This game has a lot of flaws that keep it from standing out among other Halo games. It's just another Halo multiplayer, except this time there is no incentive to play beyond levelling up a lacklustre battle pass at a painfully slow pace. There isn't even an XP progression system, and there are no player ranks/levels. The cosmetics store too is a joke; who wants to buy a boring armour bundle for £20? I would rather have paid a full £50-60 for a fleshed out XP progression system that feels like something to strive for, with a permanent challenge library (on top of daily and weekly challenges, those are a good addition) that rewards players with cosmetics/XP Boosts and such. Much better than predatory systems like this that get justified by the fact that the game is free to play. At the end of the day though, I'm not interested much in the cosmetics, but there's already just nothing to do with the game. There are 3 multiplayer playlists right now, that's it. And casual 4v4 is unbearable because the Sidekick (pistol)
is terrible and unsatisfying, so for me that becomes 2 playlists. There are precious few 4v4 maps, and with Forge absent for an unspecified time, that probably won't change for at least a few months. I already get bored of playing certain maps because there are so few that it takes not much more than an hour to experience every map/mode combination. However that could also be thanks to poor weighting of those modes, perhaps I haven't played some modes due to a lower chance of getting them in a match. Outside of gameplay, the menus are boring and I don't feel the same urge to browse through my stats that I felt in the other games, mostly because you CAN'T. Even Halo 5 had this; do better.

The gameplay itself is perfectly fine if you're someone who was fortunate enough to not have experienced Halo 5's multiplayer. For me, I noticed countless little bugs and issues that are exactly the same as they were in Halo 5 (so much for the Slipspace engine being mostly built from the ground up), such as ghost melee, theatre bugs, duplicate killfeed messages, etc. But those are at least all minor things that can be ironed out in the next few months. What I can't ignore is the absurdly terrible audio cues. In ranked/competitive, there is no radar and, while a good change from Halo 5's launch, makes it so that to identify nearby enemies you need other cues, which are noticeably absent. Too often I'll turn around to see an enemy in my face (that takes a second to register in my head as an enemy since 343 made the godawful decision to remove red vs blue in multiplayer) without hearing a single footstep or clamber or even breath. This needs to be amended very soon if I am going to be playing this game for much longer than the honeymoon phase.

Other small cons:

~Activating an Overshield or Active Camo should not have a windup, it was frustrating in Halo 5 and that hasn't changed here
~Fireteams are very buggy, multiple times I have had to restart my game because I can't join a friend, or because only one of our games says we are in a team. Invites also don't show up, like anywhere
~Absolutely no ability to view the stats of random opponents or teammates after games (you can't even view your own), no way to message people directly via Steam or Xbox Live
~Game crashes rather too often during matches and I/my teammates get penalised for it
~Carrying the flag (flag-running) in CTF feels very clunky with the reduced speed of sprint/reduced momentum without thrusters
~Melee is too powerful, it kills too easily when at half shields and it's too easy to use as a get-out-of-jail-free card
~THe weapon sandbox is littered with new additions that fell almost pointless, especially the Bulldog shotgun, which is an awful weapon and in no way replaces the classic Halo shotgun

Some positives though, and there are admittedly a lot compared to Halo Reach, 4 and 5:

~Very clearly this game has been made with PC in mind, it's not a clunky port and it's a lot smoother on MnK than expected
~Playing with bots and training modes is a very good addition for new/offline players, they are a lot smarter that Halo 5's AI and hopefully this means that when Forge releases we will be able to make maps and modes using enemies and AI. That would be incredible and would extend the lifespan of the game by a lot
~Competitive weapon balancing is well tuned for the most part
~It's very satisfying to get kills with precision weapons, apart from the pistol
~Game runs well, even for my graphics card with 3GB of VRAM
~Grenade hitmarkers being absent from competitive makes a big positive difference in the pace of a match
~Round-based Oddball and Strongholds matches are an improvement as it allows for upsets and comebacks
~Music and OSTs are amazing and bring back the Halo feel that the oldest games nailed
~The Halo Championship roadmap looks promising, big esports teams are involved and well integrated into the game (albeit through the use of paid cosmetics that I wouldn't buy with a gun to my head), if done right the scene could truly take off

Overall the game needs a lot of work before I could play for an afternoon without getting bored or the urge to quit and play something else, but the base is there and it's definitely possible to create an incredible Halo game from what's here. Do I think 343 have it in them to deliver? Not after Halo MCC and Halo 5, but I would be happy to be proven wrong. Finally there is a chance, however small, for Halo to be on top once more

