I have been a Halo Fan since 2010 and I can say with certainty that this a good remake overall.
The Good:
- By far the most beautiful and advance graphics by far for Halo. The amount of adjustments you can make in graphical settings is the best by far and I hope it is the standard for Halo on PC moving forward.
- The audio choices that is used throughout the game has been music to my ears. The choice of using original 2001 CE audio for the levels has giving me a sense of familiarity with every level including the bonus missions. The inclusion of using original soundtracks from Halo CE, 2, 3, and Reach surprisingly worked in my opinion for immersion and tone for each level.
- The level design and art of the game managed to remain faithful and yet still new at the same time. Much of the redesign of characters, weapons, and set pieces look amazing with unreal engine yet they still look and behave like the original CE while adding upon the levels to set the tone better than the pervious game.
- The addition of skulls, campaign remix, gameplay settings, and difficulty adjustments really give you the freedom to tailor the experience for every playthrough as well as adding replay ability to the game.
- Bonus missions in my opinion are great I did not once think they were bad minus the one or two cheesy lines but overall I enjoyed it.
The Bad:
- Must have a internet connection when first starting the game for "initializing" to me that is major loss for this game considering it is a campaign only experience.
- No local split screen or steam remote play. I cannot state the level of disappointment I had when the PC version did not come this feature. Now this may be unfair opinion considering this is the PC release but I should not have to buy a console to play local couch co-op especially considering Halo's legacy for couch co-op. Lucky I was able to play split screen via mods but again I shouldn't have to do this in order to play with my family.
- Voice acting for the main missions is a mixed bag on one hand I think Master Chief's, 343 Guilty Spark's, and Keys's voice lines are great and on point. But Cortana's and Johnson's? Ok at best and horrible at worst with Johnson I feel some lines are on point followed by a long pauses and then continue again it really took my immersion away from the game when watching the cutscenes. For Cortana I feel she is way to jolly throughout the game yes there are moments where this make sense but the scene where Master Chief almost activates Halo I feel Cortana was too calm given the stakes. A better direction for the voices actors should be the new standard moving forward.
The Ugly:
- The game like to crash sometimes I noticed its because my graphical settings were too high specifically my DLSS running on native I have found ultra to work better for my machine. But given with the adjustments I made sometimes it crashes just because it can. Lucky for me my progression hasn't really been lost but your mileage may vary but the worst part this I have experience 3 to 4 crashes throughout my playthrough and to me that is unacceptable.
- Making Microsoft account linking a requirement to play a campaign is insanity. The although yes I have Xbox account prior to this that does not mean others do and having to force people into it for a single player experience is not the way game companies should go about things.
Despite my gripes of the game I believe this is a great and faithful remake. Now is it worth $50 if your fan of the franchise I would say yes. Is it worth $70? ♥♥♥♥ no. If your new I would recommend this as a first experience if its on sale otherwise I recommend MCC for the new recruits.
8/10
