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[Dreadnought]

If 343 could stop giving us missions that take place in canyons with high walls to fight in that'd be great.

Seriously, one of the things I loved about Bungie's Halos was standing on the edge of a cliff and looking out into the distance for miles.


Now all the levels just feel so small, even the vehicle sections.

 

[Neuro]

I used to play Halo for the campaigns and realised how underwhelming Halo 5 has become, I think they were desperately trying to get a COD like feel to the entire game which has left a really bad taste in my mouth.

I dont really care much for the story, the lore outside the game covers up for the lack of story present in the game

It has piss poor AI - I mean this was supposed to be the hallmark of the series, how did they manage to mess this one up is beyond me, Halo 2 and 3 does a far better job with the AI which is still terrifying on Heroic and legendary)

The weps are underwhelming as F$%$, I rarely got to use anything apart from the Promethean weapons in the game, cause I would lose all my ammo within 10-15 minutes of the first encounter

Level design is atrocious - There is absolutely nothing about the level design that is remotely interesting or worthy of checking out, there are no memorable set pieces (looking at the scarab battles from Halo 3), no challenging battles, the Warden encounter is the same 6 times, I mean was there nothing any of you could come up with?

Levels feel too boxed and closed, there seems to be no 'Battle' in the battle for Sunaion, I still remember the "Tip of the Spear" which was a hell of a battle.

Cut-scenes in favor for actual in-game moments (this has happened so many times, its beyond me now)

Sorry 343i you dropped the ball big time on the campaign, I might be a minority who play Halo for the campaign but count me out for the next installment

 

[vasametropolis]

I used to play Halo for the campaigns and realised how underwhelming Halo 5 has become, I think they were desperately trying to get a COD like feel to the entire game which has left a really bad taste in my mouth.

I dont really care much for the story, the lore outside the game covers up for the lack of story present in the game

It has piss poor AI - I mean this was supposed to be the hallmark of the series, how did they manage to mess this one up is beyond me, Halo 2 and 3 does a far better job with the AI which is still terrifying on Heroic and legendary)

The weps are underwhelming as F$%$, I rarely got to use anything apart from the Promethean weapons in the game, cause I would lose all my ammo within 10-15 minutes of the first encounter

Level design is atrocious - There is absolutely nothing about the level design that is remotely interesting or worthy of checking out, there are no memorable set pieces (looking at the scarab battles from Halo 3), no challenging battles, the Warden encounter is the same 6 times, I mean was there nothing any of you could come up with?

Levels feel too boxed and closed, there seems to be no 'Battle' in the battle for Sunaion, I still remember the "Tip of the Spear" which was a hell of a battle.

Cut-scenes in favor for actual in-game moments (this has happened so many times, its beyond me now)

Sorry 343i you dropped the ball big time on the campaign, I might be a minority who play Halo for the campaign but count me out for the next installment

I also played Halo for the campaign primarily and I'm in the exact same boat, as indicated by one of my posts a page back. I'm really happy to not be alone on this and I agree with everything here. It was absolute crap and embarrassing and I won't be playing 6.

 

[JumPeRJumPzZ]

Agree Neuro.

H5 is my last Halo too. It isnt what it used to be to me. Maybe a Spinoff from another Studio will get the Halo magic. But 343 IMO still doesnt get it.
The rushed and probably changed Story in Halo 5 wasnt really great and i really have no desire to get H6.

Halo 2 made my hyped back in the day to get Halo 3. But Halo 5 left me cold. And the Multiplayer is a big disappointment to me too.

 

[Seventy70]

I used to play Halo for the campaigns and realised how underwhelming Halo 5 has become, I think they were desperately trying to get a COD like feel to the entire game which has left a really bad taste in my mouth.

I dont really care much for the story, the lore outside the game covers up for the lack of story present in the game

It has piss poor AI - I mean this was supposed to be the hallmark of the series, how did they manage to mess this one up is beyond me, Halo 2 and 3 does a far better job with the AI which is still terrifying on Heroic and legendary)

The weps are underwhelming as F$%$, I rarely got to use anything apart from the Promethean weapons in the game, cause I would lose all my ammo within 10-15 minutes of the first encounter

Level design is atrocious - There is absolutely nothing about the level design that is remotely interesting or worthy of checking out, there are no memorable set pieces (looking at the scarab battles from Halo 3), no challenging battles, the Warden encounter is the same 6 times, I mean was there nothing any of you could come up with?

Levels feel too boxed and closed, there seems to be no 'Battle' in the battle for Sunaion, I still remember the "Tip of the Spear" which was a hell of a battle.

Cut-scenes in favor for actual in-game moments (this has happened so many times, its beyond me now)

Sorry 343i you dropped the ball big time on the campaign, I might be a minority who play Halo for the campaign but count me out for the next installment

I completely agree. Especially the part about the weapons. It used to be that nearly every single weapon you stumbled across got you pumped and was useful in some way. Every weapon performed differently and played a unique role. Now you have a bunch of guns that do the same useless bullshit. They've bloated the weapons so much by adding the promethean type. Hell, prometheans in general are an unnecessary and bloated addition to the Halo franchise. They are just there for the sake of it.

