Definetly worth the wait, just needed to be longer.
The advertisement really played up the whole battle on earth deal, and even though there are a few levels on earth, there aren't as many as we had hoped for. The levels are awesome either way. Everything was very well rendered and you could reasonably say, "Yeah, theres no way ANYBODY could get to that." so it was realistic in that sense. The other levels were very well done as well.
The new Covenant guys give you more to work off of than just the hunters, elites, grunts and jackals. Now they can come from the friggen air in the form of drones, and you get kind of an in-between between the hunters and the elites, the Brutes. They're big critters that take a few more bullets than your standard Elite, but not nearly as many as the hunters. But the old favorites do make a comeback.
The new weapons were a joy. First you've got the assault rifle which does like a three-round burst deal, equipped with its own scope. Then you've got the rocket-launcher with a lock-on for vehicles. And my personal favorite: the shotgun, it makes more appearences than the first, you can pick it up in a majority of the levels now. The pistol no longer zooms though. All the other human weapons are there also. And then you've got a new dose of Covenant weaponry. Brute edition plasma rifle, pretty much the same as the elite's, but not as long a life. You've now got a Covenant assault rifle with scope, which is one of the best Covenant weapons. Oh and what about the lovely energy sword? Hack and slash sweetness, but it only lasts for so many hits, and you can fly up to attack opponents if you get a fix on 'em. There's also the nice version of a Covenant Rocket Launcer. The Brutes even get their own weapons that shoot grenades, pretty handy in tough spots.
Dual-wielding: Hmmm, you've got a needler in one hand, and another free hand. What to do? pick up another one-handed weapon! Now you can either pour into them like hell-on-wheels, or you can pour a constant stream of fire by shooting with one until it needs to cool-down or reload and then start shooting with the other hand! Pretty nifty feature. It only works with certain weapons, but can definetly influence a fight. Especially dual needlers.
Vehicles: The Warthog returns with the standard chain-gun edition, and now there is the version with a gauss-rifle in the back. More punch with less fire, but when you hit something with the gauss it goes down. Then you've got the scorpion still, pretty sweet. The Covenant has got its Ghosts, but now its got a warthog-like Specter and the Banshee is now more accessible. You can also hijack vehicles if you get close enough at the right position. And on tanks you can hop on them and bash at them a bit until something pops off the back or the cockpit and toss in a grenade.
The only real problem is its length. Its too short. Its definetly worth the money, but the single-player just isn't long enough and ends abruptly. You're like, "alright, gonna kick some ass now." and then it goes into credits and then you throw a fit. It definetly has its replay worth though, if you just wanna kick the crap out of Covenant in the campaign again, you can replay the levels and just have at it. Not to mention the multiplayer which makes for great parties via system link or xbox live.