LTTP: Halo 5. (Campaign) Its...........fun?

[nogoodnamesleft]

I consider myself a decent halo fan, not someone who knows the entire lore or anything but have watched some videos n stuff to know whats going on in the series for the most part. I never did get around to playing 5, though, as i did not have an xbox one but i see it get slagged pretty hard basically like...everywhere? My favourite Halo games are CE and ODST for reference.

So the past few weeks, ive started up Halo 5 expecting it to be total garbage juice and while theres some things i dont like (theres some things i dont like in every halo game, and um, nearly every game i love too tbh) This game is super fun? The controls are super responsive, the graphics are fantastic, the world is really cool and so far the story is pretty interesting.

Yeah its a bit more linear than most classic halos, but i dont think these games need to be sticking too close to previous formulas. Does this game get slagged because its "different" and the hardcore dont want changes? Because im finding it pretty damn fun.

Ive just finished the floodgate mission and the things i dont like so far are Locke (yeah i know not many like him, was he supposed to be a replacement for MC? hes just so damn dull and soulless) And i actually didnt like the first mission too much either it felt rushed and had no pacing to ease into a big battlefield conflict like that.

So apart from me who likes this game? lol

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

Oops wrong forum can someone move to gaming :)

 

[NippleViking]

It's fun only because 5's core gameplay is so good, and basically turns every encounter into a jungle gym. Almost everything else about the campaign - from the narrative, to enemies, to playspaces, to setpieces - varies from middling to straight up bad.

Guardian's Campaign isn't offensive beyond its narrative and the dissonance with its marketing campaign. It's just bland.

 

[MonsterMech]

It's fun.

It just got a lot of hate cause the story didn't line up with the marketing and you don't play as chief for most of the game.The only real glaring gameplay issue is the crappy repetitive boss battles.

 

[Titanpaul]

I really enjoyed 5. It's a great game, even though I thought the final level was a bit anticlimactic.

 

[emperor bohe]

The gameplay in the campaign was alright I guess, but the story was so forgettable

Halo 5 multiplayer is top tier tho imo. Such a satisfying game to play when you stick to mp. The core gameplay really shines.

 

[Valiant]

Halo 5's campaign gameplay was a huge step up from 4's.

It was enjoyable but I didn't stick around for multiplayer had gotten into Overwatch I think at the time.

and now Infinite is shaping up to be my big competitive game to constantly play.

 

[Rendering...]

Super underrated campaign. A real return to form after Halo 4's beautiful but painfully linear levels. You can take or leave the story, but Halo 5's gameplay and level design are some of the best in the series.

For those who hate the Warden Eternal boss fights, just do what I did and look up speed run strats. They're not hard.

 

[jokkir]

I played through the entire campaign recently and yeah, it's fun. Probably because it feels pretty fluid to move around but also doesn't really feel like the other Halo games for better or worse.

 

[Mad_Rhetoric]

I found the narrative/story/character-writing to be the actual bad part of Halo 5's campaign. The gameplay is pretty good.

 

[knightmawk]

I did like Halo 5, couldn't tell you dick about the story, but after Halo 4 I wasn't going in with expectations of a good, or even intelligible story. Had a blast.

 

[Kiryu957]

Never understood the hate for 5. Granted, I didn't play it on release.

 

[DanielG123]

The GAMEPLAY and set pieces in H5's campaign were fun as hell, it's just that the story itself wasn't good at all; that's where the majority of people's complaints stem from.

 

[Darmik]

It's my least favorite Halo campaign (primarily due to it feeling like it's designed for 4 player coop more than any other game) but it's still a fun enough FPS campaign when taken on its own accord. The Halo gameplay is still there and fun.

 

[Trey]

Sanghelios is a top 5 level in Halo. Super fun and vertical.

that's the most I'll give it though

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

It gets rightly shit on for it's lackluster story, but it still has moments of greatness inside the campaign. No one really contains about that classic Halo gameplay

 

[effingvic]

Its fun but the story sucks. I hate osiris.

that said the locations were incredible. Audibly gasped when you were walking down a guardian near the end of the game. Really awesome art.

