I’ll start with saying that my review is my perspective, which I hope is shared by others. If you blatantly disagree then please don’t flame or try and start any debates. We’re all entitled to our likes and dislikes.
Instal times: I got my express delivery pre-order limited collectors edition game a day late. I was mildly annoyed by that, but what’s one more day? But during that day wait I saw TONNES of complaints about excessive instal and update instal and download times. I was not looking forward to that issue.
So my copy arrived and fully installed along with the 9gb update in around 30 mins. However I should add that I have fiber cable internet, so that was obviously helpful.
Story/plot(NOT CHARACTER REVIEW): I am an avid lore follower, I read the books and the comics as well as following the hunt the truth podcasts and the triad page. I will have one criticism about their timing of the story arcs in Escalation, they should have finished the current absolute record arc before Halo 5 released.
But that aside. Being versed in the extended media practically all aspects of the greater story made sense to me.
Did I predict Cortana being alive and within the Domain as a now immortal AI with didactic plans? Definitely not, and I would not have guessed at this. But in hindsight there have been a whole bunch of hints through a lot of the recent kinds of media releases that this would happen. But my angle on Cortana; a great twist! I found it to be a wonderful evolution of her as a primary antagonist.
The conflict on Sangheillios was also written fantastically. It followed the settings from the Kilo-5 trilogy fantastically and gave an interesting view of the Sangheilli as a people.
The Warden Eternal confused me slightly though. I am looking for a Co-op legendary player to replay it with and maybe I’ll hear something I missed about him. I imagined him as a digitized Forerunner?
The Genisis location was also a great addition for me. I haven’t found all the intel items for it yet, but I get the idea that the Forerunners who survived on the Arc went there to prepare or rebuild things for the future? I loved it either way.
The marketing media being not remotely correct to the true story? I’ve seen so much hate and heat about this topic! Perhaps my perspective comes from reading all of the books/comics, but I loved the marketing and understood that it wasn’t meant to be taken literally, and it was meant to be like propaganda from ONI. Like how the Triad page was being posted as though it was real and happening. And the message in the marketing aside, whether literal or not, the marketing was enjoyable and exciting and successfully hyped up the incoming story.
The Guardian’s role in the story was fantastic as well! The games haven’t done a great job at showcasing some things about the Forerunners like the books have, but this game (I felt) did an excellent job of showing that the Forerunners (mostly beside the Lifeworker caste) were arrogant, didactic, imperialists. And their mantel of responsibility was something they ruthlessly stole, thus their over all passing on of it to be biased. Despite the fact that Humanity was meant to be the inheritors of it from the Precursors.
The minor story additions in the form of intel items, talking grunts, talking colonists, Sangheili and so on. I found them to be ultimately enjoyable, interesting, and creatively insightful.
Overall with the plot I loved it. There were some holes in it, and I was absolutely happy with them. A story installation in the middle of a series has to have unanswered questions to lead into the next instalment. Like how much heat Halo 2 got when it came out, and yet is now looked back on as the greatest in the series.
Mission structures with Osiris and Blue team missions: I had my doubts about blue team only having three missions and Osiris having the rest with their first introduction. But if anything the execution really shone a whole new light on Blue Team. We saw them from the perspective of hero’s and Galaxy savers through the eyes of once regular, and still respectfully beneath while still being super-soldiers, current Spartans.
This leads into the character development issue.
Characters and their development: Blue teams development was sadly somewhat sparse in the game. But they did give some good views on John and some character aspects on themselves. Their primary development in the books has always been excellent, but this is kind of the sacrifice that’s needed in a game with so many freshly (game) introduced characters.
Osiris introduction. Buck is already known and loved, so nothing to say there. Locke had some introduction in the form of Nightfall, but not a whole lot, and I think Nightfall actually made him seem worse than his in-game self-came out. I enjoyed his character a lot in the game. His meeting with Thel (Arbiter) after the recommendation for assassination seemed to be like a hallmark for him learning about some morality and honour.
Locke looked at John at first with conflicted respect. He had his orders, and he wasn’t 100% sure if he was up to the job, and he respected John above all else in the UNSC. And after the first morally conflicted confrontation he found out John’s motives and cast his respects and loyalties to John in a great way that made it seem like he really did look up to John and the II’s.
Vale: in game she was lackluster. She was kind of a character who was just there. I did enjoy her lines and interests, but the in-game her did not deliver on the book development for her in Hunters in the Dark.
Tanaka: Same as Vale mostly. Except her part in the comics was almost tacked on. At least it felt that way to me.
Campaign gameplay/play time: Mechanically I loved how the game played and felt. The enemies generally fit into all of the enemy types that we’ve come to expect from Halo, and the different variations of them kept it challenging, fun, and graphically interesting. The new abilities and the unlimited sprint was also awesome. This is the first Halo game where you really feel like you’re playing as a super-soldier.
The AI was at first an annoyance. But once I embraced the command system I came to love them. I played in Legendary, so they really came in handy. They either served as handy fire support, amazing distractions (which I would have previously used a local split screen player for because I only have one friend who likes Halo but sucks at it) and super handy for the revivals. However, there were times where they were totally useless at the revivals. But little glitches like that aside I loved the entire mechanic.
On legendary it took me 16 hours to play so I felt it was a great play time.
I know there are points that I’m missing, but in summary: I immensely enjoyed the Campaign and Multiplayer and am hugely looking forward to the next game and future books.
343i you have a huge thanks for making such a creative, engaging, and fantastic story and expanding the universe the way you are.
And a thanks to the Halo fan community for being a part of helping propel the Halo name into what it’s become and becoming.