Halo 5: Guardians Review: Bland campaign, multiplayer is awesome

[Jos]

Halo 5: Guardians is the first time I haven’t loved a Halo game. Though, thankfully, the latest chapter in the sci-fi shooter universe has a few things going for it.

Development studio 343’s second Halo game since taking on the mantle of responsibility from Bungie three years ago tries to tell the story of a hunt. In Halo 5, Master Chief goes AWOL chasing down a mysterious call that seemingly came from his AI ally Cortana. Since he and Blue Team apparently can’t properly communicate this to the UNSC, though, the military organization responds by sending Spartan Locke and the Osiris Team after him. You’ll switch between playing as the commanders of both teams, alongside three AI companions, in this storyline of chasing after a chase.

You never really know much about what’s going on aside from this, except for vague references to the Mantle of Responsibility that was the basis of a lot of the lore that Halo 4 drew on. Oh, and there are giant Forerunner structures/weapons/technology known as Guardians popping up in dozens of colonies. As the distress calls from those colonies come in, and as you’re either chasing Cortana or Chief, you’ll run from planet to spaceship to planet on one giant, long race that ends unsatisfactorily.

Read the complete review.

 

[yukka]

3 paragraphs in and I realised I'd read this already on kotaku. Not a mention of the review source in the article though.

 

[Nitrotoxin]

The mention would the BIG YELLOW KOTAKU at the top of the article =)

3 paragraphs in and I realised I'd read this already on kotaku. Not a mention of the review source in the article though.

 

[Bigboomer30]

Spoiler alert: 343 has done good with the games. The game will continue into Halo 6. Also the Halo ring looks like it'll be back in Halo 6. They said they have the story planned out for the next 20 years. If you watch after the credits on legendary you will see a ring. Halo 5 ended right. Mission 1 Locke was ordered to get chief back to Halsey. Mission 15 chief is back to Halsey at the end. It's a great story. If the mission was to get chief back they're not going to show more than that. The cliff hanger with all the questions at the end helps explain what might happen in halo 6 and so on. Hunt the truth also explains it and the fall of reach series.

 

[Puiu]

For those interested here's Digital Foundry's video on how they achieved 60 fps. it's really interesting on how much they optimised (or compromised, depending on how you view it).

 

[yukka]

The mention would the BIG YELLOW KOTAKU at the top of the article =)

Doesn't appear on the mobile version of the site. Nice caps by the way. Doesn't make you look like a ****.

 

[9Nails]

Where is Co-Op local play?

 

[amstech]

The campaign is not as bad as people say, there is quite the debate going on. I get it, its a little belated and shallow but cmon, what are people expecting?
Halo campaign's have set such a high standard there is no way this would satisfy todays gamers. The magical Halo universe feeling is not going to return, its been 10 years, those same gamers are much older. You can only go to the well so many times. I played through Halo 4 and its campaign was excellent, and as good as it was it barely rekindled that same dire love and enjoyment I got out of the previous three.
Halo 6's campaign will continue where 5 left off and with all the backlash, I believe they will put more effort into it next time around.
I am playing through the campaign now and first thing I noticed is graphically, this game looks quite impressive for the hardware in the X1.