I don't have my Xbone where I am, sooo no Halo for mem4st4 wrote:How come? I'll watch the walkthroughs, art book is on the way... after it sinks for a while I'll play it myself early next year. Hopefully online will still be in full swing, multiplayer looks like the best one so far.SomeFrenchToast wrote:Several of my friends have already completed it in Legendary, and they're all positive about it. And here I am, unable to play it and all I'll see are walkthroughs... sigh.
Halo Universe Discussion Thread by 343i
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I won't be getting an Xbone until at least next year. 
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So... here we are... bone-less... aching for Halo. 
Honestly I wouldn't jump on MS ship if it weren't for Forza Horizon/6 and Killer Instinct as well. Those three make for a truly potent gaming package.
Honestly I wouldn't jump on MS ship if it weren't for Forza Horizon/6 and Killer Instinct as well. Those three make for a truly potent gaming package.
Nice.m4st4 wrote:Good morning for 343
Just got back from the midnight release. About to strap in for a long night of Heroic campaign. Tell that to the Covenant 
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After watching that first hour yesterday on a big screen and with cranked up headset volume...I HATE YOU, I really really do.Addicted2Movies wrote:Just got back from the midnight release. About to strap in for a long night of Heroic campaign. Tell that to the Covenant
The best gunplay this series has ever seen and Kazuma Jinnouchi's soundtrack is godlike.
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That moment when Phil Spencer joins GAF:
Why can't Nolan join NF?!?Originally Posted by Xbox_Phil
Hope you guys are enjoying Halo 5! We are really proud of the work 343i accomplished with this game and we hope this game will satisfy long time Halo fans and those that are new to series. And maybe, I'll see some of you guys in the arena online!
Halo 5 Campaign Review
Alright, so i finished the campaign two nights ago and after having let time pass for me to process my thoughts regarding it I figured I'd come here to give a brief review of the game's story. This isn't a complete review of the game as I haven't had enough time to get into the multiplayer side of the game (I actually went back to finish GTA5 for the first time after I beat Halo 5 haha).
I'll start with the positive stuff. The quality of Halo 5's gameplay is among the best the series has had to offer for a long time. I'd place the game's sandbox integration of enemies, vehicles, guns, grenades, and special abilities (thruster packs, melee charges, and clambering) up with Halo 2 and 3. This makes sure that you're never bored in the midst of combat and have a variety of different strategies you can employ when facing the enemies. The new additions to the sandbox are great all around with the Phaeton, a new Promethean aircraft, being the number one standout. I must say, if there is one thing 343i has done an excellent job with during their brief reign over the franchise, it's with the new vehicle additions; Halo 4's Mantis and Halo 5's Phaeton are two of my franchise favorites. Another great aspect of the campaign is the length. This is the longest Halo campaign in the franchise since Halo 2. On Heroic single player, the campaign took me around 9 hours to beat and I consider myself to be a seasoned veteran of the franchise with strong gaming capabilities. However, that being said, I'd recommend one tackle this game on Normal if you're going through it for the first time on your own. Even for those as familiar with the franchise like me, this game is obviously geared towards four player cooperative gameplay and is a very tough task at times when playing through it solo. In addition to the length of the campaign, the quality of the missions are fun and consistent throughout. There are no "Cortanas" or "Libraries" to be played in this game. Graphically, I think it's a no brainer in saying this is the best looking Halo game to date. Being built from the foundation up on the Xbox One, this is truly a next gen game visually. The audio of Halo 5 is top notch. The sound effects, voice acting, and musical score continues the franchise's leading reputation on that front. Each weapon's sound emits a personality unlike many shooters from other series.
Now for the bad. My biggest complaint with 343i's handling of the series is the way they've handled the story in both Halo 4 and Halo 5. While the company has worked admirably to try and expand and deepen the lore of the Halo universe, I feel that what they've inadvertently done is betray part of what made Bungie's pieces of the franchise so engaging. While Halo 2 added some somewhat complicated subject matter in the Arbiter's Elite uprising, Bungie's Halo titles were on the surface very simple and accessible stories. While on the surface we had a simple but engaging narrative with a faceless hero, distant worlds, and alien forces of evil, there was intrigue and mystery brought to the franchise through unique visuals such as the ring world of Halo or the seemingly both ancient and advanced Forerunner artifacts. Nothing the series did was overly muddled or complex, the games had simple narrative with under the surface mysteries that would logically expand and impact the scope of the universe. What this did was satisfy a wide variety of fans. Casual gamers could enter in new to the franchise and with a brief introduction enjoy both the gameplay and the story. Hardcore fans could recognize the mysteries and access hidden terminals or look into other media sources such as the books to satisfy their Halo appetites. It appears in this installment more than any of the others, 343i is tapping into these other sources of previously established mythos in order to create a Halo story that is true to the history of the game's universe. What they've done inadvertently though is create a Halo story that isn't true to the previous games' storytelling foundation.
