Some media outlets have been given the chance to play 2 campaign missions from Halo 5. Here are some opinions based on those builds. I say those builds, since they are not finite, and can still change.
Polygon
The result is a game that doesn't feel new yet, necessarily, but it does feel evolved. So far Halo 5 has a more active feel to it, with more seeming options at any given moment due in part to the new abilities at your disposal at any given moment as opposed to the sort of revolving door of temporary abilities that Halo: Reach or Halo 4 would bestow upon you.
The point is that I felt like I was more active moment to moment in Halo 5 than I needed to be in Halos prior. It felt good. It felt good enough for me to get drawn in and enjoy my time with Halo 5 an awful lot despite some caution flags and actual twinges of disappointment at what I was seeing.
So. I'm excited by what I've played so far, excited to dive into a Halo that feels like a leap forward. It's just that part of me hopes it's more than that, and I don't know if it will be.
Eurogamer
In an effort to make a mark on the series, 343 has added a greater sense of verticality to proceedings with Halo 5. And nooks and crannies. So, upon entering said goldfish bowl, there are ledges to climb up to, rock walls to bust through, flanking positions up there and everywhere, and hidden paths in which power weapons may be found. Halo's always had huge levels complete with plenty of nooks and crannies, but with Halo 5 I felt like I was digging about more, hauling myself up, boosting onto a ledge that famous Spartan floating jump wouldn't otherwise reach, then ground pounding into a pack of Grunts from what feels like a mile up. There's plenty to do in a firefight beyond firing weapons - and invariably you'll find it if you look up. Remember, there's no fall damage as a Spartan (343 actually debated the rights and wrongs of this, creative director Tim Longo tells me).
That Kraken fight, though. It has stuck with me. It gives me hope Halo 5's campaign will be what I want from a Halo campaign. I want co-op (the lack of split-screen still stings). I want those late nights messing about on Legendary difficulty with friends. I want shenanigans with Banshees and Warthogs and rocket launchers. I want huge levels in which the crack of Halo's sniper rifle reverberates off of the walls of alien structures before landing in the skull of an Elite half the world away. I want to stick a grenade onto a Ghost and watch it blow from halfway across the map. I want to leap into a firefight and make the goldfish bowl my own. Shoot, grenade, melee, 30 seconds of fun.
This is the spark I'm looking for. Halo 4 was a hugely enjoyable, visually-stunning first-person shooter that burned brightly before fading away not long after launch. I need more from Halo 5. This is Halo, after all.
Gamespot
If Halo 5: Guardians is one extended chase scene, then the universe is our crowded city street. I played through two missions, and they took place in vastly different environments: a lonely Office of Naval Intelligence facility, and a desert landscape on Sanghelios, the home planet of Halo's bipedal Elites. And these missions dwarf any others in the franchise. Halo: Reach succeeded by placing us amid raging battles, and Halo 3: ODST's open world departed from the linearity of previous campaigns--but Halo 5's scale is something more.
In fact, the Kraken occupied so much of the map that I assumed it was just part of the background. But it wasn't--a call came over the radio, and destroying the goliath became our main priority. So we jumped into nearby fighter ships, destroyed a dozen turrets on the Kraken's upper deck, descended into its bowels, and destroyed it from the inside. This encounter lasted 10 minutes.
The juxtaposition between these developing relationships and the battles they're placed in didn't feel forced, at least not in the two missions I played. Halo 4 told an endearing, emotional story between Chief and Cortana, and as 343 Studios' second original Halo title, I'm interested to see if that will carry over in Halo 5's final release, and extend the longevity of the already prolific series.
Large scales battles, long missions, and hopefully a great story line. Halo 5 is going to be good.
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