Alright here are my thoughts:
Kind of corny to have Phurion make the thread for you guys. One of you two should have just made it yourselves. Phurion doesn't even post here anymore and it is not like his name will bring any more people to click on it as opposed to seeing Hyena or Halzred as the author of the thread. Quite unnecessary
One thing I want to say is that this video is definitely not as good as Mastery or Supreme Demonstration in terms of gameplay. We have have seen many of these tricks before, even dating back to when H2 was originally on XBL. After watching this video, I didn't get the same special feeling I had when I first saw those two aforementioned montages. I understand why this project is titled 'Wizard' and I think that you two achieved the vision and goal you were going for. But honestly, if you swapped out some of these clips for some of the plays that you pulled off in those teaser videos leading up to Wizard, this montage would have been better received by the community.
The editing was alright, nothing that blew me away. Beau, I do miss when you edited your own videos. I think guys like Halzred and Wonderlvnd have done a good job portraying and emulating your style. However it does still feel like an imitation compared to when I go back and re-watch some of your own edited work.
I really did not care for the intro up until 0:40. You guys could have done anything with logo other than just put it there like that. And I don't know why you have the old THF animation when we've had one specifically for the contest for a couple of weeks now? The little reverse map effect thing in the second part of the intro is neat, however I have seen that done before; Fuster's final comes to mind specifically. These frag grenade clips, whether you're throwing the grenades at people or shooting them out of the air are nice, however I think you have too many of them in here At a certain point the viewer understands what you can do but for certain clips it just seems to be flashy with no purpose. The 'through the wall' clips are pretty cute, but again less is more. The plays where you're negating the rockets are alright, stuff like that is practical. Maybe I'm being too cynical in this review but I think it has to do with Halo 2 montages having the highest standards out of any of Halo game. I don't think anyone can deny that.
I do like some of the plays where you cancel out the plasma pistol. It actually shows a little balancing for the noob tube. A lot of non-H2 players complain about the plasma pistol a lot but I love how you're showing what the game deigned intended you to do when up against it. I honestly wouldn't have mind if this video was a lot longer if it showed more multi kills and more diversity. Again I think you made the same mistake you made with Mastery and had too many god-like clips thrown into the teaser videos instead of the big finale. I still think this video is going to continue to blow up within the Halo community simply because you're technical skill is not coming from button combos that newer players usually do not recognize, but from having a tremendous awareness of the game mechanics and the elements of each map. I really really enjoyed the superjump triple kill on Ascension.
The triple kill on Beaver Creek where you start it off with the rocket kill through the wall on red base was fucking neato. As was the barrel jump to S2 when you spawn assassinate Hustla. I'm glad to see that you fell in love with H2 like you did with H3. Now you just need to get good at H1. The sniper Killtrocity on Burial Mounds was disgusting; as was the Killtacular on District. How many people can say they've gotten dirty clips on both of those maps? This isn't a bad video at all, but it becomes difficult to surpass your own standards when all you've done is create insane montages that people are going to keep taking about for years.
That last clip was so epic. It wasn't my favorite but I just love how the screen turns black and you know that we know that you sniped that guy in the dome. Kudos to whichever of you two decided to end it like that. I think Halzred did a good job with the pace, syncing, flow, and theme of this video. I don't have too much to say about that other than it came off very professional. ISo excellent work on that side of things. I'm so glad that you came back to this community and continue to involve yourself in big name projects like this. The music was alright, I didn't love it, I didn't hate it. Although I do understand that choosing the right song is difficult with all of Youtube's copyright laws and crap. And thanks for the shoutout at the end. Appreciate it.
With all that being said, I still think this was an amazing fragvid. At what point do we debate Hyena's placement in the GOAT list of montage makers? This man has been producing mind blowing, jaw dropping content since circa 2007. His videos have done well in previous montage contests and we all know that if Mastery was submitted to the 2014 competition it would have won by a landslide. It reminds me of Zola not entering the Str8 Rippon teamtage to the 2009 contest for that same reason. I've seen thousands of Halo montages and Hyena's are one of the very few that still impress and entertain me. If you don't think this man deserves to be in the top 3, take a few hours out of your day and go watch Oblivion, Mythic, Legendary, Enter the Ninja, Double Dragon, Lightning Snipes of Death 5, Blizzard from the Netherworld 2; and then tell me Hyena isn't one of the most savvy, creative, and talented Halo players we've ever seen. And those videos aren't even half of what he has produced. You've gotta give respect and credit where they are due and this man is a top 3, if not the GOAT, montage maker/play maker/clip hunter/whatever you wanna call it of all time. I'll probably have more thoughts and opinions on Wizard itself later on when I watch it a few more times. I'll post those in this thread.
Beau, I only wish that more Halo fans get to experience your skill and view your work. It's kind of sad that Halo 1-3 don't really have a LAN or tournament scene anymore. Because if people got to see what you are doing to these kids, but on a bigger stage with money on the line, and the spectator numbers Halo was getting from 2006-2010.; you would have hundreds of thousands of fans and followers. Legendary Snipe forever. Great video gentlemen.
Verdict: 10 cups of tea and a morning fag
Message me if you'd like a number score.
