Customer Ratings & Reviews

When I bought this being a devout Halo fan, I was anticipating a letdown. Graphics are outstanding and the complexity of levels challenging. I know most shooters nowdays are focusing on Multiplayer and the thought of co-op being required bothered me. Early reviews claimed the bots you get on your side if you don't have friends playing along were useless. Not so!! I found the experience with bots useful but not overwhelming. As a bonus if you go back and replay the campaign with friends a new experience will unfold. I personally wish shooters with "season passes" added a few campaign maps also. Regardless the diversity of having enemies fighting different enemies also promotes the ability to conquer even if your controller skills are lacking. Overall outstanding experience!!!

Halo 5 has the new addition of spartan abilities. These abilities allow you greater mobility and make you feel like the super soldier you play as, all while containing the feel of a classic halo game. I used the four player coop to team up with friends and we dominated the enemies in the campaign. The game looks and feels great, and the new multiplayer mode, Warzone, is a blast to play. The game comes with a campaign that is 15 missions long, arena, warzone and the future dlc for the game is free, making the price of this game definitely worth it.

my sons play this game since it first came out. even let them skip a day of school on the release date. hope there will be many more :) thanks everyone who is part in creating this game.

Like many others I'm a big Halo fan; I've played all the games fps and other, and have read most of the books. I even thought 343 did a good job on Halo 4. That being said, I think 343 dropped the ball on this one. I really wanted to like this one, but it has some major drawbacks. Notes about Limited addition: Before I do the game itself there are a few things about the Limited addition you should know. I didn't want to pay an extra $150 for a statue, so I got the Limited Edition not the Collector's Edition. Limited has everything but the big statue. - Metal Earth statue comes in about 50 pieces you have to assemble yourself, which you wouldn't know unless you visit their website, as none of the game descriptions will tell you. -Halo "Fall of Reach" seems to be only 3 parts (20 min each). The first is free to everybody with the other two available for Limited and Collector's editions. And no, it doesn't actually show anything about the fall of Reach. It is a good origin story for Blue team however. -Dossiers aren't anything you couldn't look up yourself. Summary: If your a Halo fan you probably will and should get this game. Though it feels like it was rushed so that there would be something for the holiday season. Much like Halo MCC was last year. -As a game it's fun; as a Halo game it feels more like Spartan Ops season 2. -The new multiplayer modes are really fun. -Campaign and story aren't very satisfying. -New Spartan abilities are pretty useful -REQ system is overly complicated. -No local multiplayer or coop of any kind. PROS: -Graphics are good, though you won't notice a difference from Halo 4 unless you take the time to look. -The beloved characters Fred, Linda, and Kelly are finally in a game. -New AI can be pretty helpful -Arena Breakout 4vs4 is really fun and helps you hone your skills if your someone who dies a lot in Slayer mode. -Warzone is crazy, but fun. Kind of a relaxed version of slayer with AI opponents you can kill for points. -New Spartan abilities are great and add a new dynamic to the game (you actually get to use some Spartan "umph" rather than just shooting things). -New clamber system is great: you no longer have to get a running jump to make it up to that ledge you wanted. -Revive system can be helpful at times. CONS: -If you didn't play through Spartan Ops in Halo 4 then you probably won't know what's going on. The story seems to leave out a lot of information, but so have previous Halo titles, which rely on books to give greater detail. Maybe some of the newer books have answers to the gaps in the story, but I'm not sure. The story itself is okay, kind of reminds me of iRobot and terminator though. Big cliff-hanger ending (expected but still makes you feel like he next game should be titled Halo 5 the sequel). The story doesn't answer a lot of questions from Halo 4, and has plenty of its own. If you watched the Chief/Locke trailers, the new cinematics at the beginning and end of Halo 2 anniversary, and the cinematics at the start and end of Halo: Fall of Reach, then forget you watched them: they're all basically teaser trailers that don't actually fit in with the Halo 5 story at all. The comments about the Chief being a traitor in Hunt the Truth may fit into the story line as those events aren't actually in the game. The whole Locke versus Chief thing lasts about 3 missions, and really isn't anything like what the trailers lead you to believe. -Speaking of missions, the game was advertised as playing both Locke and Chief, but you only play Chief and Blue team in a whopping 3 missions out of 15. Basically this game is to introduce you to Locke and Fire team Osiris, so you like them and Microsoft can make more games about them in the future ( I personally think Spartan Thorne would have been a much better choice than Locke, bu that's just me). Of the 12 missions you play as Osiris, 3 aren't actually missions: you talk to two people before departing on the next mission (I'm not even exaggerating). Overall, most of the missions seem really short compared to previous Halo games, even Halo 4. Besides not knowing where your going and difficulty, you could easily do most missions in under 5 maybe 10 minutes max; compared to previous titles that had missions that took between 15 to 25 minutes even if you did it fast. -Revive system doesn't allow you to crawl like GOW does; your stuck until someone revives you or your revive time runs out. -AI isn't all that helpful for reviving you: they usually get themselves shot trying to revive you and everybody dies. -Spartan Ground Pound seems hard to aim and is under powered for the time it take to activate it. Spartan charge can be annoying of you trying to run up behind someone and assassinate them: you'll usually charge past instead or just glance them. -The REQ point system is overly complicated: you buy card packs that have random weapon drops you can use in warzone or random armor pieces; a pain if you actually want to get something in particular. Halo 5 has jumped on the band wagon of paying real money for game money or in this case REQ points. So if you let your kids play this, hopefully you've set their accounts to be unable to make purchases. -My last critique may not be a big deal for some, but there are enough of us that I hope someone from 343 reads this. I was excited for a new halo game on a new system and thought that maybe with the XB1 being more powerful that they could finally do 4 player campaign split screen, since they already did 4 player local Slayer etc. But they went the other way instead and eliminated any local multiplayer/Co-op. Every Halo fps until now has had splitscreen and they decided to make the game look a little prettier instead. I've enjoyed playing through the Halo games with friends and doing custom matches. I was looking forward to playing through the Halo games with my kids when they were old enough, but I guess we'll have to skip Halo 5. Hopefully this can be remedied with a patch later on, but I'm not holding my breathe.

