My small semi review of the game so far.
I've been playing this game a lot since Tuesday. Even though I work full time, this week was slow so we only had 6 hour shifts, so I had extra time to play this week. The first thing you notice is the visual beauty of the game, getting the game for the XBONE was definitely the right choice. Everything from the background scenery to every animation is very well done, along with the details in character design.
The gameplay is solid as well. It feels fluid and responsive, as well as fun and requiring at least a decent amount of shooting skill due to the recoil. The melee system is awesome too, and really satisfying, at least as a Warlock (the only class I've played on so far). You'll have fun in this game based on the gameplay alone, no doubt.
However, there's a lot of missed opportunities with this game and it's fairly underwhelming. There's only 3 classes to choose from; Warlock, Titan, and Hunter. I've only used Warlock, and been playing with 2 friends who use the other two. The differences are there, and you'll definitely want to use all three. There should have definitely been at the minimum 5 different starting classes, and even that number seems low to me. The race you choose, as far as I know, is just for aesthetics. Anyway, the leveling up system is not very rewarding or diverse. It doesn't lend itself for creativity, you just have to essentially press "A" to get the next ability when you level up. There is a decision or two, but not enough for it to feel like your character is at all unique from another player who is using the same class as you. The sub class system is also not much different. You get some different abilities, but for the most part they're similar to the main class abilities. The whole system just is too cookie cutter and it could have been done a million time better.
The enemies aren't too different from one another either. Sure, they look different and have different healths and attack power, but that's about it. They pretty much behave the same, aside from one that uses a shield, and another that flies. The boss fights are nothing but tedious. They aren't fun. They don't require you to think or use strategy, they are just bigger enemies that have a ridiculous amount of health who can one shot you from afar, and if you get too close they all have a overpowered close attack as well. So they all are essentially played the same way; keep your distance while constantly emptying your clips into them, while infinite waves of less powerful enemies spawn in to annoy you. All this would be tolerable if after the fight was over it was at least rewarding. Like, you got some cool armor or weapon, or something other than some bullshit reward. But nope, the only good feeling you get is relief that you finally are done with that long ass boring and tedious boss fight. It's not satisfying, at all. In fact, "loot" drops in general are too rare and when you do get them, they're often not even that good so when you do get a loot drop, it's usually just like "meh, cool".
The "planets" you can free roam don't resemble planets at all. I was expecting a massive world like Skyrim where you could travel for ages and every once in awhile there would be dungeons, caves, cities, etc. It's sad that a country/territory in Skyrim, feels drastically bigger than 6 or so planets COMBINED! The exploration is just a bunch of the same stuff over and over, not to mention the missions are incredibly repetitive.
I could give a much more detailed and longer review, but I won't do that. The potential is staring you in the face the entire time, but it just never gets there. Maybe a year from now, with all the DLC and updates, this game will be much better. But right now, I'm just going to play some Warriors Orochi 3: Ultimate, and wait for the Masterchief Collection. I'll still play it with friends though, and the multiplayer is fun but super scrubby.
