After beating the game, some thoughts. Obviously there are spoilers in my end-game thoughts in the spoiler thread.
The short version is that this is a definite and clear improvement over Halo 4 in almost every way resulting in what could finally be considered a solid Halo game liked by most fans, but there are still a few choices that I find completely questionable that I just cannot understand 343 justifying.
Good:
-General gameplay has gotten way better. The guns are weapon balance have improved. The new movement options are fun, especially after they fixed ground pound. Multiplayer instantly took a huge leap forward. However they did sort of mess up the aiming since the beta, confirmed changed by Josh Holmes.
-Forerunner enemies are way more fun to fight now than they used to be. They're not all just bullet sponges. Knights are actually scary now. The solider's erratic personality, strange voices and teleporting are fun, too. Overall good work with them, I actually like them now.
-I liked the Warden Eternal boss fights, even if they repeat. Though I do wish there were other bosses and not just him repeated every time.
-On that note, the god damn Hunters. Really fucking awesome. Should have had more scripted moments with them like their introduction.
-Near the end it has some really beautiful Halo environments. The kind of stuff I expect from a Halo game. Enough human colonies, I want some alien shit. Wall really feeling good on Genesis while surrounded by Guardians. That was a damn cool environment. And running down the side of one? Holy shit.
-Loved a few of the little jokes they scattered around, like the multiple strange Grunts. Bungie had a little fun with hidden easter eggs and 343 should continue to embrace the same tradition.
-By the end, the plot felt grander and larger than Halo 4 which is good. Halo is about danger on a galactic scale and I was glad that I felt it this time. Guardians are about to fuck shit up and a god damn Death Star Halo is waking up. All hail Emperor Palpatine Cortana.
-Buck is an awesome inclusion and is awesome himself.
-Music has improved. Get more of it going during gameplay.
Bad:
-Another cliffhanger ending. Halo 2 ended on an unsatisfying cliffhanger because Bungie was forced to cut a significant amount of content and cut the ending altogether. I didnt like it then, and I dont like it now. I don't understand what about this unfortunate situation 343 saw fit to emulate. Did they actually choose to do this on purpose or did they get stuck in a similar situation? I've been watching people play the ending on Twitch and they are almost consistently disappointed. People should be saying "Halo 5 was good" but instead I hear them all saying "Halo 6 is going to be good."
-Where the fuck are the terminals? No, not audio logs, I mean proper terminals.
-I still want more mystery like in the OT, and not the "lol we left this out, read the book" kind of mystery 343 seems to like. I mean a genuine sense of discovery and intrigue. Of not knowing what I'm getting myself into. The underground lava area with the surprise Guardian is like what I want, but more please. Take me on a roller coaster like Halos 1-3 did.
-Hated that the game skipped over the transition between gameplay and cutscene. For example, in previous games IIRC it would show your character hop up into the pelican either before the cutscene, or just as it began. The fade to black feels awkward.
-Cortana's face. Please no. Her newfound clothes are fine, but give her back her H4 face. I can't stop staring at this new one and not for good reasons.
-Where the hell was the Chief? There were what, three whole levels with him? Come on now. If H5 was 80/20 in favor of Locke, please make H6 80/20 in favor of Chief.
-Locke looks cool and there was nothing I really disliked about him, but I didnt feel like I had any reason to like him either. He's cardboard. Give him more of a personality, even Chief manages to have one. I heard some stuff about him in Oni, how about making him really clever?
-The Covenant seemed like an afterthought at times during the plot. They were included but sometimes felt like they were thrown into certain sections just so we didnt forget they exist. More integral Covenant involvement in the primary plot thread next time, please.
-The multiplayer menus look pretty but have less actual functionality than any previous halo ever. Come on.
-The multiplayer maps are low in variation. Get us some natural environments set on Genesis and Sanghellios. It's been a whole two days and I'm already sick of 'Metal Corners and Tubes #6'.
-And oh my fuck get Orion out of matchmaking. In fact, get Forge out of regular playlists and make a dedicated playlist for rotating forge maps. You should be embarrassed to consider Forge maps as actual launch maps.
-Playlists need major work. Separate Slayer and Objective at least. And please introduce more gametypes, so many are missing completely. This is probably the saddest launch playlist lineup in halo history.
