Talk:Halo 5: Guardians/GA1

Summary

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)
It is reasonably well written. a (prose, spelling, and grammar): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists): It is factually accurate and verifiable, as shown by a source spot-check. a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR): d (copyvio and plagiarism): It is broad in its coverage. a (major aspects): b (focused): It follows the neutral point of view policy. Fair representation without bias: It is stable. No edit wars, etc.: It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate. a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):
Overall: Pass/Fail:
· · ·

Comments

• The first part of the "Development" section has 6 paragraphs. Therefore, I'd suggest adding sub-headers to improve readibility.
  • Added in another subhead.
• Halo 5 was the first visual appearance of the alien homeworld Sanghelios. is unsourced.
  • Removed
• The reception box uses the deprecated star rating system. E.g. if the rating is listed as then it should be changed to 4/5.
  • Fixed
• Ref 31 (Wccftech) appears to be an unreliable source.
  • Removed
• As Ref 40 (The Art of Halo 5) appears to be a book, pages will have to be cited.
• What is the reliability of MCV Pacific?
  • It's a spinoff of MCV/Develop, and I've added a wiki link to make the connection closer.
• Ref 61 (Sounders FC to wear Halo 5: Guardians-themed jerseys for nationally televised match vs. LA Galaxy) is missing the |website= parameter. Same goes for Ref 42 (Microsoft's 343 Industries Deploys Mocap for 'Halo 5: Guardians'). I am not sure about the reliability of these two references. If you are familiar with them, I'd like them to be explained.
  • Swapped refs.
• Titles of video games should be italicised within the |title= parameter per MOS:VG.
  • Should be addressed
• suggest changing AWOL to absent without leaving as most readers will not be familiar with the abbreviated term. Same goes for the Plot section.
• The lede's current length is 226 words therefore I'd suggest expanding it a bit. More information about the development could be added to the lede. It does not matter whether you want to bring this article to FA or not but it is suggested that ledes should be long between 250 and 400 words per MOS:LEADLENGTH.
  • Boosted the lead a bit more.
• It has a game engine that scales its resolution to maintain a frame rate of 60 frames per second. Aren't all games built in game engines nowadays?
  • Adjusted phrasing to say it's a feature of the game engine rather than implying the game engine itself is novel
• A sequel, Halo Infinite, was released on December 8, 2021. is also unsourced. There should be a "Sequel" section with information about Halo Infinite.
  • Added and sourced to the end; given there's a franchise article and nothing directly ties in between the games it doesn't feel like it merits a dedicated subsection.
• Wikilink supersoldiers in the "Gameplay" section. Same goes for multiplayer, game's difficulty, game modes, Halo franchise, and cosmetic rewards.
  • Added
• Explain what a boss is (at defeating computer-controlled bosses).
  • Just changed to "enemies" to make it clearer
• Are requisition or "REQ" points the same thing? If not, explain what REQ points are.
  • Adjusted to hopefully make it clearer they are the same thing
• Explain what a placement match is.
  • Reworded so it's hopefully clearer.
• Editor is a broad term, therefore I'd suggest changing it to a map editor and wikilink it to level editor.
  • Adjusted
• Redundant wikilink of supersoldiers in the "Synopsis" section as it will be wikilinked in the section before. Same goes for John-117 (Master Chief).
  • Fixed
• Cortana, Master Chief's AI companion → Cortana, Master Chief's artificial intelligence (AI) companion.
  • The usage of AI is already clarified when talking about Roland earlier in the same paragraph.
• "utilize the console's dedicated server support" unsure why console is wikilinked in this case.
  • Removed
• Xbox 360 is wikilinked twice in the same section (Development).
  • Fixed
• A second season of the podcast began September 22, 2015, focusing upon the view point of ONI Agent Maya Sankar (Janina Gavankar), returning undercover as FERO, to investigate unidentified attacks on human colonies.[65] any updates on this?
  • There's not really much more to say. I went looking for info about its final episode, or anything specific to the season but it mostly gets lost in the Halo 5 release.
• Several publications in the Reception are wikilinked twice.
  • Should be fixed.

Spotcheck

This table checks 32 passages from throughout the article (24.8% of 129 total passages). These passages contain 40 inline citations (24.8% of 161 in the article). Generated with the Veracity user script. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 17:29, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

I suggest archiving the rest of references. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 17:41, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

More information Reference #, Letter ...

