Review by Melissa Copeland
One word. Disappointment. The Halo series is a massive hit in the world of gaming, but the Xbox One exclusive game, Halo 5: Guardians, or as I call it, Failo 5, was just a mess in almost every way possible. The story is almost non- existent, the tagline for the game is “Hunt for the Truth” which is more like hunt for the story.
The game starts with a character, Locke, then switches to the main character of the series, Master Chief, which continues through the rest of the game. Fans of the game were told there would be an engaging meaningful story, they were obviously lied to. The trailer for the game was extremely misleading. There appeared to be a creative angle that was shown in the trailers, which made it seem like the hero—Master Chief—had snapped after the death of a very close character in the previous game, Cortana, and that you had to hunt Master Chief down as this new character, Locke.
However, to my disappointment, this was not the case. It seems as though the game developers had to scrap that aspect of the story halfway through and just focus on the gameplay.
On to another issue, Master Chief’s squad, “Red Team.” Master Chief has been the last known Spartan II, a type of surgically-enhanced super-soldier, since the first game.
This has been an integral part of his character as well as the storyline.
One of the biggest issues this game has is a lack of local multiplayer, also known as “couch co-op,” which has been a staple of the series since the first game. Since there is no couch co-op, the only way for both parties to play “Halo 5” would be for them to have their own game and their own Xbox One. The developers said they had to choose between couch co-op or nice graphics. Needless to say they opted for the latter, which, don’t get me wrong, the game is absolutely beautiful, but at what price? While the world of gaming is leaning toward better graphics and less couch co-op, “Halo 5: Guardians” completely ignored the fact that couch co-op was a very important aspect to the game.
How could such a previously well- rounded franchise go down the drain just like that? “Halo” was originally developed by the company Bungie, owned by Microsoft, but between “Halo Reach,” a prequel to the series, and “Halo 4,” Bungie left Microsoft to work on a new project for Activision. Microsoft kept the rights to the game and had their new team, 343 Industries, continue the series. “Halo 4” left consumers somewhat disappointed with the new developers, but fans were mostly understanding of the fact that this was their first “Halo” game and had very large shoes to fill. Halo 5 though, was even worse.
I would rate this game a 3 out of 10. While the game is not fundamentally broken, it is not a good game by any stretch of the imagination, especially compared to past Halo games, this could reflect on the change in developers. In all honesty nothing excuses the lack of couch co- op, which in my personal opinion is the game’s biggest downfall.