Halo 5: Guardians

Halo has been one of the most successful videogame franchises of all time, and rightfully so. Time and time again, comments are made that Halo isn't an original series. It was not the first sci-fi first person shooter, or the first to have online multiplayer. However, Halo introduced many elements seen in today’s popular first person shooters, such as regenerating shields. Regenerating shields had been done in other games, but Halo was the first videogame in the first person shooter genre to do so, and doing so in a competitive multiplayer environment.

Other innovative aspects introduced by Bungie included; competitive automatic matchmaking, grenade throws without switching weapons, the beat-down melee attack, the two weapon limit found in many modern games, and it popularized the first person shooter genre in consoles. Halo: combat evolved broke sales records upon release. Due to the success of Halo, and its constant improvements, the franchise has enjoyed major success.

The latest release in the franchise is Halo 5: Guardians. Although Bungie is no longer the developing company of the franchise, 343 studios has been tasked with carrying the torch lit by Bungie and continued to improve the franchise. The general manager for 343, Bonnie Ross, has said that Halo 5 will take full advantage of the power of the Xbox One, running the game at 60 frames per second. The game features dynamic resolution, which allows it to scale up and down in order to maintain its 60fps. The game also employs 1080P resolution when it can. Microsoft has explained that the game’s resolution can decrease at certain scenes of the game in order to accommodate the needs of the scene. Finally, Halo 5’s engine is different than that of Halo 4, and will be enhanced by the XB1’s cloud-computing servers. This delivers the most powerful and visually brilliant Halo game ever released.

The game also builds on its predecessors by adding several different abilities and features for gameplay. The player can now climb ledges, which is something that has not been seen in previous Halo games. Gone are the days of jumping towards a ledge and falling to your death! The thruster pack has been modified for Halo 5 in which the player now has the ability to perform powerful Spartan abilities such as ground smashing, sliding on the ground, or sprinting full force for a thruster pack shoulder smash. An extremely popular new feature introduced in the game is the infinite sprint. Despite the well-received new additions, the game is not without some controversial changes. 343 decided to do away with split-screen multiplayer, something that displeased loyal fans of the franchise. Their reason for the sacrifice is better resolution, overall visuals and gameplay. They did not disappoint.

Halo 5: Guardians also features an intricate storyline that builds on the events of Halo 4, and the previous titles.  Master Chief makes brief contact with Cortana, and starts a mission to find her. Master Chief is ordered to return to base for debriefing, but ignores his orders. This forces Fireteam Osiris, led by Spartan Locke, to locate and return Master Chief. Then the storyline takes an unexpected turn.  Master Chief’s AI companion, Cortana, is corrupted by the forerunner’s technology. Cortana plans to use the Guardians to destroy whoever does not submit to her, forcing them to lay down their weapons, in order to achieve galactic peace.

Halo 5: Guardians received acclaim upon its release. The game has received reviews of 9/10 from IGN, 86/100 from Metacritic, 9/10 from GameTrailers, and 8/10 from GameSpot, to name a few. If you are a fan of the Halo Franchise, or if you have never played a Halo game, pick up Halo 5: Guardians. It is a game that shows the full hardware and software capabilities of the Xbox One, and has some of the best graphics, visuals, audio, and smoothest gameplay in modern gaming. The excellent storyline is an added bonus. 

The Cheese