Halo fans will not be disappointed with the latest installment in the epic franchise — that is, unless, you are expecting to play the game with friends in the same room.
Microsoft’s 343 Industries debuts Halo 5: Guardians for the Xbox One on Tuesday. I’ve been testing the game for the past few weeks and came away impressed with the new visuals, audio, weapons, controls, gameplay, multiplayer modes, storyline, and a whole lot more. It’s one of the best-looking and most fun games I’ve played on the Xbox One.
The campaign mode has 15 action-packed missions that let you control mostly Spartan Locke and occasionally Master Chief, both of which are consistently flanked by teammates that join together to battle Covenant and Prometheans.
There are a handful of new weapons, vehicles, movement maneuvers, and melee attacks you’ll notice in Halo 5, along with the ability to revive teammates. Speaking of teammates, there are neat team-based features built into the beefed up co-operative campaign that adds another dimension for those that enjoy an alternative to solo campaigns.
As for the story itself, which continues from Halo 4, it’s a bit tough to understand if you haven’t played previous Halo installments. There also seemed to be subtle effects that made the entire campaign seem like a movie — more so than the previous Halo games, at least.
Running at 60 frames per second, the improved graphics are phenomenal both during gameplay and cutscenes. From the character details to the expansive maps, this is a game you can call “beautiful.”
However, while those graphics are fantastic in campaign and online multiplayer, it’s also the only reason why I have a problem with Halo 5. 343 Industries decided to eliminate split-screen from both campaign and multiplayer modes from the new game, making it impossible to play with a friend in the same room. Split-screen has been a staple of Halo games since the beginning, but the improved environments, visuals, and AI would have been comprised by including the feature in Halo 5, according to a 343 developer who posted on HaloWaypoint:
The decision to remove split-screen support from Halo 5: Guardians was one of the most difficult ones we’ve ever had to make as a studio. We know that for many of our fans, Halo has meant playing together with friends in the same room. We all have great memories of past Halo split-screen multiplayer matches. To move Halo’s gameplay forward and deliver a true next-gen experience, tough choices had to be made. Our decision was driven by a desire for scale, fidelity and focus to ensure that we would deliver the best quality experience possible. With Halo 5 we are delivering massive scale environments, improved AI behavior, increased visual and gameplay fidelity… something that truly takes advantage of a new platform. Many of our ambitious goals for Halo 5 would be compromised in a split-screen setting and the time spent optimizing and addressing split-screen-specific issues would take focus from building other parts of the game. Game development is a balancing act of resources, time and technology, and in this case we made the tough decision to sacrifice something that’s been near and dear to us all.
This will be disappointing to those who are accustomed to playing Halo with friends in the same room, like many of my peers grew up doing. With Halo 5, if you want to play with friends in real life, you’ll have to lug your Xbox One console to a friend’s house and hook up your device — with your own Halo 5 game — to a separate TV, and then finally log into the same online lobby.
Forbes writer Paul Tassi sums up my sentiment pretty well in his piece titled “Xbox Head’s Excuses For No ‘Halo 5’ Splitscreen Are Nonsense.”
“I wouldn’t care if Halo 5 looked like Halo 3 from a graphics perspective if it would allow me to play games on my couch with my friends again,” Tassi wrote. “There is no argument you can come up with that warrants a lack of splitscreen, especially in an age when these new consoles are supposed to have more features than ever. If better graphics are the price of losing that feature for games like Halo 5, forget it, I don’t want them.”
Those complaints aside, I did really enjoy Halo 5’s multiplayer modes — the traditional Arena and Warzone, a new format — that I was able to try in limited form.
That problem aside, this is an awesome game that mixes new features and graphics with traditional Halo mechanisms and storytelling. 343 Industries has produced another hit in this multimillion dollar franchise and should be impressive enough to convince Xbox 360 owners to upgrade to the Xbox One.
