Quote:
Originally Posted by Wondermonkey
What I would have liked more of, story-wise, was some more of the "love story" between Cortana and Chief, because the last scene of the game, before he goes into the cryotube, was really touching, and I actually felt bad for her. The whole "I'll miss you" line was well done, but that last .5 seconds left me with some questions, like what the hell was that robot-esque planet that they were floating towards?
|
Dude, the heck? I didn't see that at all. In fact, I'm totally confused on the ending. I see the ship leaving Installation 00 with the Arbiter and the Chief and then suddenly we're back on Earth and they're talking about the Arbiter "sticking with him to the end." Did the Chief die? What happened? And what was the deal with the Chief nearly falling out the ship? I mean Cortana can't close the bay doors?
Overall, however, I was very impressed. I'd put in a school context when I talk about the campaign: A solid B effort from a student who could have done so much more. Still, an incredible improvement from the last "D-" paper which was clumsily written and constructed. Still wishing for the magic and simplicity of the first game. This one still leans to heavily on the first game for my liking, but still does so in the best ways. (note, I'm rating this based purely against other Halo games and the Halo universe).
I felt that the game again suffered from story presentation. The cinematics are incredibly obfuscating. When did the Dawn fly to the replacement Halo ring, for example. I think the lack of establishing shots in the cinematics is what really hurts. You don't know what's going on at Installation 00 beyond just brief snippets without locational context. Halo 2
really suffered from this. It took me forever to realize that the second half of the game was on a Covenant planet that could warp through space.
I did have a lot of questions at the end. What happened to the rest of the Covenant, even on Installation 00. Sure, Truth is dead, but they still have a lot of the fleet there. Did they just give up? Did the Flood take them all out? And what about back in our galaxy? The flood must surely exist. And the rest of the Covenant, do they fall in line? I don't need closure on every storyline, but it feels like these story threads are just dropped. Just one line of dialogue would solve most of these issues. Have the shipmaster say "The flood have overwhelmed the rest of the Covenant armada." Done.
Level design was good for gameplay I thought, but a lot didn't make sense to me. Take the last level for example. What the heck is that plating that we're driving over? A lot things just seem conveniently placed for awesome gameplay, but make little sense in a story-context.
The gameplay, however, was darn near perfect mechanically. I still have issues with encounter design, though. Too often I'm being shot by enemies really far away (Jackals or worse Flood Pure Forms) and have
nothing I can shoot back at them with. The brute chieftains being immune to grenade sticks and needles is incredibly cheap. And on the last level I can't even count the number of times a plate blew up 5 feet before I was going to drive over it, sending me plunging to my death with no chance for correction. I also had issue with the lack of guidance in the game. I got lost so many times because I didn't know where I was going. But these are niggling things to an other wise incredibly solid game.
Favorite mission: The Ark, starts out sniping, then vehicles. Or The Covenant, solid Covie killing action.
P.S. I don't apologize for long posts.
