Halo 6 game campaign review

So is Halo 6's campaign any good?

Halo 6 is out and our review says this is a CRACKER of a Halo game. Capitalizing on the strong development by 343 Industries that saw chapters 4 and 5 breathe strong new life in to the Halo franchise, Halo 6 is a collusion of a game, and a new high point for Cortana and Master Chief.

Let's quickly re-cap the events at the end of Halo 5. The Master-chief had been hunted down by Spartan Locke as he went awol from a mission when he received a message from the presumed Cortana. This chase resulted in the grand reveal of Cortana's plan for the universe - to take it over by control and use of the Guardians she had summons and also by way of the trick she managed to pull of in convincing all known Artificial Intelligence to support her mission - and the key point of the mission appeared to be wiping out sentient life.

We love how Cortana has gone being John's constant A.I. companion with whom he arguably fell in love with, through to a rampant A.I. and arguably to an A.I. just as crazy as the original Guilty Spark.

So, a pretty big cliff hanger ending to Halo 5. How does it play into Halo 6?

Long term Halo fans have been rewarded with a further milestone in the Halo saga. Cortana's mission to annihilate every living thing gives the campaign many moments to shine. Driven along by some sharp missions and set pieces, Halo 6's story is pretty good. Players do not need to know what happened in Halo 5 and 4 but having some knowledge will be handy as at times the game moves fast and certain crucial bits of dialogue are mentioned by squad partners. The first time Halo player will enjoy the game but may struggle to come to grips with everything that's happening in front of them.

She's got the look

This is the second Halo game to be released on the Xbox One. The developers have learned a trick or two about optimization since Halo 5 and have delivered a beautiful looking game that renders extremely well. The continued iterations of Forerunner technology that began in earnest with Halo 4 have produced some fantastic buildings and artifacts to admire and places in which to battle it out with Forerunner enemies. Those enemies have had some sweet design changes too. Knights have had a further upgrade and also appear to have in increased smartness around them – that goes for most of the adversaries you will face in the campaign.

Legendary Mode is still as brutal as ever

Ah yes, the classic mode in which Halo goes from being just a great game to one on the greatest games there ever was. Everyone remembers the deadly sharp shooting Jackals from Halo 2 that became the bain of every campaign player’s life. Well, just like Halo 5, these guys are back with a vengeance. Let’s just say they are a better shot that Stormtroopers! Legendary mode makes Halo simply a different game from Normal or Heroic.

There’s no opportunity to run and gun and it’s incredibly unforgiving if you dare peak out from behind a rock too long! Set pieces often need to be learned and planned out before a methodical approach that has a strong chance of success can be commenced. That was a long winded way of saying you will die a lot in this campaign mode.

10 Halo Anniversary Campaign Tips

10 Halo Anniversary Campaign Tips

Here’s 10 sweet tips to help you out with your Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary run through – people who haven’t played the original campaign will be well advised to take heed of the tips – if I was to say which two tips were the best – use the plasma pistol to drop shields and then use the pistol to bring down your Covenant foe.

PISTOL OFTEN

Reissued from 2001's Halo: Combat Evolved, the M6D Pistol is still one of the strongest weapons in the series' history. Effective from close to long range, this weapon marries lethal force and superior accuracy.

LOOK BEFORE CROSSING

Like in the original Halo campaign, you can't board vehicles. So keep your distance and rely on mid- and long-range weapons to take out enemies from behind the controls.

TERMINAL MAN

Throughout Anniversary's campaign look for hidden terminals that reveal key insights into the last 100,000 years of this Halo ring's history.

FELLING GIANTS

Even the enormous Hunters have an Achilles' heel: standard-issue human ballistics. When a bullet penetrates their armor, it ricochets violently within the creature causing severe trauma, resulting in its death.

NO SKULL UNTURNED

As in Halo 2 and subsequent Halo installments, gameplay-modifying Skulls are hidden throughout Anniversary's campaign. Collect them as you play each mission and discover new ways to experience the game's campaign.

