Halo 5: Guardians [XO]

[rokkerkory]

I beat the game on heroic yesterday. Had a good ride overall, prob about 10 hours worth of solid fun gameplay. I think it's one of my favorite campaigns with lots of different set pieces and almost zero backtracking.

I liked the Prometheans a lot more this time around, fighting them was actually fun and their weapons were cool to use finally. Convenant are always fun however and glad there were no flood or brutes.

Of course, the ending was like huh and setting it up for the next game.

I would give this campaign a very good 9/10. Have not touched the MP however, likely this weekend!

 

[BadTB25]

I beat the game on heroic yesterday. Had a good ride overall, prob about 10 hours worth of solid fun gameplay. I think it's one of my favorite campaigns with lots of different set pieces and almost zero backtracking.

I liked the Prometheans a lot more this time around, fighting them was actually fun and their weapons were cool to use finally. Convenant are always fun however and glad there were no flood or brutes.

Of course, the ending was like huh and setting it up for the next game.

I would give this campaign a very good 9/10. Have not touched the MP however, likely this weekend!

I'm a consistent mediocre or lower after about 5 matches. I finish anywhere between 4-6 in an 8 player arena free for all. I thought I played a lot better this evening, but I'm still getting wrecked. I think some of it is map familiarity and the other my panic aiming skills. I might do better just closing my eyes and pray and spraying.

I can't wait until we get our Spartan company going.

 

[Scott_Arm]

So far I'm enjoying the campaign more than any Halo I've played. I'm not a big fan of the series, in general, but taking some of the improvements they made to movement in Halo 4, and going back to large level design with lots of enemies is perfect. And the 60fps really does make it feel fast. No comment on the story yet, because it's too early, but gameplay wise it would already be my favourite in the series.

 

[iroboto]

I'm a consistent mediocre or lower after about 5 matches. I finish anywhere between 4-6 in an 8 player arena free for all. I thought I played a lot better this evening, but I'm still getting wrecked. I think some of it is map familiarity and the other my panic aiming skills. I might do better just closing my eyes and pray and spraying.

I can't wait until we get our Spartan company going.

Lol, keep at it. My friends have similar problems and the most important thing I tell them is to complete the qualification solo because there is no way to reset ranks once you get them.
Once you get placed In a ranking where you belong each match should be very tight and close to the wire which always makes for an exciting conclusion, but it also makes the lead up to the end very fair and fun for most people.

Once we team up the match making rating should be a combination of our combined skill and it would match based upon that. That's something you don't want to qualify with because if you are a bronze, silver level player, and onyx player could easily boost you to platinum (in qualifying) and going forward without that onyx player you will get blown out in that division. I get blown out by platinum and I'm a gold player. I just happen to get my MMR all the way up there once during qualifying, so I now know how large that gap is.

That being said, I recommend before we do company arena (unless we plan to only do customs) everyone should complete their qualifications for team arena, team slayer and breakout!

Love this game!!! Looking forward to playing with you guys!

 

[ultragpu]

Been playing the campaign up till the Sanhelios level, so is it just me or they spent probably 4x as much effort in the graphics department in the Sanhelios level than all the earlier levels? It's really a stand out one so far especially with the Kraken moving about, does the later levels get any prettier? Yeah I noticed the low res very easily all the time but it's somehow manageable, the cutscenes looked much better in 30fps and I wonder if the gameplay would look close to it if it's 30fps locked too.

 

[iroboto]

Been playing the campaign up till the Sanhelios level, so is it just me or they spent probably 4x as much effort in the graphics department in the Sanhelios level than all the earlier levels? It's really a stand out one so far especially with the Kraken moving about, does the later levels get any prettier? Yeah I noticed the low res very easily all the time but it's somehow manageable, the cutscenes looked much better in 30fps and I wonder if the gameplay would look close to it if it's 30fps locked too.