 

[Jack The Nipper]

I completely agree. Especially the part about the weapons. It used to be that nearly every single weapon you stumbled across got you pumped and was useful in some way. Every weapon performed differently and played a unique role. Now you have a bunch of guns that do the same useless bullshit. They've bloated the weapons so much by adding the promethean type. Hell, prometheans in general are an unnecessary and bloated addition to the Halo franchise. They are just there for the sake of it.

I was hoping they would see their weapon designs and characters weren't good for the halo universe and wipe them out for halo 5. Didn't happen but they di improve them a lot from halo 4. Next time though, may need to do move covie stuff, brutes and things just seem better to me.

I think the game shows a lot more flaws when you replay it though.

A lot of people hate that you couldn't use an AR in the old games, but I think it was just what halo did and liked how they forced it into a melee or more controlled weapon that you needed to exchange.

 

[Jackbooted]

I really don't understand the "lack of human weapons" complaint. I'm replaying through solo on legendary right now and I've found tons of human weapons. You have to do a bit of exploring to find them but they are there. Admittedly, a place like Sanghelios is a bit light on human weapons laying around but that does kinda make sense.

As for usability, I wish there were more light rifles around. I feel they are substantially better than either the DMR or BR. As for shotgun / SMG type weapons, Legendary really isn't the place to be getting up close and personal considering how fast you can be taken down so they are of limited use. The magnum is still very usable all around but the Boltshot isn't some useless piece of junk either. I dunno, I don't get the constant complaint against Promethean weapons. Maybe it's just me who enjoys the vast majority of weapons in the game.

 

[DarthWalden]

Sometimes I wonder if I'm playing the same game as y'all.

Level design was really good, Probably my favorite ever. There was lots of big open areas with plenty of different paths and secrets riddled everywhere.

I guess I can see your point when it comes to big vehicular levels, as those did feel pretty cramped and there wasn't any of the big set pieces like in Halo 3 but the rest of it was the best it's ever been.

 

[Bioshocker]

I disagree with everything you said except the Warden fight's

This.

Although I have to say the graphics didn't impress me. I was very impressed with how well Halo 4 looked, but I expected more from this Halo on Xbox One.

 

[Monocle]

Sometimes I wonder if I'm playing the same game as y'all.

Level design was really good, Probably my favorite ever. There was lots of big open areas with plenty of different paths and secrets riddled everywhere.

I guess I can see your point when it comes to big vehicular levels, as those did feel pretty cramped and there wasn't any of the big set pieces like in Halo 3 but the rest of it was the best it's ever been.

100% agreed.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

The levels were big, but they were also deathly boring. Maybe perhaps too big! You can tell they were built with 4 players in mind. I fight wave after wave of these boring Forerunner enemies, in those sterile overdesigned 343i looking maps, with a soundtrack that while better than 4's still isn't a patch on Marty's work, not caring about any potential deaths since 80% of the time you'll be picked up anyway...and I wonder why I'm not doing literally anything else right now. Just zero emotional connection to the interactive experience I'm playing.

 

[PanicFreak]

I really don't understand the "lack of human weapons" complaint. I'm replaying through solo on legendary right now and I've found tons of human weapons. You have to do a bit of exploring to find them but they are there. Admittedly, a place like Sanghelios is a bit light on human weapons laying around but that does kinda make sense.

As for usability, I wish there were more light rifles around. I feel they are substantially better than either the DMR or BR. As for shotgun / SMG type weapons, Legendary really isn't the place to be getting up close and personal considering how fast you can be taken down so they are of limited use. The magnum is still very usable all around but the Boltshot isn't some useless piece of junk either. I dunno, I don't get the constant complaint against Promethean weapons. Maybe it's just me who enjoys the vast majority of weapons in the game.

"WHY YOU MAKE COD CLONE?"

"WHY YOU NO LET ME PLAY WITH ONLY HUMAN WEAPONS?"

I think you end up playing with human/cov/prom weapons about equally throughout the campaign.

 

[Monocle]

"WHY YOU MAKE COD CLONE?"

"WHY YOU NO LET ME PLAY WITH ONLY HUMAN WEAPONS?"

I think you end up playing with human/cov/prom weapons about equally throughout the campaign.

Yeah, there's a good balance between the different types. I don't recall ever finding myself stuck with something I didn't want to use.

343 included loads of hidden weapon caches in every level. If a player feels limited by their weapon choices, my suggestion would be to venture off the beaten path. You don't have to go far—there seems to be at least twice as many hidden weapons as any other Halo game.

 

[jem0208]

Sometimes I wonder if I'm playing the same game as y'all.

Level design was really good, Probably my favorite ever. There was lots of big open areas with plenty of different paths and secrets riddled everywhere.

I guess I can see your point when it comes to big vehicular levels, as those did feel pretty cramped and there wasn't any of the big set pieces like in Halo 3 but the rest of it was the best it's ever been.

+1

 

[NullPointer]

343 included loads of hidden weapon caches in every level. If a player feels limited by their weapon choices, my suggestion would be to venture off the beaten path. You don't have to go far—there seems to be at least twice as many hidden weapons as any other Halo game.

This is very true, and people should look for this stuff when replaying the missions. There are a lot of alternate paths to take, and many include power weapons or weapons and ammo caches.

The only rub in replaying the campaign is the Warden. If you thought you were sick oh fighting him after one playthrough it only gets worse when revisiting him again and again and again in replays.