FERVENT INTERCESSION

Donning reinforced armor and brandishing Energy Swords, the Zealot-class of Covenant Elites are formidable combatants. Keep your distance when engaging them, as one swift cut of their blade will end your "great journey."

FERVENT INTERCESSION

Donning reinforced armor and brandishing Energy Swords, the Zealot-class of Covenant Elites are formidable combatants. Keep your distance when engaging them, as one swift cut of their blade will end your "great journey."

FERVENT INTERCESSION

Donning reinforced armor and brandishing Energy Swords, the Zealot-class of Covenant Elites are formidable combatants. Keep your distance when engaging them, as one swift cut of their blade will end your "great journey."

NOT EVEN A SCRATCH

Like the Warthogs in  Halo: Combat Evolved, the Warthogs in Anniversary's campaign are indestructible. Use this to your advantage. But remember: fire directed at the Hog is typically absorbed by the player.

PLASMA POWER

Touting an impressive rate of fire and the ability to drop an enemy's shields, this is one weapon you shouldn't underestimate.

These sweet campaign tips were found on Xbox Waypoint. 

Legendary Mode: Of Mice and Men

I found this on B.net file share. It reminds me of Voltron...

So playing Halo: Reach on legendary mode is probably the best thing you can do for yourself as a gamer because it's at true test of your worth. Are you a man or a mouse? Are you up to the challenge? Given Bunige reckons only 5 percent of players have completed Reach by themselves on legendary mode, there are appears to be entire fields of mice out there, just whimpering at the thought of an extra set of Hunters to rain down the pain on Noble 6.

It's not hard to see why this is the case - Bungie's Urk outlines how legendary mode is actually structured to pan out:

Here’s a rundown of the major aspects that separate Legendary from the lesser difficulties: 

*Warning – there are a few spoilers down below!*

Damage – THE most challenging trait for Legendary is the increase in damage that ALL of the Covenant will do. For perspective, playing on “Easy” results in enemies doing a measly 22% of the damage done on “Normal” difficulty. On Legendary, prepare to get blasted by projectiles, explosions and melees that do 77% more damage than Normal difficulty. OUCH.

Projectiles – Not only do those plasma bolts hurt more but they’re also harder to avoid. On Legendary difficulty, the projectile speed is anywhere from 50% to 100% faster than Normal difficulty (it varies depending on the projectile/weapon). In general you’ll also find that the number of projectiles per burst is greater, the length of each burst is longer and the time between bursts is shorter on Legendary than the lesser settings.

Upgrades – The higher the difficulty setting, the greater the chance that an enemy in an encounter will get upgraded to a higher version. On Legendary there is a 50% chance that any enemy will be upgraded to the next highest version – so that Minor Elite you fought on Normal or Heroic now has a 50% chance to become a Major (or a 25% of becoming an Ultra). Enemies will also have more health on average than the same enemy would have on a lower difficulty.

AI Behavior – I was surprised to learn that the AI actually does NOT evade more or have a greater awareness on Legendary compared to the other difficulties (with the exception of a greater likelihood to see Active Camo or less likelihood of falling for Hologram). However, the AI does behave differently by generally having a better aim, a greater chance to fire plasma pistol overcharge shots and a shorter time between melee strikes.

Customized Encounters – In addition to everything listed above, which applies to every single enemy in the game, sometimes the designers have done extra, specific things to beef up an encounter solely on Legendary play-throughs. Jerks! For example, in “New Alexandria”, Dan Miller will throw more Banshee patrols at your Falcon as you fly around the city and on “The Package”, he added a fourth Hunter Wave that appears before the final wave. On “Nightfall” you’ll have to contend with four Hunters instead 's of two. And so on.

So that's the deal if you want to man up and tackle Reach in legendary mode. As with all the Halo series, plasma pistols are your best friend - use them to disable the enemy shields and then follow up with a head shot using the DMR or pistol or equivalent weapon. You'll also get more points for having done a combo.

Any one else got some tips for playing Reach on legendary? Leave a note in the comments!