Aurelius228 In fact i have played the game 3 times 1 heroic and 2 legendary so plenty of time playing, and I recogniced just 2 of the songs. That says a lot about how meaningless the soundtrack is. I have beeing playing ODST las week and its music is 80.000 times better
Well from hearing the soundtracks, all other halos have considerably more epic music and lots of it running thru out the games. Halo 5 has repetetive music with no build up. Without build up how is it gonna conclude epically? The best song is the remix of the real halo theme and still all other halo themes sound much better cause it isnt overdone with 50 instruments from start to finish. Other halo themes add and build up during theme much better
Music with meaning, Only god of war, last of us, and halo 1,2,3, heavy Rain, uncharted, have come to mind recently with that, and personal 5 as well.... All great games with the exception of heavy rain cuz the gameplay is hilarious but the story n music makes up for it.
Standard AAA studio marketing right now. Hype the story as being an experience and make everything look pretty in the trailers. So long as you create enough mystique around the release you don’t have to worry about the actual game design. Just do it well enough to get people hooked on multiplayer (single player takes a backseat) because that’s where the real money is at, especially considering marketing budgets are estimated to be 2x to 3x the cost of the development budget.
Remember when they tried to market this game's campaign as "Locke vs. Chief", as if they had vastly different ideological views that were going to clash in some sort of epic game-spanning conflict? I guess Locke did crack Chief's visor though, so points for trying.
I wish they kept cortana dead and made the story about a broken man/machine who is questioning his humanity because of cortana. It would of been heart breaking chief calling out to cortana in a dire time.
nah i always think of Halo as a futuristic sci fi game rather than some emotional stuff plus the master chief is suppose to be a green armor suit where you move around that you play as
Thistook2hours it's what he's supposed to be but who's stopping development? That's like saying halo 2 should've stayed like halo 1 because it's how it's "meant to be"
ODST is something unique for Halo, in terms of mostly everything. I enjoy it, though I feel slight scared, cause I am not a bad ass Spartan, though, it brings me comfort knowing Rookie's an ODST. I think they're the best human soldiers.
@@JosephMichael23 Wat. You were more fragile in CE then you were in ODST. You quite literally drop 3 stories out of your drop pod in full combat gear and survive in the intro. You're a spartan. Any attempts the game makes to tell you otherwise when you kill a brute in hand to hand combat.
I will never understand why nobody has just copied how republic commando did it. Do they have an order if no they will kinda follow you while aimbotting at anything that targets you or them but with reduced damage, if yes they do that one thing restricting their movement and abilities but performing it as best as they can (with a cooldown timer to prevent them from just killing everything immediately). Works great, makes the squad useful, paired with a LOT of natural sounding dialogue could basically be used to tell the whole story by itself.
Eh, the squad command in Republic Commando just has no depth to it. I mean, when Brothers in Arms has more complex squad tactics than your game, you're coming dangerously close to having *no* squad tactics.
@kjh The industry is built on developers copying other developers though, are you an idiot or have you completely ignored every fad in game design ever since the fuckin 80s?
My friends and I made a rule at the beginning of the playthrough: kill each other whenever in an elevator. One level starts in around a 2 minute space elevator ride. Hell ensued.
@@hashbrownslinging-slasher872 I disagree, marvel soundtracks tend to have a lot more identity which helps distinguish each of their movies. I can barely tell H 5's soundtracks appart.
Lot of people give Dr. Halsey crap (especially Sarah “Sgt. Johnson wannabe” Palmer), but I actually respect her. For all the terrible and questionable things she did, her work saved humanity, and she felt great guilt for the children, it’s obvious she cared for them (especially for Master Chief) and didn’t just treated them as guinea pigs. No one has to like what she did, but you can’t question her results.
@@Lajos_Kelemen yeah it's really lucky for her that a species-threatenkng force showed up when it did. Otherwise all her child soldiers would be known for is putting down rebellions against people punching way above their weight class
@@areallymeanperson Oh her? She really shouldn't give orders regarding Halsey, considering their past. Isn't there an actual regulation for stuff like that?
Halo 5's saving grace is the forge and custom games. They are genuinely fun and the new and overhauled forge is honestly the best forge we've ever had.
I just finished a run of Halo 5's campaign, and I have to say that I agree with damn near everything you've said. I've never rage quit a game so many times because of the piss-poor AI. I cannot describe how much damage the co-op focus did to this story and game design. Is there anything more frustrating than fighting an enemy that can only be damaged from behind, when that enemy stays entirely focused on you, and your AI companions couldn't hit water if they fell out of a boat? Or needing a resurrection only to watch your allies get gunned down one at a time by the same bad guy? What a huge misstep this entire campaign was. This is the franchise that got me into gaming. I can only hope that this studio learns from their mistakes, and puts the proper effort and focus into Halo 6, or it may end up being the first game in the franchise that I don't buy on launch (or ever).
Same here. Campaign is an awful grind the likes of which I've rarely seen, where all the levels blur together and I'm actively begging for it to end. I made it about 2/3 of the way through, but then I thought about having to fight 3 Wardens at once and I immediately peaced the fuck out before I even got to the fight.
Kool Pandaz halo 5 story isn't good that's fair criticism but halo 2 on legendary is the hardest halo game to date halo 5 got the best gameplay mechanics and online multiplayer out of all the halo games
Sazori Raishi it's true no one complains about the actual gameplay because it's good everyone trashes the game because of the story which is understandable
Lavar Ball - Absolutely not. The maps are awful, the weapons are overpowered and ruin everything, Spartan Abilities are annoying and intrude on every aspect of the game, Warzone is a repetitive pay to win meat grinder, almost nothing about Halo 5 feels like Halo.
I loved talking to you about all this. It's amazing just how up and down this game is. For every plus, there is a negative Good on-foot gameplay? - bad level design Visiting multiple planets? - the art style is poor and doesn't make the environments feel alive
LateNightGaming - Halo News & Entertainment as much as I disliked the Campaign, ultimately it was the lottery system for unlocking armor that drove me away. I prefer having a clear path for unlocks: 50 Assassinations = *helmet 200 CTF wins = *Armor set 500 kills with Plasma Rifle = *Weapon Skin That's what keeps me invested in playing on a daily basis, aside from the enjoyment of the game itself. I've probably only played 25 hours worth of Halo 5 since launch :/
I miss the credit system from Halo Reach. Spending credits on something you've been saving for felt good. I played Halo 5 for a month and only unlocked like couple of armor pieces...
LateNightGaming - Halo News & Entertainment Yes, he didn't cover everything in the game, but he covered most of my gripes. I think the worst part of the game is the flawed REQ system. I'm fine with weapons and vehicles being in the system, but customization should be done with the many commendations in the game.
NinjaPiece that entire lootcrate bullshit is now all over the industry. Just look at bungie now with destiny. There are players who payed 500 bucks for a cosmetic item and others who payed 10 bucks and got it first try. I got my halo 2 BR after i unlocked almost 95% of all reqs -.- still haven't unlocked the halo ce pistol -.- As long as there are morons who are willing to spend triple the money they spend on the game for some stupid cosmetics, these microtransactions won't leave soon... It's not the games fault.. It's ours...
I've never purchased a microtransaction. Honestly, while I have problems with Halo 5's microtransactions, I can deal with it since they provided us with free DLC. If we keep getting free maps, 343 can keep charging for REQs.
Halo 4 was definitely a mixed bag, but I have a special affection for its campaign, because of the story it told with Chief and Cortana and the conviction it told it with, not to mention absolutely killer performances by Downes and Taylor. This video really articulated exactly what was frustrating about Halo 5's campaign relative to 4's for me. It felt like such a step backwards from that incredibly human, heart-filled story in 343's first attempt. Very well done.
@Phillip hanna I would accept that answer if the lore wasn't so goddamn gigantic where almost every character has become not a vessel, but its own thing, actual people. Specially chief, the whole vessel for the player thing was ok before, but the game has evolved past that.
Absolutely. I was so excited to see where Chief's story would go from there. Does he further isolate himself? Does he lose more and more of his humanity? What would it take to bring him back? Then lol nope, here's some online-only co-op with shoehorned in fanservice.
@Phillip hanna I disagree. At some point games should change over time to reflect current trends in gaming. There needs to be a balance of course: being too mired in current trends and the game loses its identity. To rooted in what came before it comes off as a dated game that's out of touch with the modern gaming scene. Like, no I don't expect The Last of Us 1 or Bioshock levels of story, but it doesn't hurt to bump things up. Hell, God of War (4) was a GREAT example of updating for the better.
I really want Halo Infinite to be better than 4 and 5 in every aspect, but honestly I'm just scared my favourite franchise is gonna be mediocre at best these coming years. 343 taught me to be skeptical
Like most of halo under 343, I always come back to "why?" Why bring back Cortana in such a way that doesn't engage me, the player? Why bring back Buck, and write off the rest of Alpha-9 in a book? We could've had Buck if absolutely necessary, but not as a spartan since ODSTs are still a thing post 2552. Why bring in Blue Team, with established developed characters who have been with Chief longer than any other soldier, and rarely have them do much? If the people responsible for Spartan Ops were behind Halo 5, why not use those established characters (actual character aside) instead of Locke to pursue chief? After the Halo: Infinite trailer, I now ask this: Why must the franchise, at this point, hinge on this game (Infinite) to tie up the mess made in the first two outings? Still a phenomenal video, Raycevick.
Coming back now with Infinite's release, is it justified to get us to this stage in the story? Or should we end the canon with Bungie's departure? I'm torn.
@@ClaymanFlames Halo desperately wants to be Warhammer, with a greater universe spanning multiple types of media and genres. Whether a 40k fan plays tabletop, reads the books, or plays the video games, they're still generally familiar with the setting. Halo can't do that. It's a video game series, heavily focused around Chief and only Chief. You can't try to squeeze books in between mainline entries and expect fans to follow along, then understand the gaps between the games.
And infinite have not tied up anything. It's yet another reboot, and I would say it's nearly the weakest. It has some heart of halo 4 but not enough, nearly no variety, the most non-villain... The savior of the series as fans chanted fueled by nostalgia... turned out to be the most empty game of all. 343 have given up. H4 really was their last time they tried. People hated that, and they just kinda succumbed to depression as a company. Infinite is gmaing company equivalent of not having strength to move out of bed and do anything.
Great video, my only nitpick is that you criticized the classic weapons returning. In my opinion, this is a fun idea that allows players to feel nostalgia. It lets 343 make newer weapons, but not forget about Halo's iconic weapons. Other than that, amazing video.
Chillydogdude depends on the weapon. The H2 Beam returning is kinda bullshit since it's not as iconic as the BR or the Magnum they brought back, it only made for more weapons in Warzone
The key in Halo 5's sandbox of weapons is that in this game, every one of them has a clear purpose and ideal scenario in which they can be used, and all of them are good in some way. When you introduce stuff like, say, the Grenade Launcher in Halo 5, it acts very differently from any other weapon, and has a clear purpose in the sandbox. Taking down lower to mid level vehicles such as the ghost with its explosive damage/EMP effect, as well as killing some infantry in close quarters. But when you introduce stuff like the Halo 2 Beam Rifle, Halo 2 Battle Rifle, Brute Plasma Rifle, etc. they have no clear purpose other than "just a better version." The Halo 2 battle rifle is just a better version of the Halo 5 one. The Brute Plasma Rifle is just a better version of the Halo 5 plasma rifle. That's when introducing nostalgia weapons feels cheap, when it's only there for nostalgia.
DustiferB Well, there isn't a plasma rifle in Halo 5, there is the storm rifle, but that works differently. The storm rifle kills faster but is very inaccurate. The Brute Plasma Rifle is very accurate but takes longer to kill. The H2 BR and the H5 BR shoot their projectiles very differently. The H2 BR shoots 1 burst shot at a time while the H5 BR shoots 3 burst at once. So in order to get the most damage out of the H2 BR you have to keep your reticle on the target. However, the H2 has a much faster scope animation in turn for the slightly harder aiming. As for the H2 Beam Rifle, I have noting, they are pretty much the exact same, and I think it was a waste of resources.
Why is it all classical music? Marty didn't just use classical music, he used a variety of other forms like Electronic music and even hip hop for instance.
Its sad too because the "redone" campaign turned out horribly. I hated the the whole locke and group aspect of it. I hope they take notes from the Halo 4 campaign when they do Halo 6.
xRiftzeh Based on what was originally planned, Halo 5 seemed like it could've had the best campaign in Halo. Such a shame Microsoft wanted them to redo it because the fans didn't like Halo 4.
