Been playing Halo since the first one on the original Xbox. Throughout the years nostalgia has covered my eyes but I believe I'm able to fairly review it now. If you go into it expecting a sci-fi adventure with iconic characters then you will enjoy these games. The combat is very simple (referring to the main trilogy in the Halo series), almost like original Quake and Doom games. You move, jump and hip fire with most guns. Unlike the other titles mentioned however your movement speed in Halo games is just too slow. While this may help players new to shooters come to grips with the controls with potentially less frustration, seasoned players will find the difficulty settings for the campaign require much different play styles than they are used to enjoying. If you play on Easy or Normal (or arguably Heroic on occasion) you can charge into battle guns blazing and usually come out on top as long as you keep moving. I feel like this style of gameplay suits halo best as most automatic weapons are highly inaccurate and are only useful at close range. Being able to close that gap quickly is what made other auto guns in games like Doom or Quake fun because no matter the range of combat you still have an opportunity to survive an attack and counter it with precise movement. Halo, especially on harder difficulties and with its large open level design in some locations, leaves you a sitting duck without the proper weaponry as you can be easily picked off by long range enemies with your slow movement speed making it nearly impossible to escape. This leads to a lot of cheap feeling deaths and overall difficulty feeling cheap. An example of this is if you've heard anyone rant about the snipers in Halo 2. This could have been fixed with a weapon wheel so you can at least carry one precision weapon at all times, but this is a review and not a wish list. The point is if you don't have nostalgia for the series, I still recommend the series ESPECIALLY as a co-op experience. It's game design is quite dated at certain points with locked rooms and waves of enemies to pad out game time, but the atmosphere and simple to follow story make it a blast to play-through with a buddy.

The multiplayer I believe suffers from the same combat problems I mentioned before, however Halo Reach and Halo 4 have more movement options. Because every player has a beefy shield that has to be knocked down I believe this heavily encourages coordinated tactics in order to succeed, having your team mates focus fire on a single target will help reduce time to kill a lot. Because I believe the combat is lackluster on its own though, the objectives modes really shine due to the overall coordination needed in order to be efficient. Capture the Flag is my personal favorite and is worth playing with a group of friends on a discord call since most random players in matchmaking do not use a mic.

Overall, a definite recommendation. You get 6 games for less than 1 modern release, each with their own multiplayer modes which is great. Each games PVP has some different mechanics so if there is one you enjoy the most you will usually find a match for it quickly.

8/10 in terms of the whole package. Not too deep, but very fun with friends.

Been playing Halo since the first one on the original Xbox. Throughout the years nostalgia has covered my eyes but I believe I'm able to fairly review it now. If you go into it expecting a sci-fi adventure with iconic characters then you will enjoy these games. The combat is very simple (referring to the main trilogy in the Halo series), almost like original Quake and Doom games. You move, jump and hip fire with most guns. Unlike the other titles mentioned however your movement speed in Halo games is just too slow. While this may help players new to shooters come to grips with the controls with potentially less frustration, seasoned players will find the difficulty settings for the campaign require much different play styles than they are used to enjoying. If you play on Easy or Normal (or arguably Heroic on occasion) you can charge into battle guns blazing and usually come out on top as long as you keep moving. I feel like this style of gameplay suits halo best as most automatic weapons are highly inaccurate and are only useful at close range. Being able to close that gap quickly is what made other auto guns in games like Doom or Quake fun because no matter the range of combat you still have an opportunity to survive an attack and counter it with precise movement. Halo, especially on harder difficulties and with its large open level design in some locations, leaves you a sitting duck without the proper weaponry as you can be easily picked off by long range enemies with your slow movement speed making it nearly impossible to escape. This leads to a lot of cheap feeling deaths and overall difficulty feeling cheap. An example of this is if you've heard anyone rant about the snipers in Halo 2. This could have been fixed with a weapon wheel so you can at least carry one precision weapon at all times, but this is a review and not a wish list. The point is if you don't have nostalgia for the series, I still recommend the series ESPECIALLY as a co-op experience. It's game design is quite dated at certain points with locked rooms and waves of enemies to pad out game time, but the atmosphere and simple to follow story make it a blast to play-through with a buddy. The multiplayer I believe suffers from the same combat problems I mentioned before, however Halo Reach and Halo 4 have more movement options. Because every player has a beefy shield that has to be knocked down I believe this heavily encourages coordinated tactics in order to succeed, having your team mates focus fire on a single target will help reduce time to kill a lot. Because I believe the combat is lackluster on its own though, the objectives modes really shine due to the overall coordination needed in order to be efficient. Capture the Flag is my personal favorite and is worth playing with a group of friends on a discord call since most random players in matchmaking do not use a mic. Overall, a definite recommendation. You get 6 games for less than 1 modern release, each with their own multiplayer modes which is great. Each games PVP has some different mechanics so if there is one you enjoy the most you will usually find a match for it quickly. 8/10 in terms of the whole package. Not too deep, but very fun with friends.