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Halo 5: Overhyped, but still way above your average shooter

Caught between a Locke and Master Chief

Online is where it's at

Online is where Halo 5 puffs up its chest, with the brilliant Warzone mode taking centre stage. By combining elements of Capture & Hold with Horde mode, Warzone successfully forms a whole that's greater than the sum of its parts.

Waiting for the Green Man. He's still got it

As 24 players do battle within its sprawling maps, there are not only key strategic strongholds to capture, but also waves of enemies that must be slaughtered. And these are no standard enemies either, but Covenant and Promethean boss characters that could rival Destiny's worst in the bullet-sponge stakes.

Blue Team and Red Team can kill each other, capture objectives or take out the AI-controlled forces in a bid to be the first to amass 1,000 points. And there’s even an element of the MOBA in the way that it’s the player who deals the final blow who scores.

The addition of the Requisitions System – a currency used to ‘buy’ vehicles and weapons within a match – adds a different level of strategy to proceedings too. The relatively slow accumulation of team points ensures that matches rage on, often for 20 tense minutes at a time.

If you want a break from Warzone then you also have Arena mode. Here you can expect to find much more traditional forms of play, from team deathmatch, to the one-life-per-round Breakout mode and the headshot-happy SWAT mode that sees players compete without shields.

Verdict

Halo 5: Guardians doesn't live up to its own expertly crafted hype machine, but it does deliver a solid campaign that's backed up by honed multiplayer, which delivers traditional modes and – more importantly – a genuinely impressive new way to play.

343 could have done more to lift the campaign's story above the average, and could have created more of a distinction between Locke and Master Chief in terms of the way each character handles themselves.

But, on balance, Guardians is still way above the quality of your average shooter and should keep you well entertained until the inevitable sixth instalment.

Halo 5: Guardians, Xbox One, £49.99, Microsoft.

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