Another "issue" is that while Halo 5's campaign levels are consistent and fun, there isn't that one level or two which will stand out among the franchise's best. Nothing is particularly "memorable" about this game. There's no Silent Cartographer storming the beach moment, no Metropolis driving a scorpion tank over the bridge into the heart of New Mombassa, no fighting two scarabs as in Halo 3's The Covenant, or no flying a the top secret sabre spacecraft into a Covenant cruiser as in Long Night of Solace on Reach. What we have is just a series of really really good but not great missions that won't create any of those "I'll remember that" moments. This is slightly disappointing.
Finally, Halo 5 fails to create characters you care about. While no honest gamer will tell you that a strength of Halo as a franchise is complex character development, the franchise has always managed to establish enough personality (albeit typically cliched) into its characters. You can almost always point to a specific character and at least give a few words to describe them. Master Chief is the faceless hero, Cortana the intellectual and at times feisty AI, Buck is the sarcastic but charming rebellious soldier, etc. Unfortunately Halo 5 has by far the least interesting set of characters in a Halo game. The voice acting is as strong as ever but the combination of a muddled story and writing and dialogue that fails to create any character motivations outside of the Chief (who's motivations are seemingly illogical for most of the game) only further contributes to Halo 5's failures at storytelling. In a game where you play as the new characters of Team Osiris for 12 of the game's 15 missions, it was imperative that 343i created a set of characters that were as memorable as the previous protagonists of the franchise. Unfortunately Agent Locke is as bland of an addition as it gets when it comes to his in game motivations and progression, and the only character that leaves a lasting impression is ODST's fan favorite Buck with which Nathan Fillion steals the show with an enthusiastic voice acting performance. The game had me wishing Buck was the game's leading character.
While much of this post is littered with my complaints of the game, make no mistake about it, this is still a Halo game and there is a tremendous amount of effort and care to the mechanics and polishing of the product to make it a very good game. I haven't spent enough time on the multiplayer but I can already tell you that it's far above Halo 4's caliber and should be the staple of fps gaming for the Xbox One. This was simply a review of the game's campaign, and for those like me who care about Halo's story and have enjoyed it for the past decade I just want to make it clear that this isn't 343i's Halo 2 when it comes to the campaign front. So buy this game but do it for the gameplay, cooperative experience, and the multiplayer.
Grade: B
Alright, so i finished the campaign two nights ago and after having let time pass for me to process my thoughts regarding it I figured I'd come here to give a brief review of the game's story. This isn't a complete review of the game as I haven't had enough time to get into the multiplayer side of the game (I actually went back to finish GTA5 for the first time after I beat Halo 5 haha).
I'll start with the positive stuff. The quality of Halo 5's gameplay is among the best the series has had to offer for a long time. I'd place the game's sandbox integration of enemies, vehicles, guns, grenades, and special abilities (thruster packs, melee charges, and clambering) up with Halo 2 and 3. This makes sure that you're never bored in the midst of combat and have a variety of different strategies you can employ when facing the enemies. The new additions to the sandbox are great all around with the Phaeton, a new Promethean aircraft, being the number one standout. I must say, if there is one thing 343i has done an excellent job with during their brief reign over the franchise, it's with the new vehicle additions; Halo 4's Mantis and Halo 5's Phaeton are two of my franchise favorites. Another great aspect of the campaign is the length. This is the longest Halo campaign in the franchise since Halo 2. On Heroic single player, the campaign took me around 9 hours to beat and I consider myself to be a seasoned veteran of the franchise with strong gaming capabilities. However, that being said, I'd recommend one tackle this game on Normal if you're going through it for the first time on your own. Even for those as familiar with the franchise like me, this game is obviously geared towards four player cooperative gameplay and is a very tough task at times when playing through it solo. In addition to the length of the campaign, the quality of the missions are fun and consistent throughout. There are no "Cortanas" or "Libraries" to be played in this game. Graphically, I think it's a no brainer in saying this is the best looking Halo game to date. Being built from the foundation up on the Xbox One, this is truly a next gen game visually. The audio of Halo 5 is top notch. The sound effects, voice acting, and musical score continues the franchise's leading reputation on that front. Each weapon's sound emits a personality unlike many shooters from other series.
