Danny
24-Sep-2009, 12:56 AM
cant be arsed to review it, i bought it today, beat half, whent out, came back and finished it, so heres the skinnny.
PROS.
improved guns, they finally have a good balanced, the smg will kick if you hold it down too long, but not enough as it does in halo 3. th pistol rocks, again. every weapon is in there but the sentinel laser, for obvious reasons, and whilst a lot of it is only a one point only, or hidden weapon in the story mode it means your not gonna miss out on yellin' "pipe bomb" or "imma chargin' mah lazor!" during firefight, which i have yet to play (no gold)
-the equipment form 3 is gone, and i NEVER used it in 3 so i honestly dont care. just thought its worth mentioning.
Voice acting, whilst a little stupid at points, for example "son, if you ever fall in love with a woman, make sure she has balls" :lol:, but all the actors do a good job of making it an interesting look at what the rest of the world does when master cheif goes on his one man space operas aboot the universe. Nathan philliam (the priest in buffys final season, mal from firefly, captain hammer form dr horribles sing along blog) does a great job, but he takes a side step for the protagonist and we get half a story about him thats far more interesting than the rookies nonexistent...well, existence.
Atmosphere, in creating a semi free roaming quest hub city theyve obviously looked at games like bioshock for reference, and whilst they dont quite pull of the grandeur, its still a lot more like proper action sci-fi than the constant blinding bloom of its predecessor that took away form the expereince, whereas creeping in the shadows to get past two hunters is fantastic even on normal.
Soundtrack- its different, but nice in its own way, yet it has no impact or memorable tune you can whistle, as i try to recollect anything i draw a blank, but during gameplay its above average.
enemies, speaking of there a mixed pot really. The brutes are the same, semi poor a.i that will hide partially beind debris or stand in plain site to be shot. grunts are grunts i guess, but the surprise roles go to the hunters and the jackals.
In past games the hunters are a fun bit of co-op strategy to break up the monotony of the on rails shooting fare youve been playing for ages, in this they are walking tanks that , if you get spotted early can take up to ten minutes to defeat, definitely some big daddy inspiration whent into them, and of course, hunters allways move in pairs, so you may only see one but there IS another creeping up behind you.
-as for the jackals, i spent the last 3 games viewing them as fodder like gurnts, only slightly more annoying becuase they werent funny. in this there damn right menacing, sure m.c mght have no problem but rookies a normal soldier and these night vision seeing, sniper rifle weidling, force field wielding buggers attack in packs of, by the end, as large as 25 to 30!, so dont underestimate them this time around.
Vehicles- this time there a bit different, there much more frail, but faster and easier to control, so this should make multiplayer much more fun and infuriating. You take on scarabs, phantoms, ghosts, turrets, choppers and a few new raritys in the usual warthogs, tanks and everything but the wraith, which was a blast in halo 3 so i was a little dissapointed.
story- honestly its nice, it doesnt try to do halo 3's "OMGWTFBBQFINISHTHEFIGHT" forced "epicness" its a simpler story of a scattered recon team and how they teamed up again to complete there mission. it was different, if a bit bland but it got me through the game, if it does have a very anticlimactic ending.
CONS
protagonist- why the rookie?, they have a name actor giving his voice and likeness who has a story, leads a team, has a love interest, instead we get a person, and i use the term lightly, with no speech, history or anything, even master chief was called john!, you play a nameless humanoid avatar and it sucks, especially since they had a protagonist ready to go but sidelined him for this...mannequin.
Length- at around 5 hours its short, not as short as condemned, but about half of halo 3, still thats still not bad considering they had the 4 hour shitfest section 8 next to it for 25 quid more.
copy-pasta valve cant make cities. they cant. they make a square block, cut quadrants out, and ctrl c ctrl v it into a game hub, the flashback levels are interesting and pleasant, and even offer little snippets of info, like what that metal circular rubble in the african countryside is in halo 3 when you leave the base, but the main hub?, it stinks. Its guilty like mass effect of using the same stuff too often, granted this is an addon but its still a bit annoying, but it doesnt really make the game less, just makes it easy to get lost.
no difficulty curve, sort of. the end is easy, obscenely so, worse than any other halo game, the harder points are midway, its gets harder and harder then the steep incline flatlines to "LETS HAVE ALL THIS COOL SHIT TO BLOW UP SHIT DAWG!", which made for great mindless "hulk smash" fun, but the earlier levels strategy and stealth is thrown out for typical halo "if it moves. it dies" gameplay and i found it disappointing, if unsurprising.
achievements are mind numbingly easy, theres one i can see that will be a problem, the rest are a piece of cake.
-THAT SAID, there are meta achievements like "headshot ten enemies with the pistol" which increase with kills, but finishing the level clears it adn your back to zero, and some like the ones where ammo is less available become tiresome revert to saved's to retry because you only had 8 sniper bullets to kill 15 enemies.
All in all its a fun game in whats been a pretty lame 6 months for gaming, its set in the halo universe, has new locations to play through, a new soundtrack, new enemies and items, you play as a frailer man, not a one man super army. if you like fps games youll probably dig it but its pretty average in terms of story and design, youll have fun, replay a good dozen times like any halo but i think the firefight will keep you plying long after the rookie has stayed out his welcome. It tries new things, borrows a lot from other fps, adn even 3rd person games that have come out in the last two years to ,in most cases, improve on what was buggy in the last game. you might think its a crap waste fo money, or you might think it deserves a sequel, which im guessing is coming with an inevitable novella companion story...that said i can recommend it.
