YMMV / SPV3

• Ascended Fanon: A unique example outside of the game's narrative. The mod itself includes many features that the Halo community has been clamoring for inclusion into the main series, such as usable Hunter weapons and for the Anti-Air Wraith to be usable. While 343 Industries have had plans to include such things since Halo 4, it wasn't until after the release of SPV3 that 343i released 2 content drops for Halo 5: Guardians that introduced the aforementioned Hunter Cannon and AA Wraith as Requisitions for the Warzone game mode.
• Awesome Music: As per usual for a Halo game. A significant factor for it's appeal is that most of the soundtrack is a faithful remix to the original, with some tracks (most notably Gun Pointed at The Head of The Universe and Covenant Dance) receiving additional orchestrated music. This, alongside an original soundtrack for the new areas of the mod, has had many fans say that Jafet Meza, the lead composer of the mod, is as good as, if not better than Martin O'Donnell (A bold claim in and of itself, since Marty is considered to be a god within a significant portion of the fanbase).
• Broken Base: With any Fan Remake which makes major changes/additions to the original games campaign, divisions within the fanbase are bound to happen.
  • Elite Honour Guards possess energy shields which are immune to ballistic weaponry, which forces the player to carry a plasma/explosive weapon or use grenades/melee to pop their shields. Detractors state that the Honour Guards are a negative restriction in the sandbox, as just under half the weapons in the game are useless against them until you bring down their shields (which can become a problem if there are no explosives/plasma weapons available to you) alienating players since no enemy in any other Halo game has ever forced the player to use a specific weapon. However, other players argue that the Honour Guards make a positive impact, as other weapons which would normally be ignored have a chance of being used, while the Honour Guards make up a small percentage of enemy encounters that they're no more than a considerably tougher minibosses.
  • Some maps have received complaints from fans by simply being too long. More can be read at That One Level but the gist of it being that the pacing was heavily altered in a negative way.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • Jackal Majors with orange shields are armed with the Brute Plasma Pistol; think of the Mauler from Halo 3, but is now a plasma based weapon that can kill your shields in a few shots and can take large chunks of your health with each subsequent shot. Making BPPs even worse is that their charged shots set targets on fire, dishing out huge amounts of sustained damage and also cooking off any grenades that you are unlucky enough to step on. This makes the Jackals that carry them extremely deadly in a one-on-one fight, which wouldn't be a problem if they didn't come grouped in with other enemies, especially other Jackals (who are often the same rank that carries the BPP).
  • Jackal Snipers. These guys were a pain in the original games, especially in Halo 2's Legendary. While they no longer possess the weaponry to perform a One-Hit Kill, they can still prove to be an annoying thorn in your side with the weapons they do carry. Minors carry the Particle Carbine, and while only does scratch damage to your shields, they shoot it fast enough that it becomes a non-issue, and they can decimate entire marine squads through headshots only. Majors carry the Focus Rifle which, contrary to the Carbine, can melt through shields in under a few seconds of sustained fire. Thankfully, Snipers can be easily spotted from the light of their eyepieces, which glow in different colours depending on rank.
    • Any Elites or Brutes carrying the above precision weaponry. While they do present a bigger target, they are more mobile, and either have body shields (Elites), bullet-sponge levels of health (Brutes), or both (Powered Armour Brutes)!
    • Skirmishers can also carry precision weaponry. Good luck trying to hit a Jackal-sized target that won't stop moving erratically.
• Goddamned Bats: Flood infection forms, obviously. The cut Sentinel Constructors were also going to be this, as they were essentially Forerunner versions of Flood infection forms that would zip around in the air like actual bats, dealing scratch damage to your shields. The Flood-infected Jackals are also a major nuisance, especially in earlier versions of the mod where they used to make particularly loud and grating shrieks.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: SPV3.3 was a god send to the Piercer as before, it was one of the least used weapons, if not THE least used weapon in the game because of how terrible it was. However, with the update, the weapon's entire role was overhauled. Now instead of an outclassed and ineffective machinepistol, the Piercer is now a unique, high-precision and heavy damage hand cannon that can pierce through shields.
• Scrappy Mechanic: There are two notable examples:
  • Radar is generally agreed across the board as being the worst armor ability in the game. The point of Radar was that it was meant to detect stationary and/or invisible targets. The problem? It is rare to find a scenario where the enemies just...stood still. Moreover, it is very difficult to differentiate whether an enemy is actually standing still or still in movement, and enemies rarely stand still in SPV3.3. So you have an 'armor ability' that barely contributes to anything to what a regular motion tracker can do.
  • Although it technically counts as a weapon, the usable Jackal Shield has received complaints of it being one of the most useless pieces of equipment in the game. For one, the Jackal Shield is so blindingly bright, you could barely see anything in front of you. Moreover, the Jackal Shield prevents the player from using their actual weapons. Finally, the Jackal Shield is only useful when facing the front. If you even look the other way, you become vulnerable and the shield is completely useless against explosions, area-of-effect weapons or even melee.
• Scrappy Weapon: The Piercer was considered by many to be the worst gun in the entire game until it was buffed in the final update. In a mod with loads and loads of weapons, each having their own usefulness in the campaign, the Piercer's role found itself wedged in a highly competitive environment without a niche. It was relatively uncommon weapon; dropped only by Grunt Ultras which makes the utilization of the weapon few and far between. In terms of homing, the Piercer suffered from the Needler's supercombine. It was also a burstfire; which already creates an awkward firing rate and created a problem with ammo perseveration. It also lacks the technical aspects of the Plasma Pistol nor the sheer splash damage-inducing capabilities of the Brute Plasma Pistol.
• Squick: The UNSC terminals in the mission "Keyes" detail the titular captain's thoughts as he is being taken over by the Flood, the first terminal◊ in particular is especially notorious due to its incestuous undertones.
• That One Level: To further expand from Broken Base, there are a few 'remade' levels that has faced criticism from the fans:
  • Halo: Some fans think the updated level was dependent on way too many quest missions to progress. Whilst the level-design expansion is quite fun and intriguing from a plot perspective. The amount of side areas feel distracting to the game's pacing.
  • Assault on the Control Room/Two Betrayals: The original maps were already notorious for how long they were in the original game. So you can imagine how painful it that SPV3 expanded the map even further. The maps are so big that it is not unheard of to hear folks needing several hours just to complete either level. As such, complaints ensued that the sheer length is unacceptable.