HALO 5: GUARDIANS - MULTIPLAYER

jackcooper98
Oct 30, 2015
4 min read

Took the lead. Lost the lead. Tied the leader.

Sadly, I wasn’t around for the glory days of Halo multiplayer. The days of Halo 2 and 3 controlling Xbox live for years on end. I joined around Halo Reach’s era, just as the glory days were on their last legs. Halo 4 put my off Halo multiplayer for a long time. Close to a year and a half I think. But now, a new era has begun. Could we finally be seeing the return of the reason Xbox Live was made in the first place? Halo 5 is here. And things are looking good.

Halo 5 is a bit of a new horizon for the series in multiplayer terms. Whilst the old modes are still around, there’s only one mode 343 really wants you to play these days: Warzone.

Warzone, you either like it most of the time or hate it all of the time. Like it or not, it is quite a good mode on 343’s part. 12 v 12 battles are hugely fun at the best of times. But what could possibly make them better? How about 12 v 12 v AI enemies. I was initially reluctant when I first watched the trailer for the new Warzone mode. It looked too complicated and too fast paced for the true Halo style. And, while each match takes a good couple of minutes to really get into the action, I was pleasantly surprised. The addition of AI bots to a big team battle is both a good and fun move, and adds some new life to the franchise. This mode also makes huge use of the new REQ system, which I’ll get into later.

Warzone Assault however, is a different story. This time it’s just big team battle, with no AIs involved. The main difference from normal Warzone is that one team defends a base, whilst the other team attacks it. For those of you who played the battlefront beta recently, you know what I mean when I say ‘unbalanced’. In all the matches I’ve played, and from stories I’ve heard online no attacking team has ever won, let alone made any kind of impact what so ever. I don’t know what’s causing this, but 343 need to check on it ASAP.

As I mentioned earlier, Halo 5 introduces the REQ system. Befuddling at first, you’ll soon get used to it. Basically, you level up in match, and when you hit a certain level, you can choose a new weapon or vehicle from a set of ‘cards’ you unlock by completing matches and level up and that sort of stuff. Whilst the in-match system on the whole is a great idea- it lets you play with the weapons you want to once you’re good enough to get them, the REQ system has one major fall down. One that, once I worked it out, I hated more than anything else in the game. The REQ system is the only way you unlock new armour.

That might not sound bad, but let me elaborate: The REQ system is random. You don’t know what armour you’re going to get, if anything at all. As the REQ system includes weapons, weapon skins, vehicles and power ups as well, the likelihood of actually obtaining new armour is pretty small. And that’s my beef with Halo 5. What was wrong with the Halo 4 rank system? You rank up, you get armour. That’s just common sense. Reach did it, Halo 3 did it. For some reason, Christ knows why, 343 decided to hell with that. Let’s make ranking up pointless. We’ll just give them a random armour when we feel like it. Idiots. And I know I’m not the only one thinking that. Just check the forums.

To add to this, the actual customization options are pretty limited. Instead of being able to change every last square inch of your Spartan, you can only change Helmet, Visor and Body. It's even less limited than Halo 3. Let's hope they return it to Halo Reach/ Halo 4 status pretty soon.

Rant aside, let’s get onto the rest of the multiplayer. Every other game mode now comes under ‘Arena’. (No, I don’t know why either) They all feel pretty much the same as ever, and the new maps feel a lot better designed than Halo 4’s. Combat is faster than previous games, but not stupidly quick like in Call of Duty. And, more importantly, the teams are now Red and Blue. Not those weird ‘off’ shades in Halo 4. What I will say about the other modes is they aren’t many in number. There’s a lot of games modes missing, which I’m guessing means they’ll be adding at a later point. (Hopefully) In fact, not even Forge is there. I don’t think 343 planned well enough. There is a lot of stuff missing. The other big gap is infection/Flood mode. There isn’t one. I don’t know if people didn’t like it, but I thought it was a hoot and a half. Invasion hasn’t returned either, but I still hold out hope.

I will say this though: Breakout is a hugely fun two minute-per round single life single flag CTF. There's five rounds, and they'll all really fun for a short game of multiplayer.

So yeah. Big changes and, for the most part, big improvements. The maps are great and gameplay feels a lot less Call of Duty-like. But, and I know this is going to sound petty, but the whole armour thing is just a shambles. I hope 343 fixes it soon. I don’t want to keep spending REQ points on packs that just contain stuff I already have. I think I’m up to like fifteen Mongooses now. Thankfully though, unlike the Master Chief Collection, multiplayer did actually work from day one. No-one waited for months on end just to venture into the dastardly multiplayer menu. I’d love to give multiplayer a high score. I really would. It feels like Halo again. Back to the good old days of Reach. But that whole armour thing. I can’t bring myself to look over that.

7/10

All images are from my own gameplay experience.