At mission 7 and above the game does takes a swift uptick in graphical quality. But honestly, I felt the game looked great across the board, it's just that some of the materials in the earlier levels didn't translate as well. The in-game cutscenes are pretty over the top as well. Which is why I'm been perplexed at all the 'looks like 360 game' drive by comments.

 

[ultragpu]

At mission 7 and above the game does takes a swift uptick in graphical quality. But honestly, I felt the game looked great across the board, it's just that some of the materials in the earlier levels didn't translate as well. The in-game cutscenes are pretty over the top as well. Which is why I'm been perplexed at all the 'looks like 360 game' drive by comments.

That's good news, hope it doesn't end soon. I'm actually really enjoying the campaign so far in fact more so than Halo 4's, the gun fights with Promethean are really cool and boy does the audio sound great too.
As far as looking like a 360 game, I must point out some parts of the game whether lacking polish or power or whatever do look terrible, more specifically the ground texture and low poly assets in the Meridian level.

 

[Prophecy2k]

I watched an entire playthrough of the campaign on YouTube over the weekend (I don't own an XB1).

Whilst surprisingly short (clocked in at about 4:50 hours playing on Normal - plus the dude didn't particularly rush), I did enjoy it. I've never been a stickler for the gameplay of shooter games, so I was only really in it for the story. I thought the campaign was great. Flawed, and with a few missed opportunities, but overall even having only watched it through I'd put it above all previous Halos except Halo:CO.

Graphics weren't all too special, but the art direction was killer imho. I LOVED the look of team Osiris and Blue Team, and even the elites looked awesome again after Bungie's attempts at turning them into comical "Roger Rabbit feet men" in Reach.

Spoiler

What I didn't like was the series' continued and increasing emphasis on Cortana as the most important character in the Halo universe. I dislike the character tbh, and wish that they would just give the Chief more of a personality so that we don't all have to keep looking to the naked blue AI to save the day (inexplicably after 4 games, she wears clothes in this one?!?).
So imagine my delight when they set her up to be the primary antagonist in this one I really liked that.
Although, where I think they missed a huge opportunity is in ending it on a cliffhanger and not having the Chief be forced to kill off his beloved AI blue gf with his own hands. That could have been a powerful end to a character whose long overstayed her welcome in the series in my opinion. What they did with it was still ok though.

What I don't get though, is what happened to the Didact? Like, they just ex'd the dude after 4!!! I didn't even understand who or what he was in 4 and his relevance, and then he doesn't even appear in 5... weird.

 

[AlNom]

I imagine over time wikipedia/halowiki would eventually have it laid out for lore purposes.

halopedia is the only wiki ಠ_ಠ

Spoiler

What I don't get though, is what happened to the Didact? Like, they just ex'd the dude after 4!!! I didn't even understand who or what he was in 4 and his relevance, and then he doesn't even appear in 5... weird.

Spoiler

He went digital-only. Literally. In the comics.

Aside from that he was the Forerunner general a long long time ago. Then he went loco.

He also imprinted his geas ('gesh') onto another Forerunner.
"No Bornstellar, you are the Didacts."
And then Bornstellar was the Didacts.

The other Didact was more favourable towards humans, and he was the one who eventually nuked the galaxy from the Ark.

 

[Scott_Arm]

The visuals are pretty good. I haven't noticed the dynamic res too much. There are some spots where the texture work is really good and other spots where the texture work is not. The most jarring part of the visuals is the lod pop-in for some of level, or maybe it's a streaming thing. Overall, I think it looks pretty nice for a 60fps game.

 

[BadTB25]

The visuals are pretty good. I haven't noticed the dynamic res too much. There are some spots where the texture work is really good and other spots where the texture work is not. The most jarring part of the visuals is the lod pop-in for some of level, or maybe it's a streaming thing. Overall, I think it looks pretty nice for a 60fps game.

Yeah, I didn't really notice changes in resolution so +1 for whatever/however they handled that. I did notice the texture pop/fade-in more as I played the game, but it really didn't effect my enjoyment of the game. Maybe a patch to improve that will come out. Also, Kudos for the very short load times.

