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[draughn101]

Yikes... Impressions on the last page are scaring me.

If you go to the other thread, there's more impressions, like mine. Jumperzzzzz, no offense, hasn't had a great halo rep on here the last few weeks. That being said, I'm a gigantic Halo fan, so there's that.

I enjoyed the game a lot. I've been through it twice already. Once on Heroic and once on Legendary and it's the most ...fun... I've had in a Halo SP since CE. I think the co-op will be stellar. I think the game looks pretty good. It's not gonna win graphics awards, but when you consider how well the game plays, any little flaws are easily overlooked. There are some scenes too that are pretty gorgeous too. This game will be worth your $60.

The story is subjective. I liked it, but I love Halo and take any story bits I can. It's not The Last of Us. You aren't buying it for the storytelling alone.

 

[Xzilerate1690]

There have been A LOT of people who have positive reactions to the game, let's not just focus on the negatives.

They are less visible in this thread for two reasons.

1.They have less concern, post only once usually
2. They are inherently less likely to find themselves in a spoiler thread before release

It's a 343i game. It has great things and terrible things. Play it and see.

It already has improvements over Halo 4 in terms of its relatability to the common player.

People will always make a much bigger deal out of the negatives than they will the positives. The game could have tons of positive reviews with only a couple negative ones and people will inevitably find a reason not to buy the game due to the few negative reviews.

Sad, but that's the way it is.

 

[Vire]

If you go to the other thread, there's more impressions, like mine. Jumperzzzzz, no offense, hasn't had a great halo rep on here the last few weeks. That being said, I'm a gigantic Halo fan, so there's that.

I enjoyed the game a lot. I've been through it twice already. Once on Heroic and once on Legendary and it's the most ...fun... I've had in a Halo SP since CE. I think the co-op will be stellar. I think the game looks pretty good. It's not gonna win graphics awards, but when you consider how well the game plays, any little flaws are easily overlooked. There are some scenes too that are pretty gorgeous too. This game will be worth your $60.

Hehe I'm not worried about the $60.

I'm buying an Xbox for this game, so it's more like 400. But I guess I won't know till I play it for myself. *shrug

 

[ElzarTheBam]

Anyone else think Cortana looks like..err Adrian Brody with a wig?

 

[SmartWaffles]

Reach Live Action Trailer was canon. That's it?

Starry Night is canon as well, the talk between John and the girl

Spoiler

was later retold in Hunt the Truth

 

[draughn101]

Hehe I'm not worried about the $60.

I'm buying an Xbox for this game, so it's more like 400. But I guess I won't know till I play it for myself. *shrug

If you like what you've seen from the MP, it'll be worth it. The gameplay is a dream, seriously. The abilities are so natural and fun. I'm not one to replay SP games, unless I'm grinding for an achievement, but I've been through it twice, and have enjoyed every minute and I seriously look forward to playing co-op with friends. And a run through on normal to explore and find skulls.

 

[IHaveIce]

Anyone else think Cortana looks like..err Adrian Brody with a wig?

I want Dylan Rider cortana :/

 

[Flipyap]

Halo 4 on the Mcc looks a lot better aesthetically. And the sky boxes are no way near as good as it either.

How is that even possible? The vast majority of Halo 4's skyboxes were highly compressed 2D stills of pre-rendered vistas. In that dumb truck level you ride past a pixelated JPG meant to look like a canyon.

I haven't played the game myself, but I've seen the entire campaign through streams and I actually think Halo 5 has the strongest story since Halo 2, but that's just me.

Same here (as long as we exclude ODST). Can't say the same about the quality of the writing, but the plot looks interesting and is executed quite well (despite the writer's best efforts to turn it into a cringe fest).

Anyone else think Cortana looks like..err Adrian Brody with a wig?

Looks more like Boy George to me.

 

[nOoblet16]

I like the gameplay, the game has a fantastic feel to it's gunplay and movement.
It will also be a great game for co-op, and I honestly do not mind the graphical cutbacks with regards to dynamic resolution and such. The game is quite low tech but it also runs great and still ends up looking quite nice, beside there is the fact that the game plays very fast most won't notice these things unless they are sitting close to the screen. The only issue I had with the game's tech was the reduced animation quality, it's very jarring but that's about it.

