Now, right off the bat I know people are going to think this is a bad take. After speaking to numerous life-long fans of the franchise, they all unanimously agree that Halo 5: Guardians is the weakest title of the series. But I had the luxury of starting the series last month with fresh eyes. I’m not a life-long fan that’s grown up with the series being a big staple in my life.

I started playing the games the correct way, starting with Combat Evolved. I can’t say that that game really did enough for me. I get the fact that it’s over 20 years old so things have changed innovation-wise for gaming. I can appreciate though what it did at the time as it’s a pretty groundbreaking game in its own right.

From there, I did 2, 3, ODST, Reach, 4, and then finally 5. As I played, I could see continuous growth between the games (besides 3) whether or not some ideas were scrapped entirely. For me though, the series really felt like it made some of its biggest upgrades to the gameplay in 4 but it was when I started 5 that I really felt the series come full-circle.

Now, say what you will about the story in 5 but I feel that it did exactly what it needed to do when it needed to do it in order to show some growth for its characters. The one that benefitted the most from the writing though was Master Chief. Besides some romantics between himself and Cortana, MC was more or less created to be a flawless hero-type character. The Golden Boy, if you will.

Halo 5 challenged this idea by setting up the story in a way that made him a more flawed guy. For the first half, it made me question his intentions. It worked really well in my opinion and made my connection to him even stronger. It showed that he was more than a soldier that risks his life for the greater good. Going against orders was a narrative point in 4 but I think 5 did a fantastic job at furthering his resistance to orders that he didn’t agree with.

Fireteam Osiris is also a group of characters that worked really well together. Locke and Buck being my favorites. Locke takes on that war-machine arch-type that MC was in previous games until he realizes that there’s more to everything. Buck as always is what I would call the “everyman” character that I connect with every time I hear him talk.

I also loved the fact that the game ended on a cliff-hanger that had an intensity that we haven’t seen since Halo 2. The stakes feel like they’ve never been higher for humanity and it leaves me salivating to see how Halo Infinite plays out. Cortana is the ultimate enemy and it would prove extremely hard to stop her at this point.

If the story really isn’t your thing though, you have to give it to 343 on just how clean the game looks and plays. This feels like the Halo game that Xbox had been building towards from the start. It’s a complete evolution that perfectly integrates bits from every game that’s passed. The only complaint I have is that there isn’t any way to dual-wield weapons.

Gunplay and movement are buttery-smooth and it’s only heightened by the verticality that went into the level design. Another thing I really liked was the inclusion of the Prometheans again. I love their designs and just how daunting it can be to take some of them down. The Covenant will always be the villains that we remember as the Halo bad guys but it’s cool to see some evolution as well.

Lest we forget the extremely awesome Warzone multiplayer mode? That game mode is just bombastic fun and it’s an extremely valuable piece of the multiplayer for Halo 5. It’s something that I’m really hoping to see once Infinite launches. It’ll be sorely missed if not.

All in all, I just think that Halo 5 gets a bad rap even though it does so much right. This is only my opinion and maybe my view is different because I don’t have nostalgia for the franchise and am going into it with a fresh once-over. Each game was a blast to play and it really was cool to see how each game differed in its own way. I don’t think any departed from the formula as much as ODST though. I respect it in that regard though.

My personal rankings of the games go:

1. Halo 5

2. Halo 4

3. TIE - Halo 3: ODST & Halo 2

4. Halo: Reach

5. Halo: Combat Evolved

6. Halo 3

Art is subjective and these are just my thoughts but I’d like to know how you’d rank the titles in the series. Comment below or Tweet at me to let me know!