Hello, I just wanted to make this post to share some things that caught my attention while I was playing through the campaign. I started playing a few days ago on Legendary difficulty, it is also my first run of the game and I finished it today. I am really happy with the way things turned out . Unlike some others I found the story to be quiet enjoyable, the gameplay on the other hand could use a tiny bit of refinement. I’ll explain what I mean.
The way Cortana tries to take over the mantle of responsibility is a nice touch that reminds me of how the Forerunners themselves took the mantle by force by rising up against their creators. While Cortana seems to be peaceful it is obvious that things are going to go ugly. From this point of view I thought the story took a nice turn that could help us compare the situation to that of between the Precursors and the Forerunners. A will history repeat itself? Type of thing.
There is a thing that I did not understand though, which I would really like explained. Why does Cortana hate Doctor Halsey? It seems really weird considering how mushy and adorably she was staring at Halsey at that one cinematic, which really made it weird for me at the sudden point where she calls Halsey a monster and says that she will pay for her crimes. It’s an interesting point because I don’t think Cortana has any new information about Halsey, so what would change her so much towards Halsey if her rampancy is in fact cured?
Aside from that point, there is also the gameplay part that I wanted to bring up regarding the Warden Eternal. The boss fight at which the player has to fight three wardens at the same time is ridiculous, they have so many one shot abilities that it makes it near impossible to defeat unless the player resorts to cheap tactics. I wanted to ask the developer to tweak a few things in order to make that fight less ridiculous. I finished the game on legendary today but at the moment I was ready to quit, almost at least, but I’m too crazy to quit.
I want to say that there is a difference between something that is hard/challenging and near impossible. Impossible is not a challenge impossible is simply impossible and it causes cheap deaths all around. I wanted to point this out because until I was able to defeat the three Warden’s boss fight I was very angry at the game. If I have to give a suggestion, it would be that maybe the Warden could have his power split into three, that way each Warden would do 1/3 of the damage a single actual Warden would do. It might help balance the fight a bit to avoid cheap one shot deaths or cheap victories.
Besides this point I think the game play is excellent and I will likely finish it again. Also can’t wait for Halo 6 to see how the story continues, humanity must claim the mantle like it was meant to!
Great to see a positive review! I was going to make one like this myself.
Do you read and follow any of the books or comics? I found they explained a lot of things in the story that I’m sure many others wouldn’t have gotten if they didn’t read the books.
I believe in the opening cinematic was Cortana’s conception, so she may have possessed very little information about her creator at that point. And during the Halo 1-4 period she was still somewhat awed by Halsey’s achievements and intellect. And after not just surviving the Didact but evolving through the Domain she may have gained a whole knew idea of retrospect about Halsey’s arrogance. (not Halsey hating, I love how interesting her character is, but she is remarkably flawed on a human level)
And not to mention that Cortana comes from a clone of Halsey’s brain, so she may be trying to escape the traits that are parts of her origins.
I 100% agree about the three Warden fight! I died like 8 times straight just trying to sprint around a corner to escape the guaranteed kill zone.
I feel like you’re on the money with your prediction as well. Sort of the whole thing going full circle. I would love if in 6 they found Ancient Human technology or warships, but I doubt that would happen.
How did you go trying to find all the intel items?
> 2533274851997977;2:
> Great to see a positive review! I was going to make one like this myself.
>
> Do you read and follow any of the books or comics? I found they explained a lot of things in the story that I’m sure many others wouldn’t have gotten if they didn’t read the books.
>
> I believe in the opening cinematic was Cortana’s conception, so she may have possessed very little information about her creator at that point. And during the Halo 1-4 period she was still somewhat awed by Halsey’s achievements and intellect. And after not just surviving the Didact but evolving through the Domain she may have gained a whole knew idea of retrospect about Halsey’s arrogance. (not Halsey hating, I love how interesting her character is, but she is remarkably flawed on a human level)
> And not to mention that Cortana comes from a clone of Halsey’s brain, so she may be trying to escape the traits that are parts of her origins.