Without spoiling the game, I wish there was a little more balance on each team's play length. I also checked out the first episode of the Fall of Reach animated series. For those that are the fans of the lore, I think you'll really enjoy it.

 

[BadTB25]

Lol, keep at it. My friends have similar problems and the most important thing I tell them is to complete the qualification solo because there is no way to reset ranks once you get them.
Once you get placed In a ranking where you belong each match should be very tight and close to the wire which always makes for an exciting conclusion, but it also makes the lead up to the end very fair and fun for most people.

Once we team up the match making rating should be a combination of our combined skill and it would match based upon that. That's something you don't want to qualify with because if you are a bronze, silver level player, and onyx player could easily boost you to platinum (in qualifying) and going forward without that onyx player you will get blown out in that division. I get blown out by platinum and I'm a gold player. I just happen to get my MMR all the way up there once during qualifying, so I now know how large that gap is.

That being said, I recommend before we do company arena (unless we plan to only do customs) everyone should complete their qualifications for team arena, team slayer and breakout!

Love this game!!! Looking forward to playing with you guys!

I'll probably finish the Arena free for all qualification today. I'll take a shot at Team Arena and Slayer and hopefully not be the anchor that weighs down the team.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I'll probably finish the Arena free for all qualification today. I'll take a shot at Team Arena and Slayer and hopefully not be the anchor that weighs down the team.

I am basically a decoy. I get a lot of assists, few kills. I mostly draw enemy fire and then my team cleans up. I guess that's some form of useful.

 

[BadTB25]

I am basically a decoy. I get a lot of assists, few kills. I mostly draw enemy fire and then my team cleans up. I guess that's some form of useful.

Someones got to be the rabbit to bait the trap...lol

I played a couple more matches of slayer qualification and finished 3rd and 5th. For a while there I was running 2nd with about two kills of the lead about halfway through, but choked it out during the last 2 minutes.

I had a couple of stolen kills (I'm sure I stole some others) and a few kills I should've had. The dedicated servers is definitely the way to go as almost all matches were smooth. I saw only one instance of the teleporting Spartan glitch common to fps games with bad connections.

 

[iroboto]

Someones got to be the rabbit to bait the trap...lol

I played a couple more matches of slayer qualification and finished 3rd and 5th. For a while there I was running 2nd with about two kills of the lead about halfway through, but choked it out during the last 2 minutes.

I had a couple of stolen kills (I'm sure I stole some others) and a few kills I should've had. The dedicated servers is definitely the way to go as almost all matches were smooth. I saw only one instance of the teleporting Spartan glitch common to fps games with bad connections.

stolen kills are fine, you're doing good! they count as assists on other members so don't be embarrassed about it, you're definitely doing your job

Most important thing about Halo MP is to work as a team. It takes 5 rounds of pistol to kill a player. So usually the better players are the players that can connect more hits together, headshot matters as well since it will one hit kill if there are no shields present. Headshot do not matter when taking down shields as I understand it.

When it's 1v1 it's whoever gets there first, so definitely try to train yourself to hit the fire button when the reticle is on the opponent, otherwise you've wasted time firing off a shot and waiting for the ROF cycle to occur to land your next hit.

That being said, 2 vs 1 or 3v1, you're talking about 1-2 hits per player, which is why team Halo is key, no single player can wipe out so many without the assistance of well placed grenades or power weapons (fuel rod, hydra, plasma canister, RPG)

 

[Laa-Yosh]

I also checked out the first episode of the Fall of Reach animated series. For those that are the fans of the lore, I think you'll really enjoy it.

I don't know... I've never really liked the way the book told some of the backstory, and the animated series seem to do even worse in some cases.

For example, John seems to be a pretty violent and selfish kid, and his main motivation to start helping his fellow recruits is to make his own life better. I don't really get how this could be turned around into him becoming a great squad leader. We should simply accept that his selfishness somehow turns into selflessness and caring for others.