 

[Seventy70]

"WHY YOU MAKE COD CLONE?"

"WHY YOU NO LET ME PLAY WITH ONLY HUMAN WEAPONS?"

I think you end up playing with human/cov/prom weapons about equally throughout the campaign.

This doesn't even make any sense. Just because people want to play with fictional human weapons, it doesn't mean they want a COD clone. Please tell me the similarities between the human weapons in the Halo games and the COD games.

I'll never get why people get so defensive over any criticism towards the last couple of Halo games. Sure, it's fine if you disagree, but damn do people bring out the shit posts as fast as they can.

 

[Jinaar]

Playing on legendary got me searching during crazy encounters to find off-the-beaten-path weapon caches that would give me the edge on the fights. I believe from reading the negativity that some gamers went head long into battles and felt a difficulty spike that they had to brute force thru. And felt cheated by 343 in those situations. The game teachers you right from level one to break walls and locate advantages to the battle.

 

[pj]

Playing on legendary got me searching during crazy encounters to find off-the-beaten-path weapon caches that would give me the edge on the fights. I believe from reading the negativity that some gamers went head long into battles and felt a difficulty spike that they had to brute force thru. And felt cheated by 343 in those situations. The game teachers you right from level one to break walls and locate advantages to the battle.

I don't think anyone had a problem figuring that out, it's not rocket science

Halo 5 level design:

For me and from what I've seen in this thread, nobody has really complained about the difficulty outside of the Warden encounters.

 

[NullPointer]

Halo 5 level design:

Thats only valid for the very first combat area. Some of the spaces are a lot more complicated, like Meridian Station, which have all kinds of ways to approach the larger battles, with some far more apparent than others.

For instance, in the first big area of Meridian Station you can flank right and below to grab a BR and LMG and ammo caches with ARs and SMGs further right, flank right and up the stairs to a control room with a sniper rifle and a switch to activate automated turrets, flank right and above before that for a cubby hole with a Hydra, continue up above for a walkway with cover spots, go low left along the pipes and under the floor to get shotguns and DMR, left side of the main area has gungooses, entrance mid has staircases to defend with a rocket launcher there, etc.

There's a lot to find if you take the time to look.

 

[The Antitype]

It's certainly in contention with Halo 4 for the worst campaign design (and narrative) in the series.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Thats only valid for the very first combat area. Some of the spaces are a lot more complicated, like Meridian Station, which have all kinds of ways to approach the larger battles, with some far more apparent than others.

For instance, in the first big area of Meridian Station you can flank right and below to grab a BR and LMG and ammo caches with ARs and SMGs further right, flank right and up the stairs to a control room with a sniper rifle and a switch to activate automated turrets, flank right and above before that for a cubby hole with a Hydra, continue up above for a walkway with cover spots, go low left along the pipes and under the floor to get shotguns and DMR, left side of the main area has gungooses, entrance mid has staircases to defend with a rocket launcher there, etc.

There's a lot to find if you take the time to look.

There's also a sniper on a perch up and to the left.

 

[luckygodzilla]

Sometimes I wonder if I'm playing the same game as y'all.

Level design was really good, Probably my favorite ever. There was lots of big open areas with plenty of different paths and secrets riddled everywhere.

I guess I can see your point when it comes to big vehicular levels, as those did feel pretty cramped and there wasn't any of the big set pieces like in Halo 3 but the rest of it was the best it's ever been.

My thoughts exactly. Story could have been better, and the warden fights certainly outstayed their welcome but it really is the best on foot action of any halo game.

 

[WordsintheWater]

I will say one thing about the campaign, the Prometheans suck to fight, the Promethean weapons suck to use. Every encounter with the Covenant was better then their Promethean counterparts. They need to somehow get rid of them, they've proven in 2 games they can't do it right. I really hope I see less of them in 6.

 

[Monocle]

I will say one thing about the campaign, the Prometheans suck to fight, the Promethean weapons suck to use. Every encounter with the Covenant was better then their Promethean counterparts. They need to somehow get rid of them, they've proven in 2 games they can't do it right. I really hope I see less of them in 6.

They have nothing on the Covenant, true, but 343 improved them a lot in Halo 5. Clear weak points, less health, fewer irritating behaviors. Their weapons are better too.

 

[legendofjelda]

Most polarizing Halo campaign ever?

I adored it. Probably up there with Reach as my favourite ones in the series (granted, there's none I dislike). Many seem to agree with me on the things it did so incredibly well.

Then again, at least as many think we've gone insane and consider it the worst Halo ever crafted. OP summarizes their thoughts pretty well. I look at that list and I don't even know what to say. They must have played a different game than I did? Each of the individual points are as ridiculous to me as my direct opposite positive statements would be to them.

Halo games have always been divisive. Perhaps we can all at least agree it succeeded at keeping that going.

 

[Kssio_Aug]

I went to mission 7 and actually liked the campaign until that part. Although, I have asked for a refund today.

My problem is with Multiplayer. It seems to me 343 has no respect for Halo fans. Theres Reddit and Halo Waypoint threads (in Waypoint a thread with more than 70 pages) of people from all around the world outside of NA or EU complaing every day that they cant find matches and that day after day the harder it gets... probably an issue related to an region lock it seems.