Yeah, if only we got what was originally intended :( But hey, Halo 2 also had a rushed development, odd marketing, and redone campaign. So maybe Halo 6 will finally hit it out of the park like Halo 3 right?
I feel like 343 doesn't know exactly what kind of story they want to tell or what kind of game they want to make. So there's all of these half-baked ideas that could turn into something really powerful and compelling, but none of them get to reach their full potential because they can't commit. You did a great job going into detail on all the things they couldn't commit to, but what's interesting to me is it seems they wanted to TRY to make the story something Halo fans would have really enjoyed. I always hear everybody say the story was one of the weakest points of Halo 5, that 343 just "doesn't get Halo", but I think that's the contrary. 21:00, Kelly 087 was a pretty major character in a handful of the Halo books. She was in The Fall of Reach, First Strike, and Ghosts of Onyx. She was also in many of the other side materials following the novels. If 343 truly didn't care about the story of Halo, why would they have included such an important character from the many lore dumps that exist outside of the games? On the other hand, it is strange to include characters in a game that ONLY appeared in side material, because it relies on the assumption that people would have read the books or at least consumed a majority of the lore material before playing the game, and I think that's where the disconnect lies. It's not necessarily that they don't understand the story or are trying to make it "too different". I think the real problem with 343 is that they don't quite understand the concept of "show, don't tell", and they seem to rely on "it happened off screen" syndrome. I think the whole Spartan Locke thing is the best example of this. They hyped him up for years before Halo 5's release, and then the Chief and Locke only see each other for like 5 minutes in all of Halo 5. The rest of the story happened outside of the game. People who invested themselves in the lore of Halo would have already known the relationship between Chief, Kelly, and Locke. But 343 could have easily made these characters just as compelling if they spent some time building them up in the game itself. There's a delicate balance that has to be struck here, and I think Mass Effect is a great example of this good balance. There's a lot of extra lore material that complements the universe of Mass Effect. The key word being "compliments". 343 seems to be relying on the established lore in all the side material to function as a stand-in for storytelling rather than functioning as compliments to the story they tell in the game; it's backwards to how the two materials are meant to work together. And I think this attitude can be found in most of their design decisions. It's not necessarily wrong, it's just backwards. They're misguided. There's a lot of things in Halo 4 and 5 that could turn into amazing gameplay mechanics and ideas. I hope one day 343 will really reach their potential and give us something awesome.
spartan456 I really hope in Halo Infinite blue team returns, but in a more Halo: Reach style role where they are squad mates but with more efficient roles and character development (although Halo: Infinite I think is going to be Chief only). Especially Kelly. I need to admit, despite the shitty a.i and stuff I enjoyed the Chief missions in 5 because we got to see Blue Team-who at that point was a book and Legends only badass spartan squad-at its full force on screen. I had been waiting for that since Fall of Reach/First Strike!
It has less to do with catering to fans while telling a good story and more about creating hype to sell copies of the game. That the Locke v Chief plot was made the focal point to where there were audio dramas and whatever else shows compared to what’s actually featured in the game shows little they actually cared about it. It was nothing more than the equivalent of a carnival barker saying whatever outlandish things they need to in order to get people to pay for a ticket into an incredibly disappointing big top circus performance.
343 knew what they were doing but microsoft forced so much reworks, look at the concept art for their original ideas. The didact was suppose to be ended in this game, but had to be moved into a comic due to microsoft screwing up the original story plan.
@@thegrouchizationHis wording in this video is ambiguous. His problem is with storytelling, not with the story itself. It's the way the narrative is portrayed and the way the games convey the story what he has a problem with. For the most part, all the points he has used through this series are mostly nitpicked. You would never notice them at first unless you are doing what he is doing, looking for every single error/mistake that was made on the games.
Too much anime style jumping and shit, I prefer the heavy feel of the fight between lock and Chief, it acutally feelsl ike they wear heavy armour and have impact instead of that flying around like they weight nothing crap.
Darkness1984 Yeah but they're supposed to be fast. If their suit was that heavy then how could they sprint or jump? And Master Chief is supposed to be a master in hand-to-hand combat yet he acted like he had to training at all. They're both supersoldiers with enhancements they're supposed to move fast...
Darkness1984 the lock/chief scene looks like two random people in 343 was told to improvise and act a fight scene, we already know that spartans is has high agility as seen in many other halo games. the scene just look like they are heavied down, which they wouldnt be
6:02 sorry buts that a bunch of bollocks lol, the Marines in halo were not just set dressing and evolved greatly during the development of each halo game with the exception of halo 4 and 5. Marines in halo when utilised by the player can function as powerful allies, and dialogue, behaviour and mechanics exist to support this method of play. If you ignored the marines and just treated them as distractions to your personal mayhem you have just missed out on a TON of the halo experience. Its first emphasised in halo CE when the first major mission on the ring world was to support and evacuate these soldiers from hostile situations. Without taking advantage of the obvious tactical benefits of marines, levels especially on higher difficulties can become an absolute chore when going at it alone. In CE Marines can provide grenade assistance and deliver a large and deadly volume of suppressing fire to support your advance, they can be called onto vehicles and provide external protection. Making the effort to ensure their survival is absolutely beneficial, you essentially lead the charge but you are just as much a care taker than a leader to the marines also, Warthogs scattered on the beach landing level in halo CE can be recovered and marines can be driven around to specific locations using the transportation, In the Sniper mission your job is to clear out the hostiles covertly so that they can be granted safe passage into the combat zone, free from turret fire, they can take on the soft targets like , jackals, elites and grunts. In later levels there is actually secret rewards in the form of dialogue that celebrates your efforts to keep them alive and fighting. Later games would further development on this dynamic adding things like weapon swap abilities, AI driven allied vehicles you could lead huge convoys of!, tank columns!. Halo 3 has the most refined version of the marine system.
Marines only helped on lower difficulties. They have always been useless on legendary with the exception of sniper sergeant Johnson from CE and giving a marine a rocket launcher or Spartan laser in H2 and H3
"In CE Marines can provide grenade assistance and deliver a large and deadly volume of suppressing fire to support your advance" I'm sorry, what?? You have got to be joking, right? I mean, the best part about marines is that you can give them a near empty power weapon and they can kill enemies easily for you but the weapon exchange mechanics didn't come until 2. Halo CE's marines were as useful as nipples on a breastplate. I can't remember the number of times those retards willfully walked into a plasma nade taking their entire squad down with them. Don't even talk about legendary, the Halo AR is trash and that is the only weapon you'll see marines carry most of the time.
I'm glad to hear someone not completely shit on Halo 4. I thought it was a good game. Campaign was great! Multiplayer and forge could've been better. I believe Halo 5 is a misstep and I feel confident 343 will correct themselves for halo 6.
They hired one of the writers from Batman Arkham city for 343 industries. While I think that sounds good, I wouldn't get my hopes up for the later halo installments.
Krishna Iyer they hired him because he crafted a story that took on a complex iconic universe, with copious complex characters and story arks, and Batman that has a diverse fanbase that is also tumultuous but through good story and game building United most of them to love the game. Halo needs that, they bring that with forge and the multiplayer kinks ironed out they could make the best halo yet... who knows don’t blame cynicism but I am hopeful.
You're an extremely underrated TH-camr man. The amazing editing and high value content you put out deserves way more attention than it gets. Here's to hoping for major growth this year man.
I can see what they were going for. They thought they were updating Halo's dated late 90s/00s sci-fi aesthetic for contemporary tastes. But what they didn't realise is that we love the old Halo games for that, even if it's not modern and cutting edge anymore.
@@Wahlrusberg ya I agree. It's not bad to update, but they changed it too much. I think putting more detail into aesthetics is fine (like in Halo reach) but it shouldn't have been changed. It would be like updating the star wars aesthetic.
I actually really like the redesign, at least as it was presented in Halo 4. I still enjoy the classic look too, but I don't mind the re-imagining at all. To me, Halo, and especially the Chief, has become one of those franchises open to visual interpretation, like how Link from Legend of Zelda gets a redesign every game, some darker and more mature in tone and some more cartoony (though admittedly they're not always exactly the same character). Or how Batman has so many redesigns for the various movies, comics, cartoons, and video games. Arkham batman doesn't look anything like Nolan batman, and even their worlds have very different aesthetics, but I can still recognize them as batman. Halo 4 and Halo 3 have very different looks, but I find Halo 4's look very appealing, and a very nice stylistic update, and to me it still feels very much in line with the changes from CE to 2, and from the trilogy to Reach. A natural evolution you might say. It still feels like Halo to me, just modernized. I'm sure there are plenty of undies-on-the-outside Batman fans out there who don't care for the Dark Knight's strappy-flexy-plated-armor batsuit, but to me they're all just Batman. Now, all that being said, I feel Halo 5 went a bit too far, and I mostly see this in it becoming a little too generic-y sci-fy. In Halo 4 the Spartans like Palmer and especially Chief, had armor that looked like someone had strapped parts of a tank onto their under-suit. It was a distinct, unique look, that felt like what the Mjolnir was always supposed to be - 1000lbs of tank armor on a person. In Halo 5, however, so many of the Spartans look like they're wearing rejected Ironman suits. They're too streamlined, and homogeneous, and overly busy, while remaining soft in the details, creating a lack of real distinction other than their helmets. They come off looking like every other generic video game power armor, like something out of destiny or anthem or something. Blue team wasn't AS bad in this regard, but fire team Osiris certainly was, with Locke's armor being the worst offender of all. It's not a look I'm keen on. I'm okay with evolution, even complete revision, as long as the look is still it's own original, identifiable, look. Halo 5 drifted well into the copy-paste sci-fy territory, and that's where my problem with it really lies.
Problem is the games are *TOO GOOD* for you to.. ever want it to end even when it should eventually.. you want more, but what comes doesn't live up to the precursors by a mile.
The REQ system literally broke the game for me. I had no way to guarantee I had what I wanted to play with- even from fairly basic weapons. RNG is horrible.
I'd like to take a moment to point out how ahead of its' time Star Wars; Republic Commando was. Considering when it came out, the ally AI was fantastic.
And three years later I only remember that my favorite character Buck was in the game, it didn't have splitscreen co-op, and the commercials made this Spartan showdown look confusing.
