I have some questions concerning about Halo 4's campaign and multiplayer. Please keep it spoiler free.
 
Questions about the campaign:  

• Does it have the best campaign as Combat Evolved or the worst one since Reach?
• Are the Prometheans fun to fight or are they annoying?
• How's the story, characters, and writing?
• Is the relationship between Cortana and Chief hamfisted?
• Are there still open ended levels?
• Are there really quick-time events?
• How's the enemy and friendly A.I.?

• Does it in any shape or form play like Call of Duty?
• Does it have the best maps since Halo 2 or the worst ones since Reach?
• Is Spartan-Ops a good substitute for FireFight?
• Is it well-balance?
• Has forge mode improve this time?
• Is there still a theater mode?

@jayherman219 said:

Questions about the campaign:

• How's the story, characters, and writing?
• Are there still open ended levels?
• Are there really quick-time events?
• How's the enemy and friendly A.I.?

Can't say too much for the story other than the voice acting has been pretty good so far. The levels are more open ended than the average corridor shooter. For example, I can get inside a ghost or I can take on enemies on foot. There are numerous turrets in the environment I can choose to take hold of. Yes, in the beginning of the game there are (very few) quick time events. That's pretty much the first thing you do. Though they aren't really annoying or challenging. The A.I., at least on veteran, has been the same as it was in Reach for better or for worse.

@jayherman219 said:

Questions about the multiplayer:

• Does it in any shape or form play like Call of Duty?
• Does it have the best maps since Halo 2 or the worst ones since Reach?
• Is Spartan-Ops a good substitute for FireFight?
• Is it well-balance?
• Has forge mode improve this time?
• Is there still a theater mode?

I can answer some more! Yes, there is still Theatre Mode. Although not available in campaign, just multiplayer. The multiplayer has a few changes that, yes, could be seen as CoD like. You can instantly respawn with a tap of 'x' when you're dead. You can sprint by clicking in the left stick (this isn't an armour ability - everyone has it). The loadouts are more fully featured than they were in Reach. I guess it's on you whether these are good changes or not. From the few hours I played last night, I think all the changes are great.

@jayherman219 said:

Questions about the multiplayer:

• Does it in any shape or form play like Call of Duty?
• Does it have the best maps since Halo 2 or the worst ones since Reach?
• Is Spartan-Ops a good substitute for FireFight?
• Is it well-balance?
• Has forge mode improve this time?
• Is there still a theater mode?

I can answer some more! Yes, there is still Theatre Mode. Although not available in campaign, just multiplayer. The multiplayer has a few changes that, yes, could be seen as CoD like. You can instantly respawn with a tap of 'x' when you're dead. You can sprint by clicking in the left stick (this isn't an armour ability - everyone has it). The loadouts are more fully featured than they were in Reach. I guess it's on you whether these are good changes or not. From the few hours I played last night, I think all the changes are great.

@jayherman219 said:

@bibamatt said:

@jayherman219 said:

Questions about the multiplayer:

• Does it in any shape or form play like Call of Duty?
• Does it have the best maps since Halo 2 or the worst ones since Reach?
• Is Spartan-Ops a good substitute for FireFight?
• Is it well-balance?
• Has forge mode improve this time?
• Is there still a theater mode?

I can answer some more! Yes, there is still Theatre Mode. Although not available in campaign, just multiplayer. The multiplayer has a few changes that, yes, could be seen as CoD like. You can instantly respawn with a tap of 'x' when you're dead. You can sprint by clicking in the left stick (this isn't an armour ability - everyone has it). The loadouts are more fully featured than they were in Reach. I guess it's on you whether these are good changes or not. From the few hours I played last night, I think all the changes are great.

The CoD changes what worries me, because Halo has always been competitive while CoD always was a casual shoot'em up.

I don't think a sprint button and instant respawn will make it less competitive. For me, it's more about balance and level design and, with Halo 4, that feels better than ever.

@jayherman219 said:

I have some questions concerning about Halo 4's campaign and multiplayer. Please keep it spoiler free.

Questions about the campaign:

• Does it have the best campaign as Combat Evolved or the worst one since Reach?
• Are the Prometheans fun to fight or are they annoying?
• How's the story, characters, and writing?
• Is the relationship between Cortana and Chief hamfisted?
• Are there still open ended levels?
• Are there really quick-time events?
• How's the enemy and friendly A.I.?