Well, 343 has not treated the issue since. After Halo MCC I thought they would not make that kind of mistake with MP again in Halo 5. I was wrong. Thankfully the agent at Xbox customer service was aware of the issue and processed the refund right away!

 

[PetulantChild]

I recently started playing through the entire Silent Hill series again and once I got past 4 I started getting the exact same feeling Halo 4 and 5 give me (although H4 and 5 are nowhere near as offensively bad as Homecoming or Downpour). They make me feel like I'm playing a fan game made by fans who don't understand what made the originals good at all. Just lacking in any subtlety or tact, throw in whatever you think will be cool. Completely explain the Forerunner and Flood, robbing them of any mystery. Make everyone a Spartan, because Spartans are cool right guys?

 

[Magic Mushroom]

I recently started playing through the entire Silent Hill series again and once I got past 4 I started getting the exact same feeling Halo 4 and 5 give me (although H4 and 5 are nowhere near as offensively bad as Homecoming or Downpour). They make me feel like I'm playing a fan game made by fans who don't understand what made the originals good at all.

True enough. In Halo 3 you have this awesome Scarab battle in which you can take those things down in so many different ways, whereas the titular Guardians in Halo 5 are just background scenery. Halo 1 and 3 end with an exciting chase, Halo 5 ends with a crawling sequence in which you push a fucking button.

Man, I was so happy when the campaign was over. It was the diet coke version of Bungie's Halo.

 

[FireFly]

I recently started playing through the entire Silent Hill series again and once I got past 4 I started getting the exact same feeling Halo 4 and 5 give me (although H4 and 5 are nowhere near as offensively bad as Homecoming or Downpour). They make me feel like I'm playing a fan game made by fans who don't understand what made the originals good at all.

But everyone has their own opinion of what made the originals good, just like everyone has their own ranking of the Bungie campaigns (eg. some put ODST first, some put it last.)

 

[dragonelite]

True enough. In Halo 3 you have this awesome Scarab battle in which you can take those things down in so many different ways, whereas the titular Guardians in Halo 5 are just background scenery. Halo 1 and 3 end with an exciting chase, Halo 5 ends with a crawling sequence in which you push a fucking button.

Man, I was so happy when the campaign was over. It was the diet coke version of Bungie's Halo.

Those warthog section were good?
Or am i the only one that hated them.

 

[Monocle]

True enough. In Halo 3 you have this awesome Scarab battle in which you can take those things down in so many different ways, whereas the titular Guardians in Halo 5 are just background scenery. Halo 1 and 3 end with an exciting chase, Halo 5 ends with a crawling sequence in which you push a fucking button.

Man, I was so happy when the campaign was over. It was the diet coke version of Bungie's Halo.

I'd be shocked if you bothered to explore the campaign beyond the bare minimum required to complete it. It's like you're not even aware of the complexity of the level design. Have you played Blue Team more than once? Did you find even a couple of the alternate paths in the hanger area? How about the big Mantis sequence? Did you try it in a Ghost or on foot, which are both totally viable options? I mean, come on. Even the late-game tank sequence spawns a Super Wraith and Super Ghost for you if you look around a bit.

Diet Coke Halo, I can't even. You talk about how many ways you can take down the Scarab, but you seem to have no idea how much variety is built into Halo 5's campaign.

Those warthog section were good?
Or am i the only one that hated them.

The Halo CE one is exciting but annoying because it's so easy to get hung up on things. The Halo 3 one is complete shit because the Warhog physics make the damn thing flip all the time, and that's before you factor in the Sentinels and collapsing landscape. It's a bit more fun in a Ghost, I'll give it that.

 

[PetulantChild]

But everyone has their own opinion of what made the originals good, just like everyone has their own ranking of the Bungie campaigns (eg. some put ODST first, some put it last.)

That's true. But just like Tom Hullet really liked the psychological aspects of Silent Hill 2 and really hated the cult aspect of the other games it feels like 343 really liked the whole "Guys in power armor with AI waifus" but hated everything else about the games. I really can't think of anything in either Halo 4 or 5 that made me think "yeah, this is Halo", just like if you were to remove the names and locations from Silent Hill Downpour and Homecoming I really wouldn't think "This is a Silent Hill game". It feels like they latched onto one thing, completely misunderstood it and then ran with that, hence you always see 343i employees comparing Halo to Star Wars when they literally have nothing in common outside of space and aliens. They just feel unintelligent and poorly thought out to me.

 

[inoperativ]

Those warthog section were good?
Or am i the only one that hated them.

CE one is still really, really fun IMO. The one in 3 is just fan service and nowhere near as good.

The Halo CE one is exciting but annoying because it's so easy to get hung up on things. The Halo 3 one is complete shit because the Warhog physics make the damn thing flip all the time, and that's before you factor in the Sentinels and collapsing landscape. It's a bit more fun in a Ghost, I'll give it that.

git gud

 

[Monocle]

git gud

The only time the Warthog's fishtaily handling is a liability.

 

[HTupolev]

The Halo CE one is exciting but annoying because it's so easy to get hung up on things.

Hmm? If there's one thing Halo 1 vehicles don't do, it's get hung up on things. They all pretty much behave like exercise balls and just sort of spring off of obstacles, at least compared to their successors.

The only time the Warthog's fishtaily handling is a liability.

