{"id":23179,"date":"2015-09-23T18:39:28","date_gmt":"2015-09-23T23:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/?p=23179"},"modified":"2015-09-23T18:39:28","modified_gmt":"2015-09-23T23:39:28","slug":"halo-5-first-impressions-destructoid-new-toys-familiar-feel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/?p=23179","title":{"rendered":"Halo 5 First Impressions: destructoid-New Toys Familiar Feel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"fancy-title\"><span style=\"color: #00ccff;\"><strong>This is a reblog from destruction:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"fancy-title\"><strong>Halo 5: Guardians has some new toys but a familiar feel<\/strong><br \/>\nby Rey Gutierrez<\/p>\n<p>Meet Kelly, Fred, Linda, and John!<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Master Chief, Cortana, Grunts, Elites and the UNSC, all names that should sound familiar to\u00a0<em>Halo<\/em>\u00a0fans and fans of gaming alike. Before we had &#8220;Guardians,&#8221; there was just evolved combat in the original\u00a0<em>Halo: Combat Evolved<\/em>, which released on the first Xbox on November 15, 2001. Since then, the\u00a0<em>Halo<\/em>\u00a0franchise has endured several sequels, prequels, books, spin-offs, and I\u2019m sure a collection of naughty fan-fiction in the darkest reaches of the Internet.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">But a lot has changed since 2001, the Master Chief, the Halo franchise &#8212; shit, even Xbox isn\u2019t \u201cking\u201d anymore. Gamers growing up with Cortana are older now, wiser (hopefully), and more discerning. I know I am. I\u2019ve grown tired of sequels and unoriginal ideas, I need some avocado and Sriracha sauce tossed into my gaming from time-to-time, just to keep things interesting.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">My good friend and mutual\u00a0<em>Halo<\/em>\u00a0fanatic,\u00a0Kayla Carlson, joined me at an all-day event hosted by Microsoft and 343 Industries in San Francisco, where they graced us with a preview build of\u00a0<em>Halo 5: Guardians<\/em>\u00a0&#8212; and boy has Master Chief grown up. So far, 343 Industries is on course to deliver a whopping meal of a game.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Read on for our breakdown and\u00a0video preview\u00a0on what we liked and disliked during our preview session with\u00a0<em>Halo 5: Guardians\u2019<\/em>\u00a0campaign.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Halo 5: Guardians - Campaign Preview\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/h2aQpBu9wK4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>What they say.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Set eight months after the end of\u00a0<em>Halo 4<\/em>,\u00a0<em>Halo 5: Guardians<\/em>dives into the intrigue surrounding the Master Chief as he breaks away from the UNSC to uncover the truth of inexplicable events. Close on his heels, Spartan Locke, a legendary manhunter with Fireteam Osiris and a rising new star in the UNSC, is hunting the Master Chief to find answers of his own.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Experience the most dramatic Halo story to date in a 4-player cooperative epic that spans three incredible worlds and a galaxy of war with itself.\u00a0<em>Halo 5: Guardians<\/em>\u00a0is evolving.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Blue-Team-Master-Chief-Hero-Elegance-620x.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-23181\" src=\"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Blue-Team-Master-Chief-Hero-Elegance-620x-600x338.jpg\" alt=\"H5-Guardians-Blue-Team-Master-Chief-Hero-Elegance-620x\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" srcset=\"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Blue-Team-Master-Chief-Hero-Elegance-620x-600x338.jpg 600w, https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Blue-Team-Master-Chief-Hero-Elegance-620x-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Blue-Team-Master-Chief-Hero-Elegance-620x-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Blue-Team-Master-Chief-Hero-Elegance-620x.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>What Rey &amp; Kayla Like<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Visually, the game is vibrant. It&#8217;s full of color pops, explosions, and beautifully rendered characters and textures. Takes full advantage of the Xbox One.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Jumping and climbing\/clambering allows you to explore new heights, gain better vantage points on enemies, and discover hidden skulls and terminals more easily than ever before. Your days spending 45 minutes trying to glitch jump that rock wall are pretty much over!<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Spartan Charge introduces a new melee mechanic. It allows you to break through certain walls and structures, sometimes as part of the storyline, sometimes on your own exploration to discover hidden rooms and pathways. Spartan Charge also acts as a one-hit shield breaker on enemies, amplifying close-quarters combat.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Revive and Tracking, new abilities specifically for Campaign, allow you to call for help or aid fallen teammates, and always know where your objective is (which I ended up using quite a bit, due to the world feeling much more open and expansive).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Listening to the Covenant chatter is always amusing. I spent more time trolling a Grunt waiting to hear what he has to say about the Master Chief, than actually following the campaign mission.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">Halo veterans may find the new 60fps off putting by removing the cinematic immersion of Halo (or junk in the trunk), but after getting acclimated &#8212;\u00a0<em>Halo 5<\/em>\u00a0is smooth, easy on the eyes and just pure joy to control, especially on the Xbox One\u2019s controller, and fantastic use of the Rumbling Triggers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Enemy-Lines-General-Purpose-02-620x.