I can't bash the game but the reviewer is spot on with a lot of his critique. I've played every halo game, watched all the videos, and read a few of the books and I was seriously disappointed with the story. The campaign missions themselves weren't bad but a lot of the time I just wasn't having any fun. It felt cookie cutter for a lot of the battles and yeah the AI partners suck. (I wonder if that's some sort of meta hint) I felt like my character was made out of tissue paper in campaign and warzone. Warzone isn't fun unless you're squared up with real life friends on your team and that's to be expected but the 10 second respawn timer in a game mode that's supposed to be fun is brutally punishing. Add to that that some of the artwork looked really really bad. There's a pic of Buck floating around mugging it for the camera that highlights this issue but that's not the only instance. All of their faces are one point or another look weird. The animations get choppy and it's exacerbated by the 60fps as it looks so out of place. The aiming is weird. It moves quickly and then slows down and then speeds up again. It's hard to explain but it's not a "dead zone" as much as it is a slow one. The HUD is atrocious in Lockes missions and just too busy in Chiefs. When I switched between the two characters it was jarring and took a few seconds to adjust so I could actually explore. The coloring scheme comes right out of a JRPG. Tons of bright colors and shapes with a full accoutrements of highlights and varying contrasts. Overall it made the experience feel very very busy. And the medals that pop up in warzone are too..."comics"-like for my taste. The feel and look out of place with the rest of the design. Nit picky but it felt cheap. I pre-ordered and got a refund on Thursday morning. This is not the halo I grew up with at all.