I never comment on TH-cam videos, but I really have to tell you how well done I think this series has been. I actually just recently watched your other reviews while just the other week playing through all of the Halo games (reach-CE-2-ODST-3-4-5) and I think going into this one again really helps compare it to the others, especially since they can now all be played on the Xbox One. I personally love this game and I might've played it the most this year in what limited time I had between school to engage in video games, but despite that I still acknowledge it is a flawed game. Your video actually helped a lot to understand what and why some things happen when I go through this game, so I wanted to leave some of my own thoughts about it just because your videos are the reason I started actually thinking about the game in a critical way in the first place. Hopefully I can give some insight into what I mean in a way that is not a chore to read (it turns out it definitely is), because I do have a lot to say since I've been actively thinking about this since I watched you review on Halo 4 after I finished its campaign, right before I replayed Halo 5's. Anyways, I do agree with all of your points on the campaign side of things. I have little(none) experience as a developer so I can't accurately comment on the deeper mechanics that go into the gameplay, but I do think that they had a good base to have made a video game on. For example, the way you move through the level and engage the enemies feel far more fluid and fun to do than in halo 4, where you mostly just shoot and absorb a certain amount of damage before getting to cover to reload or heal. I felt like that slowed it down for me and left me feeling a little impatient, although that may be a side effect of playing halo 5 and then having gone back to halo 4. The fluidity of the movement and speed that can be achieved when you fully master the controls feels pretty fantastic for me. Also, I think the visuals are incredible, but slightly lacking in a way. I mean we all know the graphics are cool as shit and definitely a step up from halo 4's pretty awful lighting. (The spartans looked like toys. I hated that.) But in the campaign, I think there were things missing that Halo 4 actually did much better. Some of the lighting effects inside buildings or the glows of the forerunner architecture were stunning and even had a somewhat magical(for lack of a better word) quality about them, and I think most every color brought some emotion to the experience. I think Halo 5 still has a little bit of that, but magnitudes less than what they achieved in Halo 4. And then, the music. I think that the soundtracks for the campaign for 5 were honestly more gripping and intense than Halo 4's, with tracks like the trials, light is green, and Osiris Act 1. They make me want to fight hordes of enemies, it brings a sense of urgency to my experience, like the fate of the galaxy really is at hand. But at the end of the day, I really do think that the soundtracks lack the raw emotion that can be derived from tracks like Requiem, 117 or Green and Blue. So all in all, I think all of this schpeal about the campaign can really just be summed up by saying, they lost most of their best creative leads when it comes to the campaign. Although I do have fun with it, it certainly leaves me without the same emotional feeling that Halo 4 did. I think most importantly, even though there were technical aspects that halo 5 did far better, the halo 4 campaign felt much more of a memorable experience than halo 5's, which when you're talking about a single player story, is far more important. Also the 'hunt the truth' marketing was really stupid. Now when it comes to the multiplayer, I think a lot of what you said is pretty synonymous to what I'd say anyway, but still some thoughts I have. Now, this is coming from someone who has played this game since day 1, but never really was around during the halo ce or 2 haydays of multiplayer. I do have SOME reservations about what you said about the multiplayer maps, mostly because in my experience I specifically felt like at least most of the maps had some quality that made them different from each other. For example, addressing your comparison of Fathom and Tyrant, you mentioned environmental hazards when there are man cannons and floating space rocks that I can fall to my death from if I'm not paying attention to my jumping or make a stupid boost on Tyrant where there are only two spots for anything like that on Fathom, and those rarely come into play. While on Tyrant, that's one of the main flanking routes. Now, comparing to Halo 4, I think the maps are far better (but not as good as halo 3). This may be because of the new armor abilities associated with the movement making different obstacles and height levels a relevant factor as well as 4's focus on big team battle. But what interests me is that each engagement in one of 5's map actually feels more personal. The smaller space makes it feel to me like when I engage someone, it's me and him contesting for whatever it may be kill, point, flag, whatever. It's honestly a slightly insignificant point to make but it's something. Another (slightly) bigger point I wanted to make was about the customization. The aspects of combinations in this game far exceeded anything I had expected at launch and was magnitudes more than 3, reach, or 4 had, with everything from your visor to how you assassinate people being customizable. I loved this because it gave a far greater sense of individualism than any other halo game as of yet. Being able to identify with my character is actually a really cool feeling and something that I really commend 343 on achieving. Now this is something you didn't go very in depth with that I've had an opinion on since the very first expansion, and that's 343's handling of the formation of the game post release. See, this is a very new concept in video games that I think is becoming much more relevant in this coming age of everyone having internet connection and being able to add on to the base game as time goes on. DLC has been mostly pretty harshly criticized in the past year or two, with most memorably EA's handling of the concept coming to mind, like with Star Wars Battlefront to give an example. Halo 5 luckily did not do that. 343 gave us a (technically) finished product on day 1. But they weren't even close to being actually finished with it, which is interesting to me. The additions of forge mode, the new custom game browser (something that no halo game has done before but has been asked for since probably the beginning), and warzone firefight are interesting to look at since they are now integral parts of the entire game, but didn't even come with it in the first place. Is that bad? I actually strongly don't think so. The reason for this is because I believe that the fact that 343 had time to develop these modes after the release gave them time to fine tune based primarily on our feedback of the base game. If they had released all of this in the beginning, it would have been a shit show. I realize how hard making something as bulky as this is terms of data and processing power might be and that's why I think 343 should be given props on their achievements on the multiplayer side of this game. I can tell that they care about the community that they have provided this game for and that's another reason I'm a supporter or their work. Even on the r/halo subreddit, the community manager (ske7ch now, rip bravo) is always actively engaged with the players and that's something I really admire. In fact, looking back on it now, it feels like the heart that was in the campaign for Halo 4 but lacking in 5's campaign may be found in the multiplayer. Maybe not specifically in the levels or gameplay but implicitly with how the devs have changed the game in response to what they've heard from the fans. And I don't think that's too unbelievable of an idea if you compare it to Blizzard's handling of the Overwatch community. Anyways, the whole point of me talking about everything in that whole big paragraph was because I think that it's possibly an incredibly significant evolution in the way devs create their games, how it's not a 100% pre production process, but how now some of it occurs continually even after the game's release. All in all, I really do want to thank you for making this series. It's people like you who make well thought out, researched, and produced criticisms and reviews of the things I love that help me reflect on them better and form my own opinions. Although I do have a lot more to say about halo 5 that would very honestly constitute it's OWN video if I had the time, I hope that maybe what I've said all in here has maybe brought something new to the table for you as you have for me. Thanks again!
There should have been a human villain to Halo 5. ONI turns evil, tries taking over the galaxy. Something like that. They flip a switch and all the Spartan IVs go full death mode, killing their UNSC superiors. Hunt the Truth established that the Human race in Halo was a full-on surveillance state so why not?
>ONI turns evil and tries to take over the galaxy That wouldn't be a very dramatic change. If you read the books, they're basically the CIA on even more cocaine than the CIA is already on. They kidnapped children to turn into supersoldiers through inhumane medical experiments in order to put down a rebellion that honestly had pretty legitimate grievances with the UNSC/UEG. They armed both sides of the Sangheili civil war in order to weaken them and make sure Humanity was in a position of power. They seriously considered implementing mandatory genetic testing of all children in the Outer Colonies in order to find more test subjects, and only held back because they realized they could disguise the operation as a humanitarian aid program instead. Overall the impression you get is that if it weren't for the Covenant and the Flood, ONI and the UNSC would be the bad guys.
Probably one of my biggest problems with both Halo 4 and Halo 5 are the armor designs. We went from amazing to downright awful, all starting in Halo 4. Armor went from looking like it could actually stop a tank shell to a bunch of painted cardboard in semi-sleek geometric shapes and odd angles. Don't even get me started on the helmets; we went from helmets that were amazing in both their quality and variety to "How in the hell are you wearing that goofy shit on your head?".
It sounds to me that the only reason you don't like the newer stuff is because it's not the original, that's a narrow minded way to live life, I'm not watching the dark knight cause I grew up in Adam west type mentality
This is one of the more unbiased overview for Halo 5 I've seen. Good job, pretty much covered everything. I hope Halo 6 really focuses on the campaign, and that the multiplayer is only worked on and tightened from Halo 5, Arena in 5 is really great, a true successor to traditional Halo, but not perfect like you say.
***** I haven't tried Titanfall 2's PVP mode yet, I'm having too much fun calling in titans! Enemies may be a bit too fast to kill for my tastes, COD:IW is absolutely terribly balanced, its good for a bit of casual fun, but thats about it... So I'm worried Titanfall 2 might be a bit close considering many of the actual mechanics are similar, but Titanfall 2 I imagine will be the better one out the two.
ThatGuyFromBritain I just hope that they have more of a balance between competitive and social in multiplayer, and have more creative, asymmetrical maps. I also want to be able to earn armor again, not just win it in the lottery.
Emperor Dalek The multiplayer is almost identical, the maps are essentially the same and the graphics are copy and pasted. Theres really not enough different to justify T1 being better. But Titanfall 2's excellent campaign is good enough to tell me its a big improvement over T1.
Yeah I don’t remember any of the halo 5 tracks u played. Even if I didn’t know the names of the older games songs, I instantly recognised them. But until u pointed out those songs I didn’t know they were even in the game they’re just forgettable.
Yet another amazing kick ass vid. Thank you so much for this analysis series. For me Halo died at Halo 4 and I never play t anymore. Yet it still remains as a series I always remember fondly, because it got me into video games.
I like to think of chef as an unstoppable, lucky, brilliant war strategist. He was raised in battle next to his friends who are now all dead. He has lost much more important things than losing his AI. (his spartan brothers and sisters and his home world just to name two) Personally, it is sad to see cortana go but he can take it! Ive read almost all the halo books and honestly cheif's personality just doesn't seem so wishy-washy like they made him in these two games. I didn't care at all for halo 4 or this new one without co-op. The halo series ended a long time ago for me but if you ask me my favorite game of all time I will always say Halo: Combat Evolved.
Your halo series is an example of what game developers should sit and watch, every second of this video and the rest were unique and on point, I can't imagine how long it take for you to do your research and editing, your series was really in depth and was really eye opening about the halo games.
A small change Halo 5 made that I find interesting is the position of the targeting reticle. In a GDC talk, one of Bungie's animators explained that since Halo 2, they've always lowered the reticle and the lines of perspective on the gun to draw attention just below the center. This takes a small part of the sides of the screen space and the top of the screen and puts them in your peripheral vision rather than having you focus on the whole of the screen space at once. This is something they still have in Destiny. 343 retained the reticle's position from the Bungie era in Halo 4, but shifted it back up to the center in Halo 5.
That point about too many symmetrical maps makes me think back to how much I liked Construct and Guardian in Halo 3...they were asymetrical but awesome maps that required lots of strategy and team setup to dominate the map
@@BLAM5980 It elevated Bungie's storytelling to whole another level. Fleshing out it's characters and universe. The "is Chief a human or just an another war machine" story arc is great and that way the story feels more personal rather than the epic one man saves the galaxy from an ancient infection plot that wasn't told very well let's be honest here.
I just started playing Halo 5, and these are the exact same criticisms I have of the campaign so far. Great work, love these videos. So interesting to see not just the problems or criticisms with games but also the production decisions that cause them.
i gotta say this was one great series, been spam watching your videos since finding them and i gotta say this first and foremost, i have a background in journalism and one of my biggest pet peeves in any video that looks at something from a standard factual perspective is allowing ones bias to influence the way those facts are given nevermind giving opinion as fact, this was the total opposite and for clearly being a veteran of the series it's refreshing to see someone give an honest opinion AND fact. subbed for sure.
It's really humbling to hear such praise. All I've got to my name is a Documentary Certificate earned in less than a year. I'm glad that my research and viewpoints resonated so much. Thank you.
Halo 5 has the worst Halo campaign I've played in my time as a fan of the series, so much so that it worries me as to what Halo 6 will be like. That being said, despite being bogged down by bad design choices, Halo 5 has one of the best Halo multiplayer components I've ever had the pleasure of beta testing when it was in beta and I'm 90% happy with how it turned out in the final product.
I want a new ODST game to game around honestly. The story for that felt absolutely amazing compared to other games. The exploration and finding hidden things everywhere, the darkness and the atmosphere were great. I’m gonna have to bloody buy this game again now
Hectorlo Actually, that would be a good time to bring up the many flaws with custom games, theater, and every other glitch in the game, and how 343i doesn't fix every issue despite having many updates. Not all of it would be positive. And it should be mentioned, since it is one of the largest parts of the game.
Yeah he really should have tried to cover ever single topic even if it would have made the video longer I would have liked to hear his opinions on Forge, Custom Games, and the Update System 343 implemented with it.
Honestly, 343 butchered Martin O'Donnell's work. His beautifully crafted music no matter what makes me forget anything and everything around me. 343 either tries to be someone when they simply should try to be what fits, or they do the exact opposite where they go out to try their best to not be like Bungie.
The problem with the soundtrack is it lacks an identity. The music in the original games all had their own sense of belonging to the levels and moments they were set to. To this day I still remember the melody that kicks in at the beginning of Truth and Reconciliation in Halo CE. I still remember the almost tribal drums and synth melodies of Covenant Dance near the end of Assault on the Control Room. Who could forget the rhythmic drum beats and bass riffs from all of New Mombasa in Halo 2? And let's not forget about all that sweet smooth jazz from ODST. In Halo 5, the music itself is fantastic but the lack of identity causes it to turn into background noise. It could easily not exist and nobody would really notice. This is probably why the best song from the soundtrack is the new iteration of the main theme. It has an identity. It's memorable.
When that second music clip played, I got goose bumps and was like. "Oh. OH. I get it." Always was fond of 4's OST, even though it was so different from O'donnel's work.
Man, you really tore the single player campaign a new one. I agree with just about all of your observations and I came out feeling the same way on my first playthrough of it.
They had 3 years to work on this game ... 3 YEARS ... and we still got a poor underdeveloped game that still lacks features from all the way back to 2004 Halo 2
Here was me thinking it was 2 years and that Halo 6 looking more like 3 years guaranteed at least one shit to be given. oh well, at 'east we can pretend 5 and 6 never happened.
Stevean2 Actually, Mass Effect: Andromeda was made with a starvation budget of only 40 million, by an small skeleton crew belonging to a recently started studio (bioware montreal), whose only previous experience was from designing ME3 multiplayer and DLC. And while preliminary work began about 5 yars before release, EA restructured and reorganized them so frequently that actual game production didn't begin untill approximately 18 months before release. These decisions were made by EA, who wanted to focus talent on making their new IP, Anthem, because it would be easier to monetize than an single player game like mass effect. Basically, EA is the worst. In other news, water is wet.