PLOT Master Chief has gone AWOL and Fire Team Osiris is tasked with tracking him down. The campaign is about 8 hours long on Heroic. There is plenty of challenge and good level design. It progresses the story of Master Chief and the Halo Universe. The game features great cut scenes like previous Halo games and this one has stepped up the action with jet packs and acrobatic parkour scenes. GRAPHICS AND AUDIO The graphics are top notch in both the cut scenes and during gameplay. I even liked the subtle details such as the different HUDs for each character. The music is again excellent and exactly what you would expect from a Halo game. GAMEPLAY AND MULTIPLAYER The gameplay is reminiscent of Halo 3, fast paced but still tactical. I enjoyed the new elements such as aiming down the sights, the dash boost, ground pound, and sprinting to name a few. The multiplayer is back to the likes of Halo 3 including slayer, team swat, and swatnums. The new warzone mode is a very nice addition to the game and features different tactical elements than in the smaller multiplayer fights. The REQ system takes a little getting used to and I'm not sure how I feel about it. You can buy REQs with money ($2.99) or in game earned currency. The REQs have permanent items like armor and skins and temporary items like different weapons and vehicles. Think Call of Duty Advanced Warfare for the armor and weapon skins, but they are permanent. This is how you customize your Spartan's appearance. The temporary items remind me of Titanfall's card system, where when you use an item in the match it's gone. OVERALL 9/10 it is has a great and engaging campaign, excellent graphics and music, and a lot of replay value in the multiplayer sections with traditional modes and the new warzone mode. I would have liked to see a little longer campaign and definitely wanted more after I finished it. Other than that it has the same great Halo feel with all the guns you know and love.

Halo 5 has probably the best controls in the entire series, top notch graphics. And a great story. Some may find the story to have several elements and characters they don't understand. This is because the developer is counting on you reading the books and lore. While I have, and love this expansion to the universe, others may not like it. The campaign is typically short like most FPS games out there, but the multiplayer will keep you glued. The limited addition turned out to be a bit of a waste, as there was surprisingly little extra content. Unless you're a hardcore fan, stick with the regular version. Another great addition is the fact that all DLC maps will be free for all players, so look for your multiplayer experience to grow over the next year.

