Recent reviews by APerfidiousDane

If it ran well* it'd be great but it doesn't so it isn't. It's just "okay".

* "Well" meaning a solid 60 fps without stuttering and without requiring an i9 or a 4090. See Gamers Nexus coverage on the games piss-poor performance if you want to claim "it runs fine for me".

Feels like a mobile game with braindead abilities, passives, and teammates. No chat function and the report function is unbelievably tedious.

The game is enjoyable apart from the horrendous controls.

This game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. I'll update this with more info later as to why but I have to go play with my friends now (nostalgia and such).

Really though it feels ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ terrible and they've fixed no actual issues from the "betas" that were "older builds"

Radar was a previous staple of the Halo games but the radar in this game is useless 95% of the time. A spartan's wingspan (fingertip to fingertip) reaches further than the radar. Also no radar in ranked (hur-dur MLG never had radar git gud.) is stupid. Not having a radar would be fine and I'd encourage it if you could obtain any information from the audio in this game. Footsteps are barely audible but you can hear every gunshot and grenade in the game (insert your nonsensical realism argument here). I THINK you might actually be able to hear grenades and gunshots from your friends' games too but I haven't fact checked this yet.

Spawns are some of the worst I've ever encountered in a shooter. You constantly spawn on the opposite side of the map as your teammates (even if they're not actively fighting) and often times you'll spawn while 1 or 2 enemies are already looking at you. This is a crutch for both slayer and objective teammates. I think BTB is the only mode where I haven't experienced this but that's not saying much considering the map sizes.

Guns feel UNBELIEVABLY lackluster. Apart from power weapons there isn't much use to swap from an assault rifle or BR. A BR can outplay just about anything in the game including shotguns up close.

The maps are...fair, I guess. It feels as if they wanted every room to be able to be flushed out with grenades and it certainly feels that way. But maybe that has to do with the game handles grenades. Apart from the fact that you play the same two over and over. Every map seems to have nice wide open spaces for you to get picked off from though so if that's your kind of thing you're in luck. Don't expect to make it back to base with the flag unless your teammates cover for you (spoiler: they won't they'll be too busy on the opposite side trying to kill somebody nowhere near you).

GRENADES ARE EVERYWHERE AND EVERYBODY THROWS 8 OF THEM IN EVERY TEAMFIGHT. Why the ♥♥♥♥ is this a thing? Either reduce the number of grenade spawns or don't let us spawn with them. But for the love of god push grenades as a supplement for fighting not a complete replacement to shooting. Make grenades the extra sauce to our nuggets or the dessert after our meal not some ridiculously fattening combo meal we get for free. And wtf is up with grenade bounces? They are inconsistent as ♥♥♥♥ that's what. Why do they sometimes roll up stairs? Magic, I guess. This sucks from an enemy and teammate perspective as well. You WILL be bombarded by a teammates grenades because they'll think there is no friendly fire or just because ♥♥♥♥ you.

Let's talk about teammate collision; there is none, surprise! Unless of course you're throwing grenades. This means that you can throw a grenade at the same time a teammate runs through you and instead of going where you want it just bounces back in your face. Funny the first time, annoying after the 5th.

I'm sure I'll think of more things as I come across them (yes I'll keep playing even though I despise this game because my friends suck royally and I'm a team player) but these are my general thoughts on the game after playing the flights and 18 hours of the "beta" that is currently out.

The more updates you add to a game the better it's supposed to get not worse.

It's pretty and the audio is good so it's got that going for it.

The combat is atrocious so it doesn't have that going for it.

Can't assassinate or knock out enemies when using keyboard and mouse in a game that revolves around one or both of those. Definitely something to catch before a 1.0 release.

Also no key rebinding in the current version, it's expected next week.

Still debating on whether or not to refund. We'll give it a week to see what happens.

Turns out this game is on PC Game Pass so save yourself the purchase price and try it there for cheap.

Oh boy what a major letdown. I knew it was going to be iffy at best from the moment this game was announced and I saw footage but I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt and to experience it for myself.

The story has existed for decades so you don't really get points in that area. You can only lose points for screwing it up. I won't comment on the story because some of us already know the story and don't need to experience it through the eyes of another. Personally, I don't care much about what they did with the story. If you want to truly experience the story go read the books or listen to the audiobooks. You'll have a much better experience. That leaves combat as the main area to gain points. With a game like this it is all about the combat. People will look past a boring story and the occasional bug if the combat is good. You don't even need a story for a game if combat is enjoyable. We just want to murder things as one of the Companions and, if the devs were smart, one of the many other awesome characters that could exist through DLC (Ivan and Pikel Bouldershoulder is what I have my heart set on. Yes, I know their paths barely cross with the Companions but I still want it.)

Unfortunately combat is quite rough. I assume by "Emergent Combat" they mean it's still a work in progress and will perfect it soon and release an update for us. Attacks kinda feel crisp for the most part but movement is extremely sluggish and you regularly feel locked in place unless you're spamming dash (which is a poor way to increase combat pace). With the pace of these fights you should never feel locked in place or have to fight the controls to turn around. Sometimes you attack the direction you're looking, sometimes you attack the direction you're aiming, and locking on zooms your camera in so much you might as well call it 1v1 GoPro mode. The AI is either brain-dead or dragging their balls, or other meaty area, across your face. I've yet to experience any in-between. If they can manage combat to be decent it'll be just fine.

I'll say one good thing about this game though, they included co-op which is something many devs ignore for reasons I cannot understand. Also, please don't tell me that singleplayer suffers when co-op is involved because that's an idiotic argument made by idiots. All that means is that a developer is incompetent or lazy. Not all games need co-op but many of them should have it.

P.S. How dare you not get Victor Bevine as the narrator.

Noooooooooooope. Great idea, poor execution.

A game with a fairly decent foundation where basically nothing else is done right. Riddled with bugs that ultimately ruin the experience, and I never even had to deal with a wiped inventory. I'd call this decent entertainment if you can find it for $20 but no more.

Will I continue to play with my friends? Probably plus I'll keep tabs on their updates but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ if it isn't annoying to deal with their ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ they should've had worked out before release.

One of the most annoying things about the game in terms of gameplay is that strategy rarely matters. If you can't nuke something then you're SOL.

The game is dead so don't waste your time unless you enjoy playing with bots.