Minimum System Requirements | Recommended System Requirements | |
CPU | AMD Athlon X2 2.8 GHz or higher; Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or higher | AMD Six-Core CPU; Intel Quad-Core CPU |
VRAM | 4 GB | 6 GB |
RAM | 4GB or more | 8GB |
OS | Windows Vista 32-Bit with Service Pack 2 and the KB971512 platform update | Windows 8 64-bit |
Graphics Card | AMD Radeon 3870 or higher; NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT or higher | AMD Radeon 7870 or higher; NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 or higher; Graphics Memory: 3GB |
Direct X | 12 | 12 |
SOUND CARD | DirectX Compatible | DirectX Compatible |
HDD Space | 15GB | 15GB |
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Halo Game Series [View Halo Full Game Series]
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E3 warzone trailer
Opening cinematic trailer
Gameplay trailer
Hammer storm trailer
Battle of shadow and light sizzle trailer
The game awards 2015 trailer
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Immersive Story
Phenomenal Score
Addictive Multiplayer
Incredible Sound Design
Great Variety between Campaign Missions
Atrocious AI
Odd Post Processing Effects
Short and Predictable Campaign
Slow side-to-side sway
EYECANDY – The visuals are astounding. There were no texture loading issues, lo-res sections of the map, and care and detail went into all of the environments and models. Halo takes you to different worlds throughout the galaxy and they all feel organic, refreshing, and genuine. All artifacts and landscapes have their own history, fauna, civilization, and at some points was even amazed. This game has moments where you want to stop and take in the scenery and search around the level (because if you know Halo then you know about the skulls and intel). I was truly impressed with what 343 came up with. Once again, only two complaints: One, which is pretty minor, there were sections of the game with water and when you crouch beneath it there’s no water effects, the game just becomes clear instead of murky, or blue, or whatever, but it doesn’t actually take away from the game. Two, the animations of characters in the distance end up coming off really choppy. At first I thought it was the framerate, but then realized it was how the engine handles in-game events. It looks weird and takes away from the fluidity of the game. But other than those, this game is B-E-A-UTIFUL.
SOUNDDESIGN – This is easily one of the best part of Halo. As far as sound design goes, I put it right up there with Battlefield and The Witcher. At first I had it coming through my TV speakers and it sounded fine. Nothing great, but not lacking. Then I put on my Astro headset, changed the sound option to ‘headphones’, and it elevated the game to a whole new level. Each team member’s footsteps are differentiating, you can hear the individual breathing of the character’s and covenant when you get close, the list goes on. The effects are high quality, all weapons sound realistic and authentic (even the fictionalized ones), and it never blended all together as one muddy “blah” in the background when the game or cutscenes got really intense *coughcough*CallofDuty*coughcough* but actually became more immersive the louder I turned the volume up. And the soundtrack is top notch and mixed excellently with all the chaos, yelling, and explosions. The game has three-dimensional sound and you can tell who’s far off, who’s next to you, what weapons the enemy is using, everything. The main menu’s title theme holds plenty of texture and sounds are full and satisfying with a hint of nostalgia, while the battle music amps up every conflict and makes all firefights intense. This is a soundtrack I will purchase. I just wish during the quiet and ambient parts of the game there was a little more melody to give the worlds and environment just a little bit more culture, but honestly that’s just a personal preference of mine. Not one complaint in this department. Everything is absolutely perfect.
