Its What Halo 2 Should Have Been.
If you were one of those people waiting for Halo 2 with baited breath got the midnight release and took the game home looked at the case saw THE FINAL FIGHT FOR EARTH saw the early E3 videos with the earth combat and it looked awesome awe inspiring then you played 3 levels on earth then off to another halo and you died a little inside this game is for you. Its not perfect its not the second coming in fact its pretty standard Halo here but its on earth and it feels like the missing chapter in Halo 2 when Master Chief got back to earth in the Ark THIS is the battle that should have ensued a 4-5-6 hour romp through the city kicking some ass. Well better late than never here it is:
1. Graphics: New art style is nice much better to look at than 3 but I got the same feeling in this game as a I did with Halo 3, the graphics are good in fact in a few spots it looks striking but for the most part its just pretty good I know that doesn't make much sense but its about the best way I can put it. I was never happy with the graphics in these games this is Halo damn it, its Microsofts ace in the hole it should be the best looking game on the system and its not which is sad but it still looks and feels like Halo and that is not a bad thing.
2. Gameplay: Breath of fresh air for Halo fans (PLEASE play this game on Heroic) its challenging the combat feels good and tactical the gameplay is what makes the game get a 4 out of 5 because as I will speak of later its not perfect.
3. Story: I liked it, good voice acting, nothing amazing wish the game was longer so there was more time to develop the story I think you should have just played Buck the silent Rookie was kind of odd in the Halo Universe no one has ever been silent why now? Make another good character for the universe Gordan Freeman is the silent man leave that to him.
4. Presentation: Nice look to the menus functionality is the same as Halo 3 menus but there is a nice style to them. No major bugs to report except (Slight spoiler) Near the end game your in a warthog and your AI companion is shooting and he sucks ass there is 3 banshees all up in your ass and he just kinda sits there until they start shooting at you and on Heroic that will get you killed FAST.
5. The Total Package: Well here is the killer if it wasn't for this game just being a solid 4-5 hour of good Halo fun it would have gotten a 3 out of 5 because as someone who owns Halo 3 it feels lacking for a full priced game. So the Co-op is fun but campaign is short, Firefight is awesome but no matchmaking and its not on the multiplayer disk, if you already own Halo 3 than the Multiplayer is something you already own but its nice that they have all the map packs on there.
So here is all they had to do to make this a 5 out of 5:
Add Matchmaking on Firefight
Put Firefight on the multiplayer disk
Add some new ODST multiplayer modes (Same maps just using the ODST character no shields, no duel wielding)
Just another twenty or so minutes more of story time
And really thats it they were just a couple of steps from a really nice game length really blows on the campaign because it really is fun but oh well just have to wait and see how Reach is.
