Halo 5: Guardians

Halo 5: Guardians was Xbox One's flagship title and clear proof that 343 Industries could keep the Bungie-founded series alive even after its creators' departure. The campaign for the first time puts the four-member Fireteam Osiris, led by Agent Locke, front and center, as they hunt the renegade Master Chief and his Blue Team. The narrative is more fragmented and less focused than before, yet it offers grand environments, new Promethean creatures, and a well-executed squad ability system - the player can issue orders to teammates, be revived by them, or send them to a signaled target. The campaign can also be played entirely in online co-op with up to four players, a first for the series.

New sprint, boost dodge, ground pound, and stabilized hover-while-aiming abilities significantly sped up movement and turned battles into a more acrobatic affair than in previous installments, without losing Halo's signature rhythm where an enemy first loses its shields and only then its life. But the title's main draw became its multiplayer: the classic Arena mode returned to fast, symmetrical arena combat without outside loadouts, while the massive Warzone mode combined twelve-on-twelve players with AI enemies, bosses, and a card system letting players unlock weapons and vehicles with in-game currency.

The graphics engine achieved native 1080p resolution on Xbox One at a stable 60 frames per second, a rare standard among console shooters in 2015, albeit at the cost of dynamically scaling resolution in the most demanding scenes. Despite criticism from fans over the missing split-screen co-op and a somewhat uneven story, Halo 5 remains the technically most polished multiplayer Halo of the generation and proof of the brand's viability under new leadership. Today it's remembered as the installment that pushed the series toward fast modern action while also showing just how sensitive the Halo community is to any change to its traditions.