>
> I 100% agree about the three Warden fight! I died like 8 times straight just trying to sprint around a corner to escape the guaranteed kill zone.
>
> I feel like you’re on the money with your prediction as well. Sort of the whole thing going full circle. I would love if in 6 they found Ancient Human technology or warships, but I doubt that would happen.
>
> How did you go trying to find all the intel items?
Oh man I tried my best to search for Intel but in Legendary looking for all of those things becomes too much of a hassle, so while I tried to find most of them I made it less of a priority while trying to survive at all times. I will probably look for every single one of them this time when I play simply for fun on medium difficulty. Some of them appear to be there just for comedic purposes such as the Grunt recordings, but the few that I’ve found during the last chapters were really interesting, I’m not sure who it was that I was hearing in them though. I will be able to pay more attention during my later runs of the campaign.
As for the books, well no, I wish I had read them but I did not, but I do follow the deeper story line closely using other sources that explain what has happened within alternate media such as Halo wiki. Also you know what, that actually makes a lot of sense, Cortana did have a lot of time to think about everything that has been going on. Possibly during her time alone while she was trapped in High Charity with the Gravemind and while she was in the Forward Onto Dawn with Chief being drifted across deep space for four years. It would be really nice if 343 would try to also explain things from Cortana’s point of view at some point for us to have some insight to her mentality and understand what makes her the way she is at the very moment. It’s a nice discussion topic for sure!
(Also yeah Halsey sure is an interesting character, but her arrogance, denial and self righteousness really becomes too much at times, face your demons Halsey!)
> 2533274921950649;3:
> > 2533274851997977;2:
> > Great to see a positive review! I was going to make one like this myself.
> >
> > Do you read and follow any of the books or comics? I found they explained a lot of things in the story that I’m sure many others wouldn’t have gotten if they didn’t read the books.
> >
> > I believe in the opening cinematic was Cortana’s conception, so she may have possessed very little information about her creator at that point. And during the Halo 1-4 period she was still somewhat awed by Halsey’s achievements and intellect. And after not just surviving the Didact but evolving through the Domain she may have gained a whole knew idea of retrospect about Halsey’s arrogance. (not Halsey hating, I love how interesting her character is, but she is remarkably flawed on a human level)
> > And not to mention that Cortana comes from a clone of Halsey’s brain, so she may be trying to escape the traits that are parts of her origins.
> >
> > I 100% agree about the three Warden fight! I died like 8 times straight just trying to sprint around a corner to escape the guaranteed kill zone.
> >
> > I feel like you’re on the money with your prediction as well. Sort of the whole thing going full circle. I would love if in 6 they found Ancient Human technology or warships, but I doubt that would happen.
> >
> > How did you go trying to find all the intel items?
>
>
> Oh man I tried my best to search for Intel but in Legendary looking for all of those things becomes too much of a hassle, so while I tried to find most of them I made it less of a priority while trying to survive at all times. I will probably look for every single one of them this time when I play simply for fun on medium difficulty. Some of them appear to be there just for comedic purposes such as the Grunt recordings, but the few that I’ve found during the last chapters were really interesting, I’m not sure who it was that I was hearing in them though. I will be able to pay more attention during my later runs of the campaign.
>
> As for the books, well no, I wish I had read them but I did not, but I do follow the deeper story line closely using other sources that explain what has happened within alternate media such as Halo wiki. Also you know what, that actually makes a lot of sense, Cortana did have a lot of time to think about everything that has been going on. Possibly during her time alone while she was trapped in High Charity with the Gravemind and while she was in the Forward Onto Dawn with Chief being drifted across deep space for four years. It would be really nice if 343 would try to also explain things from Cortana’s point of view at some point for us to have some insight to her mentality and understand what makes her the way she is at the very moment. It’s a nice discussion topic for sure!
