was very minor and you dealt more with other Sangheili.

3.5/5 stars

Music The music is, and always has been exquisite. I really enjoyed the Reclaimer Saga music, composed by Neil Davidge and Kazuma Jinnouchi, which deviated a lot from the previous music, which was composed by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori. That said, it sent a chill down my back when I heard the familiar Halo theme near the end of the campaign. You may think that music contributes nothing to a video game, but it sure does, at least when it is as finely crafted as Halo's music has been and still is. Having a huge and impressive background is nothing when you don't have the music to back it up. Nothing more to say about it, I absolutely loved it.

5/5 stars

Multiplayer gameplay and design I have yet to delve into most maps, but I did spend a considerable time the three Warzone maps and did some matches on Eden, Fathom and Regret; all which are very good map. The only thing I really dislike about Warzone is spawning, because 1. It takes too long 2. It is not automatic. And when you're spawned, you're usually spending most of your time running towards wherever you are needed. The maps really could use more transportation systems, maybe just spawn a couple of Mongeese? I get that those are in your REQ packs, but having a couple of them just for transportation (so no Gungeeses) would be beneficial. But then when you are at your enemy, it is time to fight. Zooming in with your BR was always a good way to take out a distant enemy, but in this game the familiar zooming mechanic was changed with Smart-Link. While I was very hesitant about the Smart-Link zooming mechanic, it turns out that I quite like it. I'd still prefer the original zooming mechanic, but Smart-Link works a lot better than I thought it would.

4/5 stars

Requisitions and customisation This one did confuse me a lot at first, no idea what it really was until I was shown this video. Requisitions are an even greater deviation from the original weapon drop system, and you are given 'cards' which you can exchange for the corresponding vehicle or weapon. While you are earning your REQ points by being successful in-game, you can choose between better items, like a Scorpion or Rocket Launcher. This system is pretty well balanced in my opinion, rewarding those who are on a roll while still given the rest a change.

After having earned a certain amount of REQ points outside, you can spend them on REQ packs, which have the cards which I mentioned. But besides in-game weapons and vehicles, which are single-use requisitions, you also have unlimited-use requisitions. These unlimited REQs consist of cosmetic items, such as weapon skins, armour permutations or assassination animations as to differentiate your Spartan from others. While at first I did not like the randomness with which these permutations were given, now I feel differently. As these things are just cosmetic, they make no real difference, but will show your individuality. This is also realistic in-Halo, as you rarely see any two Spartans with the same armour configuration.

4/5 stars

Visual redesigns

I myself like the new look of the vehicles and weapons, to an extent. My favourite weapon, the DMR, is looking worse than it did in Halo 4, I can't really put my finger on it, but I would have preferred to them leaving the DMR alone. This also goes for the Mongoose, which now has a reversed seat for some reason? Not only is this a very dubious choice of vehicle design, it does not even look right. When a Spartan is on the back and looking to the front, the weapon looks pretty glitch because it has to go above the driver's head.

But those are just two things that I did not like, one of my favourite new designs is the Scorpion, which looks totally bad-ass now. This goes also for the Ghost and Wraith, and maybe even for the Warthog. They have all been given a new exterior, and all now look like they belong 4 years into the future, which is the Reclaimer Saga. I know that there is some hate about the new Battle Rifle scope, but I don't mind it that much, it still handles like it always did.

4/5 stars

Overall 4.1/5 stars