Stevean2 Nope, 40 million is absolutely miniscule for an AAA game. The original Mass effect games had budgets of about 100 million a piece, and they were working on an old, familiar engine. Andromeda was on a new engine, so they had to develop new assets as well. Witcher 3 had 81 million, but ProjectRed is based in Poland, were prices are much lower. Adjusted for purchasing power, Witcher 3 had a budget of almost 120 million.
Gone are the days where I'd come home from school and log on with my pals and blast Fat Kid on Foundry with a full lobby, or the Halo Raceway above Sandbox. Even typing this out gave me nostalgia. I miss it. Such a massive part of my childhood. Games in general have gone from being about the players to being about the money. By innovating so many new things they're forgetting such important concepts. It's sad to see. The golden era of modern gaming has passed.
@@brownchair2698 bro idk what the fuck I was thinking 2 years ago, games recently have been awesome. MCC on PC has been awesome and so have many MANY other games. I think I was just on a nostalgia trip lmao
If tomorrow you make a video saying that, like, _Halo 5's_ characters were underdeveloped, or its desire for increased scale negatively affected balance and pacing... nobody panics. Because it's all part of the plan. But when you point out that little old _Reach_ suffered from the same problems... _Well then everyone loses their minds!_
Brendan Forish halo 3 was fully developed at launch, a perfect game, I remember halo as a brilliant game series, because I haven't played a halo game since ODST
Try maybe reading just one of the comments in this thread. We are talking about characters buddy... And no I'm not wrong. All characters in Halo are very basic. They have no grey area or anything beyond 1 or two basic personality traits.
He blew halo 5 multiplayer arena out of proportion more often than not clamber and sprinting are an illusion and break the flow of gameplay. Ground pounding costs you your position and leaves vulnerable and is often avoided in higher level games. He also avoided the subject of how spartan charging was a laughable failure to remedy double melees and have been the root of excess of cheap frustrating kills. Finally all of these changes are what disinterested the general audience which associate these changes with other mainstream franchises.
I would argue they're not game breaking, just simply game annoyances at best. You could look at sprinting and clamber as just illusions of core gameplay, in that it would work the same without them, but with the map design based around them and the advantages they have counter that. For example, the classic boost, slide, jump, and clamber to get as far as you can up a ledge. Stuff like that, chaining the things together. Sprint and clamber are nearly starters and finishers, like Killer Instinct, if that makes sense (oddly enough) But yeah fuck Spartan Charge.
i like them, but even if you dont you have to admit that they get in the way a lot less than the armor abilities of reach and H4. sprint is less of a free escape because it delays your shield. running from a fight just results in getting popped in the back of the skull. clamber is really minor, it just makes jumps take an extra button press + brief animation. rarely changes anything, but doing it at the wrong time can get you killed. groundpound and charge are kinda gimmicky but like you said groundpound isnt powerful enough to cause an issue. charge is annoying as fuck, i'll give you that.
Having infinite sprint ruins map design and the core gameplay. It totally kills the emphasis on not putting yourself in a bad position. There have been sooo many times I've sprinted by players and vanished before they could do anything and vice versa. Plus clamber kills having to time jumps and learn the map to get to advantageous spots. You can just clamber up anything. The high ground used to be so important in halo and you were heavily rewarded for getting it with the right weapon. You dont see this in halo 5 because most maps dont even have advantagous spots and the one's that do have soo many ways of approach that having that spot is really rewarding. And the lowered shields are irritating. An AR can kill with half a clip. At a certain point, this game just left the halo station and became something totally different. With reach, when there were armor abilities, as irritating as they were, the core gameplay still felt like halo(except armor lock, FUCK armor lock).
One thing I feel you missed in a later part is on many weapons, zooming actually decreases aim assist but slightly increases magnetism so it's more of a trade-off than a straight-up benefit but it's a trade-off that works really well on ranged engagements.
Hearing josh holmes talk about his mom and dementia really opened my eyes. The ONE single thing I enjoyed from halo 4. It came from the heart of someone. Nothing else did. And it showed.
I find 343 is a company which is new to a franchise that fans love through out many years and try to learn from them through trials and error... Excellent review, young chief
We had these badass ODSTs doing the same thing as Master Chief but with no augmentation and no power-armor. And then 343 goes and turns our interesting and cool ODSTs into boring half-assed Spartans. Master Chief was one of a kind, now everyone is a Spartan. By far this is the worst thing they did to halo. IMHO
Halo 5 has to be the most disappointing game of the series, with the weakest plot and the most boring second main character. It's not a bad game per say, just.... underwhelming.
Playing through on Legendary for the first time - Ground Pound and Spartan Charge seem fun, but are complete afterthoughts on this difficulty setting. You are free to use these "fun" new mechanics, but they will certainly get you killed. Really liked that point you made, highlighting that the campaign maps were greyboxed before the armor abilities were implemented.
my biggest problem is armor is unlocked through luck. In Halo 3 when I saw all Recon I knew that guy was a god on Halo 3. When I saw Gunginr I knew that guy was amazing at Reach. When I saw someone with ODST or Mark V. I thought. They ether A) Got lucky or B) Payed for it
I've been a die hard Halo fan since 2002, I played CE through 4, read the first 4 books, but I haven't owned an Xbox since 2013, so I never played Halo 5 or looked too much into it. Watching this all these years later, it's just so depressing to see what they've done to this amazing franchise. RIP to a legend.
I think the reason the music suffers so much is due to oversaturation. It's balls out epic all the time and therefore none of it has meaning
Aurelius228 In fact i have played the game 3 times 1 heroic and 2 legendary so plenty of time playing, and I recogniced just 2 of the songs. That says a lot about how meaningless the soundtrack is. I have beeing playing ODST las week and its music is 80.000 times better
Well from hearing the soundtracks, all other halos have considerably more epic music and lots of it running thru out the games. Halo 5 has repetetive music with no build up. Without build up how is it gonna conclude epically? The best song is the remix of the real halo theme and still all other halo themes sound much better cause it isnt overdone with 50 instruments from start to finish. Other halo themes add and build up during theme much better
matte drey Light is Green, Kamchatka and The Trials are very good OSTs imho from the game.
Music with meaning,
Only god of war, last of us, and halo 1,2,3, heavy Rain, uncharted, have come to mind recently with that, and personal 5 as well....
All great games with the exception of heavy rain cuz the gameplay is hilarious but the story n music makes up for it.
@@rustcohle3803 Check out the Shadow of the Colossus soundtrack.
Well Halo 5 did one thing really well:
It made Halo 4 look considerably better.
Ian Phoenix Halo 4 was terrible
Ian Phoenix Not really tbh. Halo 4's MP is inferior
KoolDawg99 But the campaign's story is superior to arguably all the Halos
Talhah, No, just no.
Fandom Tribal obviously
They built up an epic showdown between Locke And chief for half a year, then, in the game, they only see each other for a total of 4 minutes
They built a whole fucking audio series around it.
They could've ripped off CA Civil War's airport scene and the confrontation between them would've been more interesting
Standard AAA studio marketing right now. Hype the story as being an experience and make everything look pretty in the trailers. So long as you create enough mystique around the release you don’t have to worry about the actual game design. Just do it well enough to get people hooked on multiplayer (single player takes a backseat) because that’s where the real money is at, especially considering marketing budgets are estimated to be 2x to 3x the cost of the development budget.
I would love to know as well.
Oh look, Batman Vs Superman…
Remember when they tried to market this game's campaign as "Locke vs. Chief", as if they had vastly different ideological views that were going to clash in some sort of epic game-spanning conflict?
I guess Locke did crack Chief's visor though, so points for trying.
@Arick A4 Chief didn't get nerfed. He just didn't want to ruin Locke because that's a dick move.
NO. NO POINTS.
SUMO!
The fight choreography when they fought is worse than RvB.
And seriously, RvB fight choreography Season 8 onwards was amazing.
@@b4byj3susm4n
The tight choreography is less exciting than it was in seasons 1-5
I wish they kept cortana dead and made the story about a broken man/machine who is questioning his humanity because of cortana. It would of been heart breaking chief calling out to cortana in a dire time.
Calling out to her not knowing what to do next or how to work certain machinery
nah i always think of Halo as a futuristic sci fi game rather than some emotional stuff plus the master chief is suppose to be a green armor suit where you move around that you play as
Thistook2hours it's what he's supposed to be but who's stopping development? That's like saying halo 2 should've stayed like halo 1 because it's how it's "meant to be"
i actually hated halo 2's campaign
Well there's no accounting for taste. I guess....
You sound like a younger master chief.
Yeah I thought that too :)
Can't get that out of my head now! lol
He does! Let's call him with a nickname uhhh can't think of one
User Name call him Young Chief
And the announcer from multiplayer lol
Halo 5’s overused strings vs ODST’s bass guitar and smooth as hell saxophone solos.
I like both tbh
ODST is something unique for Halo, in terms of mostly everything. I enjoy it, though I feel slight scared, cause I am not a bad ass Spartan, though, it brings me comfort knowing Rookie's an ODST. I think they're the best human soldiers.
@@JosephMichael23 Wat. You were more fragile in CE then you were in ODST. You quite literally drop 3 stories out of your drop pod in full combat gear and survive in the intro.
You're a spartan. Any attempts the game makes to tell you otherwise when you kill a brute in hand to hand combat.
I will never understand why nobody has just copied how republic commando did it. Do they have an order if no they will kinda follow you while aimbotting at anything that targets you or them but with reduced damage, if yes they do that one thing restricting their movement and abilities but performing it as best as they can (with a cooldown timer to prevent them from just killing everything immediately). Works great, makes the squad useful, paired with a LOT of natural sounding dialogue could basically be used to tell the whole story by itself.
republic commando was the best. hard too
Eh, the squad command in Republic Commando just has no depth to it. I mean, when Brothers in Arms has more complex squad tactics than your game, you're coming dangerously close to having *no* squad tactics.
@kjh so what did 343 do different?
@@shaunpalmer2382 give you a squad but take out the squad mechanics, lol.
@kjh The industry is built on developers copying other developers though, are you an idiot or have you completely ignored every fad in game design ever since the fuckin 80s?
This video was more enjoyable than halo 5's campaign.
bluebanana wrong really wrong
TheGaminCheese Halo 5s campaign is trash. Halo 4 the game I hate so much has a better story than h5.
Keaton Castillo Agreed
Yes but the graphics, now that's what it's really all about...
bluebanana It's about as long as well.
You know a co-op campaign sucks when your friends just end up killing each other (in pursuit of entertainment) instead of completing the mission.
Not necessarily. I love Halo 3’s campaign but that doesn’t stop me from incessantly murdering my friends in it every time we do coop
@@voodsood it is just funny sometimes
@@voodsood This
@@voodsood it depends on level. I also had lots of team killing moments while playing "the Library" on legendary with my friend
My friends and I made a rule at the beginning of the playthrough: kill each other whenever in an elevator. One level starts in around a 2 minute space elevator ride. Hell ensued.
Glad you mentioned the sound track. It's grating and doesn't know subtlety. It's just a marvel movie sound track abusing Halo themes.
Jellee What u on about, Marvel movies have half decent soundtracks, particularly more recent films.
This is an old comment, but I feel like H 5 is way above Marvel Movies in terms of soundtrack.
@@hashbrownslinging-slasher872 I disagree, marvel soundtracks tend to have a lot more identity which helps distinguish each of their movies. I can barely tell H 5's soundtracks appart.
It really does sound generic.
Depends on which Marvel movie you're referring to. The recent shows have had some awesome soundtracks.
Team based tactical gameplay would've been perfect for an ODST 2 game.
Halo 6... 1 Year Early
......WHAT!?!? Mind is blown!
NO FUCKING WAY! I scrolled down to post the same comment!
"Halo 6 sucks! When I got it, nothing was there! It's like it didn't even exist!"
Cesar So someone has a low IQ and self esteem simply because they have an opinion? Yeah you need a nap, an eternal one.
Cesar You're whole statement is still a matter of opinion. You're not getting anywhere writing these irrelevant paragraphs
"But please bring John home to me " one thing I can appreciate is that she still treats the Spartans like her children .
Lot of people give Dr. Halsey crap (especially Sarah “Sgt. Johnson wannabe” Palmer), but I actually respect her.
For all the terrible and questionable things she did, her work saved humanity, and she felt great guilt for the children, it’s obvious she cared for them (especially for Master Chief) and didn’t just treated them as guinea pigs.
No one has to like what she did, but you can’t question her results.
