Halo 5: Guardians

As much as I really don't care for the multiplayer game type selection, armor customization and rank progression, it's probably the only redeeming aspect to this game. I do enjoy the big team battle, warzone and firefight modes when the servers can actually stay populated- which just seems to stop after being several minutes into a match.

Been running through the Halo games in preparation for Infinite and my excitement has now been stomped into cautious optimism after this stark reminder of a campaign.

The story relies heavily on details never mentioned in the games, flat and meaningless dialog and just piss poor choreography. Seriously though, what was that intro? The entire campaign doesn't even make a single reference to a Halo ring. Even 4 managed to do that. By comparison, this makes 4 look like a masterpiece. The over the top abilities of Locke's team devalues all the crazy stunts Master Chief pulled off in previous games and insults the audience that's old enough to remember the original trilogy when they were new. They then become completely useless when Master Chief is standing right in front of them. I hope the lead writers never touch a Halo project again because they're simply an incompetent group.

A few final constructive criticisms are the music is easily the worst of any Halo game, the T rating and lack of any blood is not a good trade-off just so kids can have easier access to it (I played CE when I was 7, I wonder how?) and finally- and I completely forgot this prior to replaying it, but you only play as Master Chief for 3 missions. If Locke was as well written as the Arbiter back in Halo 2 I could forgive this point, but I literally couldn't care in the slightest for him or his team. I don't remember the names of the two females (promise I'm not sexist) but their involvement in the game meant nothing to me. At least Buck didn't come out of left field with meaningless details sprinkled here and there. Don't get me started on the Chief's team, they simply should NOT have been in the game.

Here's to hoping Infinite doesn't suffer from several of the same mistakes- and believe me, there are many more..