The original three halo games were fantastic and really well designed. The story was simple and to the point but executed superbly, the soundtrack was one of the best game soundtracks made. Characters were well developed and memorable (even if sometimes slightly goofy) Every level had a different kind of challenge with different unique music that went alongside it, the games were always interesting.

Halo 4 was very different to the original three. This game started out pretty great but then fell kinda flat half way, but made it up for it with a great ending.

Halo 5, however is a totally different story, it's suffers greatly from a confusing plot that's over explained in a very emotionless and Unenthused kind of way. The soundtrack is generic and forgettable and doesn't really add tension or feel to the game.

Characters are boring and emotionless. You only play as Master Chief for THREE missions! The new antagonist who's name I forgot, feels very out of place in a halo game.

They ruin Halo 4s ending by bringing back Cortana with a very stupid and nonsensical reason for her survival, and if that wasn't bad enough they ruin her character by making her all of a sudden become evil.

The campaign missions are flat out boring and repetitive. And last but not least, the multiplayer feels way too much like Call of Duty for a Halo game and to make matters worse, Req points and Weapon packs are now a thing...

Why 343, Why?!

6.0/10

The halo franchise has been great throughout the years but halo 5 has been really disappointing in advancing the franchise and it looks bad compared to the other titles. I see why halo 5 was made though, because Bungie wanted to make a halo game with a lot of multiplayer options and it succeeded but the campaign felt short and customization options were not very great to customize your character. Overall it's honestly a great game.

Halo 5: Guardians is the latest instalment in the Halo franchise and a direct sequel to Halo 4. It sees Master Chief go rogue for reasons I won't spoil here and then get hunted by Spartan Locke, sent by the UNSC. Coming out three years after Halo 4 and a great marketing campaign, promising a rivalry/battle between Chief and Locke and hinting at an antagonistic Chief, does Halo 5 deliver?

First off, I have to put it out there that I am a huge fan of the Halo series and that is for its campaigns more so than the multiplayer. I will always complete the story before moving onto the multiplayer because I am invested in the character of the Master Chief and always excited to see where his character will go or how he will develop emotionally, especially after a rather sad ending to Halo 4.I actually really like Halo 4 contrary to other people's opinions because although the multiplayer had clear, undeniable issues, the campaign was amazing, technically and story-wise.It was almost like a character study of Chief and Cortana as it put them at the forefront so I was hoping for Halo 5 to continue this in its story.

Unfortunately, whilst Halo 5's campaign is beautiful, graphically at a constant 60fps, and has better level design and is probably more fun than Halo 4, its story is a real weakness which dampens an otherwise perfect Halo game. You may be wondering why this is 'unfortunate' since it still sounds pretty great, but if you were hoping for a great story and further development for the Master Chief,you may be disappointed.

The cutscenes, while stunning and impressive to behold, are too short and feel unfinished as they suddenly fade to black, and sometimes it felt like some cutscenes were removed. For example, you never see Locke's team get assigned to tracking down the Master Chief and it is just thrust upon you all-of-a-sudden. The game tries to add a new element which just feels out of place in a Halo game as you go up to people and press 'x' to talk as if it's an RPG game like Skyrim. The problem is this element never goes anywhere and just feels like they were too lazy to make it a cutscene.

The story also feels rushed and is frustrating in the way that it has so much more potential that it never fulfills, but I'm not going to talk about what it should've been, I'll talk about what's there and the problems with it. Firstly, Chief's reasons for going rogue just don't feel near sufficient or important enough to truly get invested in his story and the way he goes rogue is just so anti-climactic and offhandedly done. Moreover, you only play as Chief for three missions out of the 15 missions in the campaign so obviously there's not much time there for proper development of his character.

The rest of the story is with the dutiful, but dull Spartan Locke who, with his team, hunts down the Chief. It starts out that way, but I won't spoil it so all I'll say is the ads and the marketing campaign lied to you. Hell, even the front cover lies to you as this game is not really Chief vs. Locke. Team Osiris, while more interesting than Blue Team in this game, are never fleshed out and have no emotional ties to their mission to hunt down the Chief as they see it as "just another target" as Lock puts it so how are we supposed to care whether they find the Chief or not and root for them. I won't spoil any returning characters in case you don't follow the trailers and advertisements, but it was good to see them, albeit briefly.

