I like this game, but I can't help but feel disappointed whenever I play it. Halo's era is over, and it could be the last entry in the series I'll ever play.

The campaign is oddly very fitting: Master Chief is assumingly lost forever, but comes back to help save humanity on another space ring he's all too familiar with. It mirrors my reception to Halo 5, a game that strayed so far from what made Halo unique that myself and many others figured the direction the series was going just wasn't for us anymore. 343 Industries had to course correct and follow up with this: a surface-level homage to what longtime fans wanted.

With that said, they nailed the gameplay. It's the most Halo feeling entry since Reach, but besides that it feels like such a hollow experience. The game released with barebones features, and it took the developers years to provide content that was promised at launch. This was, of course, after corporate restructuring, lay-offs, delayed online co-op and cancelled local co-op, and news of scrapped campaign DLC due to the free to play, gimped online multiplayer with an overpriced digital storefront not making enough money to justify anything new. Go figure.

All of that along with the multiplayer component being another victim of seasonal battle passes makes this game just depressing to play. As soon as this game makes you feel like you're back at a LAN party in High School, it rips your heart out and reminds you that those days are over and they will never come back.