All I can say is that it's a solid game with solid gameplay. The art design is solid, though few things speak to me. The game is beautiful aesthetically though. The Prometheans take some time to get used to. On their debut level I was completely schooled, then the Didact shows up and I begin to figure out how they work. The weapon are all really cool and have their own feels. They can technically fulfill the same roles, but it comes down to a manner of style and how they accomplish those roles. With that said, I picked up a Carbine any chance I had. Although it takes quite a bit to kill an Elite with, it's still a very resourceful tool. At the right times, I find nearly all weapons to be some sort of fun. The only stipulation is that each one requires its own playstyle to be affective, which can be a bit challenging at first. Either way, I played til the latest level on Heroic and was completely immersed in the game. A lot of fun, a different kind of challenging than other Halo games, but pretty intense all the same.
The only things I did not like were how obnoxious I found vehicles to be (especially the fucking Banshees, oh my God those things lead to my dying more than I can count), grenade throwing felt weird compared to past games, and although the audio is fantastic a lot of weapons sound incredibly similar. I had difficulty distinguishing between plasma and human weapon sounds for a while. Another thing that bothered me, but not so much after a couple of levels, was that Promethean Knights take so much to kill. I don't want to say they are straight up damage sponges because they have a good intensity to them that keeps them form being Halo 2 Brutes, but I do want to mention that they can soak up so much damage it's ridiculous on Heroic. I can't even imagine playing this on Legendary yet. Hunters are pretty badass though, but they aren't much tougher than they are in Reach. This was on Heroic though, so really all I used to kill them was the energy sword or kited them off the edge of platforms. Fun stuff. One Hunter took an entire Fuel Rod clip to the face and didn't die. I was absolutely astonished. Bad. Ass. Anyways, the level where you're defending the Composer was a lot of fun and challenge, but the final engagement location and encounters felt really broken for some reason. I suppose when you use up two Mantis Mechs and have to shoot down the Banshees/etc with Machine Gun Turret, then I guess that'd make sense. I wish plasma cannons (the guns mounted on banshees and ghosts and phantom side turrets) weren't so annoying though. Those got me killed indirectly quite a few times and almost more than Banshees did.
The story now, that's something VERY different. Different indeed. It's really strange, still Halo enough, but STRANGE. I also don't know if I like the aesthetic appearance of the Forerunners faces. No one said they were angelic, but I do feel like they were physically portrayed as other galactic organisms than I'd liked. The Librarian was kind of ugly as a result too. . However, when the Didact put on his armor, IT WAS AWESOME. Their characters were AWESOME though, very Forerunner, and I'm okay with that. It was also cool to find out that the Prometheans were recomposed Humans by the Didact or something. They are also Advanced AI Systems for defense, kind of like the step-up from Sentinels, which I was glad to be right about! I also like how the Chief basically didn't give a fuck when the Captain yelled for him to hand over Cortana. Lasky was also a boss for giving him the most kickass Pelican ever. Then the story kind of takes some turns, with Cortana really going on the fritz, and then it starts doing the jumping around that we all hated from Halo 2 and Halo 3, which it was cool that you go from Requiem to Halo AT THE VERY END....then you jump somewhere that I don't know about yet. It's like "Oh look guys, a HALO, awesome right? Kthnxbai let's go somewhere completely different! Again!" I would have liked it if they would have stayed on Halo. The death ray was pretty fucking cool though. I also like how the Librarian tied-up the loose end that 343GS said about MC being a Forerunner ultimately and how Reclaimers are still relevantly important to the story, which is why MC survived said deathray (after the Librarian did some tweaking to make his genes even more boss). So now I am at what appears to be a deathstar-like segment. I can't wait to see what happens! Also, I'm curious to know what 'Jul Mdama has been doing during this time. Has he been communicating with the Didact at all? If he doesn't appear at the end of this game, will he appear in future media like Halo 5? Interesting enough I hope. Really liking this game so far and I probably shouldn't sitdown to play for 6 hours in one day. My head kind of hurts now. Glad I got to play as much as I did though, considering I don't even own it on my own Xbox yet.
I haven't even touched multiplayer and haven't even begun to think about it. All I can say is that for me it will be a VERY interesting experience. Spartan Ops will be too.
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