This review contains spoilers
This one is a weird one.
I understand what people say about this feeling more like a COD game than a Halo game. Full stop, ADS and sprinting in a Halo game is just wrong. I felt dirty every time I used the features, especially considering a lot of the guns designs don't really work towards ADS features anyways with a lot of them having to use pop-up sights.
But really I think the main issue with this game at least for me, is how it doesn't entirely feel like a Halo game storywise either. I actually liked Locke and the rest of Osiris, bringing Buck back and actually acknowledging that ODST was a thing that happened was a good move. But I felt like the game was trying really hard to get me to like them, to the point where they almost entirely shift Chief aside as a character. I'll just say it: Master Chief is barely even a character in this game, let alone a side character. He has little to no impact on the plot, almost every major story decision comes from someone else, and pretty much just spends the entire game following Cortana's increasingly vague calls. After I finished the game, I looked back and checked, out of 15 missions you can only play as John for 3 of them. This honestly felt more like another ODST or Reach as like a 'spinoff' of Halo instead of a full blown franchise entry, with chief even acting as the little reminder like "see! I told you guys we're still in the Halo universe!".
In terms of the story itself and having Cortana as the villain, I didn't really have any huge issues with that, but I couldn't help spending the entire time thinking about Sgt. Johnson and his last words to Chief, "never let her go". Can't help but wonder if he'd consider any concessions on rampantly psychotic AI-supremacist versions of her.
I understand what people say about this feeling more like a COD game than a Halo game. Full stop, ADS and sprinting in a Halo game is just wrong. I felt dirty every time I used the features, especially considering a lot of the guns designs don't really work towards ADS features anyways with a lot of them having to use pop-up sights.
But really I think the main issue with this game at least for me, is how it doesn't entirely feel like a Halo game storywise either. I actually liked Locke and the rest of Osiris, bringing Buck back and actually acknowledging that ODST was a thing that happened was a good move. But I felt like the game was trying really hard to get me to like them, to the point where they almost entirely shift Chief aside as a character. I'll just say it: Master Chief is barely even a character in this game, let alone a side character. He has little to no impact on the plot, almost every major story decision comes from someone else, and pretty much just spends the entire game following Cortana's increasingly vague calls. After I finished the game, I looked back and checked, out of 15 missions you can only play as John for 3 of them. This honestly felt more like another ODST or Reach as like a 'spinoff' of Halo instead of a full blown franchise entry, with chief even acting as the little reminder like "see! I told you guys we're still in the Halo universe!".
In terms of the story itself and having Cortana as the villain, I didn't really have any huge issues with that, but I couldn't help spending the entire time thinking about Sgt. Johnson and his last words to Chief, "never let her go". Can't help but wonder if he'd consider any concessions on rampantly psychotic AI-supremacist versions of her.