@@Lajos_Kelemen yeah it's really lucky for her that a species-threatenkng force showed up when it did. Otherwise all her child soldiers would be known for is putting down rebellions against people punching way above their weight class
@@Lajos_Kelemen its not palmer that gives her the most shit, its an ONI executive that Halsey fucked over
@@areallymeanperson Oh her? She really shouldn't give orders regarding Halsey, considering their past. Isn't there an actual regulation for stuff like that?
@@Lajos_Kelemen its ONI, i doubt she has much restrictions on someone considered a war criminal
Halo 5's saving grace is the forge and custom games. They are genuinely fun and the new and overhauled forge is honestly the best forge we've ever had.
That would be true if the forge was actually released with the game instead of one year later was it was already too late...
@@ShamSoap would’ve rather waited a year for the forge we got rather than something just slightly upgraded from halo 4 at launch
15:36, not true, in Halo Reach it appeared. . . and Carter 9/11ed into it.
LMFAO. You are like the Michael Jordan of being a son of a bitch.
It was also in ODST
Drunk Dave nice True Detective reference
"Carter 9/11ed into it."
that made me laugh more than it should have.
Too far
I just finished a run of Halo 5's campaign, and I have to say that I agree with damn near everything you've said. I've never rage quit a game so many times because of the piss-poor AI. I cannot describe how much damage the co-op focus did to this story and game design. Is there anything more frustrating than fighting an enemy that can only be damaged from behind, when that enemy stays entirely focused on you, and your AI companions couldn't hit water if they fell out of a boat? Or needing a resurrection only to watch your allies get gunned down one at a time by the same bad guy? What a huge misstep this entire campaign was. This is the franchise that got me into gaming. I can only hope that this studio learns from their mistakes, and puts the proper effort and focus into Halo 6, or it may end up being the first game in the franchise that I don't buy on launch (or ever).
Hey I can't even be bothered to finish the campaign because it's so poorly made and so boring.
Same here. Campaign is an awful grind the likes of which I've rarely seen, where all the levels blur together and I'm actively begging for it to end. I made it about 2/3 of the way through, but then I thought about having to fight 3 Wardens at once and I immediately peaced the fuck out before I even got to the fight.
Kool Pandaz halo 5 story isn't good that's fair criticism but halo 2 on legendary is the hardest halo game to date halo 5 got the best gameplay mechanics and online multiplayer out of all the halo games
Sazori Raishi it's true no one complains about the actual gameplay because it's good everyone trashes the game because of the story which is understandable
Lavar Ball - Absolutely not. The maps are awful, the weapons are overpowered and ruin everything, Spartan Abilities are annoying and intrude on every aspect of the game, Warzone is a repetitive pay to win meat grinder, almost nothing about Halo 5 feels like Halo.
I loved talking to you about all this. It's amazing just how up and down this game is. For every plus, there is a negative
Good on-foot gameplay? - bad level design
Visiting multiple planets? - the art style is poor and doesn't make the environments feel alive
LateNightGaming - Halo News & Entertainment as much as I disliked the Campaign, ultimately it was the lottery system for unlocking armor that drove me away. I prefer having a clear path for unlocks:
50 Assassinations = *helmet
200 CTF wins = *Armor set
500 kills with Plasma Rifle = *Weapon Skin
That's what keeps me invested in playing on a daily basis, aside from the enjoyment of the game itself. I've probably only played 25 hours worth of Halo 5 since launch :/
I miss the credit system from Halo Reach. Spending credits on something you've been saving for felt good. I played Halo 5 for a month and only unlocked like couple of armor pieces...
LateNightGaming - Halo News & Entertainment Yes, he didn't cover everything in the game, but he covered most of my gripes. I think the worst part of the game is the flawed REQ system. I'm fine with weapons and vehicles being in the system, but customization should be done with the many commendations in the game.
NinjaPiece that entire lootcrate bullshit is now all over the industry. Just look at bungie now with destiny. There are players who payed 500 bucks for a cosmetic item and others who payed 10 bucks and got it first try. I got my halo 2 BR after i unlocked almost 95% of all reqs -.- still haven't unlocked the halo ce pistol -.-
As long as there are morons who are willing to spend triple the money they spend on the game for some stupid cosmetics, these microtransactions won't leave soon...
It's not the games fault.. It's ours...
I've never purchased a microtransaction. Honestly, while I have problems with Halo 5's microtransactions, I can deal with it since they provided us with free DLC. If we keep getting free maps, 343 can keep charging for REQs.
Halo 4 was definitely a mixed bag, but I have a special affection for its campaign, because of the story it told with Chief and Cortana and the conviction it told it with, not to mention absolutely killer performances by Downes and Taylor. This video really articulated exactly what was frustrating about Halo 5's campaign relative to 4's for me. It felt like such a step backwards from that incredibly human, heart-filled story in 343's first attempt. Very well done.
"When this is over, find out which one of us is the machine?"
Jeff Miller it’s a ok campaign but a shit halo campaign
@Phillip hanna I would accept that answer if the lore wasn't so goddamn gigantic where almost every character has become not a vessel, but its own thing, actual people. Specially chief, the whole vessel for the player thing was ok before, but the game has evolved past that.
Absolutely. I was so excited to see where Chief's story would go from there. Does he further isolate himself? Does he lose more and more of his humanity? What would it take to bring him back? Then lol nope, here's some online-only co-op with shoehorned in fanservice.
@Phillip hanna I disagree. At some point games should change over time to reflect current trends in gaming. There needs to be a balance of course: being too mired in current trends and the game loses its identity. To rooted in what came before it comes off as a dated game that's out of touch with the modern gaming scene.
Like, no I don't expect The Last of Us 1 or Bioshock levels of story, but it doesn't hurt to bump things up. Hell, God of War (4) was a GREAT example of updating for the better.
343 Universe:
Halo 4 SP > Halo 5 SP
Halo 4 MP < Halo 5 MP
so let's see how it is in Halo 6
I really want Halo Infinite to be better than 4 and 5 in every aspect, but honestly I'm just scared my favourite franchise is gonna be mediocre at best these coming years.
343 taught me to be skeptical
@@rickygforce4217 Agreed, even having hope in them is trusting them too much
@@rickygforce4217 Well... Visually. You'd be right. Gameplay wise. seems like they are going the old bungee route.
so hfar its
gameplay>any other halo game because you can yeet fusion coils
graphics
@@Ribbons0121R121 Have you played the game?
I always love how anyone who makes one of these videos starts slipping into saying "Odious Tea" after a while.
Thanks I can't unhear it now.
@@blueray2174 same bruh
Like most of halo under 343, I always come back to "why?"
Why bring back Cortana in such a way that doesn't engage me, the player?
Why bring back Buck, and write off the rest of Alpha-9 in a book? We could've had Buck if absolutely necessary, but not as a spartan since ODSTs are still a thing post 2552.
Why bring in Blue Team, with established developed characters who have been with Chief longer than any other soldier, and rarely have them do much?
If the people responsible for Spartan Ops were behind Halo 5, why not use those established characters (actual character aside) instead of Locke to pursue chief?
After the Halo: Infinite trailer, I now ask this: Why must the franchise, at this point, hinge on this game (Infinite) to tie up the mess made in the first two outings?
Still a phenomenal video, Raycevick.
Coming back now with Infinite's release, is it justified to get us to this stage in the story?
Or should we end the canon with Bungie's departure?
I'm torn.
@@ClaymanFlames Halo desperately wants to be Warhammer, with a greater universe spanning multiple types of media and genres. Whether a 40k fan plays tabletop, reads the books, or plays the video games, they're still generally familiar with the setting.
Halo can't do that. It's a video game series, heavily focused around Chief and only Chief. You can't try to squeeze books in between mainline entries and expect fans to follow along, then understand the gaps between the games.
And infinite have not tied up anything. It's yet another reboot, and I would say it's nearly the weakest. It has some heart of halo 4 but not enough, nearly no variety, the most non-villain... The savior of the series as fans chanted fueled by nostalgia... turned out to be the most empty game of all. 343 have given up. H4 really was their last time they tried. People hated that, and they just kinda succumbed to depression as a company. Infinite is gmaing company equivalent of not having strength to move out of bed and do anything.
Great video, my only nitpick is that you criticized the classic weapons returning. In my opinion, this is a fun idea that allows players to feel nostalgia. It lets 343 make newer weapons, but not forget about Halo's iconic weapons. Other than that, amazing video.
Chillydogdude Tbh, I had a love/hate relationship with it.
Chillydogdude depends on the weapon. The H2 Beam returning is kinda bullshit since it's not as iconic as the BR or the Magnum they brought back, it only made for more weapons in Warzone
The key in Halo 5's sandbox of weapons is that in this game, every one of them has a clear purpose and ideal scenario in which they can be used, and all of them are good in some way.
When you introduce stuff like, say, the Grenade Launcher in Halo 5, it acts very differently from any other weapon, and has a clear purpose in the sandbox. Taking down lower to mid level vehicles such as the ghost with its explosive damage/EMP effect, as well as killing some infantry in close quarters.
But when you introduce stuff like the Halo 2 Beam Rifle, Halo 2 Battle Rifle, Brute Plasma Rifle, etc. they have no clear purpose other than "just a better version." The Halo 2 battle rifle is just a better version of the Halo 5 one. The Brute Plasma Rifle is just a better version of the Halo 5 plasma rifle. That's when introducing nostalgia weapons feels cheap, when it's only there for nostalgia.
DustiferB Well, there isn't a plasma rifle in Halo 5, there is the storm rifle, but that works differently. The storm rifle kills faster but is very inaccurate. The Brute Plasma Rifle is very accurate but takes longer to kill. The H2 BR and the H5 BR shoot their projectiles very differently. The H2 BR shoots 1 burst shot at a time while the H5 BR shoots 3 burst at once. So in order to get the most damage out of the H2 BR you have to keep your reticle on the target. However, the H2 has a much faster scope animation in turn for the slightly harder aiming. As for the H2 Beam Rifle, I have noting, they are pretty much the exact same, and I think it was a waste of resources.
DustiferB Your only good example was the H2 Beam Rifle. The rest is you being uninformed on the differences present with similar weapons.
Hunters in the Lab
Fred: Hunters are strong but slow.
Chief: Fred, after this, you're fired.
Chief: are you seriously warning me about a can of worms with a gun?
Chief: [whips out CE Magnum and one-shots both] No school like the old school
Why is it all classical music? Marty didn't just use classical music, he used a variety of other forms like Electronic music and even hip hop for instance.
You mean instrumental. Also, they use plenty of electronic music in the new Halo games... some would say too much.
VunderGuy All I want is war drums. I miss that so much
milaniac Great opinion, I second this! War drums and choirs!
@Lucas O'Sullivan Indeed. Instrumental is just a song without the lyrics, just the instruments
ClAsSiCaL
Halo 5 felt really odd. I heard that it had a fairly troubled development, so maybe that's why?
Very likely. From what I've heard, the campaign had to be completely redone with only about a year and a half left.
Its sad too because the "redone" campaign turned out horribly. I hated the the whole locke and group aspect of it. I hope they take notes from the Halo 4 campaign when they do Halo 6.
xRiftzeh Based on what was originally planned, Halo 5 seemed like it could've had the best campaign in Halo. Such a shame Microsoft wanted them to redo it because the fans didn't like Halo 4.
Yeah, if only we got what was originally intended :(
But hey, Halo 2 also had a rushed development, odd marketing, and redone campaign. So maybe Halo 6 will finally hit it out of the park like Halo 3 right?
Chillydogdude This is why I blame those who criticized Halo 4 for the fall of Halo 5
I love long analysis videos like this, im subbing no doubt.
these*
I feel like 343 doesn't know exactly what kind of story they want to tell or what kind of game they want to make. So there's all of these half-baked ideas that could turn into something really powerful and compelling, but none of them get to reach their full potential because they can't commit. You did a great job going into detail on all the things they couldn't commit to, but what's interesting to me is it seems they wanted to TRY to make the story something Halo fans would have really enjoyed. I always hear everybody say the story was one of the weakest points of Halo 5, that 343 just "doesn't get Halo", but I think that's the contrary.
21:00, Kelly 087 was a pretty major character in a handful of the Halo books. She was in The Fall of Reach, First Strike, and Ghosts of Onyx. She was also in many of the other side materials following the novels. If 343 truly didn't care about the story of Halo, why would they have included such an important character from the many lore dumps that exist outside of the games? On the other hand, it is strange to include characters in a game that ONLY appeared in side material, because it relies on the assumption that people would have read the books or at least consumed a majority of the lore material before playing the game, and I think that's where the disconnect lies. It's not necessarily that they don't understand the story or are trying to make it "too different". I think the real problem with 343 is that they don't quite understand the concept of "show, don't tell", and they seem to rely on "it happened off screen" syndrome. I think the whole Spartan Locke thing is the best example of this. They hyped him up for years before Halo 5's release, and then the Chief and Locke only see each other for like 5 minutes in all of Halo 5. The rest of the story happened outside of the game.