Sort of. Halo 1's warthog makes fine direction precision difficult, but the fishtailing is perfect for a lot of the wild maneuvering they expect you to do in there

Spoiler

and for finishing the game properly by doing a 360 over the gap

.

 

[pj]

I'd be shocked if you bothered to explore the campaign beyond the bare minimum required to complete it. It's like you're not even aware of the complexity of the level design. Have you played Blue Team more than once? Did you find even a couple of the alternate paths in the hanger area? How about the big Mantis sequence? Did you try it in a Ghost or on foot, which are both totally viable options? I mean, come on. Even the late-game tank sequence spawns a Super Wraith and Super Ghost for you if you look around a bit.

Diet Coke Halo, I can't even. You talk about how many ways you can take down the Scarab, but you seem to have no idea how much variety is built into Halo 5's campaign.

The mantis thing was really stupid. I was going to leave it behind and go on foot because I had just found a sniper rifle on the secret "curve around enemies" path in the previous area, and I don't particularly care for mech sections in games. But one of the guys in my squad was like "You shouldn't leave a mantis behind" or some crap, so I thought it was going to be practically or literally necessary to complete the level.

It was so boring and godmodey that I was very tempted to restart the level and do it on foot. I'm sure it would have been much more fun. If I ever replay the game, I would absolutely not use the Mantis again. It took what could have been a 30 minute intense battle into 5 minutes of stomping around and holding RT.

And it also felt like the level was designed to just barely fit the mantis (or the other way around), the area was very cramped while piloting that thing. Maybe it was a late addition because people felt that segment was too long or difficult..

 

[Plywood]

They need to look to Halo 1 in terms of scope, Halo 2 for how to handle story and Halo 3 in terms of overall level design especially when it came down to the "vehicle" missions.

 

[Ollie Pooch]

I loved the H5 campaign - I'll agree the Warden sections were unnecessarily difficult with the 1-hit kills and tendency to run up behind and send you flying with their huge swords; but I loved the Prometheans, most of the weapons (light rifle in particular) and most of the worlds.

Like most Halo games it does suffer from a few 'bland corridor shooty bits' with really dry scenery but on the whole I really enjoyed it, and completed it. Which I never do

Finding that room of singing grunts was one of my favourite Halo moments, too.

 

[AlStrong]

It was so boring and godmodey that I was very tempted to restart the level and do it on foot. I'm sure it would have been much more fun. If I ever replay the game, I would absolutely not use the Mantis again. It took what could have been a 30 minute intense battle into 5 minutes of stomping around and holding RT.

Too bad they don't have different loadouts for it or better yet, user customizable options for the arm pods - basically Mechwarrior-lite.

Gauss, lasers, missiles, autocannons, flamethrower...

Throw in a thunder hammer for some W40K silliness.

 

[NullPointer]

Too bad they don't have different loadouts for it or better yet, user customizable options for the arm pods - basically Mechwarrior-lite.

Gauss, lasers, missiles, autocannons, flamethrower...

You just gave me Lost Planet flashbacks, and attaching particular weapons to the arms of mechs or lugging them about on foot as heavy weapons were some of my favorite aspects of that game.

 

[jem0208]

I don't know what it is, even if it's the same or not something bout it feels different to the point where I feel I shouldn't even scope. I'm not sure if it's the movement or diffeence in movement between scoped and non scoped or not.

There is literally no difference to movement when scoped, it's all in your head.

 

[StalkerUKCG]

The problems:
Uneven Difficulty – According to waypoint, I died 60 times in my 9 hour heroic playthrough. I’d say more than half the deaths and 90 minutes of the play time were spent on the god awful Warden fights (more on that later!). The non-boss areas were the easiest of any halo game, mostly due to the abundance of power weapons and the addition of ADS. Playing H2/H3 again a few days ago, there are many challenging encounters which are just a room with a handful of enemies. Even today, I die a few times and actually have to stop and think of a strategy to clear them out. Another encounter I recently played had a room FULL of power weapons to load up with, and I still died a few times and had to work out a way to clear the area. There was only one instance of "stop and plan" in Halo 5, and it was unsurprisingly a fight against covenant enemies. I mindlessly plowed through everything else, rarely getting killed/downed. Legendary would be a better challenge, obviously, but I think I would pull my hair out trying to solo those boss fights.

Not really even sure where to begin with this. The encounters moment to moment are on par with pretty much the entire franchise, some better and some worse but they all balance out. Most people view the franchise with nostalgia or rose tinted glasses even when directly confronted with shitty encounter design in older titles they are quick to forgive them. I don't really understand your point here. To put it simply I think your referring to difficulty spikes and if that is the case as someone who has played legendary many times on all games every game has these. It's just par for the course.

Stupid shit dumb crap ass Warden fights – Who in the jesus fuck thought these were a good idea? Not only is it extremely lazy to have the SAME EXACT FIGHT 5 times (6? I lost count), but it wasn’t even fun the first time! His moves are all one hit knockdown, which is annoying. He only has a few lines of arrogant banter, which is annoying. Why is he still talking shit in the 5th fight after I’ve kicked his ass 4 times? The distraction enemies he spawns are annoying, since they mostly add no challenge and the ones that do make it more difficult only accomplish that by having one hit knockdown weapons/abilities. Rather than layering challenges to make a difficult but rewarding fight, they layer annoyance on top of annoyance until you think a viable strategy for getting past the fight is quitting videogames altogether and taking up pottery.