 

[Plax]

I thought it was completely forgettable. I can remember a great deal about Halo 1, 2, 3, ODST and Reach. But 4 and 5 are essentially just blanks in my mind.

 

[Judau]

It's fun, but the story is kinda messy. For example, they don't even bother explaining why Chief suddenly has his own team. The only reason I know about them is because my siblings are big Halo nerds, so they've read most of the books and know exactly who Fred, Kelly, and Linda are. I imagine the people who only know the stories from the numbered games were like "Wtf? Is Chief not the last Spartan?".

 

[Handsome James]

It's fun and stupid. The opening cinematic of Osiris running and gunning down the hill is ridiculous. It's still a good game but very different from the other games

 

[The Lord of Cereal]

It's tied with Halo 2 as the best Halo game in my opinion. Really fun and responsive gameplay and great campaign levels and encounters.

Story ain't great and the campaign is short, but MP was fun as hell and honestly the story isn't even that bad viewed in a vacuum, it was just brought down by bad marketing in my opinion

 

[Souls Survivor]

Save for the Warden Eternal fights, it's probably in my top 3 Halo campaigns. The story sucked, but I didn't find much engaging in the previous Halo stories either, so that's probably a factor.

 

[Replicant]

Fun campaign. People were upset that you weren't chief the entire game.

 

[Grimminski]

We'd like to play it one day

Click to shrink...

 

[Oozer]

Super underrated campaign. A real return to form after Halo 4's beautiful but painfully linear levels. You can take or leave the story, but Halo 5's gameplay and level design are some of the best in the series.

For those who hate the Warden Eternal boss fights, just do what I did and look up speed run strats. They're not hard.

Click to shrink...

Bingo. I replayed the campaign this summer and the levels are so densely packed and so well thought out and paced. Loved it. Probably my second favorite campaign in the series from a pure gameplay perspective.

The skeleton of the story is really good, but by golly, there is nothing on those bones. Aside from some brief, but very nice, moments between Chief and Cortana, no other playable character has much personality to speak of. There's basically nothing done with the "Locke chasing Chief" angle. I really like the overarching plot, but after Halo 4 it seems like a lot of people wanted more from a Halo campaign than just a solid plot. Bungie could get away with that for some of their early attempts, but they also struggled when they tackled teams in ODST and Reach, though probably not to the same degree as 343 in Halo 5. 343 just bit off way more than basically anybody could have chewed for the game. Introducing a second, main playable character, and a new Spartan team to go along with him, and bringing in Blue Team from the books while still telling the next chapter of the Chief/Cortana story was crazily ambitious.

 

[Dead Man Typing]

There are boss fights that got rebalanced a few months after release, but people who played it at launch got a pretty bad experience with those. Especially if you were playing solo.

In fact, the level design and waiting on A.I. buddies to revive you made the game feel like it was designed for co-op first. It's a bit uneven in single player as a result.

I love Halo 5 gameplay, and the campaign looks very nice on a 4k console at a solid 60fps. It has some cool moments. Glad you're enjoying it, OP.

 

[Ctrl Alt Del]

I don't think the campaign is any good but the gameplay certainly is fun. Which is why I appreciated that game's multiplayer and that was it.

And that squad mechanic took away pretty much all the challenge.

 

[-Tetsuo-]

Me and my friends thought it was borderline terrible. Full of wack weapons with a wack as hell story and bad pacing and mostly mundane encounters.

 

[bry]

i enjoyed 5 more than 4 tbh lol so i hear ya

 

[Stopdoor]

Weird to make a LTTP before finishing it. Because yeah, most complaints are how it ends.

