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Wonderful!
A great post the day before Thanksgiving. The first time I ever loaded the disk into the tray I really did not know what to expect. Sure the cover art and booklet were cool, but having had nothing but bad experiences with games bought before Halo, I figured I would wait to judge it until I had played it a bit. Yeah, that lasted till the opening cut scene, I was blown away by the scope and drama of it. The panning in to the PoA, the Longsword fighter escort...I knew right then and there that I was in trouble as this game was going to cost me alot of productive time!
Keeping in the theme of the season, I am thankful for:
1-The sound and animation of the shotgun loading and being fired, Halo 2 is weak as -blam!- in comparison.
2-The overall great look and feel of the scenes, right down to the sounds of the wind blowing while you are standing on the cliff paths at the opening to T & R.
3-The quality of the enemies, especially Elites and Grunts. They are not only dangerous (I have died at a Grunts hands almost as much as any other, damn lil buggers are evil in numbers when you are playing up close and personal rather than distance killing)but cut the tension with great dialogue. C'mon, admit it, the first time you pissed off an elite and he growled at you, your seat got wet.
4-The music. Personally, I much prefer the music in CE to H2. The actual Halo Theme, with the strings, very powerful and with a great hook to it. The other music just goes well with each individual environment. I thought that H2's music got a bit too carried away. Sometimes less is more.
5-The story and it's twists. I used to read alot of science fiction, and now read alot of true life accounts of soldiers. The way the story unfolds, the characters, the settings, it is a great read. Even better that you get to play it!
6-The variety of ways you can approach the gameplay is better than any other game I have played. You are not just playing the exact same game, doing exactly the same thing in the same way every time through. With CE, the weapon combos you can use, or exclude can change things dramatically. You can walk almost the entire game if you choose, never letting a chain gunner take the fun of the kill away. You can play melee and grenades only through every level up to the Library (yes, you can, I have done it, not easy but can be done and without bypassing enemies and still killing all covie vehicles) if you have the patience and think your way through it. With other games, good luck doing that.
I could go on, but most of you have probably stopped reading by now!
Happy Thanksgiving!