But with all that said, the game has some issues with its story and ending and I think it will become more prominent over time once the game launches and more people play it.

Anyone else think Cortana looks like..err Adrian Brody with a wig?

She has such a derp face here, all her close up shots made her look funny.

 

[draughn101]

How is that even possible? The vast majority of Halo 4's skyboxes were highly compressed 2D stills of pre-rendered vistas. In that dumb truck level you ride past a pixelated JPG meant to look like a canyon.


Same here (as long as we exclude ODST). Can't say the same about the quality of the writing, but the plot looks interesting and is executed quite well (despite the writer's best efforts to turn it into a cringe fest).


Looks more like Boy George to me.

It's not true. At all. It still has that similar Halo look, but it's definitely a lot better looking than 4. You're gonna hear a lot more of that tho. It's the nature of the biz with big releases. The hatred will get overwhelming on here soon.

 

[nOoblet16]

Yea Halo 5, even though it has more or less the same aesthetics, does look better than Halo 4 MCC although not by a huge margin. But on the other hand it has areas that are a lot bigger and busier with a lot more enemies and effects on screen.

 

[[Call-Me-G]]

Yikes... Impressions on the last page are scaring me.

People are allways complaining. People who liked it are actually playing it, or they don't feel the need to post a positive feedback here. The guy who prefered Halo 4 is from another planet

From everything I read concerning Halo 5 (and my own judgment), it's one of the best in the saga. People complaining about it are the one who don't like 343's art or the story post Bungie, which, of course, is about to divide a lot.

 

[EvB]

Anyone else think Cortana looks like..err Adrian Brody with a wig?

I really tried to see it....

 

[gcarlin5]

Yikes... Impressions on the last page are scaring me.

I liked it. Sure the end could have been better but overall Halo 5 was solid I'm my opinion

 

[LegalEagleMike]

I feel like every ending outside of CE and Reach have seen a ton of complaints.

 

[blakep267]

I mean, it's a cliffhanger. As soon as I saw cortana towards the end I knew they weren't gonna really solve anything with this game. That's fine with me though.

 

[draughn101]

I mean, it's a cliffhanger. As soon as I saw cortana towards the end I knew they weren't gonna really solve anything with this game. That's fine with me though.

Yea but it was a better cliffhanger than it could've been. I expected "the hunt" to continue. This one opens up a bunch of different personal and ethical conflicts. After Hunt the Truth, I'm interested to see what ONI thinks of Cortana's plan.

 

[Anung]

Yikes... Impressions on the last page are scaring me.

I'm at the end now and its better than 4 (which is the best thing you can say about your halo game) is it a perfect 9/10 GOTY experience? Not really. There are some serious flaws the game has held-over from 4. They've tried to improve them but not quite got there yet. That said the game-play and player movement is the best its ever been and its complimented by the best level design seen in a Halo game. Seriously, they have knocked it out of the park in terms of offering the player multi-layered combat areas and routes.

Story is fluff but more understandable fluff than 4.

If you go in expecting the best game of the year then you'll be disappointed. If you go in expecting a decent improvement over 4 then you'll probably be pleasantly surprised.

 

[EvB]

I'm at the end now and its better than 4 (which is the best thing you can say about your halo game) is it a perfect 9/10 GOTY experience? Not really. There are some serious flaws the game has held-over from 4. They've tried to improve them but not quite got there yet. That said the game-play and player movement is the best its ever been and its complimented by the best level design seen in a Halo game. Seriously, they have knocked it out of the park in terms of offering the player multi-layered combat areas and routes.

Story is fluff but more understandable fluff than 4.

If you go in expecting the best game of the year then you'll be disappointed. If you go in expecting a decent improvement over 4 then you'll probably be pleasantly surprised.

I think that is a fair summary. I enjoyed it on the first run through. It didn't reinvent the genre or the series, but it had a really good try. I think there will be a lot more fun to have when I can get into co-op with my friends.