The warden isn't great, Show me a Halo boss fight that is. Halo 3 ends with you spamming a infinite ammo power weapon you just picked up into an enemy who remains still and has little to no offensive attacks worth a damn. Halo 3 frequently throws hammer brutes at you, these are essentially the warden fights. Easier but the same concept. Halo 1 had Sword Elites, Halo 2 didn't really have anything except a few Hunter encounters which are again the exact same fight multiple times.

Small combat areas – Less of a problem than H4 but still very apparent almost every time you enter a vehicle. Aside from the warthog sections on Meridian, every time I got into a vehicle I felt like I was bumping into walls constantly and would be better off on foot if not for the free infinite ammo. Also the mongoose was almost undrivable, not sure what happened there.
Someone from 343i posted ”The H5 campaign features the biggest, most open campaign spaces in any Halo game”, which if not a blatant lie, is only true through some technicality that I can’t currently imagine. Everything always felt cramped with super high walls on all sides and very limited sight lines. I assume part of the reason for that was to prevent too much from happening on screen and affecting that smooth 60fps.

Halo CE and Halo 3 had some nice large scale encounter and that was great but Halo 5 didn't really cramp down the encounters. Plenty of them take place in large areas but now those large areas are filled with cover and are not just big open fields that you walk across waiting to get into range of an enemy or you can just sit back and snipe in. The Halo 5 encounters push players in engaging at medium to close range and this isn't a bad thing in the slightest.

ADS makes the combat less interesting – The ability to shoulder aim any weapon has moved the distance for engaging enemies way too far out. I rarely need to get within 50 feet of enemies in this game and usually when I do it’s because I’m desperately trying to make it more interesting and more difficult for myself. I barely used melee and the ground pound was essentially useless. ADS may not be completely to blame, though. It may be more the encounter design and weapons given to the player.

What weapons exactly are you using to kill from a distance? All weapons with strong enough ADS to kill from beyond 50 feet either existed or had a direct comparative in other halo games. You can sit back in every Halo CE encounter and use a Pistol, Every Halo 2 and 3 encounter and snipe or use a BR, Every reach encounter with a DMR. This isn't a new thing and you opting to use this strategy is a personal choice. Any other weapon with ADS simply doesn't hit accurately at long range.

Sloppy encounters – In previous halo games, there were always plenty of unique encounters, which while not always challenging, were at least different. Halo 5’s idea of encounter design is “Walk into empty area, black lightning cloud, spawn 8 crawlers, 4 soldiers, 2 captains, 1 knight -- Repeat until combat area is suitably chaotic.” There appears to have been no thought put in to how encounters play out, aside from “bust through this crumbly wall to get a power weapon and flank!” Why does every fight need a knight? Pretty dull and not memorable on the whole.

Encounter design has been pretty level playing across the board. Halo 1 is typically squads of grunts and elites until later in the game where you meet the flood who just zerg rush you and elites now roam in packs. I wouldn't really call that unique. Halo 2 is essentially the same and Halo 3 opts to have brutes replace elites, and reach uses both elites and brutes frequently which actually results in the most unique encounter design in the series. Halo 2 has some fun ones towards the end of the last level. Halo 5's encounters are again fairly standard for the series but the fact most of them involve a 3 way fight is mechanically and conceptually a more interesting and unique design that traditionally seen.

Not enough interspecies combat – A hallmark of halo games is walking into a battle between two warring factions and wreaking havoc. Very little of this in H5, and enemies seem too easily refocused toward me, completely forgetting about the enemies right next to them.

I don't have a reply here, I didn't feel this way. I actively remember feeling ignored in other Halo games by fighting factions and being some what annoyed they had basically setup a shooting gallery for me instead of giving me an actual encounter. Halo 5 never gave me that.

Too many weapons – There are a lot of weapons in this game. A lot of them are unnecessary clones of other weapons (scattershot = shotgun). Some of the new ones are actually interesting, but most of the weapons that only appear once or twice are set up like this: “Ok, 4 knights are about to spawn, take this and kill 3 of them in 15 seconds.” With the overabundance of overpowered weapons, there is never any reason to pick up many of the weapons such as the plasma pistol or the thing the crawlers drop. This is one thing that may actually be worse than in H4.

I somewhat agree, I don't have a real issue with similar weapons and when it comes to the light weapons I liked the new boltshot and supressor but the weapons are a major problem right now with Halo 4 and Halo 5 and It's something I'd like to see better addressed. I'd prefer if each faction didn't have a weapon for every archetype and instead the reintroduced the brute sandbox and across the board had a strong group of weapons for each class but with variety. Brutes having hard hitting/explosive weaponry, Covies having quick firing plasma and Promethean having light weapons requiring precision.
Humans can have a mixed bag but make a choice between BR or DMR or just roll in into one weapon with two firing modes.

The promethean are awful enemies.
- Knights – boring bullet sponges
- Soldier – easy to kill, even when they annoyingly teleport all over the place
- Soldier with launcher – easy to kill, annoying
- Crawlers – If they were totally removed from the game, the only difference whatsoever would be that the game is 15 minutes shorter. Completely worthless.
- Floating Turrets – Jesus Christ why?