Then there's the issue of his morals. He starts off violent, and then ends up killing fellow soldiers because of his irresponsible behavior - he should have known that his augmentations would make him lethal in hand to hand combat. But he just brushes off the murders and that is clearly wrong. Then they get a LOT of civilians killed in their raid on the insurrectionist asteroid, beyond the simple soldiers. Yeah I do see that we should get the impression that they're indoctrinated and all, but he should know better. And, most importantly, the personality of the Chief in the games suggests a proper moral compass, which is in complete opposition of his actions in the book and series.

Up until now I've tended to believe that this was because Bungie has not had enough input on the book's story, and once it became canon they've thought it shouldn't be retconned; but seeing how 343i decided to put even more emphasis on these elements, I'm not so sure.

It's also worth mentioning that the book has offered some other explanations; mostly that these kids were bright enough, even at the age of 6, to see through the indoctrination and recognize the underlying logic - that all-out rebellion in the outer colonies had to be avoided and the S2-program was an acceptable (but still morally questionable) solution to the problem. They've also known their abilities, that they were perfect for this purpose - so they've made the conscious decision to dedicate themselves to the program. All of this is also completely missing from the animated series as far as I see.


Also, it's strange that the series is called "Fall of Reach" - and yet it ends at less than the halfway point of the book and there's nothing about the actual battle... Then again, maybe there's going to be a second season sometime later...

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Mission 7 and I really dislike the story which feels like it was thrown together over lunch on a rainy Thursday. I presume that somehow by the end of the game the 'hunt the truth' campaign will make sense. Shooting is tight, as you'd expect, but man the story.

 

[milk]

Not to be THAT guy, but there is no secret that all of Halo's fiction and universe is reult of a long and disjoined effort by multiple hired professionals comissioned by marketing suits from MS to make some sense out of a silly game that became a sudden hit out of the blue and turn it into a Franchise from which they could milk the most money out of. How and why would fans be interested on it. Or in other words, why suck up on something so souless and comercial?
I mean, Sci-Fi fantasy for the sake of Sci-Fi fantasy, there's thousands of works out there. Why go to the most artificially conceived of all.

 

[BadTB25]

I only saw the first episode, but the lesson learned from being 1st, but the team losing overall was a poignant epiphany for John. Before he was abducted, being on 1st/best was the only thing that mattered. For the first time, he lost by being 1st----the scene in the cafeteria where he offers his food stash and apologies to his team is huge for him.

He already had the win at all cost mentality, which may have been one of the attributes Halsey saw in him. I liked their rendition because it shows Chief as an imperfect person that has flaws. Also the lost of Sam teaches him yet another lesson about sacrifice, selflessness and service.

These kids being bright might have helped them understand Oni/Halsey's "greater good" being served reason for the abduction. Even with Halsey's vast intelligence, she's still unsure of whether she is making the right choice which I think adds to her humanity---after all she is one of the most intelligent beings in the universe.

The training wasn't only about military/strategic tactics, but included history, science, culture and other higher education. So I'd like to think that there was other growth in all the Spartans. It's still tragic that almost all the Spartan IIs have died---most of them defending Reach.

The problem with video media is that it can never convey the subtle and expansive histories of the books. I agree that the Halo universe can be disjointed. I think that early on, there was no vision that it would get as big as it did and Bungie wasn't too worried about consistencies and where they went next. 343i has a person assigned (I forget his name) that is supposed to make sure that is a problem of the past.

Over the last 3 days, I was watching the Halo 5 Live stream (about 7 hours of it) that talked about how things can change so quickly...even regarding the story. There's a vidoc on there talking about the making of the animated series. It does allude to the series being incomplete, so maybe there will be a Season 2. I haven't redeemed my download code for it yet, but how many episodes are there?

 

[BadTB25]

Mission 7 and I really dislike the story which feels like it was thrown together over lunch on a rainy Thursday. I presume that somehow by the end of the game the 'hunt the truth' campaign will make sense. Shooting is tight, as you'd expect, but man the story.

I really disliked the direction they are taking, but it sure does set up the story for the sequel.