u/mothgirl22

🎞️ Ultramax 400
📸 Olympus OM-1

Shot on Lumix G7 4k24p

Absolute dream of a road trip car, nothing beats letting the turbos breathe on an open highway!

Goal was to make it smoother/less droney

Ok this is gonna be a long one so buckle up. I’m going to attempt to give this game as fair of a review as possible. So first, I’m a life-long Halo fan, be it Bungie games, 343i games, or Halo studios games. I’m a huge lore nerd, and I’ve also beaten every single Halo game on legendary (except for halo wars 2). I love Halo so much, it’s been my favourite franchise ever since I was a little kid watching my older cousin play Halo 2 on the OG Xbox.

I’m by no means a defender of 343i/hs and the mistakes they’ve made, and they’ve made some bad ones. Halo 5 as far as I’m concerned was a narrative trainwreck and Halo Infinite was a large, but still careful step in the right direction. Also the live service/free to play model with Infinite was a disaster in and of itself, despite that game having some of the best core gameplay of the franchise. That said, I also like some of the things they’ve done with Halo. The way they patched up the lore as best they could with Halo Reach and TFoR novel is commendable, and I think they’ve done a great job of humanizing the Chief.

As for Campaign Evolved, I’d like to start out with my experience playing the game. On my PS5 I played it first on heroic, next on legendary, and holy moly this is one of the hardest halo games I’ve played, the hunters are genuinely something else this time around, and mix that with the 20 other different in game things that can insta-kill you and you’re in for quite a fight. I had a lot of fun playing the OG campaign, and even more fun with the prequel missions (god it felt so good to finally be playing something NEW but still set during the Human-Covenant war).

Now, things I liked:

1. The graphics are stunning, as should be expected in an UE5 game. Lighting is gorgeous, textures are insanely detailed, and reflections look great.

2. The gunplay and movement felt tight, a mix of halo infinite, CE, and Reach (which happen to be 3 of my favourite feeling Halo games)

3. The improvements they made to certain levels (the library, for one) were amazing, and the level design in the prequel missions was also quite good

4. I loved Steve Downes’ line delivery, especially in the prequel missions; it felt like getting to hear John the way he speaks in the books

5. The expanded weapons sandbox is great, it keeps the trend from og CE of nothing feeling useless, every weapon is fun to use! The needle rifle is a standout winner for best “new” gun.

6. I like that they’ve established a well rounded “universal” Halo artstyle. They take bits and pieces from all the Bungie games and roll them into one unified artstyle. The design of the Hunters is flawless, and the inclusion of the Spec Ops Grunt design from Reach was another favourite of mine.

7. I feel like they nailed the atmosphere on every level. Everything looks the way I imagined it as a child. In some places they did lose the early 2000s charm, but I feel like that whole aesthetic was a symptom of the hardware limitations, not the sole creative vision. I do think the new version loses something, and I’ll discuss this more in the cons side of things.

8. I like that there’s no in game microtransactions (sad that this even has to be said I know)

9. I loved the Hungry Buzzards short story, but I dislike that you had to buy the premium edition for it

10. I liked that they added customization options to make the game feel more like the original, and in fact I highly recommend turning off hit markers as this game has incredible visual signaling for when you hit your target. Killing aliens is as satisfying as ever.

11. omg seeing a Halberd class destroyer IN GAME was unreal, I audibly said “holy shit” when the Burden of Proof jumped in.

12. Space combat was as fun as I remember! The whole prequel campaign was mostly a positive experience for me!

13. Sound design is a mixed bag, score is great, actual weapon/enemy sounds are hit or miss. The assault rifle sounds amazing, as does the needle rifle. The plasma rifle and magnum sound flat, and the hunter cannons sound awful.

14. The flood were incredible, 343 Guilty Spark is a standout level in the game. Their reveal, their design, everything is amazing.

15. The design of the covenant feels like a return to form, after the halo 4/5 style and then the banished. So good to have just classic good old covenant again.

16. I really like the enemy design in the prequel missions too, the ornamental armours and stuff are incredible.

17. Chief’s Mk4 armour is stunning in the prequel missions, it’s a perfect mix of Halo Wars Mk4 and Halo Forward Unto Dawn Mk4.

18. I absolutely loved being able to look out of the viewports during PoA and getting to see the space battle. Breathtaking.

19. I liked the variety in marines! I included a screenshot of one I saw with a Halo: Reach style full face helmet. I don’t remember seeing any of these guys in Infinite.

Now, for what I dislike (nitpicking incoming):

1. Immediately, an overall lack of polish in general. Weird little bugs or oversights that should not be present in a finished game, especially one with the budget of this one and on an engine as user friendly as UE5.

2. While stunning, the visual atmosphere of the game is missing something. For some reason I just never felt that “awe” or “mystique” that the original had, like the og halo CE just feels so liminal, so alien, it feels clear that you’re on something ancient, and constructed. The remake doesn’t have that same quiet, solemn, near religious feeling.

3. Marines hold weapons weirdly sometimes, and the Covenant AI behaves strangely on occasion. Just something that should not be in a game of this scale. Even the fact that they removed the switching seats animation in the warthog, that sucks.

