Wow, such a fun campaign.
Not perfect by any stretch but such a fantastic platform on which to build upon.
Kudos to 343i.
Gameplay:
Pros: amazing gameplay and sandbox.
Cons: equipment and grenade swap system is overly complex and the hud doesn’t help.
The games over reliance on the grapple shot hurts mission s in encounter and level design. Its fun but making it a core mechanic all the time hurts variety and player expression.
mission objective variety and lack of puzzles are a missed opportunity.
Open world:
Pros: fun, beautiful, good verticality, day night cycle.
Cons: lack of variety, no weather effects, vehicles are not accounted for in world design, visual story telling is present but not particularly strong.
The zelda dungeon inspired audio cue serves to highlight how for behind said dungeons and world design is next to that franchise.
Campaign levels:
Pros: visually strong, fun, well paced, utilised the sandbox well, forced weapon changing.
Cons: repetitive, visual variety lacked, set peice light, reliance on holograms for most story beats, felt detached to the events leading up to the campaign, power seeds, no dedicated vehicle sections, mostly tight corridors no “the covenant” or tsavo highway or silent cartographer levels of in mission variety.
Little to no interesting environmental elements to elevate and/or impact gameplay.
Enemies:
Pros: great.
Cons: hunters and no prometheans.
Narrative design.
Pros: emotional and good story with new mystery.
Cons: light on answers, predictable, lack of continuity didn’t result in a story for new fans just one that is underwhelming for existing fans. John had no interest in finding halsey, blue team or lasky, why? Writting was very mixed, great last scene for example undermined by terrible writting. “I think i have the perfect one.” Ferdinand replies OK, just say cortana…
The audio logs are used as a crutch half the time and reiterate cutscene info the other half, already a boring story telling device. The didact, logic plague, flood and cortanas madness are not hard to explain and would add so much more depths and connective tissue to the reclaimer saga. The issue with EU stuff in game remains its poor or lack of in game explanation.
Great start hope to see it reach its potential in the future an hope story dlc is robust campaign additions and side stories that flesh out the universe in game by incorporating EU elements as to create a stronger sense of continuity between the the mainline series pre and post halo 4, halo wars franchise and the books. Makings of the richest and most Interesting halo to date.