While much of the Halo series' long-lasting appeal can be attributed to multiplayer, the story has mostly been a one-man show. It has been a Master Chief showcase, filled with the exploits of the galaxy's greatest Spartan warrior. While Halo 5: Guardians is still that to an extent, there's something different about this latest adventure. This time, Master Chief will have some backup on his side and considering where his mental state is after the events of Halo 4, he just might need the help.
As revealed earlier this year, Chief will lead his own Blue Team, consisting of fellow Spartans Linda-058, Frederic-104, and Kelly-087. Shacknews recently had a chance to jump into one of Halo 5: Guardians' early missions to observe the unit in action and it doesn't take very long to find out why they're in this adventure together.
Blue Team is essentially on the outs with the military. But even though they've been declared rogue by the very UNSC that created them, Master Chief realizes there's still a mission that needs to be completed. The Covenant and the Prometheans still present a clear and present danger, leading Blue Team to infiltrate an ONI research station on an Argent Moon base. There's something different about this Chief, though. He's noticeably haggard, stretched thin, and more aloof than before. While that won't come as a surprise to anyone that witnessed the events of Halo 4, it is enough to get his teammates' attention, as they'll bring it up more than a couple of times before and during the mission. Mentally, Master Cheif is not the same warrior he once was.
The party element comes into heavy play during the actual solo campaign itself. While there are several areas where stealth is encouraged, with prompts popping up to score assassinations and stay under the radar, they're almost entirely superfluous. Firefights are plentiful and it proves much easier to come out on top, since Chief has three friends backing him up at all times. In fact, Chief can tag problematic targets to steer his partners' fire in their direction. This can be handy when dealing with sniping Jackals or heavily-armored Hunters.
The AI will attempt to compensate for this by exercising their own advanced tactics. Elites will often appear in plain sight, but there are instances where they'll cloak themselves and hide in the shadows, waiting for an ambush. Hunters will often try and overwhelm players with brute force, even able to simply bat away grenades like baseballs. They'll even exercise occasional tactics by charging at Chief and separating him from his group.
Comradery is definitely a key element in these solo missions, as there are times when players might bite off more than they can chew with a Hunter or something just as big. If Chief falls, he can call upon any of his teammates to revive him. There is no limit to this mechanic, so players won't need to go back to the previous checkpoint unless the entire squadron goes down. While the AI Spartans prove very capable, they will occasionally find themselves in some trouble and it'll be up to Chief to revive them. This can be very difficult when undergoing heavy fire, but failure to revive them is costly, as any partners that fall will be unavailable until the next checkpoint. This shouldn't be too difficult, since the Spartans are very chatty and will banter just enough to offer up their location at any given time. There are also moments when a revival just won't be possible, which will be explained a little bit later.
We also had a chance to try out a later mission called Enemy Lines, which puts Spartan Locke and Fireteam Osiris front and center. The Covenant forces are making a last stand and while Arbiter and his team are holding them off, Locke must advance to find a mysterious entrance. One particular sequence saw Locke and his teammates each jump onto a Ghost and ride out, avoiding fire from the massive Kraken vessel. At one point, one of Locke's teammates caught a blast point-blank, causing the Ghost to explode. I stopped to try and revive him, but the option was not available. Indeed, if teammates are caught in an exploding vehicle, they cannot be revived and they are lost until the next checkpoint.
That fact became important when it was time to take the Kraken head-on, since that would involve jumping aboard Phaeton vehicles. Flight felt on par with the other Halo games, still reliant on analog control stick positioning. However, there was some trouble here, as the wide camera angle that sought to capture the enormous scale of the Kraken vessel meant I couldn't exactly see where I was flying. Lining up the Phaeton's path proved troublesome, though I was eventually able to land on board the giant ship, where Locke and Osiris quickly took out the core.
The sophistication of the partner AI doesn't quite come through until it's time to play co-op with uncoordinated humans. When playing co-op, each player takes a role of one of either Chief's Blue Team or Locke's Fireteam Osiris, depending on the stage. Because the stages tend to be expansive, it's much easier to get separated, so if human partners run off and do their own thing, there's no one around to revive them, should they get killed. Co-op players will learn to stick together quickly, whereas the AI partners will not only stay together, but even display some proficient aim and tactical maneuvers. Truth be told, I had more fun running these missions solo than I did with other people.
Halo 5: Guardians certainly looks to be one of the bigger games I've experienced, mixing together some tight corridor shooting with open firefights that encompass areas both high and wide, even leaving room for some vehicular mayhem. The team dynamic is what's going to make this campaign stand apart and it's one that looks to potentially change Halo for the better.
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