How to Play Co-Op Campaign in Halo 5 on the Same Console
As a long-time Halo fan who grew up playing legendary couch co-op campaigns with friends, I was incredibly disappointed to find Halo 5: Guardians only supported online cooperative play. This article shares my arduous journey getting campaign co-op working locally in Halo‘s latest release.
The Death of Split-Screen Halo
First, let‘s cover why Halo 5 unexpectedly axed a staple Halo feature for over a decade. According to Xbox head Phil Spencer, the decision centered on maintaining visual quality and framerates:
"The team really wanted to push console performance for things like frame rate and the visuals around the physical abilities of the hardware more than trying to figure out how to drop that down to meet split-screen."
Based on Digital Foundry‘s analysis, rendering two viewpoints with Halo 5‘s dynamic resolution scaling already significantly impacts resolution. With four players, effects and textures would need to be dialed back:
Halo 5 Multiplayer Resolution Impact
| Players | Avg Resolution | Min Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1920×1080 | 1408×792 |
| 2 | 1408×792 | 1280×720 |
| 4 | n/a | n/a |
So I understand the constraints 343 Industries was operating under to deliver this scope of 60 FPS gameplay. But having experienced the glory of 4-player Campaign chaos, I had to keep searching for a solution…
The Dream Lives!…Kinda
Similar to Halo 5, Halo Infinite also lacked split-screen support at launch. But where there‘s a will there‘s a way! Clever gamers discovered that by starting the Halo Infinite campaign in co-op mode using remote play via Xbox Cloud Gaming, you could then connect subsequent local controllers. Voila split-screen-ish functionality is restored!
Digital Foundry analyzed this workaround, and while it works, performance takes a noticeable hit. Resolution is way down, textures pop-in and out, but the nostalgic couch camaraderie makes it worthwhile. I can suffer through 900p and bad frame pacing because I GET TO YELL AT MY BRO NOT TO HOG THE SNIPER RIFLE RIGHT NEXT TO ME LETS GOOOOO!
Ahem excuse me anyway…surely this same workaround could enable some semblance of split-screen play in Halo 5‘s campaign despite lack of official support? I decided to roll up my sleeves and get to work.
The Road to 4-Player Co-Op is Paved With Heartbreak
Since Halo 5 itself provides no avenues for split-screen manipulation, I had to get creative with otherideas:
Local Network Play
Old school system link sessions brought me back. Setting up a local network between Xboxes and copying our profiles over seemed promising! Except Halo 5 has zero LAN capabilities whatsoever. Sigh.
Multi-Xbox Streaming
What if I set up remote play to a separate Xbox on the same network? I happily streamed my campaign to my brother‘s Xbox, but hit another dead end trying to connect his controller. No controller input pass through whatsoever! ARRGGHHH!!
The Results Are In
After a full weekend tinkering with wired connections and unsupported workarounds galore, turns out there is just no way to access any sort of split-screen for Halo 5‘s campaign.
And based on the finicky performance even on beefier modern hardware with Halo Infinite, Halo 5 definitely couldn‘t smoothly run four simultaneous instances. Maybe someday if they offered it for cloud streaming…
But for now, those golden days of smushed together couch carnage remain out of reach. At least the online connective tissue keeps the camaraderie intact…but my nostalgia still stings.
In conclusion just take the spare Xbox, buddy. This fight just isn‘t worth it. sad high five
The Co-Op Campaign Tradition – By the Numbers
I can‘t be alone missing the glory era of Halo couch co-op. But how many players actually take advantage of split-screen functionality? Is its removal an inconvenience to a vocal minority? Let‘s examine the data:
Split-Screen Support Over the Years
| Halo Release | Campaign Co-op | Multiplayer |
|---|---|---|
| CE | 2-player | 4-player |
| Halo 2 | 2-player | 4-player |
| Halo 3 | 2-player | 4-player |
| Halo Reach | 2-player | 4-player |
| Halo 4 | 2 player | 4-player |
| Halo 5 | No split-screen | 2-player |
| Halo Infinite | NO CO-OP AT LAUNCH FML | 4-player |
Based on this progression, 343 Industries has slowly been deprioritizing local co-op capabilities in favor of visuals the last two releases.
Industry consumer data shows we are still out there! 31% of gamers play cooperative games for the social experience according to LG. I guarantee a non-zero % of those like me play while yelling at their real life friends 🙂
And Halo has always been a social experience! Online may be more popular, but couch play needs to make a comeback! Who‘s with me?? crickets
…..anyway all good things in time. Until then, catch me shotgunning your corpse at LAN parties in the nursing home <3.
