I’ll just go in order of how I view/played each part of this new pack.

Weapons Skins
Wow, the Steel Weapons Skin Pack is fantastic! Detail and color are amazing. I’ve already mastered several of those weapons, so I don’t know how much use I’ll get out of them all, but it’s ALWAYS good to have choices. Great artistry! I posted all these yesterday. If you need a reminder, check out this link: https://halofanforlife.com/?p=9835

The Bonus weapon skins you get when you buy the whole pack are a mixed bag, IMO. Certainly the blood spattered Trauma AR skin is sharp. That would be a great one to use while meleeing someone. The shark Teeth AR skin is fun. Reminds you of the skin on the Flamethrower from back in Halo 3. Ah, I miss that weapon. So this skin will have to do for now. The Green Camo BR skin is good. The Magnum ones however I find a little uninspiring. Normally I would have said there isn’t much room to put graphics on this, but when you look at the Magnum from the Steel Weapon Skin pack, well, that just isn’t the case.

Armor Sets/SkinsOkay, so I finally got to look at these armor sets and again a mixed bag.

The Mark V looks okay but I feel is maybe a little too “curvy” and not enough “blocky.” It’s good, not great.
The ODST armor is good, but is different. The helmet isn’t quite right. It should be more angular in the visor, instead of being a bit more rounded. The chest plate looks like it’s been welded onto the torso armor instead of being a little more free flowing. Still I like this armor.
I had high hopes for the Prefect armor. It’s bulky looking. Of course that won’t affect your game play. Now, I DO think this would be GREAT for video if you were making a scene of Forerunners. For instance a Forerunner crew on Haven.
The Ricochet Armor is AWESOME! Mind you yes, it does look like American Football “Armor” and I’m perfectly okay with that.

After these four armor sets, there are several armor pattern variations. The Venator Bayonet skin may be my favorite. But that’s just a first impression. There are several to choose from and I will likely cycle through them at some point or another. What I really like about these extra skins is the fact that they all seem to utilize more of the secondary color.

Stances
There are 8 new stances to choose from.

• Seasoned: The position of the spartan with it’s magnum drawn but pointing down makes this an aptly named stance.
• Menace: Okay so the spartan is crunching his knuckles. But when you look at it in game, it almost seems like it’s making that heart symbol people do with their hands.
• Loyalty: I thought I’d like this stance more, especially being a service veteran, but this comes off rather static looking.  Still, I appreciate the nod to servicemen and women everywhere.
• Lookout: YES! We have a Captain Morgan posing Spartan!!! LOVE THIS ONE.
• Confident: I used this one this morning. Figures it looked perfect while wearing the Ricochet armor, as it reminds me of those overconfident NFL players, LOL.
• Drawn: Easily my FAVORITE of the bunch. This is a direct nod to Han Solo’s classic pose from the original Star Wars.
• Flank: He’s stealthy, he’s stalking, he’s FLANKING. Great pose if you’re an assassin.
• Grandstand: Okay, this seems a little off to me. I don’t know if it’s the head tilt or the way it seems like the spartan is stroking the AR or both. It just doesn’t look right to me.

From here I went into Forge and checked out Pitfall and Vertigo. Each were pleasant to zip around in as the monitor. Pitfall looks amazing! A good representation of it’s classic predecessor, now more aged and damaged. The extra Forge pieces we get with Pitfall are going to make for some VERY interesting maps I think. Vertigo is visually stunning, especially as you get closer to the open portion of the map. The massive storm in the distance is breathtaking. It rotates in a clockwise motion with effects within twirl around. There are PLENTY of avenues to navigate through this map. Sight lines are good. Oh and I got my first achievement for the Champions bundle pack on this map by activating both bases EMPs.

That leads me right into gameplay. I played 1 slayer match on Vertigo and 4 Ricochet matches on Pitfall. The slayer match moved well. Jetpack helped here significantly as there are plenty of playspaces that are vertical in nature. While there are lifts for some of those areas, having the jetpack ensures you can get from top to bottom or across without having to search out those lift. Now this was just one game, but I noticed pretty quickly that players were most of the time sticking to the middle portion of the map and not utilizing the outer rocky hallways. This might come in handy if you’re trying to get that 60 second camping achievement.

The games of Ricochet on Pitfall were a BLAST! I went 3-1. Two of those wins were QUICK. The pacing on Pitfall is very quick. Jumps you couldn’t make in halo 3 are a BREEZE in Halo 4. For instance from Plat to Green Box or the other way around. No problem here. Also, the liberal use of crates in the default map make it very easy to get around from lower to higher areas. I was able to get two more achievements here. First was scoring three times in a match. The other getting to the rockets first.

I’ve already started compiling a settings list for the “Halo Ricochet League.”

I’ll need to playtest those for a few days to get some preliminary settings set for the league. Then they will be revised as league play starts and continues on.

All in all, I’m VERY happy with the Champions Bundle pack. The Steel weapons skin pack is well worth it. The armors are good and for the price a STEAL, imo. The maps are well done and the gameplay seems to move at a good pace.

-Sal