Spoiler

Mostly annoyed me how both sides of the story are just a chase, the entire game, nothing much actually really happens. It's not even an issue with how it ended really, it's just kind of deflating that it stretches out the "we have to find Master Chief/Cortana" to the very end, and then nothing really surprising comes out of that. Cortana just does the thing she said she was going to do because Master Chief can't really talk anything more than spiffy catchphrases. Nice cliffhanger I guess, but at least Halo 2 introduced the Prophets, Gravemind, the Arbiter had more of a reason to have an arc than Locke, etc.

 

[aronmayo]

The moment to moment gameplay is FANTASTIC. The visuals are incredible, especially in cutscenes (as Digital Foudnry points out are actually quite a bit more impressive than Infinite's). The boss fights are horrendous, though. The story is nonsensical, too simple and too convoluted at the same time. The non-combat levels are poorly thought through and not engaging. It's just a mix bag overall but the shooting is gooooooood.

The multiplayer in 5 is also just as good as Infinite's multiplayer imo. It's a much bigger package of content than Infinite's too.

 

[DeliciousSunnyD!]

It's easily better than Halo 4 IMO, though I only played both 4 & 5's campaigns once on Heroic at their respective launches so I'm not super up-to-date knowledgeable on them after all this time.

I think there's a few reasons that people didn't like 5.

The story delivered doesn't relate at all to the pre-release marketing campaign, "Hunt the Truth". I personally have always thought this was a lame complaint that really isn't that valid. Halo's marketing campaigns have never really lined up with the in-game narratives, either in tone, scale, or actual topic.

People didn't like the direction of the narrative/where things go. End game spoilers:

Spoiler

People really dislike Cortana becoming "evil" and recruiting the galaxy-wide AI's; that she/they interpret themselves as the heirs apparent to the Forerunners and assuming the "Mantle"

I actually happen to really like this twist/direction, unlike most people. I think it's actually compelling, at least, much more compelling to me than what they did with 4. And this kind of sci-fi story direction resonates today IMO.

People also didn't like the repetitive fights of the Warden. The last fight with 3 of him was especially brutal, at least when I played. The game definitely would have been better served by having more unique boss encounters rather than copy/pasting his fight multiple times. This is a critique I can get behind with the game.

The forced AI co-op is also hit or miss with people. I'm mostly indifferent, but I think I'd have preferred to just be a true solo player when I'm playing by myself. Glad they scrapped this with Infinite honestly.

Also, people don't like Locke as you mentioned. He's definitely no Master Chief. I actually kind of liked his character, but he'd have been much better served by having an actually cool, iconic, well designed armor. His look was too goofy, which hurt his reception I feel. But this is a bigger problem with 4 and 5's art directions in general though. The art direction is another thing that 343 has smartly kind of reversed going into Infinite.

The actual gameplay is great, I agree. The level design is much better than 4's I feel. Far more open levels compared to 4's very linear design that are more reminiscent of Bungie-era Halo. The AI is also much better and more fun to fight than 4 too. It's also more like Bungie's AI combat.

Halo 5 is underrated for sure. Multiplayer has gotten more appreciation and recognition through the years, but the campaign is still kind of on the underrated side IMO.

 

[TooBusyLookinGud]

Yes it is.

 

[APerfectOrganism]

Just finished it tonight in fact. It's fun, but my god the story telling is abysmal. The desire for the writers to answer everything and bake in convoluted mythos into every square inch is exhausting. Lots of cool ideas that just don't fit together. Halo just tries too hard to be a fantasy space opera IMO.

Also, the ending sucked. Looking forward to Infinite though.

 

[SirThou]

Just finished it on Heroic last night. Overall pretty fun, prometheans felt a lot better to kill than in 4. The last couple of levels were really good to play, and I did really like the squad model here, more so than in Reach (which was pretty nonexistent of course).

