Okay, now that I've finished the campaign, my thoughts, as I mentioned yesterday it feels short, but I was playing on Normal, so I've probably perceived it being short because I normally play on Heroic the first time through. As I also mentioned there's a massive imbalance between Blue Team missions and Osiris missions, makes Chief and Blue Team feel pretty distant to the overall story when they barely feature in it.
Spoilers ahead yo! Skip this next section and start reading again at the big END SPOILERS text to avoid anything to do with the campaign.
The overall story was fairly weak. I have no doubts this has something to do with Chris Schlerf (lead writer for Halo 4) leaving the studio before Halo 5 writing started and the guy who wrote Spartan Ops taking over, while Halo 4 wasn't the best from an enclosed standpoint (a lot of external lore knowledge was needed) it was still a good entry in the series at the time.
With Guardians it just felt like it was lacking... something. It's hard to put my finger on it, but it just didn't feel right.
Besides the fact that the Hunt the Truth podcast thingo and a lot of the marketing material leading up to launch didn't really align the overall plot of campaign (not that the majority of Halo marketing campaigns have ever truly aligned with the games content), I can't help but feel that there was a change in direction at some point. As for the entire length of the campaign there was really nothing that suggested Locke was ever out to kill Chief/Blue Team. Both Blue Team and Osiris were trying to discover what was happening with the Guardians. Blue Team through finding Cortana, and Osiris through finding Blue Team (though there focus does start to shift towards Cortana after their first contact with Warden Eternal).
It sets up a bit for Halo 6 (or whatever it's going to be called) but I still can't help but feel that there's an element to Halo 5's story that's missing.
That being said I feel Warden Eternal is one of gaming's best characters ever used in the wrong way. The voice actor instantly made Warden a Prophet of Truth-like villain. However the overuse of Warden as a boss for various fights (including a bullshit 3 on one (because the companion AI is the worst ever in the history of Halo) at the end of mission 14) made his presence feel more like an improved Promethean Knight. I said in a reddit thread that I was disappointed the E3 gameplay showing Warden doing his force chokey thingy and telling Locke that "your passage is denied" wasn't in the final version of the game and was replaced with a boss fight in the same area. I feel like it would have been better saving the boss fight against Warden for later in the game by keeping that sequence from the E3 gameplay and having him slipspace out with the Guardian for a fight later in the campaign. Of course the fact that you encounter him on Meridian earlier in the campaign kinda destroys this idea.
END SPOILERS
Overall it wasn't the worst Halo, but it wasn't the best either.
I did like the addition of the Promethean Soldier though. As it brings a lot of balance to the structure of the Prometheans. To compare to the Covenant, we had Grunts, Jackals, Elites and Hunters in Halo 4, while the Prometheans had Crawlers, Watchers, and Knights. Comparatively it felt like they jumped from Jackals (watchers) to Hunters (Knights) without anything in between. The soldiers fix that and turn the Knights into a more heavy fight unit rather than general foot-soldier like they were in Halo 4.
I haven't dived into much multiplayer at the moment. But so far I don't like Warzone. The intro (and outro) sequence is annoying because it runs it every time, after the first game I know how Warzone works, I don't need to be reminded every time I start a new one. And I feel 24 player games adds further instability to networking that results in more lag and a higher chance of dropouts even on these fancy dedicated servers.
I'm also disappointed that customisation has been scaled back. Individual armour pieces can no longer be modified, only the entire armour, helmet, visor, and armour colours can be changed. And emblems have fixed colour schemes that you pick a "main" colour for and then select between half a dozen or so variations. Compared to previous games, even Halo 4, it's extremely limited to what you can customise.
In the end, it's another Halo, but I'm starting to see that it's becoming the Halo that's no longer for me.
Spoilers ahead yo! Skip this next section and start reading again at the big END SPOILERS text to avoid anything to do with the campaign.
The overall story was fairly weak. I have no doubts this has something to do with Chris Schlerf (lead writer for Halo 4) leaving the studio before Halo 5 writing started and the guy who wrote Spartan Ops taking over, while Halo 4 wasn't the best from an enclosed standpoint (a lot of external lore knowledge was needed) it was still a good entry in the series at the time.
With Guardians it just felt like it was lacking... something. It's hard to put my finger on it, but it just didn't feel right.
Besides the fact that the Hunt the Truth podcast thingo and a lot of the marketing material leading up to launch didn't really align the overall plot of campaign (not that the majority of Halo marketing campaigns have ever truly aligned with the games content), I can't help but feel that there was a change in direction at some point. As for the entire length of the campaign there was really nothing that suggested Locke was ever out to kill Chief/Blue Team. Both Blue Team and Osiris were trying to discover what was happening with the Guardians. Blue Team through finding Cortana, and Osiris through finding Blue Team (though there focus does start to shift towards Cortana after their first contact with Warden Eternal).
It sets up a bit for Halo 6 (or whatever it's going to be called) but I still can't help but feel that there's an element to Halo 5's story that's missing.
That being said I feel Warden Eternal is one of gaming's best characters ever used in the wrong way. The voice actor instantly made Warden a Prophet of Truth-like villain. However the overuse of Warden as a boss for various fights (including a bullshit 3 on one (because the companion AI is the worst ever in the history of Halo) at the end of mission 14) made his presence feel more like an improved Promethean Knight. I said in a reddit thread that I was disappointed the E3 gameplay showing Warden doing his force chokey thingy and telling Locke that "your passage is denied" wasn't in the final version of the game and was replaced with a boss fight in the same area. I feel like it would have been better saving the boss fight against Warden for later in the game by keeping that sequence from the E3 gameplay and having him slipspace out with the Guardian for a fight later in the campaign. Of course the fact that you encounter him on Meridian earlier in the campaign kinda destroys this idea.
END SPOILERS
Overall it wasn't the worst Halo, but it wasn't the best either.
I did like the addition of the Promethean Soldier though. As it brings a lot of balance to the structure of the Prometheans. To compare to the Covenant, we had Grunts, Jackals, Elites and Hunters in Halo 4, while the Prometheans had Crawlers, Watchers, and Knights. Comparatively it felt like they jumped from Jackals (watchers) to Hunters (Knights) without anything in between. The soldiers fix that and turn the Knights into a more heavy fight unit rather than general foot-soldier like they were in Halo 4.
I haven't dived into much multiplayer at the moment. But so far I don't like Warzone. The intro (and outro) sequence is annoying because it runs it every time, after the first game I know how Warzone works, I don't need to be reminded every time I start a new one. And I feel 24 player games adds further instability to networking that results in more lag and a higher chance of dropouts even on these fancy dedicated servers.
I'm also disappointed that customisation has been scaled back. Individual armour pieces can no longer be modified, only the entire armour, helmet, visor, and armour colours can be changed. And emblems have fixed colour schemes that you pick a "main" colour for and then select between half a dozen or so variations. Compared to previous games, even Halo 4, it's extremely limited to what you can customise.
In the end, it's another Halo, but I'm starting to see that it's becoming the Halo that's no longer for me.
![[Image: signature_S5.png]](http://scottbattye.com/uploads/signature_S5.png)
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