Zach Goodier
Halo 5 is the
latest installment in the epic saga by 343 Industries. While the Master Chief
is still a major character in the story, he now shares the spotlight with
Spartan IV Jameson Locke, a former ONI agent who leads fire team Osiris, while
the Chief leads Blue team, a group of Spartans he lead in the days before the
first Halo games. They are on a struggle to find the truth behind the awakening
of the Forerunner guardians: massive machines that are awakening all over the
galaxy, destroying settlements as they awaken.
Osiris is the center of this story, and too little is done with them. |
The story is, well, it’s pretty bad. It’s easily the worst
of the Halo franchise, which isn’t itself a huge deal, but there is a lot of
issues here. For one, the Chief is only around for about 3 of the 15 missions
as a character, you spend the rest of the time as Locke. Too much of the story
demands you invest in hours of expanded universe content to understand the
characters and events taking place, which is a bad idea. To make matters worse,
the game’s ending is very disappointing. I won’t spoil things, but the main
problem is that there really isn’t an ending, just a massive cliffhanger to
lead into the next game.
Some campaign levels are pretty, which is credit to the level design. |
This bothers me because, while cliffhangers aren’t that big
of deal, they need to at least wrap up a story arc in the game itself. While
you could argue that you did finish a chapter by the end, the reality is that
you fail to accomplish anything significant by the end of the game, and that
any meaningful ending was put off until the next game. You could compare it to
Halo 2, but I actually felt this game was even worse with its’ lack of a
satisfying conclusion to the campaign.
Locke's hinted past is far more interesting than his tedious and uninspired present. |
I came in expecting Reach
quality of characters, which isn’t too lofty of a goal to reach, but aside from
in-game dialogue, there really isn’t much going on. The only one who stands out
is Buck, who many will remember from ODST.
He’s with Osiris now, and makes the most of his limited time in the spotlight. Blue
team never feels at all relevant as characters. Like Osiris, Blue team just
feels like some almost useless extra guns, which are only marginally useful to
heal you when you get downed.
Multiplayer is what you will enjoy, with new abilities and fun team combat. |
So why would you want this game? Well, for better or worse,
the multiplayer is the best ever. New modes, like Warzone, being fun and
addictive, with teams competing for points in the middle ground before either
assaulting the enemy base itself, or reaching 1,000 points by killing enemies
and killing NPC characters that periodically spawn on the map, either Covenant
or Promethean. The standard modes are back, but I quickly became addicted to
Warzone. Unlocking cosmetic upgrades can be fun, and Warzone requisition packs
allow you to spawn with some awesome weapons to suit the situation, but push micro-transactions
on you. Overall, the multiplayer alone could be worth buying this game for, if
you enjoy Halo’s brand of multiplayer.
Warzone levels are a healthy size for big team combat. |
Overall, I’m torn with this game. I fell in love with the
story of Halo, and I find this game
to be a disgrace on that front. It felt thrown together with little care taken
for the characters that we follow, and the destination is far from satisfying.
343 clearly put most of their effort into the multiplayer, which saddens me.
However, I can’t argue with the results, since the multiplayer is fast-paced
and fun. Still, the campaign is too bad to give this game any glowing
recommendation for people like me, who want a good story first, and fun
multiplayer a distant second.
Good:
-Awesome return of classic Halo multiplayer.
-Warzone is addictive, and promote good teamwork.
-Return of some of our favorite characters, like Lasky and
Buck.
Bad:
-Chief isn’t the star of this show.
-Story is all over the place, and doesn’t end in any
satisfying way, instead putting everything off until Halo 6.
-Characters are just thrown in, and little is done with them
in the story.
Scully Rating: 6 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment