It's very rare that a game disappoints me this badly. Look, I've enjoyed the "Halo" series thus far: I've given each of the four numbered games at least an 8/10 on my scale ("Halo 3" even earned a 10/10 from me), and I even enjoyed "Halo 4" quite a bit, even though a lot of the fanbase didn't. So, even though I heard many mixed opinions about "Halo 5: Guardians" before playing it, I was nevertheless excited to give it a go...but wow, was it a disappointment. I didn't want to give it this low a score, and I even sat on this for a few days, but seriously, this game disappointed me hard.
Now, that's not to say that "Halo 5: Guardians" does absolutely nothing right, because trust me, it does some things right. For starters, as per "Halo" tradition, the aesthetic elements are sharp. The visuals are great, the voice acting is strong, and the music is your typical "Halo" stuff. Beyond that, the gunplay in the game has been changed up a good bit: though controversial, the ability to aim down sights and the addition of the run button tightens things up a bit and feels like a welcome addition.
However, even that is something I can criticize, because to be completely honest, the addition of those features make the game, to me, feel like just your typical, standard FPS title. They're decent additions, but they're not all that special, and the fact that the campaign adds multiplayer-like elements that even occur when you're in single player (like asking teammates to revive you and "joining/exiting a game") just feels totally awkward. But I know what you're thinking: I'm probably giving this game a low score because of how insulting the story is and because of the false advertising and anticlimactic nature of it all. And sure, those are definitely problems, and I was rather pissed that Chief was only playable for a short portion of the game, but honestly, the story wasn't even the part of the game that insulted me the most: it was the gameplay! This was honestly the most hands-off "Halo" game that I've played: there's sections of the game where I don't even need to kill enemies, I can just blow right through them by running and jumping! Wasn't the point of the previous games to kill the enemies so that you can advance forward in the game? Now I don't have to even kill most of them? What kind of game design is that? And speaking of game design, this game has 15 missions (so yeah, pretty short). Why is it that some of those missions only require you to talk to someone, talk to another person, and then move to the next mission? Those shouldn't count as their own missions! That just sounds like some cheesy way to artificially bloat out the game's length! Oh, but don't worry, all those sections where they made you keep your guns down, run through enemies, and do nothing at all are offset by bosses that are overpowered, completely generic, and often times recycled. I felt while playing this that, whatever "gaming intelligence" I had (and I don't even think I have very much) was honestly insulted.
I didn't think I would dislike "Halo 5: Guardians" this much, but yikes, this one was bad. I honestly can't recommend it unless you're one of the most diehard of "Halo" fans and you just HAVE to experience it. Unless you need your "Halo" fix, or you're like me and wanted to play through the series before "Halo Infinite" releases next year, I can't in good conscience tell you that this game is worth your time. Just skip it and find other enticing shooters, because there are plenty of them out there.
Final rating: 4 out of 10 "Bad"