 

[draughn101]

I'm at the end now and its better than 4 (which is the best thing you can say about your halo game) is it a perfect 9/10 GOTY experience? Not really. There are some serious flaws the game has held-over from 4. They've tried to improve them but not quite got there yet. That said the game-play and player movement is the best its ever been and its complimented by the best level design seen in a Halo game. Seriously, they have knocked it out of the park in terms of offering the player multi-layered combat areas and routes.

Story is fluff but more understandable fluff than 4.

If you go in expecting the best game of the year then you'll be disappointed. If you go in expecting a decent improvement over 4 then you'll probably be pleasantly surprised.

I agree with this. As far as GOTY, if you are looking at it from a SP standpoint, no way. The multiplayer may put it over the top tho. I just have a feeling that the movement/mechanics/shooting fun/60 fps is going to be incredible in MP. Not to mention how good co-op should be.

It's not perfect by any stretch, but it's damn good.

 

[Messofanego]

- Only Missions i liked were the Sanghelios and Genesis mission. They stand out between all the generic, grey looking other missions.

Was watching Gamersyde's videos of Sanghelios and thought it looked gorgeous, was hoping it was to that level for the rest of the game. Shame.

 

[[Call-Me-G]]

I'm eager to see how Halo 6 will be. Not story-wise, but Gameplay-wise. With Halo 5,they start a 'better in coop' game. And the Guardians... I hope we'll fight one of them, too,but I don't know how.

EDIT: Do Intels bring a lotnto the story / side stories ? I've found only 35 of them, but I have not listened to them yet.

 

[AAMARMO]

- The story is really weak. And feels like that it changed mid development. (what happened to the 2013 stuff with Chief in the desert?) The game probably wasnt coop focused early on.

I think it changed in mid development

look at the 2014 box art compare to the 2015 box art they both look so different it fells like it wasn't going to be co-op.

Do we ever see this much detailed of Sanghellios?.

or this place

Also Phil Spencer said this at E3 “There was no ambiguity in not putting a number after the game. For me, what we showed wasn’t the game. Nobody should be confused on that. I didn’t really want to try to show something that was clearly a thought piece by the studio around where Master Chief is in his journey, and then drop the name after it and be somewhat disingenuous about that being the game. But I did want Bonnie [Ross] to come out and say 'First-person shooter. Master Chief.' Because they'll get the questions: 'Hey, is this ODST? What are you guys doing?' Bonnie [Ross] comes out and reaffirms that 343 is building this game. It’s Master Chief. It’s a first-person shooter at 60 frames per second. It’s coming in 2014.”

 

[bidguy]

i really dont like the way they handled chief in this game ... but it was expected from all the media the game got were locke was in the center. you only play 3 missions of 15 as chief. the game is great and i liked the story but they practically made him a side character

 

[EvB]

I think it changed in mid development

look at the 2014 box art compare to the 2015 box art art there was no desert level or city level.

Do we ever see this place in the finale game.

or this place

Also Phil Spencer said this at E3 “There was no ambiguity in not putting a number after the game. For me, what we showed wasn’t the game. Nobody should be confused on that. I didn’t really want to try to show something that was clearly a thought piece by the studio around where Master Chief is in his journey, and then drop the name after it and be somewhat disingenuous about that being the game. But I did want Bonnie [Ross] to come out and say 'First-person shooter. Master Chief.' Because they'll get the questions: 'Hey, is this ODST? What are you guys doing?' Bonnie [Ross] comes out and reaffirms that 343 is building this game. It’s Master Chief. It’s a first-person shooter at 60 frames per second. It’s coming in 2014.”

I think the second picture is Sanghellios

 

[[Call-Me-G]]

I think it changed in mid development

The box art is Sangheilos, the scene with Locke looking at Sangheilos is seen in Halo 2 Anniversary. The only one we have not seen yet is the one with the ship above a Human city.

 

[draughn101]

Was watching Gamersyde's videos of Sanghelios and thought it looked gorgeous, was hoping it was to that level for the rest of the game. Shame.