>
> (Also yeah Halsey sure is an interesting character, but her arrogance, denial and self righteousness really becomes too much at times, face your demons Halsey!)
It can be a slog to read through them all, but I definitely suggest them. In their own right they are a fun read, and in the big picture they add a bunch of backstory and character development to the games 
Like Vale, Buck, and Blue Team.
I was really wanting to find all of those Forerunner intel items! They sounded interesting, I’ve only come upon 2 so far. They must have been the surviving Forerunners who were on the Arc after the Halo’s fired. I hope they get some more fleshing out. Either in game or book.
Out of curiosity, where are you from? As in country? Looking for folks to play co-op with on legendary
> 2533274851997977;4:
> > 2533274921950649;3:
> > > 2533274851997977;2:
> > > Great to see a positive review! I was going to make one like this myself.
> > >
> > > Do you read and follow any of the books or comics? I found they explained a lot of things in the story that I’m sure many others wouldn’t have gotten if they didn’t read the books.
> > >
> > > I believe in the opening cinematic was Cortana’s conception, so she may have possessed very little information about her creator at that point. And during the Halo 1-4 period she was still somewhat awed by Halsey’s achievements and intellect. And after not just surviving the Didact but evolving through the Domain she may have gained a whole knew idea of retrospect about Halsey’s arrogance. (not Halsey hating, I love how interesting her character is, but she is remarkably flawed on a human level)
> > > And not to mention that Cortana comes from a clone of Halsey’s brain, so she may be trying to escape the traits that are parts of her origins.
> > >
> > > I 100% agree about the three Warden fight! I died like 8 times straight just trying to sprint around a corner to escape the guaranteed kill zone.
> > >
> > > I feel like you’re on the money with your prediction as well. Sort of the whole thing going full circle. I would love if in 6 they found Ancient Human technology or warships, but I doubt that would happen.
> > >
> > > How did you go trying to find all the intel items?
> >
> >
> > Oh man I tried my best to search for Intel but in Legendary looking for all of those things becomes too much of a hassle, so while I tried to find most of them I made it less of a priority while trying to survive at all times. I will probably look for every single one of them this time when I play simply for fun on medium difficulty. Some of them appear to be there just for comedic purposes such as the Grunt recordings, but the few that I’ve found during the last chapters were really interesting, I’m not sure who it was that I was hearing in them though. I will be able to pay more attention during my later runs of the campaign.
> >
> > As for the books, well no, I wish I had read them but I did not, but I do follow the deeper story line closely using other sources that explain what has happened within alternate media such as Halo wiki. Also you know what, that actually makes a lot of sense, Cortana did have a lot of time to think about everything that has been going on. Possibly during her time alone while she was trapped in High Charity with the Gravemind and while she was in the Forward Onto Dawn with Chief being drifted across deep space for four years. It would be really nice if 343 would try to also explain things from Cortana’s point of view at some point for us to have some insight to her mentality and understand what makes her the way she is at the very moment. It’s a nice discussion topic for sure!
> >
> > (Also yeah Halsey sure is an interesting character, but her arrogance, denial and self righteousness really becomes too much at times, face your demons Halsey!)
>
>
> It can be a slog to read through them all, but I definitely suggest them. In their own right they are a fun read, and in the big picture they add a bunch of backstory and character development to the games Like Vale, Buck, and Blue Team.
>
> I was really wanting to find all of those Forerunner intel items! They sounded interesting, I’ve only come upon 2 so far. They must have been the surviving Forerunners who were on the Arc after the Halo’s fired. I hope they get some more fleshing out. Either in game or book.
>
> Out of curiosity, where are you from? As in country? Looking for folks to play co-op with on legendary
That does make me want to check them out, which I think I actually will, what else do I have a kindle for? and I am currently in the United States.
Haha I’m in the same boat. The awesome convenience of digital books
Ahhh incompatible time zones; I’m in Aus.
It’s been a bother trying to find other casual gamers to do co-op with!