Summary
Why do you think there's so many mediocre war FPS's? They're trying to be Halo...
The Good
Absolutely love the difficulty variation. Let me break it down for you:
Easy: Just enough to be solid, especially for FPS nuts
Normal: Twice as hard as Easy, but definitely good fun for Halo nuts.
Heroic: A bitch and a half. An extreme test of your mettle.
Legendary: Sadism in its purest form.
Currently, I've beaten Heroic, and that was definitely one of the harder moments of my gaming career, and a miracle when you consider this was the first FPS I've ever played, much less owned and obsessed over. I'm sure with time, and the blessed Co-op play with my good friend, we would have a solid chance at Legendary. I can't believe you mental cases who actually claim to beat Legendary in like a day... all I can say is I have the utmost respect for you, because you ARE doing the impossible, as far as I'm concerned.
Well, I've puked at shooters up until now. A friend of mine gave this to me for my birthday, and it's definitely the best game that I didn't "bond" with as a soulmate. Those games were rare, and priceless to me. (My "soulmate" games were Sonic 3 and Knuckles, And Jet Set Radio Future. JSRF is the kinda game I can easily beat, but still absolutely love it immensely, playing it for hours on end, well past 3 am. Then again, I would do that with Sonic Heroes, which I enjoyed but now I can't stand it apart from the theme songs).
Okay, enough rambling. This game is superb, as superb as the orgasmically good games I mentioned, but since like I said I'm new to FPS's, I'm not entirely surprised.
It's funny. I remember having trouble just getting through Easy for the first time. Now Normal I can easily shrug off. I don't really have a desire to replay Heroic, and Legendary is impossible for humans like me.
But still. This is most definitely the only FPS to even begin looking at, but I have great expectations for Halo 2, and just pre-ordered it. November 9 is SOOO far away.
The Bad
November 9 is SOOO far away. Looking back, I'd say this game should be at least 50% longer, which would make the repeat stages more acceptable. I loved the Maw, but the first part was totally redundant :P
The Bottom Line
The hype? Eh... the hype. Just get the bloody game, people.
Oh, and beat the Maw on Legendary. There's an alternate ending which is positively orgasmic. Later.