There's more than a few that look that good. Then you have UNSC themes, which I think are moody and awesome (look great on OLED tv). There's only one set of missions that I didn't think looked good, but it goes with what planet they were on. They were the only one that reminded me of Halo 4

That mission rocks btw

 

[CryptiK]

I think the second picture is Sanghellios

So is the first boxart.

 

[Xzilerate1690]

I think it changed in mid development

look at the 2014 box art compare to the 2015 box art art there was no desert level or city level.

Do we ever see this place in the finale game.

or this place

Also Phil Spencer said this at E3 “There was no ambiguity in not putting a number after the game. For me, what we showed wasn’t the game. Nobody should be confused on that. I didn’t really want to try to show something that was clearly a thought piece by the studio around where Master Chief is in his journey, and then drop the name after it and be somewhat disingenuous about that being the game. But I did want Bonnie [Ross] to come out and say 'First-person shooter. Master Chief.' Because they'll get the questions: 'Hey, is this ODST? What are you guys doing?' Bonnie [Ross] comes out and reaffirms that 343 is building this game. It’s Master Chief. It’s a first-person shooter at 60 frames per second. It’s coming in 2014.”

Uh yea we do. That's Sanghelios lol. So is the background on the top left box art you posted.

 

[blakep267]

i really dont like the way they handled chief in this game ... but it was expected from all the media the game got were locke was in the center. you only play 3 missions of 15 as chief. the game is great and i liked the story but they practically made him a side character

But it kinda made sense in the flow of the story. With Locke a lot of the missions were in succession and when your doing the sanghelios stuff. It's not like they finished the arbiter stuff. Then dos another story arc of missions. Then another. It was all kinda like the same war.

 

[TheDanger]

Loved it, the story is not bad for a video game imo.

 

[CassidyIzABeast]

I think it changed in mid development

look at the 2014 box art compare to the 2015 box art art there was no desert level or city level.

Do we ever see this place in the finale game.

or this place

Also Phil Spencer said this at E3 “There was no ambiguity in not putting a number after the game. For me, what we showed wasn’t the game. Nobody should be confused on that. I didn’t really want to try to show something that was clearly a thought piece by the studio around where Master Chief is in his journey, and then drop the name after it and be somewhat disingenuous about that being the game. But I did want Bonnie [Ross] to come out and say 'First-person shooter. Master Chief.' Because they'll get the questions: 'Hey, is this ODST? What are you guys doing?' Bonnie [Ross] comes out and reaffirms that 343 is building this game. It’s Master Chief. It’s a first-person shooter at 60 frames per second. It’s coming in 2014.”

Sanghelios and a early concept of Meridian

 

[bidguy]

When they first released those Locke vs Chief live action trailers I thought that the story was gonna be dark.

Only seeing the infinity drifting and badly damaged sent a chill down my spine (in a good way) Kinda disappointing to see how everything ended. The Legendary ending was good though.

it really feels like they changed their minds mid development and scrambled to put something together real quick. there are some amazing missions in this game and you start to get excited about the direction its heading (like getting on genesis first time) but then it completely reverses and gets real boring quick

dont get me wrong, its a huge improvement over halo 4 but it feels like the story is over before it begins. guess with all the thought put into improving multiplayer, campaign came second. a shame since i buy halo only for the story

 

[Fotos]

So I have seen the Legendary ending but it's just the Halo ring in front of a random planet. Is there something I'm not getting?

 

[bidguy]

In this game, we still have Chief at the center of it all, but he’s now surrounded by a team of Spartans.

this was also bullshit basically

 

[Xzilerate1690]

this was also bullshit basically

It really wasn't. Chief is the center of it. Just because he's only playable in 3 missions doesn't mean he isn't the center of the story. The story itself revolves around him. You're hunting him down, you're trying to figure out why he went AWOL, etc, etc.

 

[Kor of Memory]

It really wasn't. Chief is the center of it. Just because he's only playable in 3 missions doesn't mean he isn't the center of the story. The story itself revolves around him. You're hunting him down, you're trying to figure out why he went AWOL, etc, etc.