Now for the bad. My biggest complaint with 343i's handling of the series is the way they've handled the story in both Halo 4 and Halo 5. While the company has worked admirably to try and expand and deepen the lore of the Halo universe, I feel that what they've inadvertently done is betray part of what made Bungie's pieces of the franchise so engaging. While Halo 2 added some somewhat complicated subject matter in the Arbiter's Elite uprising, Bungie's Halo titles were on the surface very simple and accessible stories. While on the surface we had a simple but engaging narrative with a faceless hero, distant worlds, and alien forces of evil, there was intrigue and mystery brought to the franchise through unique visuals such as the ring world of Halo or the seemingly both ancient and advanced Forerunner artifacts. Nothing the series did was overly muddled or complex, the games had simple narrative with under the surface mysteries that would logically expand and impact the scope of the universe. What this did was satisfy a wide variety of fans. Casual gamers could enter in new to the franchise and with a brief introduction enjoy both the gameplay and the story. Hardcore fans could recognize the mysteries and access hidden terminals or look into other media sources such as the books to satisfy their Halo appetites. It appears in this installment more than any of the others, 343i is tapping into these other sources of previously established mythos in order to create a Halo story that is true to the history of the game's universe. What they've done inadvertently though is create a Halo story that isn't true to the previous games' storytelling foundation.
Another "issue" is that while Halo 5's campaign levels are consistent and fun, there isn't that one level or two which will stand out among the franchise's best. Nothing is particularly "memorable" about this game. There's no Silent Cartographer storming the beach moment, no Metropolis driving a scorpion tank over the bridge into the heart of New Mombassa, no fighting two scarabs as in Halo 3's The Covenant, or no flying a the top secret sabre spacecraft into a Covenant cruiser as in Long Night of Solace on Reach. What we have is just a series of really really good but not great missions that won't create any of those "I'll remember that" moments. This is slightly disappointing.
Finally, Halo 5 fails to create characters you care about. While no honest gamer will tell you that a strength of Halo as a franchise is complex character development, the franchise has always managed to establish enough personality (albeit typically cliched) into its characters. You can almost always point to a specific character and at least give a few words to describe them. Master Chief is the faceless hero, Cortana the intellectual and at times feisty AI, Buck is the sarcastic but charming rebellious soldier, etc. Unfortunately Halo 5 has by far the least interesting set of characters in a Halo game. The voice acting is as strong as ever but the combination of a muddled story and writing and dialogue that fails to create any character motivations outside of the Chief (who's motivations are seemingly illogical for most of the game) only further contributes to Halo 5's failures at storytelling. In a game where you play as the new characters of Team Osiris for 12 of the game's 15 missions, it was imperative that 343i created a set of characters that were as memorable as the previous protagonists of the franchise. Unfortunately Agent Locke is as bland of an addition as it gets when it comes to his in game motivations and progression, and the only character that leaves a lasting impression is ODST's fan favorite Buck with which Nathan Fillion steals the show with an enthusiastic voice acting performance. The game had me wishing Buck was the game's leading character.
While much of this post is littered with my complaints of the game, make no mistake about it, this is still a Halo game and there is a tremendous amount of effort and care to the mechanics and polishing of the product to make it a very good game. I haven't spent enough time on the multiplayer but I can already tell you that it's far above Halo 4's caliber and should be the staple of fps gaming for the Xbox One. This was simply a review of the game's campaign, and for those like me who care about Halo's story and have enjoyed it for the past decade I just want to make it clear that this isn't 343i's Halo 2 when it comes to the campaign front. So buy this game but do it for the gameplay, cooperative experience, and the multiplayer.
Grade: B
Posts: 7448
Joined:
February 2012
Do you want to give him depression?m4st4 wrote: Why can't Nolan join NF?!?
Thanks for the review btw.
-Vader
-Vader
