I’ve been a Halo fanatic/fanboy/whatever you want to call it since Halo: CE, and Halo 2 just completely blew my mind back in 2004, and I was so enamored with it that Halo 3’s multiplayer was a pretty significant letdown for me. I still played it quite a bit, because, you know, it was Halo. But it never quite lived up to the Halo 2 levels of amazingness that I’d been hoping for.
And needless to say, I detested Halo: Reach.
Halo 4 was weird. I more or less liked the addition of sprint but didn’t let how it let you recharge your shields, and I -Yoinking!- HATED Ordnance Drops. I feel that THAT feature more than anything else basically destroyed Halo 4’s multiplayer, as it totally removed the elements of map and weapon control that had defined Halo, and only exacerbated the problems with custom loadouts.
So with all of that said, I have to say…
I am LOVING Halo 5: Guardians! Truthfully, I have not had this much fun with ANY Halo game since Halo 2. I can still see and feel all of the old, classic elements that make Halo what it is, but then on top of that there are all the new features like (balanced) sprint, clamber, and Smart Scope that make Halo 5 feel like a fresh, and more importantly, modern shooter. Sure, there are a number of things that could and should be tweaked before the full game launches, but with that release date roughly a full year away from now, I’m gonna try not to sweat those things all that much.
I seriously have not had this much fun with Halo’s multiplayer since Halo 2. 