Reference #	Letter	Source	Archive	Status	Notes
Halo 5: Guardians is a first-person shooter game.
1	a	venturebeat.com			Dead URL
The game features new weapons, as well as returning ones with tweaked mechanics.
6	a	ign.com			I found mentions of a new weapon, but not of the latter part of the sentence.
During cooperative play, other human players assume control of these Spartans, who each have different loadouts and attributes.
7	b	gamespot.com
Xbox Live multiplayer features a variety of competitive and cooperative game modes. Established four-versus-four arena modes like deathmatch or capture the flag return.
6	c	ign.com
The mode has a new control scheme compared to Halo 4, and new capabilities including scripting tools that can be applied to game objects.
12		polygon.com
The game was supported via the Halo Waypoint website with player statistics tracking and additional features such as Spartan Companies, where players could band together in groups of up to 100 players and work on completing in-game challenges to unlock cosmetic rewards.
15		ign.com			I could not find player statistics being mentioned
10	b	gamespot.com			Unsure what this is supposed to back up in the article.
The members of Blue Team are among the last Spartan-IIs left alive.
18	b	gameinformer.com	web.archive.org
Longo was a fan of squad-based gameplay experiences, and the team wanted to introduce more main characters besides Master Chief, and explore the character through other perspectives. "One of the early thoughts was kind of throwing the Chief paradigm a little bit on its head, to have some mystery enshrouding him and what his motivations are, like we'd not seen before," Longo recalled, setting up the idea of a hunt for Master Chief across multiple locations, with alternating viewpoints similar to Halo 2.
22	b	vice.com	web.archive.org
24	b	gameinformer.com	web.archive.org		I am unsure if the website just broke but I cannot find this in the article.
The studio wanted to contrast Master Chief and Blue Team with another team of characters.
24	c	gameinformer.com	web.archive.org
Holmes recalled that while during Halo 4 343 Industries had been building up its team simultaneously with developing the game, with Halo 5 the team focused on establishing the core gameplay foundation early on. Combat was focused around spaces called "bowls", with enough action for four players in a fireteam, as well as offering different tactical options to defeat opponents. The team prototypes a number of Spartan abilities that ultimately were pared back, including a double jump.
22	d	vice.com	web.archive.org
The co-op player count prompted the studio to work at increasing the number of enemies and sense of scale.
26	b	gamespot.com
Longo considered moving from 30 to 60 FPS quadrupled the amount of development work required, especially as the team also wanted the larger scale to environments.
22	e	vice.com	web.archive.org
The focus on performance meant that split-screen play, which had been in all previous Halo games, was dropped.
34		gamespot.com
The Warzone game mode was originally conceived in 2012 with a small demo set up as a four-versus-four player match with AI controlled enemies defending an objective; the studio had wanted to implement such a mode with Halo 4 on the Xbox 360 but was unable to achieve their vision on the hardware.
37		gameinformer.com	web.archive.org
As with the previous game, Halo 5 used motion capture to animate characters. To record the performances, 343 Industries used a 5,000-square-foot stage and fifty cameras, along with a 3D tracking system called OptiTrack.
41		develop-online.net
42		productionhub.com
Sataro Tojima was the audio director for Halo 5: Guardians,
43	a	gameinformer.com	web.archive.org		Either the Wikipedia article or the news article misspelled his name (on Game Informer he is listed as Sotaro Tojima).
The Covenant have conversations with each other.
45	c	gameinformer.com	web.archive.org
To differentiate Chief from Locke, Jinnouchi used different chord progressions and switched the key between major and minor, to suggest ambiguity as to whether the character was good or bad.
44	c	engadget.com
After E3, Xbox executive Phil Spencer said the previously announced "Reclaimer Trilogy", of which Halo 4 had been the first entry, had been expanded into a larger saga, explaining that the developers did not want to limit the story to just three games.
48		gamespot.com
Live-action advertisements on television revealed the October 27 release date.
51		polygon.com
The development team wanted to launch a beta as early as possible so that players could give feedback, which was used to make refinements to gameplay and adjustments to maps.,
24	f	gameinformer.com	web.archive.org
35	c	gameinformer.com	web.archive.org
Tie-in merchandise included Halo 5-themed Minecraft skins.
59		gamespot.com
On March 22, 2015, Microsoft launched Hunt the Truth, an audioplay similar to radio series such as This American Life. The first season followed the investigations of fictional journalist and war photographer Benjamin Giraud (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key), who investigates the Master Chief's background.
64		eurogamer.net
Microsoft executive Aaron Greenberg felt that the M ratings on previous installments were surprising given the comparative lack of graphic violence, but that the Teen rating gave Halo 5 a larger potential audience.
68		gamespot.com	web.archive.org
The game shipped in a standard edition, limited edition, and collector's edition. The limited edition came with a REQ bundle, dossiers on the game's characters, the Fall of Reach film, a statue of a Guardian, and a "steelbook" metal case. The collector's edition contained the limited edition extras, plus a commemorative statue of Master Chief and Agent Locke.
69		vg247.com
Within its first five days of release, Halo 5 was the best-selling game of October in the United States, according to NPD Group,
74		ign.com	web.archive.org
In the United Kingdom, Halo 5 debuted on the top of the sales charts as measured by Chart-Track, besting the week's other new release, Assassin's Creed Syndicate. It outsold previous Halo release The Master Chief Collection by 50% in its first week,
78		vg247.com
79		eurogamer.net	web.archive.org
Halo 5 was supported by free post-release content updates that added new features, weapons, and multiplayer maps. Holmes explained that the studio did not want to segregate the player base by distributing maps as paid downloadable content.
84		ign.com	web.archive.org
85		gamespot.com	web.archive.org
GameSpot's Mike Mahardy agreed that 343 had produced some of the best iterations of the game series' facets with Halo 5. IGN's Brian Albert opined that 343 Industries had created an even bigger game than previous entries, with "the strongest combat Halo has ever seen".
102	b	gamespot.com
6	f	ign.com
GamesTM pointed out flaws in enemies by criticizing overpowered bosses and saying that "the number of things that can kill you instantly—even on Normal difficulty—is exasperatingly high". Reviewers like Carter and GamesTM complained of ally teammates failing to revive players, even in instances such as when they were standing right next to the player.
8	e	destructoid.com	web.archive.org
100	c	gamestm.co.uk	web.archive.org
Though he also found fault with parts of Halo 5's campaign, Albert praised Cortana's threat as "less black and white" in motives than previous antagonists, and the background chatter contributing to learning more about each character.
6	h	ign.com
In a 2022 retrospective ranking the Halo series, Game Informer called Halo 5 perhaps the most controversial game in the franchise.
116		gameinformer.com

