I have been trying to put my finger on what about Halo 4 & 5 has felt so different for me. I have enjoyed every one of the Halo FPS games in all their own ways. Obviously with a new studio at the helm and with more competition in the FPS realm there are going to be changes. Once I have gotten used to them, I rather like them, most of the time. Rather than managing how long I can sprint, the tactic is balancing movement with shield recharge, I’ve adapted. It adds an interesting element to game play. I like the rankings and the seasons, it adds a challenge to actually earn that place, even though it has humbled me a bit because I can see at Gold 3, I am solidly an average player. What I have discovered though, my issue with the campaign of the game is that it just lacks that campy-fun-humorous side that I used to really enjoy.
It is like going from Tim Burton’s Batman to Chris Nolan’s Batman. The former had some tongue-in-cheek humor and didn’t seem to take itself too seriously, the latter is all grit and badassery. I feel like the humor died when they killed off Sgt. Avery Johnson. I would rather see him resurrected than Cortana. I remember many of his lines… “For a brick, he flew pretty good.” “Back in my day we had two rocks and a stick for a whole platoon, and we had to share the stick.” “Regret? We regret coming to Earth, we regret the Corp blowing up our raggedy -Yoink- fleet…” “I know what the ladies like…” The story is just taking itself way too seriously now. (I would level the same charge at the RvB machinima as well) There is the little Easter Egg of the Elite and the talkative grunt on one of the “social levels”, but Marine and Enemy chatter from early games was much funnier. I get that the Master Chief has been fighting his entire life, and he is probably getting tired of it, and it is an interesting story arc. I just miss the more light-hearted aspects of the series before it started to suffer from the Chris Nolan Effect
Previous campaigns I would get all the skulls, turn on IWHBYD & Grunt Birthday Party and play over and over again. I had a lot of fun just trying to get vehicles where they were not intended to go (Halo:CE - Warthog in the cartographer’s room), and going for high score with campaign scoring turned on. Halo:CE was the first game I’ve ever completed on its hardest difficulty because I wanted to see that cutscene for myself, of Sgt. Johnson hugging an elite. I’ve beat every campaign on Legendary before really diving into multiplayer, until now. There had been incentive, armor unlocks in 3 and ODST and Reach. Halo 4 had the reveal of John’s face. Now it just doesn’t resonate with me, there are no levels that I find myself just wanting to jump into and play over and over again to do crazy things or play with the weapons I’ve found.