Halo 5: Breaking Down Act One

God bless Halo 5: Guardians for taking chances.

After 14 years, six games and two developers, Microsoft's flagship franchise could easily skate by on looks and nostalgia, but 343 Industries has opted to continue the series' tradition of bold risks in its first Xbox One outing.

Through six missions, roughly a third of the game's campaign, those decisions have thrilled, frustrated and baffled me - but I've never been bored.

Team Osiris isn't a complete success, but it's the kind of bold risk that keeps Halo fresh after six games.

Impressions of "Osiris," "Blue Team," "Glassed," "Meridian Station," "Unconfirmed" and "Evacuation" (minor spoilers):

• Graduating from Xbox 360 to Xbox One has benefited Halo tremendously. Guardians looks spectacular, as every Halo game has in its day, but it feels uniquely smooth, probably because it's running at a consistent 60 frames per second. That decision will stand the test of time.
• The big gameplay advance of Halo 5, introducing AI or co-op teammates for the player, fixes one of the biggest inconsistencies between playing Halo alone and with friends by making it possible to die and still advance. I'm a big fan of not losing progress, so that's a win.
• That said, it doesn't make any sense narratively. Everything we know about Master Chief suggests he doesn't need backup singers, and nothing in the first few missions of Guardians contradicts that. On the contrary, the fistfight between Chief and Spartan Locke that ends "Unconfirmed" loses some impact because each man has three bystanders who could easily help him.

• The biggest narrative shift, alternating perspectives between Chief and Locke, is also a swing-and-a-miss so far. The overall story of Halo 5 hasn't spiraled out of control (yet?) by any means, but any chance Chief's teammates would develop into complete characters is flushed down the toilet. Locke's team does a little better, but I can't tell if that's because I've spent more time with them or because Nathan Fillion is back as Buck from the extremely underrated ODST. I wish I could switch between members of Locke's team and get to know them better.
• I'm baffled by "Meridian Station" as a mission. Isn't it possible to give me this heap of exposition as a cutscene? Or, even better, during combat a la Bioshock? It seems like a cheat to call 15 minutes of checking the next destination, running there and pressing the "talk" button as a mission.

Other thoughts on Halo 5's first act:

• Guardians has a major interactivity problem, beyond "Meridian Station." The Chief-Locke fistfight is fun to watch, but it's significantly diminished because the player has no hand in it. (If that's to make me feel torn between them, I'm not. Chief is clearly wrong; his insane obsession with Cortana rivals Harry Potter's with Draco Malfoy) As Jeff Cannata noted on the DLC podcast, that scene is one of several bad-ass action beats relegated to cutscenes, including the opening sequence and the introduction of the massive boss in "Unconfirmed." OK, so there's no mechanic in Halo for dropping from an aircraft or holding onto a ledge. Why not make them? You can even use that shiny (and mostly useless) new thruster button! At least do quick-time events.
• The most memorable parts of my Halo 5 time so far were, as always, organic: charging an Elite and meleeing him off a ledge in "Blue Team"; directing my team to take down a complex of snipers in "Unconfirmed"; escaping the station in a Warthog in "Evacuation"; the lengthy elevator firefight that follows. Halo does unscripted confrontations better than any other shooter.
• Those encounters work in part because Halo 5 manages to put just enough ammo on the field that I'm constantly swapping weapons, looking for strategic advantages and planning ahead. It continues to be immensely satisfying.
• I dearly miss split-screen co-op. I understand wanting to optimize a system-selling game's performance, but I can't believe 343 lacks the resources to present the game as published and create a local co-op mode that sacrifices frame rate or screen resolution.

I really wish the other three guys could be my friends rather than computer ccharacters.

• 343 majorly nerfed the Light Rifle from Halo 4 to Guardians, but I probably wouldn't notice if it hadn't been a massively overpowered murder stick, so I guess I shouldn't be mad. The suppressor has quickly become my new favorite Forerunner weapon.
• I really liked the design of the Forerunner enemies in Halo 4, and they look even more spectacular in Guardians. They're bright, interesting and, most importantly, fun as hell to fight.
• The new Hunter-esque giant Forerunner enemies, however, are boring. I hope there's more to their tactics than I've discerned so far. This may be partially my fault for playing on Normal difficulty and spamming heavy weapons like lasers and rocket launchers, which tend to be planted nearby.
• ENOUGH CLOAKED ELITES WITH ENERGY SWORDS. Instant death is no fun.