Halo 4

1. MegaCritic3000

   Nov 12, 2012

   10

   My first Halo game was Halo 3: ODST. I first played I when a friend came over and showed it to me. I was astounded. I had heard Halo was good,My first Halo game was Halo 3: ODST. I first played I when a friend came over and showed it to me. I was astounded. I had heard Halo was good, but not this good. Since then I've played Wars, Reach, and the Anniversary Edition. I have to say the best out of those three was Reach. With its stellar campaign and it's chaotic multiplayer, I thought Halo 4 would have a hard time beating it. I was wrong, very, very wrong. Halo 4 exceeds all expectations and shatters my idea of a good game. It combines the most emotional story of the Halo series, the best graphics that have been seen to this very day, and exciting new changes to multiplayer, to create the best Halo game that I have ever played, heck the best game I've played to date, which Borderlands 2 had the honor of being before. You hear this a lot, but Halo 4 is really Cortana's story. You see, after 7 years an AI becomes rampant. It's been 8. When an AI becomes Rampant, it literally thinks itself to death. So you can imagine how Cortana feels. Your main mission, throughout the story is to get Cortana to Dr. Halsey so she can be fixed. This goes hand-in-hand with defeating the Didact and getting Infinity off of Requeim. The Promethean enemies are so much fun to fight. I wonder how I stood fighting these Covenant after fighting the Prometheans. The new enemies are tactically smart, and aren't anything like the Covenant. For spoiler related reasons, I will move onto the robust, new multiplayer. Multiplayer is less vehicle based, and more gun based since the guns are now so much more badass. Each gun has brand new sounds, and some of them look different, too. I love the new sound of the Assault Rifle. Now with all these new Promethean weapons, that are extremely powerful and fun to use, I never use vehicles, and this is coming from a person who loved to drive vehicles. Instead of choosing large, expansive maps, like I would in Reach, I choose small, close up maps. I hated the guns and loved the vehicles, Halo 4 flipped that around, and it's a very good thing. Now there are Loadouts, which include Primary, and Secondary Weapons, Grenades, and Abilities. Their are plenty new weapons, both Promethean and UNSC to make the formula feel newer. Now there are more Abilities than ever before. The Run ability has been disabled, instead you can run by simply pressing on the joystick. The Armor Lock is gone, too. In fact, the only ones that they still have is Jetpack, invisibility, and the ability in which you make a duplicate. The new multiplayer is a refreshing new turn for the franchise. This game looks stunning. It feels stunning. Everything about this game is stunning. From its emotional story, to it's groundbreaking multiplayer, Halo 4 is what I dreamt what Halo should be. Looking back at ODST again, I feel like, what was great, is now archaic. 343i has accomplished something no other company could, even Bungie.… Expand

   • 1 of 2 users found this helpful
2. MikeV_123

   Nov 7, 2012

   10

   Taking the story of Halo in a bold and new direction, 343 Industries finally emerges from Bungie's shadow with its first true creation - aTaking the story of Halo in a bold and new direction, 343 Industries finally emerges from Bungie's shadow with its first true creation - a love letter addressed to both the most steadfest of Halo fans and casual gamers alike
   
   It is easy to see that when Microsoft were on the lookout for a new team to take the helm for the Halo franchise, they were looking for not only the most talented developers, but Halo fans themselves, who were determined to take the series under their wing and make it their own.
   
   The campaign is a less of a giant action packed space opera, and more of a personalised story about the relationship between our main heroes - The Master Chief, and Cortana. 343 takes a more emotional route this campaign around, while its taking you on a rollercoaster ride through a huge range of locales, whilst following the traditional Halo campaign level structure. I'm not going to spoil anything, but I will say that the ending is incredibly ballsy of 343 to pull off, and I guarantee its going to be a bittersweet moment for anyone who played and enjoyed the original trilogy.
   
   Hardcore Halo fans will rejoice at the new multiplayer, which has returned the gunplay to its roots, while simultaneously introducing many new features in order to change the game up a little bit, and keeping it modernised and up-to-date with its competitors. I haven't had this much fun playing multiplayer since Halo 2, and after the somewhat disappointing Halo 3, and the terrible Halo: Reach, playing this game gives me hope that Halo can once again dominate the Xbox Live leaderboards.
   
   If you are any sort of Halo fan, this game is an instant must-buy.
   
   YOU SHALL NOT BE DISAPPOINT… Expand

   • 3 of 5 users found this helpful
4. AngainorG7

   Nov 6, 2012

   10

   The game is absolutely outstanding!!!! Visually maybe the best game in consoles. High quality sounds, it feels like you are in the realThe game is absolutely outstanding!!!! Visually maybe the best game in consoles. High quality sounds, it feels like you are in the real battlefield, excellent gameplay, jawdropping lightning effects, unbelievable music, awesome story. What else do you need? Congrats to 343!!!!… Expand

   • 105 of 187 users found this helpful
5. CheekyChief

   Mar 26, 2013

   9

   Wow. That's how you would sum up Halo 4 in one word. Great story, addicting multiplayer,and great ending. Probably the only complaint would beWow. That's how you would sum up Halo 4 in one word. Great story, addicting multiplayer,and great ending. Probably the only complaint would be the DMR being over powered. But if playing everything else in the game you won't care. Please if you're a halo fan stop reading this review and buy this game. You won't be disappointed.… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
6. Samotslayer

