I'll be honest, I have very mixed opinions on this game. At the end of the day I love it, like I love all Halo content, but there's so many missed opportunities and disappointing decisions that I can't help but feel underwhelmed at best and frustrated at worst.

You can tell the creative arts people behind this game had lots of passion for what they were working on. The design work, art style, music, and writing are all incredible and full of heart and soul but you can tell they were very limited by what executives wanted (particularly the writers). As beautiful as it is, the game seems afraid to step outside of its comfort zone. It wanted to be a homage to Combat Evolved, but in doing this it didn't let itself be anything more. In their pursuit to please everyone and avoid doing anything people would complain about, they ended up being just a little boring. The campaign has its moment, but nothing really stands out to me, yknow?

The sandbox is probably one of my favourites, I love what they did with the forerunner weapons and how they made the assault rifle and pistol feel both good to use AND play against without being over or underpowered. The multiplayer is fun, but it came out half-baked and had stuff added slowly over the course of a few years. It's in a great state now, but it's too late and the hype is gone. Not to mention it runs very poorly, which more often than not ruins the fun.

There was a great foundation, but they built upon it somewhat poorly. At the end of the day it is a very fun game that I enjoy most of the time but it's just a bit disappointing.

I'll be honest, I have very mixed opinions on this game. At the end of the day I love it, like I love all Halo content, but there's so many missed opportunities and disappointing decisions that I can't help but feel underwhelmed at best and frustrated at worst. You can tell the creative arts people behind this game had lots of passion for what they were working on. The design work, art style, music, and writing are all incredible and full of heart and soul but you can tell they were very limited by what executives wanted (particularly the writers). As beautiful as it is, the game seems afraid to step outside of its comfort zone. It wanted to be a homage to Combat Evolved, but in doing this it didn't let itself be anything more. In their pursuit to please everyone and avoid doing anything people would complain about, they ended up being just a little boring. The campaign has its moment, but nothing really stands out to me, yknow? The sandbox is probably one of my favourites, I love what they did with the forerunner weapons and how they made the assault rifle and pistol feel both good to use AND play against without being over or underpowered. The multiplayer is fun, but it came out half-baked and had stuff added slowly over the course of a few years. It's in a great state now, but it's too late and the hype is gone. Not to mention it runs very poorly, which more often than not ruins the fun. There was a great foundation, but they built upon it somewhat poorly. At the end of the day it is a very fun game that I enjoy most of the time but it's just a bit disappointing.