People who invested themselves in the lore of Halo would have already known the relationship between Chief, Kelly, and Locke. But 343 could have easily made these characters just as compelling if they spent some time building them up in the game itself. There's a delicate balance that has to be struck here, and I think Mass Effect is a great example of this good balance. There's a lot of extra lore material that complements the universe of Mass Effect. The key word being "compliments". 343 seems to be relying on the established lore in all the side material to function as a stand-in for storytelling rather than functioning as compliments to the story they tell in the game; it's backwards to how the two materials are meant to work together. And I think this attitude can be found in most of their design decisions. It's not necessarily wrong, it's just backwards. They're misguided. There's a lot of things in Halo 4 and 5 that could turn into amazing gameplay mechanics and ideas. I hope one day 343 will really reach their potential and give us something awesome.
spartan456 I really hope in Halo Infinite blue team returns, but in a more Halo: Reach style role where they are squad mates but with more efficient roles and character development (although Halo: Infinite I think is going to be Chief only).
Especially Kelly. I need to admit, despite the shitty a.i and stuff I enjoyed the Chief missions in 5 because we got to see Blue Team-who at that point was a book and Legends only badass spartan squad-at its full force on screen. I had been waiting for that since Fall of Reach/First Strike!
It has less to do with catering to fans while telling a good story and more about creating hype to sell copies of the game. That the Locke v Chief plot was made the focal point to where there were audio dramas and whatever else shows compared to what’s actually featured in the game shows little they actually cared about it. It was nothing more than the equivalent of a carnival barker saying whatever outlandish things they need to in order to get people to pay for a ticket into an incredibly disappointing big top circus performance.
343 knew what they were doing but microsoft forced so much reworks, look at the concept art for their original ideas. The didact was suppose to be ended in this game, but had to be moved into a comic due to microsoft screwing up the original story plan.
I just finished halo 4 4 years later and checked to see if halo 5 was here yet, and wow posted 9 minutes ago here it is
19:21 "while none of the Halo games have told great stories."
......hol up.
I had to pause the video and replay that part to make sure I heard that right.
If you've watched the rest of the retrospective, you'll understand where he's coming from.
@@thegrouchizationHis wording in this video is ambiguous. His problem is with storytelling, not with the story itself. It's the way the narrative is portrayed and the way the games convey the story what he has a problem with. For the most part, all the points he has used through this series are mostly nitpicked. You would never notice them at first unless you are doing what he is doing, looking for every single error/mistake that was made on the games.
You've got it backwards. He says the storytelling is what elevates Halo's ultimately mediocre plot.
Sentinel of the Old War How is Halo’s plot mediocre?
red vs blue has better fighting sequences than the actual fucking game 19:33
343 didnt have Monty Oum
BlueOrange117 tru
also rip
Too much anime style jumping and shit, I prefer the heavy feel of the fight between lock and Chief, it acutally feelsl ike they wear heavy armour and have impact instead of that flying around like they weight nothing crap.
Darkness1984 Yeah but they're supposed to be fast. If their suit was that heavy then how could they sprint or jump? And Master Chief is supposed to be a master in hand-to-hand combat yet he acted like he had to training at all. They're both supersoldiers with enhancements they're supposed to move fast...
Darkness1984 the lock/chief scene looks like two random people in 343 was told to improvise and act a fight scene, we already know that spartans is has high agility as seen in many other halo games. the scene just look like they are heavied down, which they wouldnt be
6:02 sorry buts that a bunch of bollocks lol, the Marines in halo were not just set dressing and evolved greatly during the development of each halo game with the exception of halo 4 and 5.
Marines in halo when utilised by the player can function as powerful allies, and dialogue, behaviour and mechanics exist to support this method of play. If you ignored the marines and just treated them as distractions to your personal mayhem you have just missed out on a TON of the halo experience.
Its first emphasised in halo CE when the first major mission on the ring world was to support and evacuate these soldiers from hostile situations. Without taking advantage of the obvious tactical benefits of marines, levels especially on higher difficulties can become an absolute chore when going at it alone. In CE Marines can provide grenade assistance and deliver a large and deadly volume of suppressing fire to support your advance, they can be called onto vehicles and provide external protection.
Making the effort to ensure their survival is absolutely beneficial, you essentially lead the charge but you are just as much a care taker than a leader to the marines also, Warthogs scattered on the beach landing level in halo CE can be recovered and marines can be driven around to specific locations using the transportation, In the Sniper mission your job is to clear out the hostiles covertly so that they can be granted safe passage into the combat zone, free from turret fire, they can take on the soft targets like , jackals, elites and grunts.
In later levels there is actually secret rewards in the form of dialogue that celebrates your efforts to keep them alive and fighting.
Later games would further development on this dynamic adding things like weapon swap abilities, AI driven allied vehicles you could lead huge convoys of!, tank columns!. Halo 3 has the most refined version of the marine system.
That first sentence is just so perfect lmao. But I definitely agree.
Marines only helped on lower difficulties. They have always been useless on legendary with the exception of sniper sergeant Johnson from CE and giving a marine a rocket launcher or Spartan laser in H2 and H3
Sir this is a Wendy's
What hidden dialogue did you mean? Late to the video but I'm curious. I always made it my mission to try and keep them alive, even on legendary.
"In CE Marines can provide grenade assistance and deliver a large and deadly volume of suppressing fire to support your advance"
I'm sorry, what?? You have got to be joking, right? I mean, the best part about marines is that you can give them a near empty power weapon and they can kill enemies easily for you but the weapon exchange mechanics didn't come until 2. Halo CE's marines were as useful as nipples on a breastplate. I can't remember the number of times those retards willfully walked into a plasma nade taking their entire squad down with them. Don't even talk about legendary, the Halo AR is trash and that is the only weapon you'll see marines carry most of the time.
This Man sounds like Steve Blum if he had a degree in media analysis...And Its a JOY to listen to.
Unlike Steve Blum by this point due to being oversaturared.
His voice is fucking annoying because of the vocal fry.
I'm glad to hear someone not completely shit on Halo 4. I thought it was a good game. Campaign was great! Multiplayer and forge could've been better. I believe Halo 5 is a misstep and I feel confident 343 will correct themselves for halo 6.
They hired one of the writers from Batman Arkham city for 343 industries. While I think that sounds good, I wouldn't get my hopes up for the later halo installments.
It's been 3 years since Halo 5 and still no sound of Halo 6, so hopefully they will have a clear and focused game next time around.
Krishna Iyer they hired him because he crafted a story that took on a complex iconic universe, with copious complex characters and story arks, and Batman that has a diverse fanbase that is also tumultuous but through good story and game building United most of them to love the game. Halo needs that, they bring that with forge and the multiplayer kinks ironed out they could make the best halo yet... who knows don’t blame cynicism but I am hopeful.
i hope for the best for the next halo, but truthfully, i'd want it delayed to next year.
I liked playing forge with friends in halo 4 and halo reach
Halo 2 is still the best for me :) Great Singleplayer, great multiplayer
Ed Lee I remember back I'm the day I had to get a new graphics card to play it.
Halo 3 for then again i loved the competitive side and was heavily invested into mlg
I still tear up every time that I hear the Halo 2 menu music.
Halo 2 had issues, but every game after just made things worse. H2 truly was the height of the series.
Halo 2 MP was great, but it was way to competitive for me. Halo 3 appealed to me a lot more.
I finished replaying Halo 5's campaign a couple of months ago and I don't even remember destroying the kraken. Just shows how memorable this game was.
I appreciate you doing these. I don't agree with all your opinions but I can see your love for the franchise; and that is important.
The songs honestly sound like they're just different parts to the same piece.
Great point!
You're an extremely underrated TH-camr man. The amazing editing and high value content you put out deserves way more attention than it gets. Here's to hoping for major growth this year man.
I would also throw in the whole idea of how the aesthetics/art of the 343 games do not feel like halo in anyway at all.
I can see what they were going for. They thought they were updating Halo's dated late 90s/00s sci-fi aesthetic for contemporary tastes. But what they didn't realise is that we love the old Halo games for that, even if it's not modern and cutting edge anymore.
@@Wahlrusberg ya I agree. It's not bad to update, but they changed it too much. I think putting more detail into aesthetics is fine (like in Halo reach) but it shouldn't have been changed. It would be like updating the star wars aesthetic.
Absolutely. It just doesn't feel like halo. Halo 2 anniversary does feel like halo. Wasn't made by bungee though.
It felt like Halo to me
I actually really like the redesign, at least as it was presented in Halo 4. I still enjoy the classic look too, but I don't mind the re-imagining at all. To me, Halo, and especially the Chief, has become one of those franchises open to visual interpretation, like how Link from Legend of Zelda gets a redesign every game, some darker and more mature in tone and some more cartoony (though admittedly they're not always exactly the same character). Or how Batman has so many redesigns for the various movies, comics, cartoons, and video games. Arkham batman doesn't look anything like Nolan batman, and even their worlds have very different aesthetics, but I can still recognize them as batman. Halo 4 and Halo 3 have very different looks, but I find Halo 4's look very appealing, and a very nice stylistic update, and to me it still feels very much in line with the changes from CE to 2, and from the trilogy to Reach. A natural evolution you might say. It still feels like Halo to me, just modernized. I'm sure there are plenty of undies-on-the-outside Batman fans out there who don't care for the Dark Knight's strappy-flexy-plated-armor batsuit, but to me they're all just Batman.
Now, all that being said, I feel Halo 5 went a bit too far, and I mostly see this in it becoming a little too generic-y sci-fy. In Halo 4 the Spartans like Palmer and especially Chief, had armor that looked like someone had strapped parts of a tank onto their under-suit. It was a distinct, unique look, that felt like what the Mjolnir was always supposed to be - 1000lbs of tank armor on a person. In Halo 5, however, so many of the Spartans look like they're wearing rejected Ironman suits. They're too streamlined, and homogeneous, and overly busy, while remaining soft in the details, creating a lack of real distinction other than their helmets. They come off looking like every other generic video game power armor, like something out of destiny or anthem or something. Blue team wasn't AS bad in this regard, but fire team Osiris certainly was, with Locke's armor being the worst offender of all. It's not a look I'm keen on. I'm okay with evolution, even complete revision, as long as the look is still it's own original, identifiable, look. Halo 5 drifted well into the copy-paste sci-fy territory, and that's where my problem with it really lies.
halo's true ending:
"wake me, when you need me."
Domo is back PREACH!
Cmon kids
Hopefully halo infinite can fix thay
Problem is the games are *TOO GOOD* for you to.. ever want it to end even when it should eventually.. you want more, but what comes doesn't live up to the precursors by a mile.
Actually for me it's: "she told me that once. About being a machine."
The REQ system literally broke the game for me. I had no way to guarantee I had what I wanted to play with- even from fairly basic weapons. RNG is horrible.
I'd like to take a moment to point out how ahead of its' time Star Wars; Republic Commando was. Considering when it came out, the ally AI was fantastic.
And three years later I only remember that my favorite character Buck was in the game, it didn't have splitscreen co-op, and the commercials made this Spartan showdown look confusing.
I never comment on TH-cam videos, but I really have to tell you how well done I think this series has been. I actually just recently watched your other reviews while just the other week playing through all of the Halo games (reach-CE-2-ODST-3-4-5) and I think going into this one again really helps compare it to the others, especially since they can now all be played on the Xbox One. I personally love this game and I might've played it the most this year in what limited time I had between school to engage in video games, but despite that I still acknowledge it is a flawed game. Your video actually helped a lot to understand what and why some things happen when I go through this game, so I wanted to leave some of my own thoughts about it just because your videos are the reason I started actually thinking about the game in a critical way in the first place.
