Like, seriously, before 343 really mixed up the franchise’s control scheme with Halo 5, 4 was the best installment in the series by far with the “classic” shooting stylings. For 343’s first outing, Halo 4 ended up boasting a tight, concise campaign that feels excellent to play.
This one was actually really tough for me because largely, I think Halo 4‘s campaign is pretty darn good. If anything, I’m glad that Halo 5 at least prompted 343 to return to the drawing board and create an entirely new engine before continuing on with the development of the franchise. As such, Halo 5: Guardians easily stands as the worst in the series and makes me somewhat nervous about Infinite‘s prospects later this year.
There are some redeeming aspects of Halo 5, but those mainly are present in the game’s multiplayer offering, which, as I said, isn’t being taken into account here. Plus, I cannot begin to express how lame it is to have to fight one boss nearly ten different times over the course of the game. Since the game is more focused on fighting as a team, 343 littered the environments with way more enemies than in past entries, leading to me and my companions being downed in this installment way more than any other Halo campaign. Then there’s also the fact that the squad-based gameplay that 343 tried to lean into with this entry just doesn’t work well at all. Most notably to a lot of fans, myself included, playing as Locke and Osiris Team for 80% of the campaign isn’t as fun as it is to play as Master Chief. Instead, it’s a death by a thousand cuts situation. Overall, there isn’t one major thing I can point to in Halo 5 that makes it a lesser experience than every other entry.