Still in January & still need a game to play so I turned to Halo 5 Guardians. I forgot I had bought a copy last year & thought now was a great time to play it. I remember getting goosebumps seeing the teaser trailer for it back at E3 2013, unfortunately when it was released I did not have the XBOX One & by the time I bought one it just slipped my mind to buy it. I will be up front with you guys the review covers the campaign mode only not the multiplayer aspect. As many of you know I am just not that into multiplayer.
Anyone in the house like steak? I love a good steak especially if it's cooked to perfection with a side of chips or mash, corn on the cob with a generous serving of pepper sauce. Even just the thought of it gets my mouth wet. However if you end up getting a piece of meat that has more fat than it should or is a little tough it can really spoil the meal. That being said it's steak so you will still enjoy it but not as much as you would have liked to. That's the dilemma I faced with Halo 5 Guardians, was it a really good steak dinner or just a so so one.
The Halo story is vast & intricate, as normal I will try to keep information on the story light to avoid giving away spoilers. At the end of Halo 4 Dr Halsey (semi mad scientist & creator of the Spartan program) is being held by the Covenant (collective of aliens bent on ruling the universe). Fire Team Osiris is tasked with extracting her & taking out one of the Covenant Leaders. The team is comprised of:
Locke - leader of the team & before becoming a Spartan was previously part of ONI & he was basically a government assassin.
Buck - easily one of my favorite characters, not only because he is in Halo 3 ODST but also because he is voiced by Nathan Fillion who is just awesome for so many reasons.
Tanaka - smart & general badass, she also one of the few people so survive the destruction of her world.
Vale - the most cultured of the group, not only having a deep knowledge of Forerunners & the Covenant but can also speak Sangheili (the Covenant language).
Off somewhere else you have Blue Team trying to secure an abandoned ONI research station, unfortunately the Covenant show up & you have to get the hell out of dodge. While all this is happening Master Chief receives a message from an old friend, determined to find out what it all means he & the teams goes AWOL. Blue team is comprised of:
Master Chief - the most legendary Spartan & kicker of alien asses, he is still reeling after the lose of the AI Cortana.
Linda, Kelly, Fredrick - I won't lie these characters are not very fleshed out in the game especially by comparison of Fire Team Osiris. It would have nice if they developed these characters, the team felt like it was comprised of Master Chief & the three interchangeable Spartan's.
This is the basic story but as I mentioned I don't want to give much away regarding the story. There are some really great characters in the game including; Rowland (UNSC Infinity AI) who is not afraid to speak out. Spartan Palmer, who in my opinion is one of the best characters & the best female character in Halo 4 & Halo 5 Guardians. Captain Laskey commander of the UNSC Infinity, a well rounded character who I felt they should have used more in Halo 5 Guardians after they developed him in Halo 4. If you have not watched Halo Forward Onto Dawn I would highly recommend it as it reveals more about Laskey & features Master Chief.
While there are many great elements to the Halo 5 Guardians story for me there was something missing. Perhaps it was the pacing or some of the characters but I felt the story at times to be weak. This was especially true with regards to the ending & it really felt like they held back because they knew there would be a Halo 6. I felt the story in Halo 4 to be much stronger.
Visually the games looks fantastic, everything for the level designs & characters to the cut sequences themselves. One of my favorite cut sequences was the opening one, not only because it looks visually impressive but it also really shows how badass the Spartans are. Seeing them in action really made me want to watch Halo Legends again. One of my favorite levels was planet Genesis it is covered in trees & plant life. Additionally I loved the detail, for example the insects running around the place that move away as you get close. Being honest I really could not fault the game graphically speaking.
The composer for Halo 5 Guardians was Kazuma Jinnouchi who also worked on the additional music on Halo 4. War is a large theme of the game & the music definitely was created with that in mind. Some of my favorite pieces include; 'Light is Green', 'Scavengers', 'The Trails', 'Sentry Battle', 'Walk Softly', 'Dominion','Osiris Suite Act 2'. Jinnouchi weaves the classic halo music into his own to create new pieces that work really well. The soundtrack was often pulse pounding & really helped create a tense atmosphere.
For many people they felt the direction of the music was much improved over Halo 4 but for me I would say they both sounded great. If I had a Spartan Laser to my head & had to chose I would say the music from Halo 4 wins out - marginally.
Running around like a tank on legs is always a lot of fun, throw in an arsenal of weapons, some vehicles (including an actual tank) & you have some truly fun gameplay. I am going to mention some of my favorite parts below.
I loved the spartan charge, whether you are breaking through a wall, knocking into an enemy or jumping across ledges it's just feels good. The executions are not a new feature in Halo but does not make them any less fun. Even if you manage to mess up an execution killing an enemy by smashing them in the back of the head never gets old. AI team mates assist you in battle, follow your directions & pick you up if you get knocked down. It may sound strange but I had a love/hate feeling for this. The team element could be a lot of fun & knowing they had your back was great, but at the same time for me Halo was always about you against the world, almost isolated from everyone else which I kind of missed in this game.
There is so much more detail in the character designs then ever before, one of the many examples of this are Unggoy. For those of you who are unfamiliar these are the little guys who often run round panicked & screaming. This particular alien is unable to breath outside it's own planet without a gas mask & tank. Naturally shooting these tanks are a lot of fun, in some cases the little guys go flying away from you, other times they spin around in front of you. I won't lie I laugh each time I do this & feel bad at the same time as they usually cry out - not sure what that says about me.
The conversations between the Covenant can be hilarious. Elites will often mock the grunts for being lesser & sounds like a big brother picking on a little brother. Grunts will often talk amongst themselves saying if they were in charge the war would have been won. I would sometimes hold off attacking just to hear what they would say.
Overall the gameplay is solid but if you have played other games in the series it will not offer you much that you would not have experienced before. That all being said if the Warthog ain't broke why fix it?
The main campaign took me little over 10 hours to complete which I felt was a good length for a first person shooter. The story could have been stronger & the gameplay while solid offered little in the way of something new. The visuals & music were the highlights of the game for me. It was a steak dinner but not as tasty as I would have liked, I'm sorry to say I would have say the game overall was; meh, meh, meh, meh, meh, meh, meh, meh, meh, you can't hear inside my head but I'm doing that to One Final Push from Halo 3.
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