Hopefully I can give some insight into what I mean in a way that is not a chore to read (it turns out it definitely is), because I do have a lot to say since I've been actively thinking about this since I watched you review on Halo 4 after I finished its campaign, right before I replayed Halo 5's. Anyways, I do agree with all of your points on the campaign side of things. I have little(none) experience as a developer so I can't accurately comment on the deeper mechanics that go into the gameplay, but I do think that they had a good base to have made a video game on. For example, the way you move through the level and engage the enemies feel far more fluid and fun to do than in halo 4, where you mostly just shoot and absorb a certain amount of damage before getting to cover to reload or heal. I felt like that slowed it down for me and left me feeling a little impatient, although that may be a side effect of playing halo 5 and then having gone back to halo 4. The fluidity of the movement and speed that can be achieved when you fully master the controls feels pretty fantastic for me. Also, I think the visuals are incredible, but slightly lacking in a way. I mean we all know the graphics are cool as shit and definitely a step up from halo 4's pretty awful lighting. (The spartans looked like toys. I hated that.) But in the campaign, I think there were things missing that Halo 4 actually did much better. Some of the lighting effects inside buildings or the glows of the forerunner architecture were stunning and even had a somewhat magical(for lack of a better word) quality about them, and I think most every color brought some emotion to the experience. I think Halo 5 still has a little bit of that, but magnitudes less than what they achieved in Halo 4. And then, the music. I think that the soundtracks for the campaign for 5 were honestly more gripping and intense than Halo 4's, with tracks like the trials, light is green, and Osiris Act 1. They make me want to fight hordes of enemies, it brings a sense of urgency to my experience, like the fate of the galaxy really is at hand. But at the end of the day, I really do think that the soundtracks lack the raw emotion that can be derived from tracks like Requiem, 117 or Green and Blue.
So all in all, I think all of this schpeal about the campaign can really just be summed up by saying, they lost most of their best creative leads when it comes to the campaign. Although I do have fun with it, it certainly leaves me without the same emotional feeling that Halo 4 did. I think most importantly, even though there were technical aspects that halo 5 did far better, the halo 4 campaign felt much more of a memorable experience than halo 5's, which when you're talking about a single player story, is far more important.
Also the 'hunt the truth' marketing was really stupid.
Now when it comes to the multiplayer, I think a lot of what you said is pretty synonymous to what I'd say anyway, but still some thoughts I have. Now, this is coming from someone who has played this game since day 1, but never really was around during the halo ce or 2 haydays of multiplayer. I do have SOME reservations about what you said about the multiplayer maps, mostly because in my experience I specifically felt like at least most of the maps had some quality that made them different from each other. For example, addressing your comparison of Fathom and Tyrant, you mentioned environmental hazards when there are man cannons and floating space rocks that I can fall to my death from if I'm not paying attention to my jumping or make a stupid boost on Tyrant where there are only two spots for anything like that on Fathom, and those rarely come into play. While on Tyrant, that's one of the main flanking routes. Now, comparing to Halo 4, I think the maps are far better (but not as good as halo 3). This may be because of the new armor abilities associated with the movement making different obstacles and height levels a relevant factor as well as 4's focus on big team battle. But what interests me is that each engagement in one of 5's map actually feels more personal. The smaller space makes it feel to me like when I engage someone, it's me and him contesting for whatever it may be kill, point, flag, whatever. It's honestly a slightly insignificant point to make but it's something.
Another (slightly) bigger point I wanted to make was about the customization. The aspects of combinations in this game far exceeded anything I had expected at launch and was magnitudes more than 3, reach, or 4 had, with everything from your visor to how you assassinate people being customizable. I loved this because it gave a far greater sense of individualism than any other halo game as of yet. Being able to identify with my character is actually a really cool feeling and something that I really commend 343 on achieving.
Now this is something you didn't go very in depth with that I've had an opinion on since the very first expansion, and that's 343's handling of the formation of the game post release. See, this is a very new concept in video games that I think is becoming much more relevant in this coming age of everyone having internet connection and being able to add on to the base game as time goes on. DLC has been mostly pretty harshly criticized in the past year or two, with most memorably EA's handling of the concept coming to mind, like with Star Wars Battlefront to give an example. Halo 5 luckily did not do that. 343 gave us a (technically) finished product on day 1. But they weren't even close to being actually finished with it, which is interesting to me. The additions of forge mode, the new custom game browser (something that no halo game has done before but has been asked for since probably the beginning), and warzone firefight are interesting to look at since they are now integral parts of the entire game, but didn't even come with it in the first place. Is that bad? I actually strongly don't think so. The reason for this is because I believe that the fact that 343 had time to develop these modes after the release gave them time to fine tune based primarily on our feedback of the base game. If they had released all of this in the beginning, it would have been a shit show. I realize how hard making something as bulky as this is terms of data and processing power might be and that's why I think 343 should be given props on their achievements on the multiplayer side of this game. I can tell that they care about the community that they have provided this game for and that's another reason I'm a supporter or their work. Even on the r/halo subreddit, the community manager (ske7ch now, rip bravo) is always actively engaged with the players and that's something I really admire.
In fact, looking back on it now, it feels like the heart that was in the campaign for Halo 4 but lacking in 5's campaign may be found in the multiplayer. Maybe not specifically in the levels or gameplay but implicitly with how the devs have changed the game in response to what they've heard from the fans. And I don't think that's too unbelievable of an idea if you compare it to Blizzard's handling of the Overwatch community. Anyways, the whole point of me talking about everything in that whole big paragraph was because I think that it's possibly an incredibly significant evolution in the way devs create their games, how it's not a 100% pre production process, but how now some of it occurs continually even after the game's release.
All in all, I really do want to thank you for making this series. It's people like you who make well thought out, researched, and produced criticisms and reviews of the things I love that help me reflect on them better and form my own opinions. Although I do have a lot more to say about halo 5 that would very honestly constitute it's OWN video if I had the time, I hope that maybe what I've said all in here has maybe brought something new to the table for you as you have for me.
Thanks again!
EffingWasps damn man good job with all of that how long did it take you
+Xbox_halo_Fallout Oh, maybe like a half hour including proofreading at the hand hahaha.
EffingWasps noice
Damnnnn... You really put some elbow grease into that XD
Chief: "Focus fire!"
Blue Team: *Proceed to shoot random targets*
Bruh...
The unforgivable sin that Halo made in my eyes is when they took away split screen campaign.
There should have been a human villain to Halo 5. ONI turns evil, tries taking over the galaxy. Something like that. They flip a switch and all the Spartan IVs go full death mode, killing their UNSC superiors. Hunt the Truth established that the Human race in Halo was a full-on surveillance state so why not?
>ONI turns evil and tries to take over the galaxy
That wouldn't be a very dramatic change. If you read the books, they're basically the CIA on even more cocaine than the CIA is already on. They kidnapped children to turn into supersoldiers through inhumane medical experiments in order to put down a rebellion that honestly had pretty legitimate grievances with the UNSC/UEG. They armed both sides of the Sangheili civil war in order to weaken them and make sure Humanity was in a position of power. They seriously considered implementing mandatory genetic testing of all children in the Outer Colonies in order to find more test subjects, and only held back because they realized they could disguise the operation as a humanitarian aid program instead. Overall the impression you get is that if it weren't for the Covenant and the Flood, ONI and the UNSC would be the bad guys.
So order 66 ?
Probably one of my biggest problems with both Halo 4 and Halo 5 are the armor designs. We went from amazing to downright awful, all starting in Halo 4. Armor went from looking like it could actually stop a tank shell to a bunch of painted cardboard in semi-sleek geometric shapes and odd angles. Don't even get me started on the helmets; we went from helmets that were amazing in both their quality and variety to "How in the hell are you wearing that goofy shit on your head?".
Adeptus Forge i kinda agree...look at old recon vs new recon (helmet btw)
Shadow Of Sundered Star that has got to be the most pretentious comment I've read today.
What are you on about ? The armour looks amazing especially when compared to early 2000s halo
It sounds to me that the only reason you don't like the newer stuff is because it's not the original, that's a narrow minded way to live life,
I'm not watching the dark knight cause I grew up in Adam west type mentality
Ethan DeMille
Why are you calling me a dumbass ?
This is one of the more unbiased overview for Halo 5 I've seen. Good job, pretty much covered everything. I hope Halo 6 really focuses on the campaign, and that the multiplayer is only worked on and tightened from Halo 5, Arena in 5 is really great, a true successor to traditional Halo, but not perfect like you say.
***** I haven't tried Titanfall 2's PVP mode yet, I'm having too much fun calling in titans! Enemies may be a bit too fast to kill for my tastes, COD:IW is absolutely terribly balanced, its good for a bit of casual fun, but thats about it... So I'm worried Titanfall 2 might be a bit close considering many of the actual mechanics are similar, but Titanfall 2 I imagine will be the better one out the two.
ThatGuyFromBritain I just hope that they have more of a balance between competitive and social in multiplayer, and have more creative, asymmetrical maps.
I also want to be able to earn armor again, not just win it in the lottery.
@HRB05 Meh... Titanfall 1 was better
Emperor Dalek The multiplayer is almost identical, the maps are essentially the same and the graphics are copy and pasted. Theres really not enough different to justify T1 being better. But Titanfall 2's excellent campaign is good enough to tell me its a big improvement over T1.
ThatGuyFromBritain still biased mate
Dont forget that there are full levels where you dont get to fire a single shot
Yeah I don’t remember any of the halo 5 tracks u played. Even if I didn’t know the names of the older games songs, I instantly recognised them. But until u pointed out those songs I didn’t know they were even in the game they’re just forgettable.
That is so true.
The only one I remember is Kamchatka, cuz it played at the very beginning, and I liked how the chord progression was a callback to Halo 2.
@@swans184Indeed!
Halo 4 had some bad ones but a LOT of good ones.
Halo 5 had a bunch of bad and...well about 11 plus okay/Good ones
Yet another amazing kick ass vid. Thank you so much for this analysis series. For me Halo died at Halo 4 and I never play t anymore. Yet it still remains as a series I always remember fondly, because it got me into video games.
Glad to see the transition to your own channel! Loved the video as usual!
lol hello. didn't expect to see you here :P
Ali Abouzeid hello!
Hey, it's you!
adoptedmoth lmao turns out most of the community watches Raycevick :D
I like to think of chef as an unstoppable, lucky, brilliant war strategist. He was raised in battle next to his friends who are now all dead. He has lost much more important things than losing his AI. (his spartan brothers and sisters and his home world just to name two) Personally, it is sad to see cortana go but he can take it! Ive read almost all the halo books and honestly cheif's personality just doesn't seem so wishy-washy like they made him in these two games. I didn't care at all for halo 4 or this new one without co-op. The halo series ended a long time ago for me but if you ask me my favorite game of all time I will always say Halo: Combat Evolved.
Aaron Madsen MASTER CHEF?!?! GORDON RAMSAY!!!!???
Your halo series is an example of what game developers should sit and watch, every second of this video and the rest were unique and on point, I can't imagine how long it take for you to do your research and editing, your series was really in depth and was really eye opening about the halo games.
25:08 definitely sounds inspired by Ghost in the Shells intro music. Which fits perfectly with the theme of the MC not just being a machine.
No wonder why kazuma is doing the soundtrack for gits sac 2045
i went through the whole campaign without using that "tell your squad to fire at a unit" ability
yoooo what the hell I am in this video 33:12 lmao
Great video!
Bullet Rebel lol rekt
Bullet Rebel that's funny and cool 😂
A small change Halo 5 made that I find interesting is the position of the targeting reticle. In a GDC talk, one of Bungie's animators explained that since Halo 2, they've always lowered the reticle and the lines of perspective on the gun to draw attention just below the center. This takes a small part of the sides of the screen space and the top of the screen and puts them in your peripheral vision rather than having you focus on the whole of the screen space at once. This is something they still have in Destiny.
343 retained the reticle's position from the Bungie era in Halo 4, but shifted it back up to the center in Halo 5.
Ah I thought it was off and too high at the start. Nice.
Infinite has not fixed this
Well this is a unexpected surprise.
I cant wait for the whole story behind infinite's development to surface years from now
Brothers in Arms hyppppeeeeeee.
RIP in piece, Gearbox.
That point about too many symmetrical maps makes me think back to how much I liked Construct and Guardian in Halo 3...they were asymetrical but awesome maps that required lots of strategy and team setup to dominate the map
This is an exceptional video.
Also Bring back splitscreen. Thats halos iconic couch gaming feature.
BaconToast confirmed will be returning.
"None of the halo games tells great stories" you've betrayed me
Yeeep
Yeah, key word *tell* a great story. It has a great story but it's not exactly told well until Halo 2 and 4.
Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan John-117 what’s so great about 4’s tho?
@@BLAM5980 It elevated Bungie's storytelling to whole another level. Fleshing out it's characters and universe. The "is Chief a human or just an another war machine" story arc is great and that way the story feels more personal rather than the epic one man saves the galaxy from an ancient infection plot that wasn't told very well let's be honest here.