However, if you don't care for the Halo story and don't bother with cutscenes there is still lots of fun to be had in the gameplay. The level design is amazing with beautiful scenery and HD graphics, especially on the plant Sanghelios which features great towering stone- statues of Elites that are nothing if not impressive. You also fight a Kraken...enough said. There is not a dull mission and there are a lot of great standout moments in the gameplay which you just have to stop to take in. Although a boss fight with a certain character is repeated quite a bit it doesn't detract much from the fun of it. Also, your teammates do revive you so if you die it's not a definite respawn unless your teammates are all dead and they fail trying to get to yo, which can be frustrating.

I haven't got much to say about the multiplayer, but I had lots of fun on it and it is much better and more balanced than Halo 4, though I've been playing Arena more than Warzone because I just prefer it, but that's just my opinion. I've heard Halo fans who've been playing since 2004 when Halo 2 came out and are saying this is the best Halo multiplayer since then, which must be a good thing.

In conclusion, if you like Halo, this is a must-buy because although the campaign has a weak story, it has some standout moments such as an awesome hand to hand fight between Chief and Locke, but there is also lots of fun and memories to be made in the gameplay. Also, the multiplayer is great which just shows Halo is back baby! If you are not a Halo fan, you will not care about the weak story and you will find lots of enjoyment in the gameplay as well as its impressive graphics and 60fps fluidity so I'd say this is definitely a game worth checking out.

Oh, and the soundtrack is amazing!

A poorly executed storyline finds itself awkwardly lodged in a very short and uninspired series of missions that exist for nothing more than to include content at the games 2015 launch; because there sure wasn't any to be found in the multiplayer at the time. However, credit where it's due, over the course of a year, free updates (unfortunately a rarity in the modern game industry) gradually added to the variety of the matchmaking and it became a pretty fun and addicting side-attraction to whatever other game you might've been playing. The unbalanced and unappreciated in game micro transactions took away from the fulfillment of getting new gear for your multiplayer spartan that can be found in the pre-2012 titles in the series. 6/10. Only slightly above average.

This game is fantastic. I loved it. I have seen the game get a lot of hate by people because of the bad false advertising making the campaign feel "Mediocre". IMO, there wouldn't be too much hate if it was advertised as a game about hopelessness and betrayal like it was. The story was properly the darkest Halo due to its themes. The twist that Cortana has been the villain this whole time was a sad twist and it added a whole new sense of hopelessness to the game. The campaign may have been short but it was a great ride and gets me excited for Halo 6.If there is any flaw with it, it is that the fireteam revives made the game kinda "Too easy." which would put my score down, but the multiplayer is fantastic. The multiplayer is easily the best part of Halo 5. It is very addicting and brings the Halo vibe back from what Reach and 4 sacrificed.

Should you buy this game, yes. It is a great ride through the campaign and the multiplayer is fantastic.

This is my game of the year 2015.

spit upon a fanbase and a beloved series so hard. With an insultingly short and incoherent campaign of only 4 hours, it's a wonder if any time was actually spent writing it, or if 343i had just thrown a dictionary into a blender and taped together whatever words they can find and called it a story. IMDb's "spoiler warning" button shouldn't even be on the Halo 5 review page.

Originally, I had thought Halo 4 was the lowest point this franchise could hit, but I was sorely wrong about that. Halo 4 at least managed to have some sort of plot to it.

Aside from the abysmal campaign, Halo 5's multiplayer is caked with microtransactions and dozens of missing features and playlists that were standard in previous Halo games. Halo 5's competitive multiplayer is a stagnant near-copy of what is expected from futuristic Call of Duty games.

Forge mode is decent but has only one truly decent map, and Forge was not even available at launch.

until now, halo 2 was my favorite halo game. this is because of it's interesting characters and showing that all beliefs eventually leave members with doubt but this instantly became my number one. the game did what halo should do with it's story. develop new characters and challenge already developed characters. the cliffhanger at the end did not bother me because it made me feel the lost hope the heroes where feeling. my only problem with this game was that it was marketed as a master chief vs Locke game when it is a game showing the lost hope of the characters. this does bug me but I still enjoyed the story. I don't really care for the game play because the story was much more interesting. and the cut scenes are amazingly shot, amazingly voice acted and amazingly animated.

I loved this game