A few things I've noticed with my few days with it:

- It doesn't really have drop in, drop out co-op. If you're playing alone in solo you'll need to go to co-op then you can do that mission, but it won't be at the exact checkpoint. You have to quit out to switch to campaign co-op and start at the beginning of the mission. This has been a pretty normal feature in games for about 2 generations, but H5 doesn't have it.

- It should have a third mode. I was hoping Gears 3 was setting a trend with the good amount of content it had compared to today (campaign, horde, beast, and versus). Halo 5 should have firefight. A short campaign (from what I hear) and versus isn't very impressive from what should be the biggest/best X1 game so far.

- Smaller, toned down multiplayer: it's just 4 vs. 4 outside of Warzone. There's no big team battle or large scale combat besides that one mode, which is a shame. Warzone is okay - it feels like they were trying to be Battlefield but accidentally landed on Planetside. Their level design lacks the ability to go in different directions and flank like in Battlefield. It's about who gets bored/tired of camping first IMO. Customization used to be head, chest, arms, etc. Now it's just head and body, SMH.

I'm liking the game, but I was wondering if it feels "too small" for anyone else? It's nice so far, but definitely not as epic - from the tone and production value, that Halo used to be.

It definitely feels like there's less here than Halo Reach. Forge is supposed to come at a later date.

I like the abundance of smaller multiplayer maps, though. It means things are tight and tense in a really good way.

More maps. So little maps right now, or at least it feels like it if you prefer playing one or two modes.

Some of that stuff like BTB is coming later. So far I'm actually enjoying swat and warzone

Warzone seems to have taken over Firefight, for better or worse, but the free future maps makes me feel ok about the base game.

Halfway through the campaign and I'm really enjoying it. I have my issues with the multiplayer map design, but I certainly don't feel it's light. The lack of split screen really sucks but I understand why it's out. If I want couch co-op, I have the MCC right there.

Needs more firefight, and BTB. Warzone ain't cuttin it.

BTB and Forge are both coming before the end of the year along with new maps I think and at no extra cost.

@mems1224: Wait, have they actually confirmed BTB? If so then that's awesome.

@steadying: well, they've definitely confirmed it but I'm not 100% sure that it's coming this year. I want to say it is but I don't remember where I saw that.

Here's one of the new episodes they put out talking about bringing in Forge creators to help reimagine old Halo maps for BTB

https://youtu.be/WVQ4Bp7vlwc

There are more maps and Forge coming along with Big Team Battle playlists. I agree about the coop critique but that's just about it.

I'm really liking ze multiplayer, a horde would be cool, but it would be in every game I guess. I just play the campaign on increasing difficulty and added skulls with my friends, that scratches the same itch.

Well typically the first title in a series for the *next* gen lacks in the feature department

@oursin_360: Halo 3 didn't. That game added a ton of features in multi and single player, including 4 player co op, and the Forge.

That just makes it sound like the game was rushed. Even if it's free, a staple of the series coming weeks/months later is tacky IMO. Forge is pointless to me unless it's linked to matchmaking. If it's completely based on custom games and I can only do it with my friends and no one else then that's not helpful. Most my friends abandoned Halo for Battlefield and other games.

@deathstriker: they wanted people to focus on arena and war zone since that's what they are promoting. Halo has always had a playlist rotation and delaying the game for just big team and forge would have been worse. Also, Forge maps eventually make their way into matchmaking so just because you're not into it doesn't mean it won't be beneficial to everyone.

Hal9 5 taking a page from the splatoon playbook it seems.

(There seems to be plenty of stuff for the time being imo)

This still bothers me far more than the lack of options compared to previous Halo games. These games are in desperate need of a server browser of some sort, especially considering the ridiculous, mind-boggling number of options and settings you can go mess with in the menus and then go make a map specifically for those settings. After you do all that work, you've gotta go gather some friends to play on it, which is fine but have you ever tried to get together, I dunno, 8 friends for one night on a whim? Yeah, no, not easy. These games have always been ripe with potential for multiplayer madness and we're never going to see it reached if we only ever see 343 hand-pick some community favorites that just got passed around. Why can't I join some weird server that just goes through a playlist of whatever crazy, strange, or interesting game types and maps people have put together? I can't think of a single feature I'd rather have, but for reasons that I can't fathom, someone at 343 and/or Microsoft doesn't think it's worth the effort. And that's been disappointing to me since I started getting into Halo 3 multiplayer back in high school.