It's the equivalent of Mario is Missing.

Despite the entire game being played by Luigi, Mario is the more famous character, and thus gets his name in the title.

 

[bidguy]

yea thats quite a spin there. e3 trailer alluded that you go on a journey as chief to find cortana. next year they tell you its two sides of the story and you play locke and chief. in reality you chase the chief and dont really have a clue what he does in the meantime. in all other halo games you played as a green badass who at the end always saved the world even in halo 4. in this one youre playing a cia agent in a supersuit who saves his ass

 

[Messofanego]

How is the Republic Commando aspect of this? Having a team at your beck and call, fun personalities, cool battles because of them, good banter?

 

[Xzilerate1690]

yea thats quite a spin there. e3 trailer alluded that you go on a journey as chief to find cortana. next year they tell you its two sides of the story and you play locke and chief. in reality you chase the chief and dont really have a clue what he does in the meantime. in all other halo games you played as a green badass who at the end always saved the world even in halo 4. in this one youre playing a cia agent in a supersuit who saves his ass

And where did 343 ever say we would be playing as Chief for the majority of the campaign? People are twisting their words to suit their own agenda. Or they're going with their own headcanons about trailers from 3 years ago that never indicated anything about playing time let alone a firm indication of a specific narrative.

The only thing 343 ever said was that Chief was the primary/central character of Halo 5's story and he is. The story focuses on him. It's merely from a perspective other than his own.

 

[bidguy]

And where did 343 ever say we would be playing as Chief for the majority of the campaign? People are twisting their words to suit their own agenda.

yea right. and youre not spinning that lie into a weird truth somehow

fact is these two pics portray what i expect out of a mainline halo game with chief in it and it was always more or less like that in CE, 2, 3 and even in 4

these are official pics by 343i btw no clue why nothing of the sort was done in the game. i assume at least the second was a part in the game at some point before it was scrapped for whatever reason. im not hating the game even though it looks like it. no i actually enjoyed it (the olly olly oxen free tune on genesis was a nice touch) but it was not what i expected. i expected something like in halo 2 with most of the part played as chief with bits of locke here and there and a grand finale as chief. hell i expected to play arbiter at some point.

 

[lybertyboy]

Actually both of those images were done by our awesome concept art team (if my memory is correct) before Halo 4 launched. Naturally things change throughout the course of development, but I would not latch onto these pics as some sort of "proof" of anything actually. They're basically (beautiful) mood pieces.

 

[Xzilerate1690]

yea right. and youre not spinning that lie into a weird truth somehow

fact is these two pics portray what i expect out of a mainline halo game with chief in it and it was always more or less like that in CE, 2, 3 and even in 4

these are official pics by 343i btw no clue why nothing of the sort was done in the game. i assume at least the second was a part in the game at some point before it was scrapped for whatever reason. im not hating the game even though it looks like it. no i actually enjoyed it (the olly olly oxen free tune on genesis was a nice touch) but it was not what i expected. i expected something like in halo 2 with most of the part played as chief with bits of locke here and there and a grand finale as chief. hell i expected to play arbiter at some point.

No, I'm not. They stated Chief was a primary/central character in Halo 5's story, which fits with what I said. He is the primary character in the story as it revolves around him. Nowhere did they ever state he was playable for the majority of Halo 5. That's you among others twisting their words to make it look like they did.

And those pictures are concept art, which is hardly definitive proof of anything.

 

[bidguy]

Actually both of those images were done by our awesome concept art team (if my memory is correct) before Halo 4 launched. Naturally things change throughout the course of development, but I would not latch onto these pics as some sort of "proof" of anything actually. They're basically (beautiful) mood pieces.

they look like the game one expects after seeing the e3 desert trailer which kinda proves my point that there were big changes to the story. sometime during development it was decided that chief becomes a side character. maybe im wrong who knows i guess im just dissapointed that you play only a fraction of the campaign as him

 

[EvB]

they look like the game one expects after seeing the e3 desert trailer which kinda proves my point that there were big changes to the story. sometime during development it was decided that chief becomes a side character. maybe im wrong who knows i guess im just dissapointed that you play only a fraction of the campaign as him

The event that happens in the trailer may well have not happened in the timespan of the game, but previous to it.

