It's no secret that the Xbox One has had a tough time earning a positive reputation with consumers. Since its announcement in May 2013, it's had to deal with being labeled as anti-consumer and pushing gamers to the wayside in pursuit of a family-room entertainment experience. Although it has fought back with regular software updates, a strong first-party line-up, and strong press conference showings, it still has a long way to go.
Halo 5: Guardians launched this week to positive acclaim across the board. Earning more than 50 favorable reviews, it has been called one of the best first-person shooters in years by many critics and gamers alike—I would agree. But that hasn't protected it from the inevitable barrage of anger-filled fanboyism.
When visiting the Halo 5: Guardians Amazon page the first thing that pops out are the hundred of one-star reviews, which currently make up 41% of its review base. Consequently, the otherwise well-received game has been pulled down to an underwhelming three stars, which is an average usually only found on broken games like SimCity and Assassin's Creed Unity.
It's when you begin reading these one-star reviews that everything begins to make sense. Let's look at a few of them.
– Michael Z.
Adding my down vote!!! I would have bought a brand new xbox one with this game if it had local multiplayer co-op, for my family and friends that like to game together in the same room. Will not support another Halo product ever again unless local co-op gameplay comes back. Bad move 343!
– J
The worst Halo game ever made. Bring back Bungie
– Gello
No split screen, a disappointing campaign, and a total lack of features make Halo 5 a very lame game in an incredible series.
– nunya
Extremely short campaign, was led to believe would be almost twice as long. And the graphics fluctuate from full 1080P all the way down to 800P. Lots of dithering and pop in. Doesn't look like a next gen title.
– R. Hill. Clark
It may come as no surprise to you that virtually all of the above reviews have given PlayStation 4 products perfect scores and don't have a verified purchase of Halo 5: Guardians.
You might think that given the number of people hating on the game via Amazon reviews that this would be a normal occurrence in the industry; not quite. A quick trip to Forza Motorsport 6's reviews, which was similarly an Xbox One exclusive, shows an overwhelming amount of positivity. Meanwhile, even the worst AAA game of 2015, The Order: 1886, only has 14% of its reviews in one-star territory.
That begs the question: What is it about Halo 5: Guardians that makes it so prone to hate?
Part of the answer lies in the Xbox One's reputation as the "bad guy." Some of the business decisions by Microsoft last generation earned it negative marks with gamers. These decisions include buying exclusivity for games like Mass Effect 2 and BioShock, pushing the console to shelves before reliability was sorted out (Red Ring of Death), and abandoning first-party support during the transition to a new generation.
This was all made a lot worse with the reveal of the Xbox One. It was a console designed from the get-go to be always online, equally as invested in general entertainment as gaming, and heavily reliant on an expensive Kinect peripheral. Microsoft has been paying dearly ever since.
Halo's legacy is a major part of the equation in this case. This is a series that has continually been a standard-setter for more than 10 years, making those who can't play it feel left out. At this point not only are there unfair expectations for the series given its successes, but also a lot of people who don't own Xbox products who are tired of hearing how good it is.
Ultimately, it's extremely sad to see this sort of thing. Thousands of hours went into making the game, and despite its shortcomings, any game this fun to play and with this much work put into it doesn't deserve an abundance of hateful disrespect. But as long as gaming exists, so will fanboyism.