The AI for these is very simple and makes the dullness of fighting them even more apparent. The crawlers just run at you and shoot, the soldiers hang back and shoot, knights lob shit from far away or melee if you get close. Zzzz. The way the story is headed makes me fear for Halo 6. Will the covenant be even more marginalized in favor of the stupid prometheans?

Better than in Halo 4 but these enemies need to be dropped or completely reworked they suck, Knights are even worse than Halo 4 now, Crawlers are basically floor Drones and those turrets are god awful. The soldiers are fairly good to be honest.

Most of the levels are ugly – Aside from Sanghelios, which looks amazing, the game is pretty dull looking. Even Sanghelios doesn’t fully escape the ugliness. Sunaion looks like a bad Ratchet and Clank level with the lights turned out.

Strongly disagree, I liked every area, Far better than the back ends of any other Halo title which usually devolves into flood infested fuckery I was pretty happy with virtually every location in Halo 5.

Misc stuff:
- Action packed cutscenes write checks the gameplay can’t cash
- No Halo in Halo 5
- Hub areas are completely unnecessary padding
- AI is not great, both enemy and squad
- There should be an option to disable revive while playing solo

- It's a cutscene they are intended to show stuff not possible during gameplay.
- Halo Reach didn't have a Halo, Halo 3 barely has a Halo, Halo ODST didn't have a Halo Zelda isn't the character you play as
- Hub Areas are nice world building areas which I got nothing but positive responses to when talking to friends about them
- Halo AI has always been dumb despite what they say in prerelease content, This isn't F.E.A.R
- Not really sure why

 

[Monocle]

Hmm? If there's one thing Halo 1 vehicles don't do, it's get hung up on things. They all pretty much behave like exercise balls and just sort of spring off of obstacles, at least compared to their successors.

Sort of. Halo 1's warthog makes fine direction precision difficult, but the fishtailing is perfect for a lot of the wild maneuvering they expect you to do in there

Spoiler

and for finishing the game properly by doing a 360 over the gap

.

The Maw is the only level that gave me trouble. All those tunnels, the ramps, the blocky junk in the way, those little speed bumps in the curving corridors. It's not the Warthog that's the problem, come to think of it, it's the level. I wouldn't change it, though. That escape sequence is the perfect climax to Halo CE's campaign. (Unlike Halo 3's.)

The mantis thing was really stupid. I was going to leave it behind and go on foot because I had just found a sniper rifle on the secret "curve around enemies" path in the previous area, and I don't particularly care for mech sections in games. But one of the guys in my squad was like "You shouldn't leave a mantis behind" or some crap, so I thought it was going to be practically or literally necessary to complete the level.

It was so boring and godmodey that I was very tempted to restart the level and do it on foot. I'm sure it would have been much more fun. If I ever replay the game, I would absolutely not use the Mantis again. It took what could have been a 30 minute intense battle into 5 minutes of stomping around and holding RT.

And it also felt like the level was designed to just barely fit the mantis (or the other way around), the area was very cramped while piloting that thing. Maybe it was a late addition because people felt that segment was too long or difficult..

It's a matter of preference, really, and knowing the options you have. By the time I reached the Mantis segment in my first playthrough, I'd messed around with squad commands enough to know I could tell my team to use vehicles. Based on that, I knew I wasn't strictly limited to the Mantis.

Approaching that encounter on the ground is actually a lot of fun. You can find a hidden path underneath the ruins to bypass the main force. You can storm the left side, run past the Hunters, hop over to the temple, and find a hidden room with a fuel rod gun and a data pad. You can grab one of the Ghosts that's parked a little past the Mantises and swing down to the right, where you can battle enemy Ghosts and approach the Wraiths.

All through Halo 5 I saw signs that 343 had really pushed themselves to compensate for Halo 4's lack of variety. There are so many approaches to every area. Once I caught on to this, I made sure to look for different ways to handle encounters throughout the campaign. When I see posters (not you specifically) complain about having to fight through an encounter in a certain way, I know they weren't exactly thorough about looking for alternatives.

Halo 5 rivals even Halo CE's campaign in terms of strategic possibilities. Giving your squad certain weapons or vehicles (even sticking them on turrets), taking alternate paths that let you move above or under or around enemies for a better angle of attack, finding weapon caches that allow you handle enemies at a different range... Halo 5's campaign is overflowing with possibilities at every juncture.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Something about opinions and assholes OP, opinions and assholes.

I can agree with the Warden fights being repetitive but aside from that I loved this campaign and can't agree with much else you've said. My son enjoys it too. The campaign fits with coop, solo veteran and a young casual kid all the same. Well done 343, happy Halo gaming house over here.

 

[Seventy70]

They have nothing on the Covenant, true, but 343 improved them a lot in Halo 5. Clear weak points, less health, fewer irritating behaviors. Their weapons are better too.

I feel the problem is that they have no personality or interesting backstory. They are just generic, orange robot aliens. Why are they even there? 343 could have come up with much more interesting newer enemies.

While I'm sure you could make Halo 5 look good on paper, the fact is that there's a reason people have been disappointed with the last couple of Halos. The personality and charm that made the series shine to start with is no longer there.

 

[Cranster]

I feel the problem is that they have no personality or interesting backstory. They are just generic, orange robot aliens. Why are they even there? 343 could have come up with much more interesting newer enemies.

