WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
The Halo series seems like one of those game franchises that have been around as long as video games. What started as a Real Time Strategy game in the offices of Bungie, the creators of the series, has morphed into one of the greatest first-person-shooter series' in gaming history.
The franchise future was put into question when Bungie decided to break off from the Microsoft family of studios and sold all rights to the series to Microsoft, who then handed the reigns over to it's own internal studio, 343 Studios. The studio's first effort, Halo 4, proved to be a success, but some series loyalists found it sub par to that of previous entries. 343's second attempt, Master Chief Collection, is a stellar deal and a great piece of work, but was plagued with multiplayer issues following it's launch.
Now, with Halo 5: Guardians, 343 has decided to take the Halo forumula and also sprinkle it's own vision into the mix.
The game plays great so far. Once players who have played previous entries in the sieries pick up the controller they will feel right at home. It took me literally seconds to get back into the Halo frame of mind.
The atmosphere so far feels quite desolate and far more vast than Halo 4, and there are a couple of things to note with that. The slower pace of enemies thus far has allowed me more time to explore the landscapes and find secrets than any other Halo title before it. What's more, I'm finding a lot of secrets. Caves, holes in the ground, secret rooms. It almost at times feels like I'm playing a Zelda game, but at the same time feels just like Halo.
The biggest departure so far from previous Halo games is the new revive system. Players can now revive a partner who has been downed. Shields still regenerate, but once you go down, instead of simply dying and then respawning, you can call for help and be regenerated. I personally found this to be a welcome addition because save points always seemed to be a bit further apart in Halo games.
Gunplay in this game feels different. In previous titles gamers simply shoot over and over and over. This time around however it feels a bit more realistic (which I understand is an odd thing to write considering it's a game about space marines defending a fictional planet). It just seems more sim-like than arcade-like, if that makes any sense.
Visuals are as is expected at this age in gaming. The game is gorgeous and runs at a smooth 60fps. This is what players expect nowadays but considering the sheer size of the game and the amount of on screen elements the fact that the frame rate never seems to drop if pretty impressive.
Overall I really enjoy Halo 5: Guardians so far and I'm very much looking forward to stress testing it more as we build up to our final review on Monday, October 26th.