Halo 5 has a lot of positive things going for it: awesome graphics, really fun multiplayer, new war zone mode, etc. I've played most of the previous games and I can say 5 multiplayer is the one I like the most. The lack of split screen is what takes 1 star out of it (probably just half it it was an option), but its not a function that I used that much, IRL I normally play at night with headphones to immerse myself in the action. I know that for some cases it would be something important as it is something traditional of the Halo games, but to me that is 20% of the time, the rest 80% I play by myself; overall I think the smooth 60 fps mp is awesome.

Okay first off a spoiler alert. This review may contain some spoilers so if you haven't played the game and want to discover the story yourself - stop here. If you're still with me, I'll get to my review of Halo 5: Guardians. We return yet again to rejoin Master Chief...briefly. This is more of the story of Spartan Locke and him trying to catch up to Master Chief who has gone AWOL. The story doesn't quite make sense, but since 343 has their hands around the franchise - storytelling hasn't been their strong suit. But story aside, this is Halo in fine form. New moves such as the ground pound add another element to keep things fresh in attacking opposition. Commanding a squad and directing them is easily achieved with a button press. But this was clearly meant to be a co-op game. Except that all your co-op friends need their own Xbox One and a copy of the game as this iteration does NOT include split screen...at all. Yup, all your friends need an Xbox One, a copy of the game, and Xbox live membership in order to play with one another. The graphics are phenomenal, the sound effects are wonderful, the story is meh and short, but as we all know - Halo's longevity is in its multiplayer and it definitely shines through for the most part. 24 player matches in Warzone - basically a glorified battlefield with both AI and human opponents with elements of capture the flag thrown in to keep things interesting. There's also your standard Slayer matches and 4v4. I'm not quite sold on the new Requisitions leveling system though. Halo has finally caught up with the rest of the gaming industry in adding micro transactions - something I wish they would never have done. But basically the requisition packs are perks. Things like vehicles, weapons, visors, etc... You can earn them through regular play, but those who don't want to wait can just purchase them. So I'm not too crazy on that. But otherwise, Halo's multiplayer has never looked more beautiful. As for the goodies that come with the Limited Edition. The metal statue (Guardian) is a pain to put together with all of the tiny parts, the dossiers and ONI orders are a nice addition but not necessary, and the additional requisition packs will get you started pretty good, but aren't really necessary (I haven't used any of mine yet). If you're buying the game to play it, just grab the standard addition. If you must have these extras, then by all means go for it. And to put it another way, if you are really a collector - buy the Collector's edition with the Master Chief and Spartan Locke statues, it has everything the limited edition has minus the disc - you get a download code instead, otherwise just buy the standard edition. This version just doesn't have enough to justify the price, but it's still a nice package. 7/10

Campaign was the weakest point in this game. It had good level design and graphics but the story seemed almost rushed and confusing. Multiplayer on the other hand is awesome. Best multiplayer since Halo 2. Competitive games most of the time and war zone is a great addition. Mixing Spartan ops from Halo 4 and pvp multiplayer. Over all good game just the campaign could have been a little better story wise. And this is coming from a huge halo fan boy.

Welcome additions to controls were easy to adapt to and add to the playability of an already great game franchise . Story was immersive and long, graphics were rad, and the packaging and extras were worth the extra money. Still adjusting to the new multiplayer targeting system. No split screen kinda stinks but worth the sacrifice for 60fps.

I've played all the Halo games. Campaign and Multiplayer. I'm not very good at multiplayer, but really only play these games for the Campaign. In this respect I was let down by Halo 5. The story went by far to quick and left me with the same feeling at the end of Halo 2. What I mean by that is this game campaign-wise feels like one half of a story with no good conclusion at the half-way point. Playing as Master Chief in this game is a joke as he's not even the primary character. (He should be) Campaign aside, the game technically is beautiful to look at and controls exceptionally. I just wish there was more "meat-on-the-bone". If you're a fan, it's work a pickup when on sale, or if you are hardcore into online multiplayer. 343 (the developer) decided to take out local split-screen multiplayer. (Which was what I played the most) and only left online multiplayer. This for me was a big reason why I haven't play much online. I usually play with people in the same room. I'm hoping Halo 6 will be better.