Note chief is alone. He is never alone in the game.

 

[Bulby]

Is there much meaningful exploration in the campaign? I mean on a Silent Cartographer or Halo from CE comparison. Not some random collectable in a corner

 

[CassidyIzABeast]

I just assumed Poncho Chief was just a clever way throw the audience off that the trailer was for Halo.

 

[Sodding_Gamer]

How is that even possible? The vast majority of Halo 4's skyboxes were highly compressed 2D stills of pre-rendered vistas. In that dumb truck level you ride past a pixelated JPG meant to look like a canyon.

I dunno you'll have to ask 343i that! All I'm saying is that graphically it isn't much better if at all than Halo 4. With the skyboxes being the thing that stuck out for me. And it's not like I haven't played Halo 4 in a while. I played Halo1-4 last weekend so it's all fresh in my mind. The IQ in Halo 5 isn't great at all.

BUT..... like I said in my previous post, the gameplay is superb. The abilities are ace and the level design is back to how Halo used to be. Nice open areas with plenty of paths and stuff.

Also I'm normally really shit at Halo in general as I played through the MCC on normal and found Halo 1 and 2 fairly difficult (lol?!) but I completed Halo 5 on Heroic nice and breezy. Felt like I was playing it on normal. It even tempts me to give it a go on Legendary to be fair.

 

[bidguy]

I dunno you'll have to ask 343i that! All I'm saying is that graphically it isn't much better if at all than Halo 4. With the skyboxes being the thing that stuck out for me. And it's not like I haven't played Halo 4 in a while. I played Halo1-4 last weekend so it's all fresh in my mind. The IQ in Halo 5 isn't great at all.

BUT..... like I said in my previous post, the gameplay is superb. The abilities are ace and the level design is back to how Halo used to be. Nice open areas with plenty of paths and stuff.

Also I'm normally really shit at Halo in general as I played through the MCC on normal and found Halo 1 and 2 fairly difficult (lol?!) but I completed Halo 5 on Heroic nice and breezy. Felt like I was playing it on normal. It even tempts me to give it a go on Legendary to be fair.

yep thats were they improved tenfold. on the gameplay. melee hits actually feel like they pack a punch now with enemies flying off into the sunset when hit with the dash lol

i just wish they would have tried to balance scales a bit and gave blue team a bigger presence...
hopefuly people will make an uproar again like during the halo 2 times with the arbiter so halo 6 gets back on track again ....

on a different note, battle of sunaion was by far my fav mission in this game and it was an osiris mission lol

 

[samurai1226]

I think the skyboxes of H5 were great.
H4 had these cheap 2d textures that were really blurry. In h5 I found myself looking into the skyboxes from time to time on cool environments. The one were you are walking down the guardian, or being the first time on genesis - totally awesome. Or how many things are going on in the sky in the battle of sunaion.

To me the graphic was amazing in some levels (on sanghelios and genesis) and in other ones kinda ok (Blue Team). Overall it think its looks great, the focus on 60fps felt great.

I think this was a concept of the meridian station, since it's the achievement image after completing mission 4.

I think they wanted to make Chiefs part really dark, that he really is switching on the guardians, destroying cities/world and let him be alone, doing anything to get back Cortana, not seeing that she is evil (which would be an awesome story, the one they sold us in the marketing, the fallen hero)
Just look at this official art, this is what I expected to be in Halo 5 after all they told us.

In terms of gameplay Halo 5 is the absolutely amazing. It really is what I love about Halo. I just feel bad for the Mass Effect like story and Chief just being a Hero. But in the end I'm looking forward what they will do with Halo 6. Hopefully it will not be 3 years away again. And cant wait to finally get in the multiplayer on tuesday. This fast-paced gameplay with having learned to use the abilities (really love sliding into cover on legendary) in campaign must be cool in multiplayer. especially since it feels like for the first time in Halo game every weapon is useful.