That's exactly the impression I got from the gameplay footage I saw.Well I've been play it for most of this evening and I cannot say it knocks my socks off, at least not like Halo did. The story is okay ,fighting ok, exploration ok, graphics ok its all generally very OK. Problem is it feels like so many others I've played like KOTOR, Borderlands etc, and the missions are becoming repetitive ,going over the same territories, upgrading weapons , then your enemies upgrade. Don't know if Bungie will recoupe all the money they have spent on it, I cannot say I'm absolutely rivetted to it, I'm off to bed now, whilst with Halo you were talking "just another hour, I don't need sleep....... until the sun came up." Its a very good game but GREAT......... I don't know. The story isn't half as strong as Halo was. I see how much I'm playing it come the longer winter evenings when there's not much on the TV.
I won't be buying this one.
When it comes to these games I really don't care AT ALL about the plot or even cutscenes (no matter how pretty). Most plots are pretty unoriginal anyway. I'd rather a developer just use their budget for gameplay.