Since then, the Halo franchise has endured several sequels, prequels, books, spin-offs and I’m sure a collection of naughty fan-fiction in the darkest reaches of the internet. This was pure single player action, and the reasoning for that, according to the PR folks and studio present at the event, was that they wanted me to go at my own pace. That interplay between the player and the other NPCs around them works well for Halo. The Halo universe is complicated, nearly byzantine, and I had no real sense of what each character’s motivations were at any point aside from “don’t die”.
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Hit the jump for our breakdown on what we liked and disliked during our preview session with Halo 5 Guardians’ campaign.
Halo veterans may find the new 60fps off putting by removing the cinematic immersion of Halo (or junk in the trunk), but after getting acclimated – Halo 5 is smooth, easy on the eyes and just pure joy to control, especially on the Xbox One’s controller, and fantastic use of the Rumbling Triggers. In single player, you play as either Chief or Locke. In the first we see Editor Dan running riot with a meaty shotgun, in the second you’ll get a glimpse of the mission “Covenant Homeworld” and in the third there’s some vehicle gameplay including a look at the Phaeton, a playable gunship new to Halo 5.
Halo 5: Guardians releases for Xbox One on October 27th.
Truth be told, I tried to ignore the story while playing the campaign. First and foremost, the game looks gorgeous. If you knew nothing about Halo, you would’ve assumed that these were two separate and isolated missions by two teams of space marines operating like all-business Navy SEALs. You can see shots from it in the gallery at the head of this post.
The Fireteam Osiris mission took place outdoors, which gave me more room to improvise in battles. They also appear to be aware of their functional immortality – “Enemy Lines” ends with you escaping a collapsing Kraken, but in my case I made the escape alone, then watched my colleagues tumble into a canyon with the machine, seemingly aware that only I had to be alive to finish the level. While their cast of characters and locations differed wildly, they’re connected by a single philosophy – both are faintly obsessed with funnelling you into an enormous space, filling it with enemies, and letting you get on with good old alien hunting in whatever fashion you deem fit. I began to feel a bit overconfident myself after spending a few minutes mowing down enemies in a Ghost, but just as I was beginning to relax, a Wraith’s plasma cannon almost blasted me out of existence.
The gunplay also felt really, really great. I knew that if I was felled, I wouldn’t always have to wait through a loading screen – one of the members of Blue Team would come and revive me instead. The fact that a life-size MA5D Assault Rifle was built, out of Lego bricks nonetheless, is enough to get “Halo 5” fans excited but Jensen’s creation even features four weapon attachments and a squeezable trigger. Grunts were, well, grunty, complete with their constant need to open up two sticky grenades and charge you.
The shooting, though? This was easily my favorite part. In that regard ODST is the most distinctive Halo game out there, and having played it recently as part of 343’s MCC make-good, it holds up so, so well. The increased usefulness of A.I. allies isn’t unique to Halo 5: Guardians.
That said, it doesn’t seem fair to judge a game’s story elements when you’re not playing from the beginning. Every gun sounds heavy, layered, complex and distinct. Halo’s pretty cool. These days, the series is less interesting for setting the standard for FPSes on consoles and more for being the genre’s steadfast stick in the mud – a loping, strategic shooter in a world of twitch-shooter, Twitch-friendly insta-death bloodbaths.
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Here’s an edited transcript of our interview.
