I WANT to like this more, I really do, but it just somehow stays way below the "great game" line for me.
First I guess I should get the story out of the way, except for the final part, I was not at all into it. The tone and pacing of the general game and story made me feel like I was playing a sci-fi Call of Duty with dull characters that all fall into a generic soldier archetype. Half of the Noble team is barely present, and the ones that are, are extremely one dimensional characters even for this series. Noble Six himself is barely a character as well, but for some reason instead of going the Rookie from ODST route (silent protagonist), they decided he should be a diet Master Chief. Whenever Six tries to be quippy or something, it falls flat, as he lacks any charisma or character outside of a very small amount of lore. Everyone in this game is a rough soldier type and the tone is just about the tacticool aesthetic, which feels so far removed from the personality of this series.
As for the gameplay, most of the levels felt fairly repetitive and bland to me, with the soundtrack rarely matching the mood as well. Gunplay is more military shooter-ish, really just missing aim down sights, and we have sprinting now. Sure, sprinting isn't an innate mechanic and it's part of the Spartan Abilities, but only Sprinting and Jetpack are versatile and actually worth using. Active camo doesn't help much in these cramped levels, hologram rarely comes in handy, drop shield nearly locks you into a small area, and armor lock completely locks you to where you are. Armor lock in particular is really annoying as even in campaign enemies can use it, and all it does is make you wait until it turns off to keep fighting.
Recruiting marines is a cool concept but it all happens automatically when you get near them so it doesn't actually feel like you're recruiting them, they feel even more useless anyway as they rarely hit their target. Vehicle driving feels way heavier and harder to control, the only decent vehicles are flyable and you only get them in a couple missions.
But now to what saved the game for me: the final mission. Despite not caring at all for the characters, it IS where the game is the most thematically strong, with music that fits the mood and scale of the conflict, and a very well executed ending for what happened, not to mention the mission itself is just very fun. Gets some large scale fights with lots of weapons to scavenge and rush in with or try to sneak by, and the final fight you get is a pretty interesting introduction to firefight mode. I probably don't really need to explain what these elements are in detail, because anyone familiar with the game will know even if not played, something that sadly does take the magic away a bit.
I should also mention that while previously 3 ODST was the MCC port that gave me most issues, this one takes the cake. Asides from stutters, cutscenes have broken lighting and completely out of sync audio often cutting off dialogue or delaying sound effects by several seconds, unfortunately unlikely that these things will get a fix as MCC developers are no longer working on it and the game seems to be in just "let's just keep it online" mode (Thanks Xbox!).
But really asides from the ending, I don't really see what makes this game so acclaimed? I feel like I might be going insane, but with Halo 3 and CE existing I can't help but feel like this game is a regression in the formula, like it is a prequel gone too far. I understand the tone needed some adjustment for the story at play here, but it just seems like it loses focus and turns it into a fairly generic and average experience.
First I guess I should get the story out of the way, except for the final part, I was not at all into it. The tone and pacing of the general game and story made me feel like I was playing a sci-fi Call of Duty with dull characters that all fall into a generic soldier archetype. Half of the Noble team is barely present, and the ones that are, are extremely one dimensional characters even for this series. Noble Six himself is barely a character as well, but for some reason instead of going the Rookie from ODST route (silent protagonist), they decided he should be a diet Master Chief. Whenever Six tries to be quippy or something, it falls flat, as he lacks any charisma or character outside of a very small amount of lore. Everyone in this game is a rough soldier type and the tone is just about the tacticool aesthetic, which feels so far removed from the personality of this series.
As for the gameplay, most of the levels felt fairly repetitive and bland to me, with the soundtrack rarely matching the mood as well. Gunplay is more military shooter-ish, really just missing aim down sights, and we have sprinting now. Sure, sprinting isn't an innate mechanic and it's part of the Spartan Abilities, but only Sprinting and Jetpack are versatile and actually worth using. Active camo doesn't help much in these cramped levels, hologram rarely comes in handy, drop shield nearly locks you into a small area, and armor lock completely locks you to where you are. Armor lock in particular is really annoying as even in campaign enemies can use it, and all it does is make you wait until it turns off to keep fighting.
Recruiting marines is a cool concept but it all happens automatically when you get near them so it doesn't actually feel like you're recruiting them, they feel even more useless anyway as they rarely hit their target. Vehicle driving feels way heavier and harder to control, the only decent vehicles are flyable and you only get them in a couple missions.
But now to what saved the game for me: the final mission. Despite not caring at all for the characters, it IS where the game is the most thematically strong, with music that fits the mood and scale of the conflict, and a very well executed ending for what happened, not to mention the mission itself is just very fun. Gets some large scale fights with lots of weapons to scavenge and rush in with or try to sneak by, and the final fight you get is a pretty interesting introduction to firefight mode. I probably don't really need to explain what these elements are in detail, because anyone familiar with the game will know even if not played, something that sadly does take the magic away a bit.
I should also mention that while previously 3 ODST was the MCC port that gave me most issues, this one takes the cake. Asides from stutters, cutscenes have broken lighting and completely out of sync audio often cutting off dialogue or delaying sound effects by several seconds, unfortunately unlikely that these things will get a fix as MCC developers are no longer working on it and the game seems to be in just "let's just keep it online" mode (Thanks Xbox!).
But really asides from the ending, I don't really see what makes this game so acclaimed? I feel like I might be going insane, but with Halo 3 and CE existing I can't help but feel like this game is a regression in the formula, like it is a prequel gone too far. I understand the tone needed some adjustment for the story at play here, but it just seems like it loses focus and turns it into a fairly generic and average experience.