This is not the Halo I've come to know and love. It lacks the "feel" of Halo. The gameplay is just too fast-paced with everybody darting around, the BR's kill time is way too short. Aiming feels herky-jerky, like every weapon has crazy recoil. The visuals are muddy, with lots of visual noise and low-contrast colors; sure, it may be an alpha or whatever and not even in 1080p or with proper AA, but colors probably won't change, and it'll still be hard to pick things out in the environment (I found most on-map weapons by accident). Smart-scope can be obtrusive depending on the weapon (the DMR is especially bad), and I fail to see any practical purpose for adding it instead of using old-school reticles. The Spartans doing their "What's up, brah?" posturing at the end of each match is painfully tacky every time. The Spartan's call outs are rarely useful, and it's usually pointless chatter. The shoulder charge move seems pointless, as it isn't any more powerful than a regular melee yet it leave you wide open to counterattack. Ground pound is so rarely used that one wonders what the point was (after six hours of play time I've gotten one kill with it, haven't been the victim of it, and just plain don't see it get used often).

It's not all bad, though. The automatic weapons are actually decently powerful, and I think the game plays better with AR+pistol starts. Recon was laid out in a way that figuring out how to clamber, dodge, and slide was easy, so actually adapting to the new controls was a smooth process. The netcode and hit detection seem fine.

Still, I'm not digging the overall core gameplay. It's not bad per se, but it's underwhelming and, more importantly, it's not Halo to me. So, with that in mind, if 343i doesn't have another patch ready sometime this week, or if they do release one but it doesn't really fix anything (or makes things worse, like the last patch did), then I'm putting my XBO up for sale. I don't feel like giving MS any more money right now. I'll still go over to my friend's to play the Campaign, but I'm not liking the direction the series is going in. I may even re-buy an XBO later in the generation when everything's cheaper (and pre-owned, so my money isn't going to MS) just to catch up on everything, but at this point I honestly feel like I would've been better off investing my money in other products. I passed up on Smash, Far Cry 4, and Bayonetta 2 for this, and I regret it. I never thought I'd ever regret investing in the Halo brand, but here we are.