So...
The Bad:
1) shotguns suck, especially the not-human one. I mean, we haven't had a good once since Halo 1, so maybe I shouldn't feel too bad, but I do.
2) not enough "observe/plan/shoot" encounters that define Halo; more like "continually move forward into a Killzone/Call of Duty-esque fight arena."
3) not using the Halo Shield Beep and going with something way less original
4) I thought I was supposed to get a cool skin thing when I bought the game from Best Buy. I did not. What gives?
5) Enemies are too spongey relative to the damage they output. Knights can OHK you on Heroic
6) Checkpointing is bad--one checkpoint had my entire fireteam down with half a second to save one of them, and the only way to fix it was to restart the entire level.
7) Why is Kelly speaking with a British accent when she grew up in the same place as all the other kids? This is Halo 5's "How do the Fallen Know What Wolves Are," clearly.
8) What is the Domain and why should I care? Is this more of that "you have to read the novels" stuff? Because ew.
Honestly? Heroic is garbage, just like it was in Halo 4. Halo Reach had Heroic perfected to a science. It's like that difficulty was made just for me. Here? I'm going down every minute or two. I can't play Halo like Halo. Instead I have to hide behind cover and shit, which isn't a fucking Halo game.
The Good
1) Kills feel great when they happen.
2) Sounds are nice and punchy.
3) Particles are off the chain.
4) 60 FPS was a good call.
5) This game looks gorgeous.
6) That rocket punch/groundpound thing is pretty neat.
7) The cutscenes manage to make every spartan look super cool.
Overall:
The difficulty balance and checkpointing is awful. A lot of stuff that makes Halo Halo isn't... really at the fore, if present at all. ADS is terrible because it supports the whole "hang back and pick enemies off" rather than "get right in there and wreck things" approach. The fights feel really nice when you're winning, but there are way too many enemies who can just like "oh hi let me drop you in a single hit" right now, and that's utterly destroying my fun.
Seriously, what is it with 343 and awful difficulty balance? Halo 4 was this way too: normal is way too easy, and Heroic is like "almost Legendary but not." Chatting with some friends going through Halo CE, they were remarking that Legendary feels unusually difficult as well, like the difficulty got changed. What's 343's problem?
And how do the Fallen know what wolves are?
Welcome to gaf and you guys deserve a big thumbs up here!
