My thoughts on Campaign (Warning: large amount of text)

[actionjaxn411]

I know everyone has their own things to say on the game...well I'm no different. I think I'm one of the few people who buy Halo for the single player. I love multiplayer too, but I'm really a big fan of the campaign experiences ever since the CE.

So here are the things I want to rant on about Halo

 

What I liked:

-The opening to Midnight (trench run-esque sequence). I was always hoping for something similar to that and I was very happy to have it.

-The enemy and friendly AI. I think Halo is known pretty well for its AI, definitely one of the best. I know people have their gripes about it sometimes, and sure they are prone to doing stupid things occasionally, but Halo AI has a degree of freedom and autonomy (in terms of driving, flying, participating in relatively large battlefields) that very few other games come close to. For instance, Call of Duty AI really is just "Stand here, shoot player the split second he peaks out of cover, occasionally kill enemy NPCs, throw perfect grenades every time...oh and respawn indefinitely until the player reaches a checkpoint, at which point the cycle begins all over again."

I have to say the biggest improvement I noticed was the friendly AI drivers. During the Infinity mission, when you first hop in that Scorpion and two Spartan-IV's take a warthog, I was very impressed at how well they moving around the battlefield and actually being helpful. I feel a lot of people don't appreciate how difficult it must be to make friendly AI. Enemy AI can work well with each other because they know what each other will do and programmed that way, however friendlies have to adjust to a human player which is hardly predictable.

-I like how Chief came out of his shell more. 343 did it in a way that made Chief more human without going overboard and making him something he's not.

-Better acting from characters within the story. Bungie tried to make us connect with the characters in Halo 3:ODST and Reach. I felt ODST's acting was a bit corny, and in Reach everyones exposure to us was so short I didn't feel connected to really anyone. Halo 4, i felt, established believable characters. For whatever reason, I felt Laskey was very relatable and likeable character.

-Spartan Ops. I do enjoy the new mode, even if it has been so far just re-used multiplayer maps. Firefight wasn't very popular in Reach, and Co-op campaign was difficult to get a good group that stuck out the whole mission. Spartan Ops seems to be the ideal and most realistic length of time for a coop mission, otherwise people start leave or dont like the mission they ended up with. Since everyone picks the mission they want to do, less people are likely to say "I dont feel like doing this", and even if they do, theyre more likely to stick the mission out since its only a few minutes long.

 

What I didn't like:

-Variety of Prometheans. I would have like to see more than just 3 types. I know all their ranks and subtypes pretty much fill every niche needed, but only having three felt like too few.

-More friendly AI. I know in the story, the Infinity leaves so there is no one to help us, and I suppose that was done to convey isolation, not sure. Maybe I just like it when I'm not the only one getting shot at, who knows. Its not a necessity though.

 

What I'd like to see in Halo 5:

-The Arbiter/friendly Elites. I know Arbiter's human friendly faction did receive human help in the novels, so I'd like to get Elite allies in Halo 5 in some capacity. There were only a few instances in Halo 3 where we had Elite help, which felt like a letdown to me. It adds variety to the human allies we're used to.

-ODST's. I figure Spartan IV's filled in the gap that ODST's set (better than regular marines, but lesser than the Spartans like Master Chief) but I'd like to see them included even if just for story's sake. Not all the ODST's could have become Spartan IV's already, so I'd like to see them in Halo 5. In my mind the way the heirarchy of UNSC's soldiers goes Spartan 2 > Spartan 3 > Spartan 4 > Spartan 1 > ODST > Marines/Army.

-Lastly, I'd finally like to see some other Spartan 2's in game. We had Jorge in Reach, but the Chief hasn't seen another Spartan 2 since Reach fell (maybe in the novels he did, I cant remember). I think it could add to the idea of Chief being alone since *SPOILERS* Cortana is gone if he finally teams up with another Spartan 2, who he's known since childhood, but has to watch him/her die in some dramatic fashion.

 

Sorry about this huge amount of text. Please, read, give feedback, and tell me your Likes/Don't Likes/What you'd like to see.