Mild spoiler warning (of a specific level), but it's at the end, so proceed with minor caution.

This game was great. I have no idea how long I spent on it, but I loved it. Second favorite Halo game behind 2.

This game is a mystery story. I'm not sure I got that when I first started playing it; in fact, when I first started out, I'm not sure I got the premise at all! But in the past week, it dawned on me what exactly was going on, and it sold me immediately. The characters are fantastic, the story is interesting (especially Sadie's, which I don't think I've finished!), and the gameplay is intelligent and frantic, just like a Halo game should be. I forgot how much strategy goes into playing these games, and it really forces you to slow down and think about your next action (which gets increasingly harder to do after dying so many times!)

I was so relieved to find out I didn't have to face the Flood in this game. As badass as the ODSTs are, I'm not sure they would have survived! Speaking of which, this game does a fantastic job at making you feel vulnerable, something that was pointed out to me when I read the Wikipedia article on it. I was like "oh yeah," lol. But even so, I definitely felt a lot more vulnerable, and had to occasionally take moves incredibly carefully and specifically in order to break the death/checkpoint-load cycles I got myself trapped in occasionally (or frequently).

Favorite level was Buck and the team going to capture a Phantom. Loved that one.