   Jan 26, 2013

   8

   The story was the big selling point for me and while the Campaign is very short the story made me feel the same kind of sadness I felt forThe story was the big selling point for me and while the Campaign is very short the story made me feel the same kind of sadness I felt for James in Silent Hill 2. The multiplayer is fun but lacks the kind of community Halo 2 & 3 had. The only thing I don't like about this game is the fact that Spartan Ops REPLACES Firefight.… Expand

   • 0 of 2 users found this helpful
7. Thatuserguy

   Nov 24, 2012

   6

   It's decent; not particularly amazing, but not bad either. Campaign is an alright length, but the story isn't particularly amazing. It leavesIt's decent; not particularly amazing, but not bad either. Campaign is an alright length, but the story isn't particularly amazing. It leaves more questions than it gives answers, and more often than not, it feels like they came up with cool moments and just tried to string them together with an average-at-best story. It's somewhat annoying as well, as even on normal difficulty, most enemies act like bullet sponges, often with promethean knights taking a whole clip of ammo or more to take down. Because of this, ammo runs out quickly, more often than not leaving you with weapons unsuited for the particular occasion you're thrown into. The music, while somewhat interesting to listen to, is much different than past halo games, and none of them left a lasting effect on me. I only liked one song from the entire soundtrack a significant amount, and I don't even know the name of it. The graphics were pretty good, but there were times in both gameplay and cutscenes that it seemed 343 just gave up trying to make it look all pretty. For example, take a look at chief's armor at the end of the first mission: it looks extremely low res despite him being the main focus of attention. And as for the final boss fight that we were all waiting for throughout the entire game that we all expected to happen with the evil of the didact throughout the whole game? A quicktime event. A quicktime event leading to a cutscene that ends the game. Talk about a freakin' tease. On the subject of teases, a halo ring is shown in the game, but we never go on it. It's like they put it there so they could justify the halo in the title and nothing more. Overall, the experience is kind of disappointing despite cool moments, and the story isn't too particularly involving or interesting. It's lacking the magic of previous halo campaigns.
   
   Spartan Ops sort of makes up for the campaign, but at the same time, some of the locations they take place at are just recycled from multiplayer or campaign. Not to mention, there's only like 5 missions per episode, and they're so short that more often than not you find yourself asking "It's over already?" While 343 has boasted about custom games having more options than ever, they made this happen at the expense of several other options. Entire gamemodes such as race, juggernaut, VIP, invasion, and assault have been all but removed, something that hurts the experience greatly. Theater also remains a one person only ordeal, something that's truly disappointing. Forge has some improvements, but at the expense of previous improvements. You can magnetize objects, lock them, see which item you're hovering over, have dynamic lighting, and can place zones where spartans have specific traits, but in return, can no longer zoom or move an object slowly, both which serve to make forging a much more irritating experience. The 3 maps replacing forge world that are specifically built for forging are hardly even BTB maps in size, meaning you're very limited by size. It would be much more preferable to have forge world back with different palletes and more items at this point, as there's so little that you can do. And now for the big one: multiplayer. The maps are all fairly entertaining, but, again, are lacking something that every other multiplayer map in previous halos had. I don't know what it is, but they just don't play too amazingly well. The ranking system is basically the same as Halo Reach's, but with a new coat of paint. Custom loadouts are alright, but in engagements with them, more often than not the guy who was spotted first is usually the guy who winds up dead. Custom loadouts also allow for the noob combo of plasma pistol and dmr, a tactic I've seen much more of in Halo 4. As for this next part, I guess I can't blame the game as much as the players, but it seems nobody uses vehicles anymore unless it's a gauss hog, a mantis, a scorpion, a banshee, or wraith. Normal hogs and mongeese are often just left sitting there while players make a run for it on foot instead. Ordinance drops are also interesting, but hurt gameplay. There's no map control of the areas with the power weapons, because the power weapons could spawn anywhere, meaning instead of the game focused around map control that we all know and love, it's become a more run and gun game. Halo's multiplayer has definitely changed, and sadly, I don't think it's for the better. At least AA's are more balanced now though.
   
   Overall, the UI is cluttered and annoying to navigate. The new weapon sounds, while some have enjoyed them, don't seem to fit the experience too well. Everything just sounds...off. For example, the rocket launcher no longer has some meaty launching sound, but instead sounds like a unintimidating "woosh" noise when being launched, and the DMR sounds much more deadly than it is. Most of the armor in general also looks rather silly, and no longer is easily identifiable, as lots of the armor looks similar to one another.… Expand

   • 1 of 3 users found this helpful
8. SirMarty

   Apr 16, 2014

   0

   I have been playing Halo since Halo: Combat Evolved...
   
   Please do yourself a favor and do NOT buy this game! Do not listen to the positiveI have been playing Halo since Halo: Combat Evolved...
   
   Please do yourself a favor and do NOT buy this game! Do not listen to the positive reviews. 343i just killed the multiplayer, "CoD-ifying" it to steal players from its rivaling game, while the Halo player-base was awaiting for something to surpass Halo 3. However, not only did 343i fail in obtaining a CoD-like player-base, but they also managed to lose and disappoint many loyal fans of Halo.… Expand

   • 1 of 3 users found this helpful

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