Broken Base / Halo 5: Guardians

• A huge chunk of the fan base is divided as to if playable Elites should continue to appear in multiplayer in full capacity as they have for the Master Chief Collection. One side side complains about fairness, pointing out the Elites have a slightly larger hit box than Spartans and canonically multiplayer is supposed to be UNSC war games simulations; meaning no Covenant would be participating. The larger side however doesn't care about a larger hit box being a disadvantage, pointing out how Halo 3's multiplayer worked fine (though there were many hitbox issues); and that keeping Elites playable maintains a very machinima friendly environment (something the Halo games are famous for). Discussions about this topic on the Halo boards frequently become hundreds of pages long.
• In the campaign, there are a dozen Fireteam Osiris levels, but only few Blue Team ones. Thus the fandom was pretty split between those who called it new character favoritism and false advertising, and those who said that it was fair for the story (where the focus is on hunting down Blue Team and bringing them back to the UNSC Infinity, not just on what Blue Team is doing), and that the Blue Team missions compensate by being much longer than Osiris's.
• Cortana's survival after 4 and her Face–Heel Turn. Either it's great to see her back, and it's nice to see the game implementing an interesting What Could Have Been moment from the first game as well as making the Cortana Letters more relevant, or 343 managed to ruin one of the most emotionally charged moments in the franchise by reviving her as a villain. Additionally, some people felt that the twist only served to make the plot less interesting than what had been implied by HUNT the TRUTH and the rest of the advertising.
• The death of Jul 'Mdama in the opening level, who had a small but notable fanbase after Spartan Ops and Kilo-Five, has caused some disquiet as well - the majority of players likely didn't care, having probably not played much or any of Spartan Ops, but among those who did play through it were disappointed that Jul turned out to be a Cutscene Boss after several years of building him up as a leader of the Covenant remnants.
• The story as a whole; many people thought that bringing Cortana back as the villain was an interesting and unique twist, and that the story is a great leadup to Halo Infinite. Others think that the characters aside from Buck and Exuberent Witness were nothing to write home about, that John's motivations for going rogue are weak, and that the plot itself could've been better.
• For the game itself, the fact that Halo 5 breaks tradition and doesn't include splitscreen multiplayer, which was a staple feature in previous games. 343 claims that splitscreen would cause too much stress on the Xbox One's graphical engine, and that nobody has the time to physically invite friends over to play anyways. While some fans believe 343 has practical points, others argue that 343 could have downgraded the graphical fidelity in splitscreen mode like previous Halo games and many other shooters have previously done.
• The Requisition system, which introduces microtransactions to the Halo franchise. One side is supportive, saying that the proceeds help fund future free DLC content as well as pro-gaming prize pools. They also point out that the Requisitions are limited only to the Warzone game mode, and that they can be earned with in-game currency. The other side sees microtransactions of any kind as a perversion to the Halo franchise, and also fears Requisitions are the beginning of a Slippery Slope, where future Halo games can see more invasive monetization schemes. The fact that REQs are single use, instead of on a cooldown means that players who get a rare weapon such as Oathsworn or Nornfang will not use it since once it's used, it's gone until another is unlocked in a REQ pack.
• As was the case with Halo 4, there are some Halo fans who believe that the franchise ended somewhere between 3 and Reach, and refuse to recognize any Halo games made by 343 as "real" Halo games. Then there is the other side, who enjoy 5 and believe that 343 is doing a good job handling the franchise as a whole.
• When the game first launched, none of the available Arena maps (eight standard maps and five maps made from a Forge canvas) by default included a form of vehicle usage. Some were alright with this and preferred playing without the presence of vehicles in matches, while others would have rather had battles where vehicle usage was possible. 343 quickly took steps to rectify this by adding vehicle-based maps in their first big content drop.
• The absence of certain multiplayer gamemodes that were popular in preceding installments (Big Team Battle and Infection/Flood, for example) during the initial launch was another design choice that didn't sit well with players. Some made the argument that they were axed off due to not getting as much playtime as other game modes and will accept their absence, others see this as an unnecessary move on 343i's part. That said, 343 quickly re-added Big Team Battle in its first content drop, and have since re-added both Grifball and Infection.
• The addition of Warzone Firefight. Though it has elements of the incredibly popular Firefight from Reach and ODST, it has an array of problems. It is 5 waves, and no option to have more waves exists. The spawning system is broken, so Wave 5 enemies will often spawn inside buildings or behind barriers, leaving no way to attack them with vehicles. Since wave 3-5 enemies have greatly increased health and can shred players on foot instantly, this leaves no way to kill them short of concentrated tank fire, with power weapons for the most part being useless. It is not uncommon to see Firefight matches post wave 3 turn into a lobby-wide tank frenzy (assuming the lobby has tank REQs to spare), and if no tanks are available, the match will likely end in a loss. The timer also doesn't reset during a wave if the boss enemy in a group is killed, so if wave 5 has four boss enemies out of five on the field, and they are killed with 1:30 left, the last enemy will spawn and the entire lobby has 1:30 to kill what is usually a Warden-type enemy or high-level Promethean, instead of the timer resetting to give a fair chance. The respawn timer also unfairly increases (from 5-10 seconds at wave 1 to 45 seconds at wave 5) as the match goes on, punishing deaths.