Halo 5 : Guardians Review

Halo 5: Guardians is a first person shooter by 343 Industries and published by Microsoft exclusively for the Xbox One on October 27, 2015. This game is the tenth original game in the Halo series and the first release on the Xbox One not counting The Master Chief Collection.

I'm going to put all my cards on the table, I'm not the biggest fan of Halo. It's not that I don't like it, the game just doesn't do it for me. The original Halo made me buy the first Xbox and I liked the enough that when Halo 2 came out I bought it and played a lot of multiplayer with it. Once we got to the Xbox 360 I started playing first person shooters like Call Of Duty and Battlefield and I found that I liked playing these games over the sci-fi shooters. I have played a few of the newer Halo games but I wasn't waiting in line for them to come out. They still make a good game and Halo 5 is no exception.

There are three difficulty options in the single player game; normal, heroic and legendary. I finished the game in six and a half hours on Heroic difficulty and really didn't have any problem with it. At this point in my life, there are way too many video games that I'd like to play before I die so I didn't challenge myself with Legendary but I got to experience the whole game and it didn't take up too much of my time so I'm happy.

Like the other Halo games, this one revolves around Master Chief. The story is split into two fire teams and the fate of the galaxy lies in the balance. The game can be played solo or with up to four players online co-op which is great, especially when playing on Legendary.

I believe that most fans of Halo are here for the multiplayer. The game launched with 20 maps and with more released since, all for free. I really like when they do this, first it allows all players to play in all matches and the producers did this on purpose. Secondly, it's nice for a game to be launched and releasing DLC for free as most games these days launch with parts of the complete game unavailable unless you pay for it. I'm getting sick of games being released and making you pay extra for "DLC" that should have been part of the price of the game.

I enjoyed playing online as it's done well but it didn't break any new ground. Halo makes a lot of money so they can't make the game too different from what the fans expect.

Halo 5 is a great looking game, that cannot be denied. The music and sound effects are good too. You would expect no less from one of Xbox's premier franchise.

Overall I think Halo 5 is a pretty good game. It doesn't really break any new ground but what it does it does very well. I give Halo 5: Guardians a 7 out of 10.