I've been bouncing from Halo to Halo the past couple of weeks. Did Assault on the Control Room. Did a good amount of ODST. Snuck in some Halo 2 and Halo 3. Had a good time with all of them. To try and ruin it… or something I don't know, it was more like I wanted to see if Halo 4 stacked up… I put in Halo 4 and started from the beginning. And you know what? I'm really enjoying it!

Yes, the Mass Effect * Star Trek bloom and lens flare is too much. Yeah, a good majority of the sounds are just wrong. And yep, the Prometheans, have less character than your average flood infection form, but… BUT!

I'm digging the feeling of weight they gave the Master Chief. All the weapons, especially the Human ones, are working well. The Covenant may sound funny but they're fun to fight. Some of the level design has too much glowy floaty stuff but it also have cover, and lines of attack, and is pretty fun to advance through. Beyond the gameplay, I'm getting a distinctly Halo feeling from the setting and story. I'm looking at Requiem like we once looked at Halo 04. I'm looking out across the way and wondering what the purpose of those orange glowy lines are. Or pondering what that strange circle of huge rocks sticking out of the inside of the planet is doing. Why are some parts desolate and others grassy? I'm seeing the planet as the magnificent piece of Forerunner engineering that it is.

And story wise it's giving me just what I was looking for. The Chief and Cortana stuck somewhere, working together to accomplish objectives and push buttons. That's what Silence Cartrographer, Assault on the Control Room, Delta Halo, and Gravemind / High Charity were, and I love those levels. To me that's Halo. Fighting small groups of enemies, Cortana commenting on things, figuring things out, explaining things, and the Chief making an occasional remark.

All in all it's been great fun. It's been great, Halo style fun. 343i certainly has a lot they can improve on, but I think they delivered something that is, overall, a good addition to the Halo series…

Except for the second pylon room that lies to you, telling you it's a Banshee dogfight room, or an on foot room, or a Ghost piloting room, when really it's too small, making it a do any of those and get shot constantly until you die / your only option is to hide and peck away at the Banshee's over the course of several minutes… room.

Fortunately my controller survived it's hard throw into the couch cushions…