Review
Played on: Xbox One
Released: 2015
Released: 2015
There's no Xbox generation without a Halo game and while last years The master Chief Collection, review here, put the famous Spartan 117 on Microsoft's latest console, it was only a remastered collection of previous titles. Halo 5: Guardians then, is a brand new entry. Following closely in Halo 4's footsteps, both visually and in presentation. Once again, 343 Industries aims to deliver a Halo experience worthy of Bungie's efforts that ended with Halo: Reach, review here.
Let's divide this review into two parts, single- and multiplayer. But before going more in depth on each, let's comment the common nominator that are the visuals first. It's a beautiful release and reminds me a lot of Halo 4's artstyle, only with much larger scale and a rock solid 1080p@60fps framerate, Halo 4 on the Xbox 360 was 720p@30fps. Halo 5 achieves it's performance by scaling it's resolution on the fly, dynamic resolution as it's called.
Update: Halo 5 would later receive a Xbox One X resolution update, setting it all the way up to 4K@60fps, utilising dynamic resolution. This, in turn, results in native 4K almost consistently on Xbox Series X with a forced 16xAF thrown in! On Series S it results in a locked 1080p@60fps at all times.
I appreciate that they went for the high framerate, it makes gameplay seem so responsive and smooth. Much like how the Master Chief Collection proved this series needs it. While the arenas in multiplayer are sharp and detailed, the visual excellence of the game really shines through in the singleplayer.
Let's divide this review into two parts, single- and multiplayer. But before going more in depth on each, let's comment the common nominator that are the visuals first. It's a beautiful release and reminds me a lot of Halo 4's artstyle, only with much larger scale and a rock solid 1080p@60fps framerate, Halo 4 on the Xbox 360 was 720p@30fps. Halo 5 achieves it's performance by scaling it's resolution on the fly, dynamic resolution as it's called.
Update: Halo 5 would later receive a Xbox One X resolution update, setting it all the way up to 4K@60fps, utilising dynamic resolution. This, in turn, results in native 4K almost consistently on Xbox Series X with a forced 16xAF thrown in! On Series S it results in a locked 1080p@60fps at all times.
I appreciate that they went for the high framerate, it makes gameplay seem so responsive and smooth. Much like how the Master Chief Collection proved this series needs it. While the arenas in multiplayer are sharp and detailed, the visual excellence of the game really shines through in the singleplayer.
Vast and beautiful environments, with sharp textures that not only work as backdrops, but look really good close up too. It's the best looking first person shooter for the Xbox One to date.
Back when Halo 4 released I felt that the size of the locations had been sacrificed for the graphical upgrade compared to Halo 3. Halo 5, luckily, feels like the combination of Halo 4's stunning visuals and Halo 3's map sizes. We're treated to some large areas to roam, even though they are mostly just wide, linear corridors.
Areas have multiple routes to attack the enemies, some are even many stories in height, putting vertical depth into the combat. The large canyon locations are perhaps the most impressive, featuring some incredible design and awe inspiring scenery. Overall, the variety in environments are diverse, but I felt the more minimalist and futuristic design of the later levels became bland. I enjoyed the secret paths and hidden areas you can discover by smashing through walls in many of the missions!
While I enjoyed the free roaming feel to combat. There's nothing actually to do in these open areas when they appear in non-battle sections. Take mission 9 for instance, I'm in this grand canyon sort of base with lots of red tents and covenant soldiers walking about. But I can't really interact with anything. They could've added a store or somewhere I could level up, customise or buy weapons. Maybe some dialogue that lead to some side-missions for instance.
Smaller details that would've given the game some more depth and lifespan. Instead, I get a marker telling me to go speak to someone, and then the story moves on, leaving the area and not utilising it for the potential it could've had.
Singleplayer
Halo 5's story follows closely after Halo 4, it sets you in the role of two different fireteams: Osiris and Blue Team. The latter is led by the legendary Master Chief himself. The player changes control of each fireteam as the story progresses. It's a great way of showing the story unfold from two sides and quickly shift from one location to a completely different one.
There are many returning characters from the Halo lore too, such as "Buck", voiced by Nathan Fillion, from ODST. Revisiting old cast throughout the Halo lore gives the whole universe a good sense of continuity.
The story is conveyed with extremely well crafted cutscenes scenes and excellent voice acting, following the narrative style of Halo 4. Mostly the cutscenes are rendered in realtime, an impressive feature considering the detail in the characters faces, although a select few are CGI. I always prefer them rendered in-game to give a cohesive visual appearance between gameplay and cutscenes.
The story is conveyed with extremely well crafted cutscenes scenes and excellent voice acting, following the narrative style of Halo 4. Mostly the cutscenes are rendered in realtime, an impressive feature considering the detail in the characters faces, although a select few are CGI. I always prefer them rendered in-game to give a cohesive visual appearance between gameplay and cutscenes.
The actual story though, is a mixed bag for me. I felt the ending, and the build-up towards it, became confusing. The inclusion of a corrupted Cortana appearance feels somewhat unnecessary. Even though I really liked her character development in Halo 4, I felt she wasn't conveyed well here. Maybe a step back away from the franchise entirely would make her come back stronger the next time.