Close

I will continue the rest when I get back home. Heading for a walk. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 17:41, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

BTW I am unsure why I generated so many spotchecks (25%) considering that the article has a ton of references. Therefore, I will check about ~10 more references if no more issues pop up. It's late here so I'll continue the spotcheck tomorrow. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 21:52, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

@David Fuchs: I've spotchecked a few more references and found nothing out of the ordinary. BUT, if you want me to spotcheck a few more, please tell me! I'll put the article on hold for a week. If you need more time, pls tell me. Cheers, Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 18:34, 11 December 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for the thorough review, Vacant0, I'm working on addressing these. I'm going to check the refs that needed to be fixed from above and see if it's just a ref substitution/delinking issue. If so then it probably doesn't need another check in that respect. Otherwise I'll go through it fully myself before asking for another set of eyes. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ^talk 15:47, 15 December 2025 (UTC)

That sounds good. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 16:34, 15 December 2025 (UTC)

I see that you're slowly going through the comments. I'll leave this open as long as you want. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 16:18, 12 January 2026 (UTC)

Thanks, Vacant. Sorry it's taken so long. I'm through the substantiative comments up top, what remains is double-checking the refs. I'll ping you when done! Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ^talk 20:13, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

@David Fuchs: Any updates on your progress? Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 14:35, 9 February 2026 (UTC)

@Vacant0 and David Fuchs: - I tried to solve the ref issues. Is there any other issue stalling this article from being promoted? OceanHok (talk) 12:47, 24 March 2026 (UTC)

Thanks so much for the assist, Ocean. I think that deals with everything Vacant had pulled thus far. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ^talk 20:22, 26 March 2026 (UTC)