Halo 5: Guardians
2014 wasn’t exactly a stellar year for Halo, the Master Chief Collection having brought the core four games to the Xbox One, along with an embarrassing amount of bugs and connection issues. 343 needed to prove themselves with Guardians, and while the multiplayer beta won over some people, they still had to blow away the remaining skeptics.
To that end, the multiplayer had to return back to the basic formula that’s served the series so well, but also get with the times. Being able to aim down sights and sprint are welcome additions, and the new Spartan abilities like jet packs and a powerful charge sprint help amp up the pace of matches without getting crazy chaotic. This is probably the best blend of old school Halo and what Halo 4 was trying to do without going too far in either direction to make this feel like a relic of the old times or a jarring new addition to the series. While the old modes are all well and fun, the new Warzone mode may probably be one of the coolest additions the series has made, mixing nearly everything great about the series into a large scale war that’s a ton of fun.
The action hasn’t just been amped up in the multiplayer. This campaign is a high mark for the series, providing a nice ebb and flow of small skirmishes and big scale battles that enhance the scope of the universe. The four player co-op works well, which is perfect, since the teammate AI are complete idiots. Story can be a bit hard to follow, especially if you haven’t read the books, and Blue Team in particular feels like they needed more missions for their side of the story to click the way Osiris’ does. But even that feels like a minor complaint when compared with what Halo 5 does right, and it certainly excels at a lot of what it sets out to accomplish.