343's continued omission of Firefight boggles my mind.

@doctordonkey: yea, seriously. Spartan ops was a horrible replacement(though the story was alright) but halo 5 has nothing.

I agree there are a lot more to be desired from a new Halo game. Sadly they've sad there is no more single player content coming, but I'm hoping for some PvE content like firefight will be implemented. Had tons of fun in Reach. I'm playing through on legendary now and I think the companions are even worse, they die all the time and the enemies focus all their fire on me even if Buck stands right in front of me.

@believer258: I've never really understood why this doesn't exist on consoles either at this point.

@believer258: I agree on it feeling rushed in the sense that Forge and other popular playlists are missing but that game has enough maps already so the several new ones that are coming for free are a nice addition and won't end up splitting up the user base. The reason why they won't have a browser is because they don't want to have a wasteland of empty servers several weeks from launch which is what happened to Halo 4

The lack of big team battle is killing this game for me. Warzone just feels like a poor-man's Battlefield with some terrible level design and intrusive microtransactions. Arena would be way more fun if there were more than a handful of maps.

Right now, there's no way to dick around with vehicles in a multiplayer sandbox without REQ packs. And it's a total bummer.

where is my team action sack

Warzone is not 100% what I wanted. I really wanted a lot more dynamic AI battles that made the choice to PvP riskier. I enjoy it still but it's not horde mode with PvP like I wanted.

There's always a reason not to do something. For Forge and custom games to actually mean something they need to be searchable/have matchmaking. It's too hard as an adult to rely on 7+ friends to hopefully be online at the same time, own Halo 5, and want to play at that very moment.

I forgot to mention it in my original post, but didn't Halo used to have good AI? My teammates in the campaign will walk into walls when I go down rather than walk around a wall to pick me up, or rush straight towards an enemy when that boss or mini-boss has a one hit kill melee. H5 is pretty good, but not anything special, which is unfortunately been the case with Halo after H3.

@deathstriker: I agree completely with your thoughts on needing a custom game server list. I haven't touched that mode, and don't expect too, unless they add something like this. I don't have a group of people to set up silly matches with.

As for Halo's AI, helllllll no. It was always god awful. Go back to any Halo game, get on the Warthog turret, and see how amazingly bad the AI is as they drive you into rocks, off cliffs, and pull right in front of enemies and just sit there as you get filled with plasma.

@deathstriker: I'd rather have playlists that are actually populated versus people being stretched apart over numerous different servers. Seems like people are forgetting how quickly Halo 4 MP got deserted especially when they rolled out the multiple map packs. And Halo does have good AI, at least the enemies do. Shame that the AI teammates didn't get the same attention.

In the halo 3 days, we would always go to BTB matchmaking and do 2 games or so, then invite all recent players to a custom game and you could fill it up.

Also, i don't know about past AI, but I think it might be expectations. There are spartan allies now that are always with you and always worthless, so it stands out more.

@skytylz: I forgot that Halo 3 did that. Did the games after that continue that because that would be a decent compromise?

Halo has always had good enemy AI. Teammate AI, though, has always been problematic for the series. I don't think that any game has ever had good teammate AI. It's probably a more complex thing to code for - you have to make sure that the teammate AI seems like it's doing it's job without making the player feel irrelevant and without getting in the player's way. A simple way of accomplishing both goals is to make the teammate AI kinda dumb. As long as they can shoot straight, distract the enemy, and stay out the player's way, they won't annoy you 99% of the time. It's that one time when you're down and Buck refuses to hide behind a handy bit of cover while reviving you that things get irritating.

You can have matchmaking and server browsers in the same game. I believe Battlefield 3 and 4 on consoles did that. I know for sure that CS GO and TF2 both do it on PC and those games are some of the most played shooters in the world. There's just so much potential for creativity in Halo's custom games and I haven't been able to take advantage of most of it since high school.

Halo 4 didn't have server browsers, did it? I'm pretty sure you clicked on a matchmaking playlist like in every Halo. Also, Halo 3 and Reach also locked you out of some playlists if you didn't have the DLC, just like 4 did, and those games didn't have a problem lasting more than a few months. I didn't play much Halo 4 at all, though, so I'm not really sure of the specifics.

In any case, I enjoy Halo 5's multiplayer. It's fun. I just want a list of custom games that I can join. Shouldn't be too hard to do now that everything is on a dedicated server, either.