GAMEPLAY – As far as a FPS goes, there’s not much to talk about. The story was on the shorter side, BUT there were parts that were straight pissing me off. I played through the campaign on Heroic (hard) difficulty because the game said that for Halo veterans, this difficulty is the best one. So I chose it and launched myself in. Halo puts you through the game with squad members, four in total including yourself. And it ain’t no Ghost Recon or anything, but you can “command” your squad to go places, focus on enemies, or pick you up when you fall down. But let’s take a moment to talk about this AI real quick. Something that Halo as a franchise has always put emphasis on. They utilize the “feature” horribly. Your teammates are awful companions and are ‘too smart’ for their own good which ends up hurting you in the end. What I noticed 343 tried to do was to make your squad tactical, but it leads to a lot of frustration. When the team is told to focus on a certain enemy, only one will focus on said enemy and the guy even told me, and I quote, “As soon as I kill this soldier, I’ll get to him”. Um, no, I’m your commander, I’m your leader, and you do as I say. If I tell you to focus on this enemy because I need some cover fire, then you put your attention on that enemy. If I need suppression so I can flank this turret, then that’s what you do. If this were real life, that would be completely understandable. But it’s not. And they put in a new feature where instead of dying, you have about 15-20 seconds for a member of your squad to make it you and pick you back up before you actually die. It’s so you can get a second chance (you can be dropped infinite times) and keep the momentum and the fight going. BUT a lot of this game was spent waiting for my team and reloading from the last checkpoint because my teammates barely ever revived me. Never mind the countless times I picked them up, they would either be a couple tens of yards away (all three of them) for whatever reason, or they would stand about four feet away from me and watch me bleed out. Just stand there and watch me die. And of course there’s no suicide option so you HAVE to wait for them to get you. And the driving, oh Lord the driving, is the worst part of their brain. I sat on the back of a mongoose for a solid half minute while my partner just chose to not drive anywhere. But it’s a good thing they didn’t because when they did drive somewhere they were too busy flipping over and running into walls “Austin Power-ing” themselves while we get shot at and blown up. This is the worst team AI in the Halo series and it was a serious step backwards. But enough about that. The actual missions themselves vary in length and hold a lot of nice variety to keep the game fresh and interesting. Halo has been an open world-esque type of shooter and it plays in nicely and is definitely a good change of pace than the usual go-here-shoot-follow-this-npc formula. The stupidest, and shortest, mission though is when you’re at a friendly camp and you have to eavesdrop on people. It was very strange and horribly executed. Other than that, Every gun has a zoom type option, when you jump and aim in mid air, the spartan actually stabilizes himself for a couple seconds so you float and can pull off a couple headshots, but the side to side sway is really slow and can’t be edited in the options menu even when the sensitivity is set to a higher amount. I’ve died from the simple fact that I couldn’t turn to shoot the enemy. I couldn’t figure out why it played like that, but it did.
MULTIPLAYER – Arguably the only reason why Halo ever got to be so popular was because of it’s competitive aspect. The company took a little bit of a different take on it and split it into two sections. Arena and Warzone. Arena is the traditional 4v4 Slayer, Swat, the classic halo multiplayer. Warzone is a big team battle where it melds a lot of what other games did. First off, the type I found the most fun was its Warzone mode where it was team against team, with AI enemies included. It consisted of a Battlefront/field type where you take control of certain command points, and at the end destroy the enemie’s home base all while killing the Prometheans and Covenant for extra points to win. I experienced very little lag (I think it was me in all honesty) and even when I lost I wanted to keep playing. At the end of each match you gain your experience, and get REQ cards. Their earned when you rank up, or when you buy them. There’s three different types of packs, Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Which can be bought with the points that are earned in every game, or with an actual credit card transaction. Within the packs are special weapons, boosts, armor upgrades, etc. What it reminded me of was Mass Effect’s special packs, Titanfalls cards, and Advanced Warfare’s feature where you earn outfit customizations and experience boosts. Overall it’s a whole separate experience from the campaign and it’s still a hell of a lot of fun.
Conclusion: Halo 5 Guardians is a professional game with faults that shouldn’t be holding the game back and can be considered rookie mistakes. But all in all, everything one should expect from Halo is there. Immersive story, excellent score, phenomenal actors, addicting multiplayer, character customization, and worth every dollar. If the AI was polished then it would be a top notch in my book.
Smooth gameplay that handled well like all Halo games and looked amazing too. Multiplayer has some interesting modes, but seeing loot boxes worked in was a little disheartening. The campaign felt unfulfilling and ends when you feel like there’s still at least a quarter of the game left. As someone who played the previous Halo games, there were quite a few elements to the story I felt lost on. Probably something I’ve missed from all the supplemental material that came out in the form of direct-to-DVD movies, podcasts, spin-off games, etc.