Main complaints were:
- Repeated guardians bosses; they're a good boss and I did like the 3 guardians, but too much reliance on them and they never felt different each time
- Switching the narrative perspective back and forth, I can see what they tried but I didn't like it
- I felt most of the characterization fell flat
- Some levels had some ridiculous length between checkpoints. If I ever have to hear Cortana rundown Locke's team again... (I got stuck and died like 10x)

Glad I got to finish it after getting only halfway through at launch. I do remember really enjoying the multiplayer though; really had a good time with Warzone.

 

[CubeApple76]

The gameplay in 5 is great, outside of maybe the lackluster boss fights. Story is pretty bad though - I've read Halo books and played all the games many times, and even I was a bit confused at points until I looked up some stuff. Still a really good game imo, especially the MP. Sanghelios levels are top tier too imo.

 

[Vidpixel]

The story is terribly told and a confusing mess, but the gameplay feels great for sure. The levels are pretty fun too besides the constant repeating "boss" fight. I feel like it would've been way better if team Osiris was basically cut and it focused solely on Blue team (and actually introduced who the hell they are in-game)

 

[Hoggle]

Halo 5 is exactly what Halo 4 should have been. Except they fucked it up.

At the end of Halo 3 Chief is floating through space and no one knows where he is. Imagine if 343 chose that as an opportunity to introduce Locke and the new team and had them first off fighting this new threat, the Prometheans, and then ultimately finding the Chief in the last few missions.
That way we'd have a new protagonist they could take the time to build up instead of this "hunt the truth" crap. We'd have had a new galaxy level threat and a bunch of questions that need answering, and 343 could have started a new trilogy with a clean slate and told their own story.

Halo 5 has some of the best large scale battles in the series and some interesting locations to explore. It takes some risks with the walk and talk focussed missions and the new movement system including thrusters and additional moves. But it drops the ball so hard with an anaemic campaign that ends just as it's starting, a horrible story that's poorly told, and the most annoying damn boss fight I've ever encountered.

…

I was really hoping they could build on what they had with Halo 5 though but once again they've seemingly scrapped the entire plot of the last game and tried something new. Except the "something new" this time is trying to go back to what Halo 1 felt like (which is the opposite of exciting IMO).

And seeing as the story in Infinite is meant to be poorly told and disappointing and this is the start of a ten year, I'm now doubting whether or not 343 will follow through with this story arc or just scrap it again if it's poorly received.

 

[Rhaknar]

I liked 4 and 5 when I played them recently, so when I started seeing all the vitriol against those games, I...just stayed quiet lol.

 

[secretanchitman]

The gameplay and certain levels are great but everything else about it sucks - most of the levels are bad, the story sucks, the pacing isn't good and the encounters (especially bosses) are flat out terrible. Probably doesn't help that you barely play as Master Chief, which is around 3-4 missions if I remember correctly.

I even beat it on legendary co-op and not one of us have had a single desire to go back to it again, even if it came to PC.

 

[KDC720]

The game plays great, it's just everything else that let's it down.

Story isn't great and was clearly rushed, the marketing leading up to it ended up being more interesting than the actual plot.

Osiris are non-starters. Locke is somehow more generic than Chief, one squad member is just Laura Bailey doing her typical thing, one I always forget her name she's that unmemorable, and Buck is fine but he was introduced in another game and he was better there.

The squad mechanics are half baked, and none of the enemies old or new really make you take advantage of the new movement mechanics.

They make you repeat a boss fight like 3 or 4 different times and it gets more annoying each time.

 

[AAION]

I remember liking that there were secret areas that you could find with charge/ground pound and special variant weapons.
Sanghelios was dope. A few good set pieces like the big squid thing and running down the guardian. Other than that it was just okay. Warden boss fight would be decent for an fps if you didn't do it multiple times. It helps that I don't hate promethean weapons and enemies as much as everyone else, they were way worse in 4.

 

[DarthWalden]

Yeah it's pretty good, it just doesn't stack up very well compared to all the other Halo games and being Osiris for 13/16 levels was not a good decision. Also the story is ROTS/Got Season 7 bad.

