I got through the first two levels of campaign last night with a friend and it was pretty damn great thus far. Also surprised how CE-ish it felt - partly because they replicated some of the essential CE scenarios (that intro level is not far off of how CE's campaign starts), and partly because the goofy, lighter quality of old Halo campaigns was there; it wasn't all grim seriousness like Reach tended to be.
I grabbed the needler every chance I got. Out of all the new weapons my favorite is a returning classic. I just hope people don't complain and it ends up getting nerfed.
What made CE for me, and continues to keep it at the top of my list, was that "lone wolf" atmosphere (also the reason why ODST is second, it was the only one since to recapture that feeling imo, and also did it in a beautiful Halo Noir style). In CE I felt both super powerful as a character, but utterly dwarfed and humbled by the scale and aesthetic of the environment. It had the advantage of being the first game, which helped further the sense of discovery and the unknown nature of the environment (particularly the Halo/Forerunner environments). The opening of the 2nd campaign level, Halo, filled me with a sense of total awe and immersion, and it still evokes really strong feelings even to this day. Halo 2 was awesome in an action film kinda way, with cheesy but awesome characters and a buttload of great one liners. Halo 3 seemed like it tried to follow that wider, more fleshed out universe and character set but felt like it took itself too seriously, losing the camp charm and just ending up dry and bland to my mind. It didn't feel epic to me. Reach was gritty and engaging (I really cared when Jorge died, for example), and only edges out Halo 2 by a small amount, but ultimately it still lacked charm for me. ODST was easily the most stylish of the series, and as I said I loved the noir style so much, and it made me feel alone and dwarfed again which I really enjoyed. It's gonna be really interesting to see how Halo 4 places in that whole lineup. I wanna give it my full attention and get lost in it, so I've been saving it for the weekend or sometime after that, don't wanna come home from work and play it whilst tired.
I remember talking about this with you once before. From what I've seen of campaign so far - which isn't much - I think you're going to be happy. When I first set foot on Requiem and saw the forerunner structures I felt like, "Woah - this is a TOTALLY Halo CE moment." I basically agree with your take on the other campaigns, except I was never crazy about ODST. It's atmospheric as hell, which is great (and the lonely/noir feeling is amazing at times), but I didn't find the action in it to be sufficient to keep my attention; there wasn't quite enough of it and most of the encounters seemed to be really short and uninteresting.
Sounds awesome, looking forward to it. Yeah, it was very filmic, and I can totally see how you might find the gameplay lacking. I just got lost in the artsy-ness of it, that style totally floats my boat.
I think it would float mine too if the world was more open/exploratory (less "go-here-open-door") and if I hadn't been expecting a traditional Halo experience. As it was, I enjoyed a lot of the discrete parts but often felt like I was being asked to run through a very pretty maze punctuated with occasionally killing a few grunts who weren't even paying attention to me. It was a strange campaign to me - a noble experiment that was about 70% successful, but could have been amazing.
I dont know how i feel about the light rifle, i used it yesterday, and got destroyed by DMRs, anyone else have experience with it yet?
Man, I GOT HALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Finally! I went straight to campaign, to play the first mission on legendary, and i loved it. The first level is great, i loved the escaping through the ship part, and being sucked up into the forerunner planet. Got a little bite of the second mission, that has an BEAUTIFULL view of the structures and nature. And i love the warthog sound, makes it sound like an race car. Secondly i went into matchmaking, and got an way better impression then i did from reach. I disliked the AR in reach, i didnt like the sound at all, and it didnt feel powerfull. But here, it sounds awesome, and is an decent weapon up close. Got into btb infinity, on ragnarok. The DMR with no bloom is as accurate as the sniper, you never miss.. Good thing, bad thing? I dont know. But then a very awesome thing happened, we were pushing the team, and completly obliterating them, and then their mantis showed up. We died, most of us. But then i re-spawn, i see everyone of my team surrounding the mantis, and DMR-ing it completly down, ill show a screenie later. Felt really good Lastly, forge of course. Im really happy with it, and i went on impact for say 45-60 minutes. Im planning to make an dominion map with the pre-made building as the main base. Dominion can be used in alot of ways, and i can already see some one-base castle minigames with it. I noticed the lack of precision movement, but im... ugh.. ok with it, its now harder to go up and down.. Well thats, **** but i can live with it. So i am really excited to work out my plans, and a remake i have planned on Erosion (possibly) for the forgotten treasures III contest. Im probally going to tweak some of the gametypes a bit, so i can make a more fun one for the map i plan to make on Impact, but i think well all are going to do that. Mr pokephile did put out a video of an 1v1 / 2v2 map called "Vile" I think it looks pretty good, really gives you that dirty factory feel. And you see he used the dominion wires as aesthetics, wich is an cool feature. Here is the video, if people are interested in seeing it. Halo 4 Forge Maps - Vile - YouTube
Odd glitch: playing BTB, my teammate uses regen and dies. I'm still there and alive. Somehow, after boltshotting in the rege field, the noise sticks and now as long as I'm alive every single shot and grenade on the field makes the regen distortion sound.
Ya and the BR reminds me of a squeaky wheel. Myself and three friends using DMR's got wrecked on Complex by a team using light rifles. I personally didn't care for how it feels but it seems like a viable weapon choice for many situations. I just recently played the ODST campaign for the first time and I agree with this. While being astonishing beautiful it lacked in gameplay.
I saw that video and I saw the wires, which just confirmed what I noticed since the lockout remake was "posted" here. I commented on it but was ignored lol. Anyways it is a very cool feature that you can put in. Overall I am very glad for the whole dominion section because it has some awesome aesthetics.
It are very awesome aesthetics, and now confirmed, view-able in every gametype. The wires are one thing, but the rest of the objects are as even awesome. I like the gametype overall, so thats great too. These objects really add to the map, useful for any map.
This, they can really add a level of immersion into your maps which is great! Just wish I had the game now...