"The large canyon locations are perhaps the most impressive, featuring some incredible design and awe inspiring scenery."
Areas have multiple routes to attack the enemies, some are even many stories in height, putting vertical depth into the combat. The large canyon locations are perhaps the most impressive, featuring some incredible design and awe inspiring scenery. Overall, the variety in environments are diverse, but I felt the more minimalist and futuristic design of the later levels became bland. I enjoyed the secret paths and hidden areas you can discover by smashing through walls in many of the missions!
While I enjoyed the free roaming feel to combat. There's nothing actually to do in these open areas when they appear in non-battle sections. Take mission 9 for instance, I'm in this grand canyon sort of base with lots of red tents and covenant soldiers walking about. But I can't really interact with anything. They could've added a store or somewhere I could level up, customise or buy weapons. Maybe some dialogue that lead to some side-missions for instance.
Smaller details that would've given the game some more depth and lifespan. Instead, I get a marker telling me to go speak to someone, and then the story moves on, leaving the area and not utilising it for the potential it could've had.
Multiplayer
Probably one of the most popular shooter franchises for multiplayer, Halo continues it's huge popularity online with Halo 5. This time around, multiplayer is divided into arena mode and warzone. Arena mainly consists of small maps where team deathmatch, free for all, capture the flag and elimination modes take place. They're incredibly fast matches, often lasting no more than 12 minutes. It's a classic take on multiplayer and a well proved formula. At times, it reminds me of Unreal Tournament on the small, chaotic maps.
Warzone is a new, I would like to say Battlefield inspired, multiplayer mode. There are only a tiny handful of maps but these are large in size. Each team tries to take over bases and hold key buildings in their possession to earn points. Individual points for kills can be used to require more powerful weapons and vehicles to outgun the opposing team.
While I initially was intrigued about this mode, it often ended up as a stalemate in the middle of each map. Even adding some bots in the mix, which Titanfall did in a way better manner, just falls short. One can't shake an empty feeling of an oversized map. The intensity only builds up if somebody drives in with a tank or large vehicle.
What I really miss, are medium sized maps. Especially a team deathmatch mode with a few vehicles, but not on the huge scale warzone offers. I was a huge fan of the big team playlist in Halo 4. In Halo 5 you either have the small arena maps or the gigantic warzone maps. There's no middle ground that should've been catered for, like the size of the classic Halo 3 map Valhalla for instance.
The end result is that multiplayer becomes divided into either a small, chaotic and intense deathmatch multiplayer or a huge scale, empty, Battlefield-ish one. I'm guessing people will be sticking to one or the other, much more than jumping back and forth.
Conclusion
On the technical and gameplay side, Halo 5 delivers a fantastic end result. It's a beautiful and incredibly smooth game to play but the content and story are disappointing. The divided multiplayer and a singleplayer that simply walks the safe path from beginning to end, pull down a product that could've been better. I would have appreciated more substance and variation in both single and multiplayer.
That being said, it's still a very solid title and it's a welcome release to finally play a Halo that takes full advantage of the Xbox One. Nothing groundbreaking, but a safe release, for good or worse that's up to you.
Probably one of the most popular shooter franchises for multiplayer, Halo continues it's huge popularity online with Halo 5. This time around, multiplayer is divided into arena mode and warzone. Arena mainly consists of small maps where team deathmatch, free for all, capture the flag and elimination modes take place. They're incredibly fast matches, often lasting no more than 12 minutes. It's a classic take on multiplayer and a well proved formula. At times, it reminds me of Unreal Tournament on the small, chaotic maps.
Warzone is a new, I would like to say Battlefield inspired, multiplayer mode. There are only a tiny handful of maps but these are large in size. Each team tries to take over bases and hold key buildings in their possession to earn points. Individual points for kills can be used to require more powerful weapons and vehicles to outgun the opposing team.
While I initially was intrigued about this mode, it often ended up as a stalemate in the middle of each map. Even adding some bots in the mix, which Titanfall did in a way better manner, just falls short. One can't shake an empty feeling of an oversized map. The intensity only builds up if somebody drives in with a tank or large vehicle.
What I really miss, are medium sized maps. Especially a team deathmatch mode with a few vehicles, but not on the huge scale warzone offers. I was a huge fan of the big team playlist in Halo 4. In Halo 5 you either have the small arena maps or the gigantic warzone maps. There's no middle ground that should've been catered for, like the size of the classic Halo 3 map Valhalla for instance.
The end result is that multiplayer becomes divided into either a small, chaotic and intense deathmatch multiplayer or a huge scale, empty, Battlefield-ish one. I'm guessing people will be sticking to one or the other, much more than jumping back and forth.
Conclusion
On the technical and gameplay side, Halo 5 delivers a fantastic end result. It's a beautiful and incredibly smooth game to play but the content and story are disappointing. The divided multiplayer and a singleplayer that simply walks the safe path from beginning to end, pull down a product that could've been better. I would have appreciated more substance and variation in both single and multiplayer.
That being said, it's still a very solid title and it's a welcome release to finally play a Halo that takes full advantage of the Xbox One. Nothing groundbreaking, but a safe release, for good or worse that's up to you.