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-23182\" src=\"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Enemy-Lines-General-Purpose-02-620x-600x338.jpg\" alt=\"H5-Guardians-Enemy-Lines-General-Purpose-02-620x\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" srcset=\"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Enemy-Lines-General-Purpose-02-620x-600x338.jpg 600w, https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Enemy-Lines-General-Purpose-02-620x-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Enemy-Lines-General-Purpose-02-620x-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Enemy-Lines-General-Purpose-02-620x.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>What Rey &amp; Kayla Dislike<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Watching Master Chief take a knee and request assistance from a squad mate when he\u2019s down will take some getting use to. It reeks more of\u00a0<em>Gears of War<\/em>\u00a0than a new gameplay enhancement.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The all-knowing and all-seeing AI favorite, Cortana, has been replaced with a Master Chief who uncharacteristically talks too much.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Your fireteam AI (Blue Team: Kelly-087, Fred-104, Linda-058) and\u00a0fireteam Osiris are nonexistent for the most part and operate autonomously. They\u2019ll aimlessly follow you around and partake in the firefight with generic \u201cbro-chatter\u201d that you\u2019d hear in a\u00a0<em>Call of Duty<\/em>\u00a0game, and not nearly as witty, random, or entertaining as a UNSC Marine. But you can give your fireteam contextual commands like \u201cGo To Location, Attack My Target, Use Turret or Vehicle,\u201d even if they\u2019re acting more like distractions or decoy for enemies.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">\u201cRun and gun\u201d is not a recommended strategy. Keeping an eye on your ammo (there&#8217;s never enough ammo), bouncing around high vantage points (Ground Pound) to avoid enemies, and remembering which ability does what leads to a lot more strategy and thinking than most\u00a0<em>Halo<\/em>veterans are used to.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Blue-Team-Ceasefire-620x.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-23183\" src=\"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Blue-Team-Ceasefire-620x-600x338.jpg\" alt=\"H5-Guardians-Blue-Team-Ceasefire-620x\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" srcset=\"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Blue-Team-Ceasefire-620x-600x338.jpg 600w, https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Blue-Team-Ceasefire-620x-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Blue-Team-Ceasefire-620x-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Blue-Team-Ceasefire-620x.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>More Halo 5: Guardians Facts<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Three epic worlds, epic battle, and epic scale<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">A gripping story full of new and returning fan-favorite character, and introducing enemies that will change the\u00a0<em>Halo<\/em>\u00a0universe forever.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The ability to play through the entire campaign either solo or with up to three other friends online through seamless drop-in\/out co-op on dedicated servers.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Make your team a deadly weapon, by commanding them with\u00a0<em>Halo 5: Guardian<\/em>\u2019s Fireteam AI or team up with friends online and experience the story through the perspective of your Spartan teams.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\">Expansive, complex battlefields designed to support more players, more enemies, and even more intense, epic-scale battles than ever before.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Blue-Team-Dropping-In-620x.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-23184\" src=\"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Blue-Team-Dropping-In-620x-600x338.jpg\" alt=\"H5-Guardians-Blue-Team-Dropping-In-620x\" width=\"584\" height=\"329\" srcset=\"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Blue-Team-Dropping-In-620x-600x338.jpg 600w, https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Blue-Team-Dropping-In-620x-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Blue-Team-Dropping-In-620x-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/H5-Guardians-Blue-Team-Dropping-In-620x.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Kayla\u2019s final initial thoughts on previewing Halo 5: Guardians.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;Tons of new abilities for campaign AND multiplayer that will change the way people play, but there\u2019s still enough that feels true to the\u00a0<em>Halo<\/em>\u00a0franchise that OG players aren\u2019t going to feel abandoned. Definitely some new game types that I know are going to suck every minute out of my days when it\u2019s released. And of course I\u2019m excited to see the storyline play out. We got a pretty good preview that sparked some\u00a0feels, so I\u2019m ready to see where they go with it!<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Is it October yet?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"color: #00ccff;\"><strong>HFFL:<\/strong> Don&#8217;t we wish, Kayla. Don&#8217;t we wish&#8230;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is a reblog from destruction: Halo 5: Guardians has some new toys but a familiar feel by Rey Gutierrez Meet Kelly, Fred, Linda, and John! Master Chief, Cortana, Grunts, Elites and the UNSC, all names that should sound familiar &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/?p=23179\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-halo-5-guardians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23179"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23185,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23179\/revisions\/23185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}