I see a lot of people who post how much they really like this game, but I wonder if those are the people who will be playing this for a long time, or are just entertained by it for now. I usually only play Halo, and can still enjoy the games many years later.
I’ve finished the campaign, tried Warzone and got a diamond rank in arena and I’m already uninterested in what else to do. This is only the beginning and I’m already finding myself bored. Everything has been just mediocre to me and only a couple days later I’ve already lost the excitement to play.
Campaign
The campaign was alright to run through once, but I don’t think I could do it again, and wasn’t very impressed in the one run-through. I don’t feel like I experienced anything new. Running around from point A to point B to kill some AI and unveil the next thin layer of the story. They treated the tank and wraith like it was something we’ve never seen before. The maps in Warzone often feature this huge monster truck. What the hell was 343 thinking not incorporating an ability to drive that beast somewhere? I just feel like there’s no new experience here and even the story itself was just meh. I thought this was going to be an epic chasedown battle between Locke and MC and we’d learn some dark secrets about the Chief but no. It just seemed rather shallow. I’m not saying the game didn’t function, and I’m grateful it did, and looked good, it just didn’t seem to have the fun or longevity that a typical Halo campaign should.
Warzone
I knew this was going to feel like Halo 4 going in, for this was the main reason it was created; to appease the casual, social gamers with a fun, massive and unbalanced game type. But I still wanted this to be EPIC with how much they promoted the number of players, size of the maps and destructive potential, but again just meh. I find myself running around an overly-large map with a damn magnum/AR where I have no close encounters and get picked off from a distance only to have to spawn a mile away from any action over and over. The base “core” stations are all exactly the same on every map and just promote series of standstill shooting. Even the maps are fewer than I was hoping for because it’s the same map over and over, just in a different area of it. I thought the mix of Spartans/AI/Bosses would be insane, but the bosses come and go before I can even get to the scene and the other AI are just straight up pointless. I thought the buildup would be intense, but it really just drags out and doesn’t even peak to anything, making the games very long and painful. Little things like slow spawn times and undesirable content to purchase because I hate menu hopping during a game. Even the joy of the REQ packs I thought I’d get is missing. I just open another bland crapshoot of 5 more mongooses and needlers. I’ve played probably 50 games between Warzone and Arena up to a level 13 or so, opened up nearly just as many REQ packs, and I haven’t even received one piece of armor or a skin! People keep complimenting how great the variety is, but I only have one choice so far. I don’t really get why this had to be a completely separate facet of the game as I think it would be better just included as a social 12v12 BTB playlist in arena.
Arena
They’ve brought it back to ground zero somewhat and it’s balanced and competitive, but that doesn’t mean it’s exciting. The maps are average with little going on for entertainment value and large. Even the power weapons are lackluster. I feel like the abilities are less fluid than they were in the beta and the movement in general seems stiff. I don’t know if it’s the hitboxes, the ADS, sensitivity settings or what, but I feel like I’m playing on a TV with no game mode and a terrible response time (even though I’m not). The constant 4v4 and lack of playlists, voting and options puts me to sleep. I was excited to test the new maps, but my first 12 games only switched between The Rig and Colliseum. I get tired of an endless loop of unskilled sprinting and AR spraying. Breakout is inventive so I like it, however I can only handle so much considering you’re put in the exact same scenario up to 9 times a game. It also feels a lot like swat, which is already one of the few playlists they gave us. And one playlist is just a mix of everything so that’s redundant too. It’s almost like the multiplayer designers had a hard time thinking of enough game types for their 4v4 limitations.
I don’t mean to rant or complain, just seeing where my thoughts stand with others. It just falls short of what I had hoped this game would achieve for me, especially in a long-term perspective. I know there’s going to be updates and things added like more playlists and forge, but updates are for EXTRA/bonus content (DLC), not large, missing aspects of the game to become available for the first time. This would be one of those moments when I’m underwhelmed with the game and I’d just go forge something and have fun creating my own thing, but I can’t even do that. The consequence of delays like that and “updates” are people get bored with what’s available NOW and then they aren’t around when those things finally come out. The rate it’s going, I worry that I’ve already exhausted all the joy this game has to offer for me.
What are your thoughts?
(I will also be posting full breakdowns of my reviews via video podcast to my youtube channel so feel free to subscribe and follow along so you see them:
Tactrix Games: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9IK8NOG5XEeq9KFPxs6SeA