4. The fire delay when switching weapons (something never in any halo game before) has gotten me killed countless times.

5. Difficulty balancing doesn’t feel great, I often feel like it’s difficult not because the enemies are smarter, it’s more so that they just do tons of damage. Many deaths feel “unfair”.

6. The AI (especially the elites) feels far less strategic than og CE or Reach. They don’t dodge, take cover, or rush you as much as I’d expect.

7. Some of the line delivery on the re-recorded lines is genuinely awful. Some of it had me genuinely wondering “what the hell were they thinking?” A lot of the dialogue just feels a bit out of place for the situation it’s taking place in, but I do think a part of it is also playing CE so many times it just sounds wrong when the lines are noticeably different. Almost like listening to a cover of a song you really like, it just sounds off.

8. The pre rendered cutscene animations are very weird and stilted, the way characters move looks very strange. The visuals are gorgeous but the movement is off for sure.

9. Rag doll animations suck. It’s as if when an enemy or ally dies they suddenly lose all bones and turn into floppy rubber dolls

10. On multiple occasions, vehicle combat has been extremely laggy and stuttery, completely breaking the gameplay experience. This is unacceptable in my opinion, considering the encounters are pretty much the same as they were in 2001.

11. Named characters die and then just respawn very often. Incredibly immersion breaking.

12. A lot of the visual detail, while beautiful, feels like it lacks intention. It’s hard to tell which is a copy/paste UE5 asset and what is a bespoke model. Just something I miss from older halo games, when I felt the need to examine every detail and texture looking for Easter eggs or environmental storytelling

13. Covenant ships look weird, noticeable on the Pillar Of Autumn when looking at them through the viewports. Greyish and not really purple, and a bit bulbous for my taste.

14. Now, a big one. I feel like they really didn’t change/add enough. A game like CE has SO MUCH potential for massive upgrades to the scale of combat, story, sandbox, etc.

15. We definitely should’ve seen some of Alpha Base and that side of the situation. Huge missed opportunity.

16. I don’t like that the elites speak English now. It just feels wrong in CE.

17. We should’ve seen more wildlife, such as the blind wolves. This would’ve been an easy slam dunk for them, in fact we barely saw any cut content from og CE at all. Once again, so much potential just left on the wayside.

18. ODSTs should’ve been present at LEAST on the raid on the Truth and Reconciliation. I was very sad to not see any in the game.

19. The cutscenes should’ve been real time, so we could’ve seen the skins/customization. Failing that, they should’ve at least been done by Blur Studios. The visual fidelity is fine but the movement is so strange and jarring.

20. I really wish they added more tidbits for the lore nerds, I was dying for some new lore or callbacks to Reach or the books or something.

21. Lack of progression sucks, I’ve found limited replay-ability even with remix mode. There’s nothing to motivate repeat playthroughs, after beating the game twice and messing around with the skulls a bit, I feel no desire to play the game any more. A firefight mode, or a rouge-like mode with unlockable items would’ve been an easy win here.

22. Lack of theatre mode in a Campaign only game is UNACCEPTABLE (in my opinion).

23. Leading up to the launch, they mentioned how they supposedly put a lot of effort into making Johnson a bigger character in the main campaign, but I didn’t feel this at all. We play with him in what, two missions? He barely got any screen time.

24. I was disappointed to see that level design overall was nearly identical to original CE. The changes they did make were amazing, so I would’ve liked to see more. I just wish they pushed the envelope more, CE’s story with modern hardware/software capabilities has so much potential and the lack of innovation in this game feels like a major missed opportunity.

25. How come the flood doesn’t infect living NPCs? That feels like a huge oversight.

Conclusion:

Overall I think that they did a solid job remaking Halo CE, but feels like they kinda did the bare minimum. They just didn’t have the innovation or polish to wow me. The game is a lot of fun, so it’s a win in that regard but I’m just plagued with the feeling of it being a ginormous missed opportunity. Overall I give it a 6/10. I consider 5 to be “average” and I enjoyed this game a bit more than average. If it had more replayability the score could’ve gone up to a 7.

My feeling now is that HS is so terrified of making anyone mad that they’re afraid to push the envelope creatively, resulting in a game that upsets purists by changing some things a bit, and boring other fans because they didn’t change enough.

At the end of the day, I’m happy to be getting any new Halo content, as so many promising franchises simply have the plug pulled when times are hard. That said, I am quite disappointed by the lack of ambition here. I was hoping for major changes to level design, gameplay, and story. This effort is playing it remarkably safe, and yet still misses some of the easy wins along the way.

Thank you for reading my review! I wanted to be as good-faith and as honest as possible in my approach. I know it was a little scatterbrained, and feel free to challenge me on any of my opinions, I’m interested to hear how others feel! A lot of this review is mostly subjective, and I know we all have our own ideas about how to make Halo perfect! As always, the focus is positivity and constructive dialogue <3 thanks again :)

Swipe to the end to see my comment lol

Both have sub 10,000 miles on them, the red one still had plastic wrap on the seats. Smelled like new car inside

RHD 2+2 Twin Turbo

My friend is looking at buying JDM Z32 Twin turbo, seller claims aftermarket injectors but I’m 99% sure these are the stock 370cc ones.

Car has JWT 550 turbos on it as well, so seems a weird choice to keep the original injectors too