While I'm sure you could make Halo 5 look good on paper, the fact is that there's a reason people have been disappointed with the last couple of Halos. The personality and charm that made the series shine to start with is no longer there.

Not true. The Knights at this point are composed Humans from the Ur-Didacts attack on New Phoenix.

 

[Outrun]

This is very true, and people should look for this stuff when replaying the missions. There are a lot of alternate paths to take, and many include power weapons or weapons and ammo caches.

The only rub in replaying the campaign is the Warden. If you thought you were sick oh fighting him after one playthrough it only gets worse when revisiting him again and again and again in replays.

On my legendary solo play through, I walked, instead of taking a Phaeton, on that Genesis level. There is a ton of variety in this game.

 

[NullPointer]

Not true. The Knights at this point are composed Humans from the Ur-Didacts attack on New Phoenix.

None of that comes across though.

Besides Knack repeatedly showing up and saying You Shall Not Pass, none of the other Foreunner/Prometheans have a voice or intent. They just show up to kill you. And then do it again because that's what they do and they can spawn in anywhere so there.

Whats their plan? If you're Team Osiris they want you dead. If you're Blue Team, they graciously let you into the Forerunner chambers and then want you dead. Are they protecting something? From what? What are you even going to do against Guardians? If they're human minds, what does that mean here? Shouldn't it mean something?

In Halo: CE the Covenant had a purpose to finish the humans and activate the ring. In Halo 2 the Covenant Elites and Brutes had cross purposes, and the Flood had its own agenda (yo, fuck activating that ring). In Halo 3 the Earth has been fucked over, but the Chief has a goal in line with other UNSC forces to fight back, and again, the plans of the Covenant are clear, with the Flood showing up as an X-factor to mix things up and bring Cortana back into things. Halo 4... well... Halo 4 acquired a purpose once the Didact snagged the Composer. Prometheans before that point seemed to be all about defending their world from invaders, which means killing the players, followed by falling in with the Didact, where their goal changed to killing the players in order to achieve ____.

In Halo 5 Cortana and The Arbiter have plans for his people. Everybody else either pushes forward because that's all you can do, or else wants to kill the players because because.

Its hard to develop personality when there are no sensible tactical or strategic goals or aspirations.

On my legendary solo play through, I walked, instead of taking a Phaeton, on that Genesis level. There is a ton of variety in this game.

Don't you mean the caves on Meridian? I don't remember pilotable Phaetons besides the Meridian digsite and fighting that huge Covenant walker thing on Sanghelios. Of course I might just have missed another way to play on Genesis ;p

... which BTW is super painful and slow going without that tank. By all means keep that tank alive.

 

[Cranster]

None of that comes across though.

Does it really need to though? Halo 4 already did that.

Besides Knack repeatedly showing up and saying You Shall Not Pass, none of the other Foreunner/Prometheans have a voice or intent. They just show up to kill you. And then do it again because that's what they do and they can spawn in anywhere so there.

Whats their plan? If you're Team Osiris they want you dead. If you're Blue Team, they graciously let you into the Forerunner chambers and then want you dead. Are they protecting something? From what? What are you even going to do against Guardians? If they're human minds, what does that mean here? Shouldn't it mean something?

I thought it was obvious at this point they obey Warden Eternal.

In Halo: CE the Covenant had a purpose to finish the humans and activate the ring.

Even then it was explained incorrectly (Halo is a weapon, one with vast unimaginable power). That was retconned to The Great Journey in Halo 2.

In Halo 2 the Covenant Elites and Brutes had cross purposes, and the Flood had its own agenda (yo, fuck activating that ring). In Halo 3 the Earth has been fucked over, but the Chief has a goal in line with other UNSC forces to fight back, and again, the plans of the Covenant are clear, with the Flood showing up as an X-factor to mix things up and bring Cortana back into things. Halo 4... well... Halo 4 acquired a purpose once the Didact snagged the Composer. Prometheans before that point seemed to be all about defending their world from invaders, which means killing the players, followed by falling in with the Didact, where their goal changed to killing the players in order to achieve ____.

How is it any different in Halo 5 than any other game? The Prometheans were protecting Cortana and her so called right to the mantle as per the Warden Eternals wishes.

At this point I think people are looking for non-existent issues with Halo 5's campaign because it's 343 Industries and not Bungie.

 

[NullPointer]

Does it really need to though? Halo 4 already did that.

I mean, does their humanity come through at all? In their mannerisms, in how they act, in how they relate to different factions, in how they fight? At least Halo 5 gave them voices you can understand, though they sound like robots.

Again, I've got no outrage here, and these aren't the things that ruin a campaign for me. If the fighting is solid and the environments are great and you can get into the zone and mess things up with smarts or pure aggro its all good (and it is). But if we're going to drill into things, I do have a bevy of unanswered questions, and a lot of headscratchers.

You mentioned that the Prometheans were humans, and to TL;DR; my previous post, none of that actually comes across in the moment to moment experiences with them. They come into it in animatics and codex entries, but not when you're playing.

I thought it was obvious at this point they obey Warden Eternal.

And what does he want? Either to kill Osiris team because they aren't on the approved human list, or else to "test" the resolve and nature of Blue Team, by way of trying to kill them. It makes no practical difference one way or the other. Heads I win, tails you lose.