PROS.
improved guns, they finally have a good balanced, the smg will kick if you hold it down too long, but not enough as it does in halo 3. th pistol rocks, again. every weapon is in there but the sentinel laser, for obvious reasons, and whilst a lot of it is only a one point only, or hidden weapon in the story mode it means your not gonna miss out on yellin' "pipe bomb" or "imma chargin' mah lazor!" during firefight, which i have yet to play (no gold)
-the equipment form 3 is gone, and i NEVER used it in 3 so i honestly dont care. just thought its worth mentioning.
Voice acting, whilst a little stupid at points, for example "son, if you ever fall in love with a woman, make sure she has balls" :lol:, but all the actors do a good job of making it an interesting look at what the rest of the world does when master cheif goes on his one man space operas aboot the universe. Nathan philliam (the priest in buffys final season, mal from firefly, captain hammer form dr horribles sing along blog) does a great job, but he takes a side step for the protagonist and we get half a story about him thats far more interesting than the rookies nonexistent...well, existence.
Atmosphere, in creating a semi free roaming quest hub city theyve obviously looked at games like bioshock for reference, and whilst they dont quite pull of the grandeur, its still a lot more like proper action sci-fi than the constant blinding bloom of its predecessor that took away form the expereince, whereas creeping in the shadows to get past two hunters is fantastic even on normal.
Soundtrack- its different, but nice in its own way, yet it has no impact or memorable tune you can whistle, as i try to recollect anything i draw a blank, but during gameplay its above average.
enemies, speaking of there a mixed pot really. The brutes are the same, semi poor a.i that will hide partially beind debris or stand in plain site to be shot. grunts are grunts i guess, but the surprise roles go to the hunters and the jackals.
In past games the hunters are a fun bit of co-op strategy to break up the monotony of the on rails shooting fare youve been playing for ages, in this they are walking tanks that , if you get spotted early can take up to ten minutes to defeat, definitely some big daddy inspiration whent into them, and of course, hunters allways move in pairs, so you may only see one but there IS another creeping up behind you.
-as for the jackals, i spent the last 3 games viewing them as fodder like gurnts, only slightly more annoying becuase they werent funny. in this there damn right menacing, sure m.c mght have no problem but rookies a normal soldier and these night vision seeing, sniper rifle weidling, force field wielding buggers attack in packs of, by the end, as large as 25 to 30!, so dont underestimate them this time around.
Vehicles- this time there a bit different, there much more frail, but faster and easier to control, so this should make multiplayer much more fun and infuriating. You take on scarabs, phantoms, ghosts, turrets, choppers and a few new raritys in the usual warthogs, tanks and everything but the wraith, which was a blast in halo 3 so i was a little dissapointed.
story- honestly its nice, it doesnt try to do halo 3's "OMGWTFBBQFINISHTHEFIGHT" forced "epicness" its a simpler story of a scattered recon team and how they teamed up again to complete there mission. it was different, if a bit bland but it got me through the game, if it does have a very anticlimactic ending.
CONS
protagonist- why the rookie?, they have a name actor giving his voice and likeness who has a story, leads a team, has a love interest, instead we get a person, and i use the term lightly, with no speech, history or anything, even master chief was called john!, you play a nameless humanoid avatar and it sucks, especially since they had a protagonist ready to go but sidelined him for this...mannequin.
Length- at around 5 hours its short, not as short as condemned, but about half of halo 3, still thats still not bad considering they had the 4 hour shitfest section 8 next to it for 25 quid more.
copy-pasta valve cant make cities. they cant. they make a square block, cut quadrants out, and ctrl c ctrl v it into a game hub, the flashback levels are interesting and pleasant, and even offer little snippets of info, like what that metal circular rubble in the african countryside is in halo 3 when you leave the base, but the main hub?, it stinks. Its guilty like mass effect of using the same stuff too often, granted this is an addon but its still a bit annoying, but it doesnt really make the game less, just makes it easy to get lost.
no difficulty curve, sort of. the end is easy, obscenely so, worse than any other halo game, the harder points are midway, its gets harder and harder then the steep incline flatlines to "LETS HAVE ALL THIS COOL SHIT TO BLOW UP SHIT DAWG!", which made for great mindless "hulk smash" fun, but the earlier levels strategy and stealth is thrown out for typical halo "if it moves. it dies" gameplay and i found it disappointing, if unsurprising.
achievements are mind numbingly easy, theres one i can see that will be a problem, the rest are a piece of cake.
-THAT SAID, there are meta achievements like "headshot ten enemies with the pistol" which increase with kills, but finishing the level clears it adn your back to zero, and some like the ones where ammo is less available become tiresome revert to saved's to retry because you only had 8 sniper bullets to kill 15 enemies.
All in all its a fun game in whats been a pretty lame 6 months for gaming, its set in the halo universe, has new locations to play through, a new soundtrack, new enemies and items, you play as a frailer man, not a one man super army. if you like fps games youll probably dig it but its pretty average in terms of story and design, youll have fun, replay a good dozen times like any halo but i think the firefight will keep you plying long after the rookie has stayed out his welcome. It tries new things, borrows a lot from other fps, adn even 3rd person games that have come out in the last two years to ,in most cases, improve on what was buggy in the last game. you might think its a crap waste fo money, or you might think it deserves a sequel, which im guessing is coming with an inevitable novella companion story...that said i can recommend it.