Those games, and the other Halo games that series originator Bungie created, feel considered. ODST forced you to sneak around a great many enemies to avoid being crushed to dust Reach had you fighting battles that were massively pitched against you. Those games are top-to-bottom committed to those concepts, from the narrative construction to the nitty-gritty mechanical experience of the game. Halo: Reach took the franchise into canonical history and imagined a nihilistic Saving Private Ryan-style story within the science fiction framework of the Halo universe. Halo: ODST turned the series on its head by depowering the player character, forcing them to be mere humans who have to deal with the creatures that series protagonist Master Chief plows through by the dozens. I like the Halo games at their most experimental. I tried to write an introduction that beat around the bush a little before delivering the bad news, but it was too much effort for too little art. Halo 5: Guardians is one of the most disappointing games that I have played in the past year. A separate piece late this week will discuss the multi-player elements. This review only considers Halo 5 ’s single-player campaign.