If you're a huge fan of Halo like me (played all the games and read the books) than you'll find this game's single player to be "passible". I say this because, while the graphics are great and the classic halo gunplay are all there, the single player is simple missing that "magic" that previous games had. Also, If you haven't read any of the Eric Nylund books in particular, you'll have a hard time understanding how most people are since some weren't even mentioned in previous games. On the flipside, multiplayer- particularly warzone, is a blast! I've only played halfway through the story and I can't motivate myself to get back to it as I just want to keep playing warzone! There are only 3 maps as of this review but more free maps are coming over the next few weeks and months. Buy the game and give the single player a shot, than head over to warzone and be amazed (this is coming from someone who had always HATED halo multiplayer).

Halo 5 picks up from where the previous Halos left off. This time, however, the story is divided into stories: Locke and Master Chief. Controls are solid and similar to previous Halo games. One thing that is emphasized throughout the game are the jet packs on your armor. During cut scenes and even computer AI, the jet packs are displayed to remind you how important they are. Learn this or get terminated quick in the campaign or multiplayer mode. The game as a whole feels like it's meant for multiplayer. Even the campaign has a multiplayer feel to it. In Multiplayer you have many modes to choose from and you can customize your spartan. Overall, Halo 5 is a great game to add to the series and will consume a lot of your time in its multiplayer mode.

Fast and frantic multiplayer action is the highlight here. The new warzone mode is Halo on an epic scale and arena offers all the longtime fans' old favorites. New mobility mechanics like hover and clamber bring an increased element of speed to the game. New weapons are cool and many of the old weapons have been tweaked to differentiate them in refreshing ways. Haven't finished the campaign yet, but the 4-person squad is an awesome touch, and demands coordination and cooperation to succeed on higher difficulties. Only real complaint is the lack of loadouts in arena multiplayer, so you're stuck starting with assault rifle and magnum--just have to take something better off an opponent.

I have the Limited Edition version. I feel it was a good value for the $40 added price. The metal case is very nice, the dossiers are quality, the little metal Guardian would probably retail for $20, and you get the Warzone Req pack, which sells for $25. Now the bad news... POSSIBLE STORY SPOILERS I absolutely hated the campaign. You only play as Master Chief for 3 missions. 12 are played with Team Osiris. They all have the personality of mashed potatoes (except Nathan Fillion). And 3 missions are the equivalent of 5 minute stroll through a Hyrule village. Nothing is gained from them other than adding numbers to 343's total mission advertising. The story was an utterly stupid mishmash of Terminator and Matrix and reduces a returning favorite character into Space Hitler. Also, pay NO attention to any of the ads. That is not the Halo 5 you'll be playing. The awesome Hunt the Truth podcasts are not referenced in any way. The gameplay is adequate, but lacks the jaw dropping moments from all the other Halo installments (including 343's Halo 4 which I liked very much.) They removed local co-op (split screen). Now if you and a friend would like to play a mission or two, you need two TVs, two XBOnes, and two copies of the game. 343 says it was sacraficed to maintain 60 FPS. Other games run at 60, and then scale down when running split screen. It was a foolish move removing this "very Halo" feature. The game is very pretty. But so was Halo 4. And that was years ago. On an older system! H5 is certainly not the graphics jump from 4 that 4 was from 3. And that was two games on the same system!. The multiplayer is fine. I am admittedly HORRIBLE at them, but have been improving. It's fairly addictive, and has many options. You can tell that this was the only part of the game Microsoft actually cared about. They want Halo to compete with Call of Duty. It won't.

