First off I wanna say, I spent 15 hours + in the game, to only be locked from Loading my Save. Really Happy about that …
But, I find this Campaign to be disappointing. Like, everything within me is trying to like it. I love Halo, Been playing it since 2004. BUT, there are so many points I find extremely hard to find believable about the Location, and there is so much that they don’t cover, a waste opportunity on an Iconic ring.
-First off, the UNSC Infinity was the ship there, a ship that holds many fireteams of Spartans, yet (SPOILER) we only see a few Spartans on the ring… I find that hard to believe.
-Secondly, the Banished are winning the war, But they only have like 7 bases on the section we are given to play on.
-Thirdly, again, they are winning, but you rarely see drop ships dropping off reinforcements, or patrols, they are scattered around, I figured they would be a little more everywhere. I once drove around for an hour and saw no enemies apart from a couple jackals and grunts in the middle of the road. But there are so many empty areas.
-Fourthly, the world, we are given a tiny section of the massive Zeta Ring (Map feels smaller than Ghost Recon Breakpoint or Far Cry 6 - for SIX YEARS WAITING, it is a let down). I find it hard to believe that this torn apart section of the ring IS THE KEY TO THE WAR. There are plenty places around each ring that can ignite it, whose to say the Banished dont have armies around the ENTIRE RING? So, it feels pointless.
-Fifthly, There are all these forerunner structures but all we scan are some ancient rock rings, like, give more purpose to the forerunner structures, make use explore and scan them, give us WHAT THEY DO, instead of just throwing them in like it creates a vibe, which it does, and I love seeing them, but still, they feel pointless.
The bosses could’ve been a little better balanced too, we couldve had more things to do, most of the objectives are pretty spread out, but I feel like there couldve been more. More anti-air to destroy, more dig sites to disrupt, more prisons, more of ANYTHING Banished to explore that was not the main story. More things, even UNSC things to take care of, there are even special Banished vehicles we cannot use ever again, or the red energy sword or Esherams special hammer, that doesnt seem like ill ever get to use it again. Let Down, Poor Design. Don’t even get me started on the Day Night Cycle and how unbelievable that is on a RING PLANET. I could see night coming 2 times, when the sun passes the bottom or top of the ring, but night would be like 4 hours IRL and day would be 28 Hours or something, with how open the ring is.
I feel disappointed that we have the "Generic Halo CE Mission 2 “Halo” Environment to play on. I remember them teasing what looked like an environment based on Reach’s mission “Tip of the Spear”, a snow location, a desert… and all we get is the timber tree location. I mean, the ring itself is beautiful, it looks amazing and I loved seeing it and exploring it, but we all expected more environments right?
I also feel like there was a lot of cut content, there are places I want to see, that I can see around the location we can explore, but we cannot get to those, and it’s like a tease and it bugs me. Not to mention the lack of an armory, there are so many Iconic weapons that NEED to return to the game. Mostly, I feel the Location and the bases and war feel unbelievable. and I hated that, cause I wanted to play and enjoy it, but I just kept seeing classic 343i holes in the plot and structure and world… etc.
Anyway, I still really loved the game, however, 60$ is not worth it, at best, 8.5/10 and the game needs some extra content for us who paid. Firefight, Spartan ops, modes like that need to be locked to Campaign Purchase, cause 60$ for what felt like a short story (even though I have 15 hours it still felt so short…) it isnt worth it. It is a good game, and I am happy to explore a section of the ring and all that, and the game is incredible, but I find it hard to believe and it took away from the experience.
I have more to say, but this is already a term paper for most gamers. and 343i probably wont see it, but I want to say, this is 343i in the right direction, but for 6 years, it is a disappointment. Better than Halo 5, honestly, this is still my favorite Halo now, But, there is so much they couldve done, and it feels like a 30$ game. BUT AGAIN they are going in the right direction IMO. Open World Halo is the Future, I just hope we get more AREAS to explore. I really liked a lot of the game play, the marine rescuing, FOB capturing, but I expected more locations.
For example, I expected there to be multiple sections of the rings biome diverse lands…
a couple banished bases 3-6 FOBs around the area, 2 main missions or so, lots of side objectives in each area, a couple collectibles and that noise… and then you take the ship and fly to the next LOCATION. Rinse, Repeat. BUT IN DIFFERENT LOCATIONS of the RING.
A snow location, desert, tropical, timber, canyon, swamp, like in Halo CE when we first see the flood. I just expected more locations of the ring to explore, and I think the game wouldve been better spread across the ring rather than the hard to believe Isolated War on the deteriorated side.
AND I am very disappointed at the lack of present Flood and Mendicant Bias. Wasted ring use. hopefully the first DLC expansion is Free. Cause this game left me feeling disappointed, even though I still really enjoyed it. Just disappointed in the lack of area use and lore use of this ring. But, atleast the game felt more like the books than the old Halo’s, felt more militaristic and I really liked that.