For those of you who don’t know me, I am a huge fan of Halo. It was and still is a very influential game in my life. It has helped me overcome social anxiety and it has shaped some of my most valued friendships. When I heard in 2011 that they were going to be making a 4th game in the series I was ecstatic. Although Halo 4 was a bit of a disappointment, the announcement of the 5th game in the series really tickled my jimmys.
Halo 5: Guardians is set in the future in the year 2542 and is all about the Master Chief. In past games Chief saves the universe a few times, (he is a total badass soldier) but Halo 5 takes a different direction in which the Chief is thought to be a traitor.
The main campaign has been slated by other reviewers. They claim that it is stale and confusing. I think these reviews are harsh and are very wrong. Halo 5 has a strong story line with lots of twists and turns to keep you on your toes. Without ruining too much, the game follows two teams; Blue Team led by the Master Chief and Fireteam Osiris, led by Spartan Locke. The main premise of the story is Fireteam Osiris hunting down Blue Team to bring them in for being AWOL (absent without leave.)
Yes, I managed to get the whole game done in 4 hours and 32 minutes, but I am a veteran player. Most people would take a good 10 – 15 hours to complete it at least. Plus I had many treats and snacks to keeps me going. Man I love Doritos and Mountain Dew. So the game is worth the money and has a decent amount of game play.
One thing I really want to talk about is the multiplayer. It plays very similar to the other Halo games, however there are a few differences. The main difference is the booster pack. It enables you to do cool things like boost around corners, shunt enemies and to float in mid-air to get a quick zoom in. It can also do a kickass ground pound. This new feature revives what some people say is a dead end multiplayer experience. Another new element is the Warzone mode. Warzone is a 24 player game type on a few exclusive maps designed for its own game mode. It involves huge battles between 2 colossal teams that span a good 20 minutes minimum. The aim is to see who can get the most points, be it from killing each other or from doing small tasks on each map. For example, taking out a high value NPC enemy.
However, there is a downside to the multiplayer option. At the moment the game has only launched with a total of 12 maps to play on (excluding the 3 exclusive to Warzone.) Unfortunately, the game mode called Forge, which lets you create your own maps, is absent. When it launches the community will make their own maps and custom game types. This sounds super duper exciting and I can not wait. The current maps are very small and quite boring in theme, mostly being indoors or human ships. Come on Microsoft, you’ve had four years to make this game, you could have been a bit more creative with the maps.
So, what is my verdict of the game? Go out and pick up this game. Even if you are not a die hard Halo fan or if you haven’t played the previous games in the series, it is worth a go. (If you haven’t played any of the others it might be worth reading up on the back story. Halo story lines are incredibly in depth.) If you fancy some fun online multiplayer action, Halo is perfect. Overall, the game is quick and easy to jump into and play.
I give this game a 9/10. Once Forge comes out it might even be 10/10.
If anybody wants to play halo with me, my Gamertag is defence plox. See you in the game.