Okay, so I will start off my review with the fact that I will give it a huge thumbs up for trying to bring back competitive Halo like the good old days. The multiplayer layout and entertainment level deserve a 5 star rating. But there are huge flaws that even myself overlook while I'm playing the game. I'll just get this out of the way, if your'e a fan of the Halo universe and the story behind it like I am, you will hate this game. I won't spoil it, I will just say that this could be death to the Master Chief story that everyone fell in love with over the years. And to top it off, no split screen period. You cannot have a few friends over and play split screen campaign or split screen multiplayer. Instead your friends will have to bring over their own Xbox Ones and a screen to play on.... Back to the multiplayer. When you first jump into it you will find that your skill level will greatly depend on how well you can adjust the settings on your controller. That's the first step in becoming a good online player for this game. Once you get that down and start improving on your game play you will notice 2 things that will frustrate you. 1.) You will play the same maps over and over and over again, and the only thing that will ever get your hopes up is the free DLC they offer. But when they land these, they are just basically a new name for the map that they already had but they just made a few minor changes to it. It sucks. 2.) If your playing solo with no party burning through multiplayer matches, you will discover that if you are not bad at the game (going at least positive each game) you will still lose 90% of the time. There currently is no good ranking system in place like there was in games like halo 2 and halo 3. I will find myself going 25 and 5 and still losing those kinds of matches because my teammates cannot carry their own weight...now mind you I am not a low level like what those players should be playing at...how they got to be the same level as me and still suck you may ask? Well here's how...You first play 10 qualifying matches to determine your rank, your rank is determined by a lot of things but I won't get into that. But mainly you'll be able to pull a pretty good rank if you win all 10 of those matches. So if your'e garbage at the game getting 1 kill and dying 20 times each game...but still have 3 other team mates to back you up and pull out a win. You will basically end up being the same rank as they will become after those 10 matches....Your rank should be purely based off of your skill level...

Campaign: Fun and beautiful graphically but very short and lacking in story. Multiplayer: Arena is standard fare. Warzone is fun at first but lacks real strategy and relies heavily on the new REQ system.

The story/campaign mode in this game is good. The firefights are great, cinematic sequences are exciting, but the story was just ok. The commercials and marketing for the game were/are very misleading. That being said it didn't ruin the game for me, I still enjoyed it, just not as much as I had hoped. Aside from that the multiplayer is great. Arena mode is perfect for showing off your skills while Warzone is a fun, full-scale battle zone. REQ packs are a fun, motivational way to keep playing so you can collect all the items and are done correctly. No need to use real money to purchase REQ packs if you don't want to, you gain plenty of credit to buy packs just from playing the game alone.

Let's be real guys the campaign is an added bonus when it comes to recent Halo games. The campaign in Halo 5 is fun but it definitely can become confusing. I give the campaign a 7/10. Multiplayer is where it is at!!!! I have not had this much fun in a multiplayer Halo game since Halo 3. Halo 5 takes elements from the earlier Halo games and greatly improves on them . Warzone is an amazing addition I can't get enough of the Battlefield feel I get when playing this mode. Multiplayer receives a 9.8/10 in my book because I can never give a game a perfect score!

TL;DR...The campaign is awful. Teammate AI is bordering brain dead. Multiplayer is the only redeeming factor here. ****Spoilers**** The story is a nightmare. Master Chief goes AWOL over a hallucination of seeing Cortana, and decides he wants to chase after his vision. The UNSC tells him no and he says "screw it, I'm doing this my way." With his merry bunch of surviving Spartan II's, who get no filler story on how they got there, where they were for the past few games (Provided you didn't read the books or brush up on your lore) go with our hero. Now steps in Spartan Locke and his newly assembled team, to hunt down the most battle hardened, field tested, experienced squad in the entire military. Along with this new POV of the story, you also receive minimal background on your new character, squad mates and no idea what is still going on. As you go through the missions you will realize that you don't have 3 AI teammates to assist you in completing your mission. You have three models that stand idly by you waiting for a friend to join your game and take over to actually assist in your endeavors. Bullets may be flying between you and the enemy, while your "Team mates" will stand by, often looking in the wrong direction waiting for you to complete the objective so they can add in some side banter to attempt at flushing out some more story. I can go on and on about this story, the plot holes and failures at communicating a story, but there has to be a reason this review gets 3 stars and not 1. The multiplayer is what makes Halo stand out from the rest. And while not the greatest entry into the series, it still stands it's ground and makes a fine showing. Combat is tight, the new war zone is epic in scope and provides a nice alternative to arena game types. The REQ packs are a nice new feature with a micro transaction function available if you have the urge and money to buy them. All and all, come for the story (and be disappointed) but stay for the multiplayer.