Imagine Trackmania Halo. Just a server that cycles random Forge maps and custom modes. Could be insane.

@colourful_hippie: You can still view recent players in game. I haven't tried inviting a bunch of people to a custom game though. Lobby browser would be better for sure, it was just a workaround we used in the past.

For a game that's been in development for 3+ years it certainly feels sprase. I could excuse the lack of modes if the campaign was expansive but from what I've played 5's single player seems to be the smallest, most constrained Halo campaign yet.

Alright this kinda sold me on having some kind of revolving playlist (Mario Maker 100 lives challenge style) for Forge/custom games

@steadying: there's 20 maps, that's almost double any past Halo game.

@deathstriker: Its better than the MCC situation when it should have been held back but was pushed out to hit deadlines. I'd rather have them release content when it is completely ready, than push out a buggy mess. Plus, I wouldn't want them to hold the whole game back for forge and BTB when there is warzone and arena already there working. Especially with the smoothness of the servers and gameplay that is there at the moment.

Halo 5 is kind of weirdly disappointing to me, I say weirdly because I haven't even had a chance to play it yet. Why? My husband and I have played every Halo game co-op, so having to buy a whole new XBox One just to play together, since they got rid of split screen co-op, is not in the cards at the moment. I honestly don't want to play through solo because it's now become this tradition. So we're both avoiding spoilers and trying to decide what we're going to do, whether we're going to have two XBox One consoles in one household or whether we're going to try and convince a family member to jump on the new console bandwagon or whatever. It's such a small thing, and I understand why they would take it out if it effects the game in a bad way, but man it makes a couch co-op player frustrated.

Also, I miss Firefight a lot. I know that Warzone is maybe supposed to be their big multiplayer thing, but Firefight is a totally different thing. It was the perfect Halo multiplayer for me in that I prefer a co-op experience with a little bit of competition (the points you would get in Firefight versus your fellow teammates) instead of just competitive. Also, the cards thing is skeevy to me. I know that it's the way things are moving, but I won't play enough multiplayer to unlock the armor cards, and that's all I really care about in the end. I want to make my lady spartan look fly as heck, and right now she has one of two options for her armor. I just don't see myself grinding the free currency to get packs.

I've heard the actual campaign is short, and that also is scary to me, but I play on the harder difficulties so that may mean it will take me and my husband longer to get through the missions.

But it does look pretty, so it has that going for it, which is nice. :)

@jadegl: yea, no idea why 343 seems to hate firefight. it was replaced in halo 4 by the awful spartan ops and there is nothing coop in Halo 5 besides the campaign. I was never huge on firefight but it was nice to mix it up once in a while. Plus, all those unique weapons you get in req packs seems like it would fit perfectly in firefight.

the campaign took me 8 1/2 hours alone on heroic but yea, it is a bit shorter than past halo games and the story drags towards the middle.

If Halo 5 started adding content afterwards, in updates and patches, like Splatoon would that make the difference for anyone?

Even if it was just some more multiplayer maps and stuff like Forge?

I don't think they should've held it back - they just should've had the game ready day one with a good campaign, real drop in/out co-op, firefight, and multiplayer with more modes/maps. Warzone has 3 mediocre maps. Forge is pointless IMO until custom games are searchable and not just friends only. Halo isn't the brand it used to be. The devs thinking this current content will keep people around for months is hubris.

I haven't read this thread, but I'm just gonna willy nilly tell everyone that's complaining to FLY A KITE. Big Team Battle is getting added later, as well as potentially the most mind blowing Forge mode ever. Not to mention all maps will be free for everyone. I don't see how this game needs more content.

Well, that makes it hard to take you serious if you're not bothering to read what anyone else has to say. I'm glad I rented the game rather than buying it. Warzone gets old, arena feels incomplete, and the campaign is okay but underwhelming. The campaign ends when it's getting interesting and I'm never a fan of turning a good guy randomly into a bad guy. I'd feel silly if I bought this game.

That is true, but halo 3 wasn't that big of an upgrade from halo 2 graphically IMO which was one of the things that ended up turning me off of halo after waiting so long lol. I need to go back and finish it and 4 whenever i get a xbone and MCC.

um...what? do you remember what halo 2 looked like? it was horrible. halo 3 hasn't aged well but its a noticeably huge upgrade graphically from Halo 2.