WARNING!
THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW!
Campaign
- - The A.I. for both humans and the Covenant are unbalanced. Humans are dumb as fuck and the Covenant, especially Elites, are too hyper-reactive. It's unnatural. Humans stand there, taking damage and not shooting back; whereas Elites run all over the place after reacting to a single shot. Play the game on Legendary, you'll know what I mean.
- - Adjusting the difficulty is not hard. When Bungie said that they were going to "increase the number of enemies depending on the players", I was overjoyed. However, Bungie kept the "I deal 3x more damage to you because it's Legendary", which is retarded. The lazy man's balance. I'm exaggerating but, 5 shots from a Grunt's Plasma Pistol could kill you. Fucking ridiculous. Also, Elites have way~ too much shield for Heroic and above.
- - Bungie seemed to have mixed feelings about realism in this game. On one hand, if you happen to accidentally kill a civilian, you will instantly die; however, Bungie gave Brutes the Armor Lock ability. What?! Doesn't make sense.
- - Mission design is poor. There is a lot of backtracking and some parts are just boring, such as: the space battle and protecting Dr. Halsey's lab entrance.
- - Multiplayer maps are taken straight out of campaign, literally. Watching the Legendary campaign walkthrough by 4 Bungie dudes on Halo Waypoint, the campaign dudes were too lazy to make new areas.
- - Checkpoints should have been revised before going gold. There are times when you are in a tight situation with no enemies around and you get no checkpoint; then you have constant checkpoints with enemies around. What the?!
- - Some bugs and glitches in campaign too. Like: an Elite in stealth, wielding a sword; when exposed, shows that he is wielding nothing.
- - The campaign cutscenes could have been better.
Graphics
- + This is the best looking Halo game, so far. The environments and sky look great.
- + The guns look great.
- - The vehicles look okay, but could have been better.
Audio
- - Marty O'Donnell wanted the music to be different from what was heard in the other Halo games. Bad choice. Throughout the campaign, there are probably only 4 pieces that I enjoyed.
- - The campaign dialogue is very cliché and dumb. There is no sense of emotion or tension.
- +/- Campaign voice acting was poor. The only good voice actor/actress was Jen Taylor, voicing Dr. Halsey.
- + Weapons sound better than Halo 3: ODST.
Multiplayer
- + A lot of bugs have been fixed from the beta, and most for the best. Weapons, Armor Abilities and general matchmaking have been improved.
- - I'm disappointed that there are only 2 "Invasion" maps, for now.
- +/- Firefight 2.0 is somewhat a welcomed addition. With the ability to modify the game settings, will there be people who play the classic mode?
- + Specialised bans: Voice, Credit, Host and Quit, are all welcomed and much appreciated.
Other
- + Forge World is probably one of the best things about Halo: Reach. Roughly the same amount of objects found in Halo 3's forge, but with an all new system to use.
- +/- The Armory system for purchasing armor pieces could have been better designed. Unlocking Elite armor designs is not clear, and should have been made clear.
- - What is wrong with the vehicles? They are light as fuck. I'm exaggerating but in campaign, driving over a small rock would flip your rocket warhog into the air! It's crazy!
- - Theatre mode seems to have been downgraded. You can't watch a video when there is more than 1 person in your party. What?! Just make the video full screen, player 1 has control and allow the party to view. No need to split the screen into 2 or more like in Halo 3, it was retarded.
- + "Score Attack" (a Firefight playlist) is a nice addition. Using the customization tools of Firefight, Bungie creates a single-player, timed match to test your skills.
- - Disappointed that there is no "behind the scenes" or "making of" DVD for the limited edition of the game. Essentially the second MOST important thing of any limited or collector's edition (first being the game, duh).
Overall: 3/5
For the last Halo game, developed by Bungie, I am underwhelmed and disappointed. It's not a bad game but it's not great either. While the campaign is laughable, the multiplayer is great and will last players (who care) a while. Bungie unintentionally killed Firefight 2.0. With the ability to modify game settings and make things fun, most players will play Firefight 2.0 for the achievements, then move on. If you're not into multiplayer, Forge World might be of interest. With the new system of control and Forge World (the map), you can make (mostly) what you can imagine to be a great place to kill or generally have fun (including maps for "Invasion" game types).
