I really loved the campaign of this game, and surprisingly an open world works for halo. Taking a bunch of Marines from your bases and riding into a covenant base you found to take it is super badass, as is navigating the terrain with your grappling hook. However, due to the nature of the world being open, objectives are less tightly designed than previous halo games. Still fun though.

The story is funny though, and not in a good way. Remember how in rise of Skywalker they spent like the first 20 minutes begging the audience to forget that the last Jedi ever happened. Imagine that but in videogame form and it's about halo 5. Also introducing random aliens that are a bigger threat than the flood this late into the story just feels lazy. The fun gameplay helps prop up this story though so I don't mind too much.

I'm not going to touch on the mp since I never played it.

Sadly this is where the downfall begins.

The writing is still fine (for the most part) and I do like master chief's arc, but hiding the main villain's motivation behind secret cutscenes certainly was a questionable choice. It left most players wondering who the hell that guy was after beating the game. Also the level design is far less impressive than the previous games, but still fun enough.

As for mp, adding loadouts to an arena shooter like halo was a bit questionable. In maps with vehicles there's no reason not to just run the plasma pistol, compared to previous games where a weapon like that would have to be fought over. Also I remember there being no forge world at launch.

Overall, it's fine, and while fine is fine for most games, it's a big downgrade compared to the previous adventures of John Halo.

I'd still recommend it to anyone who's played 1-Reach, just don't play 5 after that.