the two levels that i think are mostly well done are "reclaimer" and "composer". reclaimer is the only level that gives the vehicles some room to maneuver, and it's fun to ride the mammoth, paint targets, and destroy a covenant ship from the inside. composer is just good meat-and-potatoes halo combat, where you're never in one room too long, and each room has a meaningfully different layout from the last.
the rest of the game is a lot of very similar-feeling symmetrical combat arenas with battles that drag on for way too long, connected by similar-feeling corridors with enemy placement so apparently thoughtless that it feels more like a long firefight session than a campaign. occasionally these will be interrupted by an awkward flying sequence or a very 2012core "run forward while things explode around you" setpiece, which never feel half as cool as the warthog runs or scarab fights of previous games.
all of the sound in this game is weirdly compressed, making covenant barks sound robotic and guns weak and piddly. the storm rifle in particular might be one of the most unpleasant guns i've ever used in a shooter. also half the cutscenes had audio bugs where voices or effects or music just didn't play.
the only positive thing i can say for the visual design is that the skyboxes are pretty nice. reclaimer and composer also stand out for having an environment that is nice to look at without being too distracting. but the forerunner designs are so needlessly greebly that they're just exhausting to look at. there's so much visual information to process that doesn't really communicate anything about the space, because it's all still just a metal room. i couldn't tell you the difference between one room on requiem and another. this visual noise often gets in the way of actually identifying targets and items, especially when fighting prometheans in a forerunner environment.
the updates to the covenant and human designs similarly consist of splitting everything up into smaller segments and adding a million bits and bobs on top. i guess it is technically impressive how many polygons and how much texture resolution is spent on it, but it just doesn't look very good! halo 2's new mombasa is blocky and half the buildings look like they didn't finish texturing them, but it still has more variety and character than most of the levels in this game. and you can easily identify enemies and items at a distance, too.
the only positive thing i can say for the story is that jen taylor delivers a good performance as rampant cortana. the rest is a baffling mishmash of ideas that seem to suggest themes but never quite cohere into anything. instead of forerunners being humans, it turns out the covenant were right and they are gods with the power to implant genetic destinies thousands of years into the future. zeus believes that only the olympians should rule, but juno is a patron of humanity to such a fanatical degree that she will make excuses for all their mistakes and doom mt olympus to ensure their ascendancy. she is good eugenics mom and halsey is bad eugenics mom, but also halsey is kind of like zeus because she turns humans into machines. is master chief ever really machine-like in behavior? should i care that spartan-4s are replacing spartan-2s? there's a captain who is constantly condescending and makes bad decisions for no reason and yells petulantly whenever he doesn't get his way, just in case you might accidentally find him sympathetic. the cutscene direction is bland and dialogue scenes in particular are shot like a recording of a stage play. cj cowan's visual storytelling is sorely missed.
the rest of the game is a lot of very similar-feeling symmetrical combat arenas with battles that drag on for way too long, connected by similar-feeling corridors with enemy placement so apparently thoughtless that it feels more like a long firefight session than a campaign. occasionally these will be interrupted by an awkward flying sequence or a very 2012core "run forward while things explode around you" setpiece, which never feel half as cool as the warthog runs or scarab fights of previous games.
all of the sound in this game is weirdly compressed, making covenant barks sound robotic and guns weak and piddly. the storm rifle in particular might be one of the most unpleasant guns i've ever used in a shooter. also half the cutscenes had audio bugs where voices or effects or music just didn't play.
the only positive thing i can say for the visual design is that the skyboxes are pretty nice. reclaimer and composer also stand out for having an environment that is nice to look at without being too distracting. but the forerunner designs are so needlessly greebly that they're just exhausting to look at. there's so much visual information to process that doesn't really communicate anything about the space, because it's all still just a metal room. i couldn't tell you the difference between one room on requiem and another. this visual noise often gets in the way of actually identifying targets and items, especially when fighting prometheans in a forerunner environment.
the updates to the covenant and human designs similarly consist of splitting everything up into smaller segments and adding a million bits and bobs on top. i guess it is technically impressive how many polygons and how much texture resolution is spent on it, but it just doesn't look very good! halo 2's new mombasa is blocky and half the buildings look like they didn't finish texturing them, but it still has more variety and character than most of the levels in this game. and you can easily identify enemies and items at a distance, too.
the only positive thing i can say for the story is that jen taylor delivers a good performance as rampant cortana. the rest is a baffling mishmash of ideas that seem to suggest themes but never quite cohere into anything. instead of forerunners being humans, it turns out the covenant were right and they are gods with the power to implant genetic destinies thousands of years into the future. zeus believes that only the olympians should rule, but juno is a patron of humanity to such a fanatical degree that she will make excuses for all their mistakes and doom mt olympus to ensure their ascendancy. she is good eugenics mom and halsey is bad eugenics mom, but also halsey is kind of like zeus because she turns humans into machines. is master chief ever really machine-like in behavior? should i care that spartan-4s are replacing spartan-2s? there's a captain who is constantly condescending and makes bad decisions for no reason and yells petulantly whenever he doesn't get his way, just in case you might accidentally find him sympathetic. the cutscene direction is bland and dialogue scenes in particular are shot like a recording of a stage play. cj cowan's visual storytelling is sorely missed.