All of Halos stories arent really that special. Theres no real deep characters in the halo universe or interesting dialogue.
I just started playing Halo 5, and these are the exact same criticisms I have of the campaign so far. Great work, love these videos. So interesting to see not just the problems or criticisms with games but also the production decisions that cause them.
i gotta say this was one great series, been spam watching your videos since finding them and i gotta say this first and foremost, i have a background in journalism and one of my biggest pet peeves in any video that looks at something from a standard factual perspective is allowing ones bias to influence the way those facts are given nevermind giving opinion as fact, this was the total opposite and for clearly being a veteran of the series it's refreshing to see someone give an honest opinion AND fact. subbed for sure.
It's really humbling to hear such praise. All I've got to my name is a Documentary Certificate earned in less than a year. I'm glad that my research and viewpoints resonated so much. Thank you.
Halo 5 has the worst Halo campaign I've played in my time as a fan of the series, so much so that it worries me as to what Halo 6 will be like.
That being said, despite being bogged down by bad design choices, Halo 5 has one of the best Halo multiplayer components I've ever had the pleasure of beta testing when it was in beta and I'm 90% happy with how it turned out in the final product.
Halo infinite is confirmed to have 4 player splitscreen, have a focus on Master Chief and playable elites.
E
why did you play the same song 8 times over, but with different names?
Heh heh, nice.
I want a new ODST game to game around honestly. The story for that felt absolutely amazing compared to other games. The exploration and finding hidden things everywhere, the darkness and the atmosphere were great. I’m gonna have to bloody buy this game again now
Make Halo Great Again.
MOStein yes
Nice video, pretty much sums up Halo 5's campaign as a piece of poop, but I do wish you went over the Forge, Custom Games, and updates for the game.
Brick Gamer That would make the game sound good, which wasn't the point of this video.
Hectorlo Isn't the point to offer a look at Halo 5 both good and bad? Glossing over what "made the game sound good" isn't really a good thing.
Hans Ong
Well it feels like he intentionally ignored all the updates and improvements that have been released since launch.
Hectorlo Actually, that would be a good time to bring up the many flaws with custom games, theater, and every other glitch in the game, and how 343i doesn't fix every issue despite having many updates. Not all of it would be positive. And it should be mentioned, since it is one of the largest parts of the game.
Yeah he really should have tried to cover ever single topic even if it would have made the video longer I would have liked to hear his opinions on Forge, Custom Games, and the Update System 343 implemented with it.
Honestly, 343 butchered Martin O'Donnell's work. His beautifully crafted music no matter what makes me forget anything and everything around me. 343 either tries to be someone when they simply should try to be what fits, or they do the exact opposite where they go out to try their best to not be like Bungie.
@kjh You're really calling him a Nazi? Don't be that guy.
@kjh hell im a bungie fan boy but i agree halo 4 had a good sound track halo 5 doesnt sadly
@@celuler22 I think Halo 5 had some cool track (Light is green, The trials, Kamchatka, Jameson Locke) but overall it was okay.
SANITY IS FOR THE WEAK I’m bunkered down for the furry invasion, glad to see someone holding up as well
The problem with the soundtrack is it lacks an identity. The music in the original games all had their own sense of belonging to the levels and moments they were set to. To this day I still remember the melody that kicks in at the beginning of Truth and Reconciliation in Halo CE. I still remember the almost tribal drums and synth melodies of Covenant Dance near the end of Assault on the Control Room. Who could forget the rhythmic drum beats and bass riffs from all of New Mombasa in Halo 2? And let's not forget about all that sweet smooth jazz from ODST. In Halo 5, the music itself is fantastic but the lack of identity causes it to turn into background noise. It could easily not exist and nobody would really notice. This is probably why the best song from the soundtrack is the new iteration of the main theme. It has an identity. It's memorable.
25:00 That comparison reminds me why I love the 4 OST so much. It's not very "Halo" really at all, but damn is it out of this world.
When that second music clip played, I got goose bumps and was like. "Oh. OH. I get it."
Always was fond of 4's OST, even though it was so different from O'donnel's work.
Shout out to Raycevick for making quality content. Always good and enjoyable to watch
Halo 5 Guardians.. 1 year Later..3 years ago
Wow this was one of the best vid analysis I've seen so far, nice job looks like you put a lot of time into it and it payed off
Man, you really tore the single player campaign a new one. I agree with just about all of your observations and I came out feeling the same way on my first playthrough of it.
They had 3 years to work on this game ... 3 YEARS ... and we still got a poor underdeveloped game that still lacks features from all the way back to 2004 Halo 2
I thought it was 5 years wtf
Here was me thinking it was 2 years and that Halo 6 looking more like 3 years guaranteed at least one shit to be given. oh well, at 'east we can pretend 5 and 6 never happened.
Alejandro Alvarez stop complaining
Stevean2
Actually, Mass Effect: Andromeda was made with a starvation budget of only 40 million, by an small skeleton crew belonging to a recently started studio (bioware montreal), whose only previous experience was from designing ME3 multiplayer and DLC. And while preliminary work began about 5 yars before release, EA restructured and reorganized them so frequently that actual game production didn't begin untill approximately 18 months before release. These decisions were made by EA, who wanted to focus talent on making their new IP, Anthem, because it would be easier to monetize than an single player game like mass effect.
Basically, EA is the worst. In other news, water is wet.
Stevean2
Nope, 40 million is absolutely miniscule for an AAA game. The original Mass effect games had budgets of about 100 million a piece, and they were working on an old, familiar engine. Andromeda was on a new engine, so they had to develop new assets as well. Witcher 3 had 81 million, but ProjectRed is based in Poland, were prices are much lower. Adjusted for purchasing power, Witcher 3 had a budget of almost 120 million.
Gone are the days where I'd come home from school and log on with my pals and blast Fat Kid on Foundry with a full lobby, or the Halo Raceway above Sandbox. Even typing this out gave me nostalgia. I miss it. Such a massive part of my childhood. Games in general have gone from being about the players to being about the money. By innovating so many new things they're forgetting such important concepts. It's sad to see. The golden era of modern gaming has passed.
Well. Those days can come back. With halo mcc on pc. But now you will have high frame rates and keyboard and mouse control.
@@brownchair2698 bro idk what the fuck I was thinking 2 years ago, games recently have been awesome. MCC on PC has been awesome and so have many MANY other games. I think I was just on a nostalgia trip lmao
@@dashiejinxx100 Yeah. It's a shame it had some issues. At least halo 3 was a great port to pc.
If tomorrow you make a video saying that, like, _Halo 5's_ characters were underdeveloped, or its desire for increased scale negatively affected balance and pacing... nobody panics. Because it's all part of the plan.
But when you point out that little old _Reach_ suffered from the same problems...
_Well then everyone loses their minds!_
Halo 1s characters were underdeveloped. No halo character was ever developed. Halo is a goddamn multiplayer game why is this so hard to understand?
Brendan Forish None of what you said is even remotely true 😠
Brendan Forish halo 3 was fully developed at launch, a perfect game, I remember halo as a brilliant game series, because I haven't played a halo game since ODST
Try maybe reading just one of the comments in this thread. We are talking about characters buddy...
And no I'm not wrong. All characters in Halo are very basic. They have no grey area or anything beyond 1 or two basic personality traits.
Brendan Forish What the hell are you talking about, Phyllis?
For anyone asking about the song used in the timeline.
It's from the Halo 5: Guardians soundtrack.
The song is called "Walk Softly"
your voice is quite satisfying
Tomtrocity ikr!
its almost master chief like, idk maybe i'm just weird..
Agreed - sounds a bit like Steve Blum.
Jon Squ I can see that, like a hybrid of the two, Steve Blum + Steve Downes
It honestly kind of reminded me of the announcer for the Multiplayer in Halo 2.
Excellent video
He blew halo 5 multiplayer arena out of proportion more often than not clamber and sprinting are an illusion and break the flow of gameplay. Ground pounding costs you your position and leaves vulnerable and is often avoided in higher level games. He also avoided the subject of how spartan charging was a laughable failure to remedy double melees and have been the root of excess of cheap frustrating kills.
Finally all of these changes are what disinterested the general audience which associate these changes with other mainstream franchises.
Other than that i would say he's pretty spot on. I would've like an analyzation on halo 5's post launch support.
I would argue they're not game breaking, just simply game annoyances at best. You could look at sprinting and clamber as just illusions of core gameplay, in that it would work the same without them, but with the map design based around them and the advantages they have counter that. For example, the classic boost, slide, jump, and clamber to get as far as you can up a ledge. Stuff like that, chaining the things together. Sprint and clamber are nearly starters and finishers, like Killer Instinct, if that makes sense (oddly enough)
But yeah fuck Spartan Charge.
i like them, but even if you dont you have to admit that they get in the way a lot less than the armor abilities of reach and H4. sprint is less of a free escape because it delays your shield. running from a fight just results in getting popped in the back of the skull. clamber is really minor, it just makes jumps take an extra button press + brief animation. rarely changes anything, but doing it at the wrong time can get you killed. groundpound and charge are kinda gimmicky but like you said groundpound isnt powerful enough to cause an issue. charge is annoying as fuck, i'll give you that.
Having infinite sprint ruins map design and the core gameplay. It totally kills the emphasis on not putting yourself in a bad position. There have been sooo many times I've sprinted by players and vanished before they could do anything and vice versa. Plus clamber kills having to time jumps and learn the map to get to advantageous spots. You can just clamber up anything. The high ground used to be so important in halo and you were heavily rewarded for getting it with the right weapon. You dont see this in halo 5 because most maps dont even have advantagous spots and the one's that do have soo many ways of approach that having that spot is really rewarding. And the lowered shields are irritating. An AR can kill with half a clip.
At a certain point, this game just left the halo station and became something totally different. With reach, when there were armor abilities, as irritating as they were, the core gameplay still felt like halo(except armor lock, FUCK armor lock).
One thing I feel you missed in a later part is on many weapons, zooming actually decreases aim assist but slightly increases magnetism so it's more of a trade-off than a straight-up benefit but it's a trade-off that works really well on ranged engagements.
That debussy piece got me hooked
Geky what piece is it?
preludes No.4 by debussy i believe
We need "Halo Infinite.. 2 Years Later".
Hearing josh holmes talk about his mom and dementia really opened my eyes. The ONE single thing I enjoyed from halo 4. It came from the heart of someone. Nothing else did. And it showed.
I find 343 is a company which is new to a franchise that fans love through out many years and try to learn from them through trials and error...
Excellent review, young chief
We had these badass ODSTs doing the same thing as Master Chief but with no augmentation and no power-armor. And then 343 goes and turns our interesting and cool ODSTs into boring half-assed Spartans. Master Chief was one of a kind, now everyone is a Spartan.
By far this is the worst thing they did to halo. IMHO
Can't wait to come back in a year to see what you think about infinite
Halo 5 has to be the most disappointing game of the series, with the weakest plot and the most boring second main character.
It's not a bad game per say, just.... underwhelming.
it is definitely a bad game, per se.
I think he means Noble 6, but I liked Noble 6, however that might just be nostalgia
Rumford Chimpenstein the Campaign is but the multiplayer is fine in my opinion
Ionyx Gaming I really don't even like the Multiplayer in Halo 5. I personally like the first 3 Halo mp's the most.
Blue Missed how long did you play h5
Playing through on Legendary for the first time - Ground Pound and Spartan Charge seem fun, but are complete afterthoughts on this difficulty setting. You are free to use these "fun" new mechanics, but they will certainly get you killed. Really liked that point you made, highlighting that the campaign maps were greyboxed before the armor abilities were implemented.
The trials is an amazing track, I love it so much, it's a shame it didn't have an amazing mission to compliment it
my biggest problem is armor is unlocked through luck. In Halo 3 when I saw all Recon I knew that guy was a god on Halo 3. When I saw Gunginr I knew that guy was amazing at Reach. When I saw someone with ODST or Mark V. I thought. They ether A) Got lucky or B) Payed for it
Here's a math problem 343 should use in halo 6
Halo 3 campaign+halo 5 multiplayer=halo 6
B C with halo 2 character development
Halo 3 MP maps.
B C I hope not. Halo 3 wouldn't be my favourite.
Bjorn Gustaffson hell no
not with an ending like that
I've been a die hard Halo fan since 2002, I played CE through 4, read the first 4 books, but I haven't owned an Xbox since 2013, so I never played Halo 5 or looked too much into it. Watching this all these years later, it's just so depressing to see what they've done to this amazing franchise. RIP to a legend.