This game has a lot of flaws that keep it from standing out among other Halo games. It's just another Halo multiplayer, except this time there is no incentive to play beyond levelling up a lacklustre battle pass at a painfully slow pace. There isn't even an XP progression system, and there are no player ranks/levels. The cosmetics store too is a joke; who wants to buy a boring armour bundle for £20? I would rather have paid a full £50-60 for a fleshed out XP progression system that feels like something to strive for, with a permanent challenge library (on top of daily and weekly challenges, those are a good addition) that rewards players with cosmetics/XP Boosts and such. Much better than predatory systems like this that get justified by the fact that the game is free to play. At the end of the day though, I'm not interested much in the cosmetics, but there's already just nothing to do with the game. There are 3 multiplayer playlists right now, that's it. And casual 4v4 is unbearable because the Sidekick (pistol) is terrible and unsatisfying, so for me that becomes 2 playlists. There are precious few 4v4 maps, and with Forge absent for an unspecified time, that probably won't change for at least a few months. I already get bored of playing certain maps because there are so few that it takes not much more than an hour to experience every map/mode combination. However that could also be thanks to poor weighting of those modes, perhaps I haven't played some modes due to a lower chance of getting them in a match. Outside of gameplay, the menus are boring and I don't feel the same urge to browse through my stats that I felt in the other games, mostly because you CAN'T. Even Halo 5 had this; do better. The gameplay itself is perfectly fine if you're someone who was fortunate enough to not have experienced Halo 5's multiplayer. For me, I noticed countless little bugs and issues that are exactly the same as they were in Halo 5 (so much for the Slipspace engine being mostly built from the ground up), such as ghost melee, theatre bugs, duplicate killfeed messages, etc. But those are at least all minor things that can be ironed out in the next few months. What I can't ignore is the absurdly terrible audio cues. In ranked/competitive, there is no radar and, while a good change from Halo 5's launch, makes it so that to identify nearby enemies you need other cues, which are noticeably absent. Too often I'll turn around to see an enemy in my face (that takes a second to register in my head as an enemy since 343 made the godawful decision to remove red vs blue in multiplayer) without hearing a single footstep or clamber or even breath. This needs to be amended very soon if I am going to be playing this game for much longer than the honeymoon phase. Other small cons: ~Activating an Overshield or Active Camo should not have a windup, it was frustrating in Halo 5 and that hasn't changed here ~Fireteams are very buggy, multiple times I have had to restart my game because I can't join a friend, or because only one of our games says we are in a team. Invites also don't show up, like anywhere ~Absolutely no ability to view the stats of random opponents or teammates after games (you can't even view your own), no way to message people directly via Steam or Xbox Live ~Game crashes rather too often during matches and I/my teammates get penalised for it ~Carrying the flag (flag-running) in CTF feels very clunky with the reduced speed of sprint/reduced momentum without thrusters ~Melee is too powerful, it kills too easily when at half shields and it's too easy to use as a get-out-of-jail-free card ~THe weapon sandbox is littered with new additions that fell almost pointless, especially the Bulldog shotgun, which is an awful weapon and in no way replaces the classic Halo shotgun Some positives though, and there are admittedly a lot compared to Halo Reach, 4 and 5: ~Very clearly this game has been made with PC in mind, it's not a clunky port and it's a lot smoother on MnK than expected ~Playing with bots and training modes is a very good addition for new/offline players, they are a lot smarter that Halo 5's AI and hopefully this means that when Forge releases we will be able to make maps and modes using enemies and AI. That would be incredible and would extend the lifespan of the game by a lot ~Competitive weapon balancing is well tuned for the most part ~It's very satisfying to get kills with precision weapons, apart from the pistol ~Game runs well, even for my graphics card with 3GB of VRAM ~Grenade hitmarkers being absent from competitive makes a big positive difference in the pace of a match ~Round-based Oddball and Strongholds matches are an improvement as it allows for upsets and comebacks ~Music and OSTs are amazing and bring back the Halo feel that the oldest games nailed ~The Halo Championship roadmap looks promising, big esports teams are involved and well integrated into the game (albeit through the use of paid cosmetics that I wouldn't buy with a gun to my head), if done right the scene could truly take off Overall the game needs a lot of work before I could play for an afternoon without getting bored or the urge to quit and play something else, but the base is there and it's definitely possible to create an incredible Halo game from what's here. Do I think 343 have it in them to deliver? Not after Halo MCC and Halo 5, but I would be happy to be proven wrong. Finally there is a chance, however small, for Halo to be on top once more