A breath of fresh air for those that enjoy Halo multiplayer. A little stale otherwise.
I'd also like to note that I've written this review as non-biased as possible. I've played all 3 main Halo games, and ODST, but I'm not a "fangirl." I'm also not embittered by disappointment because of hype surrounding this game. I'm just reviewing the game as I played it.
I've split the review into sections, campaign and multiplayer.
First, the campaign: (8/10)
After finishing the campaign, I was left a little disappointed. The majority of the game felt like a replay of levels I've played a dozen times before. Most Halo games follow the formula of "walk into a base, kill everything in the room, continue" but previous iterations had disguised this repetitiveness by adding an interesting element or twist. Save for one level, I felt like I had played the entire game already before. It made me somewhat thankful Bungie is putting these games to rest.
I was also disappointed in the character development in the game. For all the hype Bungie caused about playing as "Team Noble," your teammates have nonexistent personalities. Your partners each have specific "talents", interesting armor design, and different accents, but the character development stops there. Their dialogue is bland, and you don't really spend all that much time getting to know them.
The boring characters and half-assed level design aren't nearly as punishing as the AI. Frequently I was strategically hiding behind corners trying to pick off Covenant while my beloved teammates danced in circles in my line of sight. In one particular mission, I was prompted to ride passenger with an AI partner, and he promptly drove us off a cliff more than 10 times. Joyfully, the savepoint had me placed me mere seconds away from this cliff jump, so I wasted 20 minutes trying to jump off the vehicle before my partner killed me again while simultaneously trying to keep him from wasting our only vehicle.
The controls and physics are pretty spot-on. They've re-vamped how specifics guns work, and I personally think it improved the game. Assault rifles feel more realistic (I actually feel like I'm pumping lead into my targets instead of just spraying them with bullets) and Covenant weapons are more interesting in design, rather than being mirrors of human weapons.
Graphics are fairly average. The art style, models, and environments are attractive in design, but technically flat. Water and trees are reminiscent of games released 3 years ago. Covenant and human models look okay, if not a little simplistic. The facial design and lip-movements of humans have vastly improved since previous Halo games.
Music was okay. It didn't distract from the game, but it didn't really draw attention either.
Overall, the campaign was clean and (mostly) flaw-free, but it wasn't particularly original and all of the chapters more or less play in the same setting with little diversity in environment.
Now, for the multiplayer (9/10)
Multiplayer is what you'd expect from a Halo game with a few tweaks, some of which work well, and some which I don't like. Timing and range for melee kills has been changed. Assassinations are more difficult. To execute an assassination, you now have to hold the melee button for a duration without allowing your target to turn around, which triggers a 3rd person animation of you swiftly eliminating your opponent. The majority of slayer maps I played started with DMR's (Reach's version of the battle rifle) instead of an assault rifle, which in combination with the melee changes make it fairly obvious Reach is trying to drastically alter close-quarters combat.
Item pickups have been replaced with armor abilities, which are selected while respawning. These armor classes make the multiplayer interesting, and they felt pretty well balanced.
Matchmaking has quite a few changes. Players ID tags now allow for 4 characters instead of 3, and they can be a combination of more than one letter, which makes it easier for your teammates to recognize their own name when you call them out during a game (especially if your name is 'Izzy').
Lobby types have been reduced. Instead of picking a specific gametype lobby (SWAT, CTF, etc), you only get a handful of choices, which solves some issues, but also creates some nuisances. Instead of vetoing a map prior to the game loading, players are given a list of 3 maps they can vote to play. The most votes picks the map and the gametype. While it allows players more choices for the game they want to play instead of the previous "veto" system, it also means you can't queue for a specific gametype. If you only enjoy SWAT games, you'll have to queue in Team Slayer and hope everyone else you play with is also willing to play SWAT (assuming the computer randomizes a SWAT option to begin with). I understand that it improves how quickly a game can be put together when you put everything in a pool instead of individual lobbies, but it also means players will have to play through several games they don't want in order to get a gametype they do want.
Social games have been removed entirely, throwing together social players and competitive ones. I would have much preferred if they combined the gametypes from Halo 3 that had fewer people queuing them into their own lobby and left Slayer alone.
A "psych profile" feature has also been added, which I appreciated. I've listened to several complaints from Halo players tired of listening to belligerent and rude players over headset chat, while on the opposite end many players are bored playing a game in complete silence. This profile lets you select what type of gaming environment you want to play in (rowdy, competitive, quiet, etc). This feature doesn't filter EVERY game, it just increases the likelihood of being placed with the type of people you want to play with, which isn't exactly a bad thing. I really wouldn't want to play every single game with no one saying a peep, or with everyone screaming at each other nonstop.
The armor customization feature is more developed. Completing campaign and multiplayer games grants currency which can be used to purchase new armor, effects, and voices to personalize your character. It's purely aesthetic (the armor doesn't change stats), but it's still fun as a mini-project in the game and it also changes how your character in the campaign appears. Players can also choose to play as a Spartan female, which I very much welcomed.
The "everything condensed into a list" list
PROS
-re-vamped multiplayer for those wanting a new Halo online experience
-balanced, tight game controls
-decent graphics
-new features that let you customize your own gaming experience
CONS
-more of the same gameplay
-boring campaign
-annoying matchmaking system
-uninteresting characters