This is a fun new take on the Halo IP. If you’re looking for a copy/paste of the game story, this isn’t it. It occurs before the first game and they take a different path on how they portray John and the Spartans. That is okay. I’m glad it’s not the same.
I didn’t love the Kwan and Soren story, but since it takes less than 20% of the time of the show, I won’t dock them for it.
As for the militant Halo fans complaining about this not being close enough to the game or previous books I’ll say this: let down your guard, try new things. If you still don’t like it, there will be more games you can play. This is a good, stand alone show. Let it be it’s own thing. You can have this and the games and they can both still be good while taking different paths.i