 

[AlexBasch]

I thought your teammates would be perma dead if they got killed (not downed) during the campaign. So I kept resetting a lot of encounters to ensure all of them survived until the next checkpoint.

Made the game longer than it should have, bit I loved it.

 

[Skyebaron]

Is "I had fun" an excuse to overlook a shit story, abysmal boss fights, bad pacing, half baked squad mechanics on a graphically decent, high budget title? But hey, the gun went bang bang when i pressed RT on the dumbed down AI and it says Halo on the cover.

 

[Brainfreeze]

I only played it once in co-op around launch, and I skipped all the cutscenes because I literally could not care less about 343's plots, but I remember really liking it. Like, I was thinking it was probably the best Halo Campaign when I finished it. The level design was a real step up, it was fantastic. The prometheans were still a little lame to fight, but everything else felt really good. There's something so satisfying about approaching a fight from one path, dying, and then approaching from a completely different path with a whole new plan and seeing how the AI reacts. That type of strategy just wasn't available in the other Halos because they were generally much more linear. 5 embraced the sandbox elements a lot more to make the AI conflicts feel even more dynamic. I don't think I'd be interested in Infinite much at all if I didn't get a taste if what that type design can achieve in Halo with 5.

All of that said, we're a few years out now and, despite how positive my impressions were at the time, I barely remember any specific moments from 5's campaign, where as I remember the majority of the campaigns from Bungie's Halos. Maybe that has to do with the ages I played them at and how often we played through 1-3 as kids, I'm not sure, but I guess it goes to show that even stellar design and consistently good vibes is not always enough to leave a lasting impact if the world and the characters surrounding it are uninteresting.

I still think 5's campaign is leagues better than 4's though. I have no idea why anyone would ever prefer 4. That game was so boring.

 

[Virtua Sanus]

Huge Halo fan since 2003, replayed all of the campaigns several times, but only just played Halo 5 this night because I totally skipped out on Xbox One the entire gen.

It is fun. The Halo sandbox isnt really there as advanced mobility takes center stage and the 4 player co-op focus seriously damaged how so much was set up but I enjoyed myself a good amount. Story is basically a disaster and you are not really given a chance to attach yourself to any character but I liked the majority of the levels. All of Sanghelios is an especially wonderful standout and I would go as far as to say it is one of the best sets of locations in any Halo campaign.

 

[HTupolev]

I don't think that Halo 5 is a *bad* game in the grand scheme of games, but it's easily my least favorite Halo campaign. This is largely due to the squad system: not only does it feel poor to use, it also has large detrimental effects on level design.

When playing solo, it takes a lot of the players' capabilities and agency and dumps it into sloppy and unresponsive AI allies.
It makes it nearly impossible for small encounters to be meaningful or have interesting flow, so everything is a huge mouthful, and the game struggles to break up and modulate pacing within levels.
And since you always have buddies, the game struggles to leverage senses of loneliness or isolation.

What makes it especially bad is that it doesn't seem to have had any tangible benefits.
In theory, the squad system addresses the need for altering gameplay balance in coop. But historically, this hasn't been that much of a real problem to begin with: Halo campaigns have generally played just fine with extra players, even in games that had no coop difficulty scaling. And in practice, human allies are so much better than the AI teammates that coop "breaks" the game anyway, insofar as that could be regarded as something that might matter.
I also don't think that the game does a very good job of capitalizing on the AI allies from a storytelling standpoint. Not that the game doesn't try: more lore just isn't necessarily effective lore.

 

[nutaroundthecorner]

I don't remember much about the campaign but the space elevator mission, the open-ended levels where you just walked around and talked to NPCs and the one where you walk down the side of the guardian were all pretty cool.

 

[Coxy]

Yeah it's fun - but it's not good.

The squad missions (instead of being chief)
Missions where you literally just talk to people
Fighting the same boss again and again

Were my main gripes