Halo 5: Guardians

Intense overall intensity
Highest flag: Spending — real-money purchases
Sci-fiShooter

What's in it

Spending real-money purchases
High

Randomized REQ packs granting weapons, vehicles, and cosmetics can be earned in-game or bought with real money.

Violence realistic
Moderate

Sustained first-person combat with futuristic guns, grenades, melee, and vehicles against alien and human enemies; small bursts of blood on hits but no gore or dismemberment.

Dark themes mild
Low

War, an AI ally's descent and betrayal, and characters presumed dead drive a somber military-sci-fi story.

Language mild
Low

Occasional mild profanity in campaign dialogue between soldiers.

Spending pressure optional
Low

Real-money REQ packs are entirely optional and not required to progress or compete.

Who can reach your kid

Voice chatChat with strangersDirect messagesUser-created contentStranger friend requestsReal-money spending

What it is

Halo 5: Guardians is a sci-fi first-person shooter in which the player controls teams of armored Spartan supersoldiers across a story campaign and large online multiplayer modes. Combat is steady and action-heavy: players use futuristic firearms, grenades, melee strikes, and vehicles against alien forces and human soldiers, with brief bursts of blood on hits but no gore or dismemberment. The tone is a somber military space war, touching on loss and an artificial intelligence's turn against its allies, with occasional mild profanity in dialogue. Online play (including the 24-player Warzone mode) features open voice and text chat with strangers, a map-building tool, and optional randomized REQ packs that can be earned through play or purchased with real money.

How it's framed

The game frames the player as heroic soldiers defending humanity, with violence presented as duty-driven military action against clear enemy threats; killing is the core mechanic and is rewarded through scoring and progression, but it is not depicted as cruelty, and there is no sexual content, drug use, or graphic gore.

Details

Developer
343 Industries
Publisher
Microsoft Studios
Released
2015-10-27
Metacritic 84critic score (third-party) · out of 100

Similar games

We built this because we needed it

Balanced Play pools your kids' game time into one budget across Steam, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox and more. We're taking 100 founding families — free for life.

Claim a founding spot →

Free for life for the first 100. No card, no spam.