Just finished it. Good game, but it didn't feel like Halo. If you buy this for SP I think you're going to be disappointed.
The story was very vague and finishes with a cliffhanger basically they're saying they did half the game and released it and you'll get the other half in 6. Also the story they hinted at in Hunt The Truth has zero to do with Halo 5. Thinking back on an interview with Bonnie Ross the other day where she was going on about how all this stuff was really deep in Halo 5 all I can say is LOLZ she never even fucking played it to be spouting that shit. Also, Locke is just plain boring. He doesn't talk much and when he does he is a personality-free zone and just barks out an order and says something really mundane. Master Chief he is not.
The whole SP campaign was designed around MP too with the stupid 'revive' mechanic and even when you die it doesn't name you as the character you're playing (i.e. Locke) it shows your multiplayer gaming tag which to me is massively immersion killing and further cements the fact MP was their complete focus from start to finish. The graphics aren't particularly impressive either. All they cared about was 60fps so they toned the graphics right down. That's fair enough up to a point, everyone wants smooth gameplay but to me it looks no better than Halo 4 on the 360. Again I feel this is down to forced co-op four players on screen at all times that is their whole drive and motivation and **** the single player experience seems to be their approach to it. Or it might be down to the technical limitations on Xbox One are even more severe than we thought. Honestly, for the opening release of a proper Halo game on Xbox One I expected much more than this.
On the plus side the weapons are fantastic, every single one of them is great fun to mess around with and the combat in general is more balanced than probably any other Halo game I've played. Obviously the constant 60 FPS makes for a very smooth ride as well. I haven't played multiplayer yet though people everywhere have been raving about it so if that's your main interest (and I know for a lot of Halo fans it is) then you won't be disappointed at all.
The single player experience though feels like the end of an era to me. 343 have pretty much ditched it, tacking it on to their MP engine with a couple of cut scenes so they can say 'look, we gave you something' but it's obvious what their focus is moving forward. I don't think we'll ever see a real Halo SP game again as long as the franchise is in their hands and that makes me kind of sad but hey, nothing I can do about it.
As a sci fi FPS if I was to score the game for someone who isn't a huge fan of the franchise I'd give it an 8 (which it seems to be getting more or less everywhere). As a new entry in the Halo series I'd give it a 6. Also, from the reviews I've read and general comments from people who played the MP, if that's your interest you can safely consider it to be in 9 territory.
So I've enjoyed it, quite a bit in fact, but it wasn't what I expected. Onwards and upwards then to Fallout 4 on PC (less than a week away now and I've decided to get it after all) and Anno's not far away, might give Disgaea 5 a shot on PS4 too and Gears of War Ultimate is kind of tempting now it's come down in price as well. There's always another potentially great game around the corner, that story never ends though Halo at least on the surface of it appears to have moved on to all things multiplayer. What can I say, it was amazing while it lasted but all great things come to an end.
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