Well as far as the mp in this game is concerned, imo it's ok. I guess for me Halo 2 will always be the most fun. It was the one with the least BS I guess you could say. I also really liked the maps a lot more and well I don't remember matchmaking being a real problem beyond the day 1 "wtf I can't just chose a room".
With 3 and Reach it seemed like I never got what I wanted to play. I just want to play CTF and assault games and with Reach especially, that seemed to not happen thanks to the way matchmaking went. So you know I would chose Big team battle and get stuck with Team slayer, which I di'nt want to play and I would just say fuck it.
But still at least three was fun to play and I put some time into it. Reach, I just didn't get into. I just thought the powers screwed with the tempo of the game and it seemed like it took forever to kill people. Plus matchmaking still sucked. So I dropped the game.
With 4 I'm at least having some fun. To be honest, I can't pick up on all the nuances of gameplay in the Halo games. It seems mostly the same. I mean it seems people die quicker in 4, which is kind of a plus. So as far as I'm concerned the gameplay is fine. The ablites don't seem as obnoxious as in Reach as well. So I mean it seems pretty fun. I guess having a loadout is nice and dandy, but it feels kind of pointless since people just chose the weapons they have been using through the damn series. I mean Halo is not a series with tons of guns. People stick with a br or maybe a assault rifle if the map is more close combat. I guess choosing the other abilities and stuff is cool, but it seems a bit superfluous to me. I don't know, I'm not some hardcore person here. I'll just chose what allows to me to survive the longest and he br.
Anyway, I do like that 4 has a CTF playlist, so I can just play on that. It means a lot to me. But I do miss the CTF variants and I really miss assault. I know, slayer and it's like are the most popular things in online fps, but I really like objective modes. I like playing as a team. Maybe they will be added later.
I don't know seems like a decent online game. Really outside of Halo and BF I don't really play online FPS. And BF has to much CoD in it these days.
As for the single player? I don't care. I don't dislike Halo SP, but I also don't give a flying fuck. I think Halo can do some nice mouments where it feels like a alive battlefield with all the vehicle combat and allies running around and I do like some of the sandbox feeling. But you know sometimes it's just boring. I've never given a shit about the story as to me the Halo universe just feels like they threw every sci-fi cliche in the book into it and well master chief is just souless to me. Eh what can I say? It's not Japanese enough.
I think so far I've enjoyed Reach the most. Mostly because of small stupid things. I liked being part of a Squad, it reminded me of Quake 4 and how that made me feel like I was in a squad. I also thought the Spartans looked cool for the first time ever. I liked the enviorments because they weren't the boring alien shit. Honestly, in sci-fi universes what I like to see most is what human civilization has become, I guess I just don't find non-human things that fascinating. Hell I don't find animals to be cool either.
So if I have to Rank the SP it goes like this
Reach
ODST-Because you are in New Mombassa the entire time and playing an ODST felt pretty interesting-something I felt Halo 2 cheated me on.
Halo 3-Mostly because of the earth levels and the Scarabs.
Halo 2-I liked the beginning before it went back into boring shit.
Halo 1-I only like the fist level and whatever the snow level was.
I'm not sure were Halo 4 will drop, at least the game looks great, but I'm not sure where people are getting all this "Halo has never looked this great! This is the first real HD HALO!!!". It's like to people forget Reach, that game looked really good.
Edit-Actually, kind of starting to hate this game. I mean I just don't understand Halo matchmaking. CTF playlist is stuck basically on 3 maps, but this game has several other maps that would seem perfect to play ctf on, yet the game refuses to have them come up. I just don't understand this. I want to play on these other maps and not be stuck playing on lame small CTF games, but again playing Halo online is not about what you want I guess.