Neither!

Sort of both!

Mostly good but sometimes shaky; pretty great; absolutely fine.

Nope!

. . . Kind of?

Not really. A few "hold this stick up to climb" things. Button prompt at the end, though.

In between great and dumb. It seemed like every enemy Banshee I saw over the course of the campaign flew into a wall and got stuck there. So . . .

@jayherman219 said:

Questions about the multiplayer:

• Does it in any shape or form play like Call of Duty?
• Does it have the best maps since Halo 2 or the worst ones since Reach?
• Is Spartan-Ops a good substitute for FireFight?
• Is it well-balance?
• Has forge mode improve this time?
• Is there still a theater mode?

You can sprint. And weapons don't spawn on the map in most gametypes. But otherwise, it's Halo.

Neither!

Firefight had more longevity punch-for-punch, but Spartan-Ops is fine.

Yes!

Yes!

Yes!

@jayherman219 said:

@bibamatt said:

@jayherman219 said:

Questions about the multiplayer:

• Does it in any shape or form play like Call of Duty?
• Does it have the best maps since Halo 2 or the worst ones since Reach?
• Is Spartan-Ops a good substitute for FireFight?
• Is it well-balance?
• Has forge mode improve this time?
• Is there still a theater mode?

I can answer some more! Yes, there is still Theatre Mode. Although not available in campaign, just multiplayer. The multiplayer has a few changes that, yes, could be seen as CoD like. You can instantly respawn with a tap of 'x' when you're dead. You can sprint by clicking in the left stick (this isn't an armour ability - everyone has it). The loadouts are more fully featured than they were in Reach. I guess it's on you whether these are good changes or not. From the few hours I played last night, I think all the changes are great.

The CoD changes what worries me, because Halo has always been competitive while CoD always was a casual shoot'em up.

I don't think a sprint button and instant respawn will make it less competitive. For me, it's more about balance and level design and, with Halo 4, that feels better than ever.

@jayherman219 said:

Does it have the best campaign as Combat Evolved or the worst one since Reach?

Campaign is serviceable. You'll get your Halo moments of giving this AI marine a rocket launcher and driving around in Warthogs and such. Not horribly offensive or the best ever. Gameplay feels like reach, but the difficulty is toned down a little. Story points are not explained in some cases, which is frustrating.

@jayherman219 said:

Are the Prometheans fun to fight or are they annoying?

They are fine. The problems is that there's basically only two to three enemy types for the Prometheans, but other than that they're good. I still wish they did a little more with all the teleporting and melee stuff for the knights though.

@jayherman219 said:

How's the story, characters, and writing?Is the relationship between Cortana and Chief hamfisted?

The story and stuff feels a little weird. They're trying to make the Master Chief have more of a character, and flesh out the stuff with Cortana (I'd say level 6 on the Hamfistyness). Like Jeff said, none of this stuff really pays off, but the set up could be interesting for the next game. But, at least the cutscenes look great, and everyone looks more like real people.

@jayherman219 said:

Are there still open ended levels?

The levels are about the same scope of any Halo game. You'll have a few corridors to go through, then the world will open up for some larger combat maps and also some vehicle sequences.

@jayherman219 said:

Are there really quick-time events?

There's not enough of them to be bothered by it. There's only two from what I recall. I never managed to fail one, so no skin off my back.

@jayherman219 said:

How's the enemy and friendly A.I.?

Now this is something people might disagree with me on. I never felt they managed to get this right past Halo 1. Elites used to charge you in that game, run back when necessary, hide, and throw grenades sometimes. Hunters used to be fun to fight. But I digress. It's basically the same as Reach. The only slight difference I saw was that the dudes in the gunner seat of the warthog took a little too much time acquiring targets. Maybe it's because the warthog has a cooldown on its gun now, but who knows. I did manage to survive an encounter with a ghost + wraith at close quarters when having the A.I. drive once. I thought that was pretty neat.

@jayherman219 said:

Does it in any shape or form play like Call of Duty?

I will say this first. If you try to play this game like Call of Duty, you will get your shit handed to you. Running around like a madman is not a good idea in Halo games. Now I'm an old fashioned Halo man, so bare with me a little bit. Halo in my opinion should be treated like a sport. Both teams should spawn on opposite sides with equal weapon opportunities. I should be able to know the exact times rockets spawn, and nothing should be random about it. All this ordinace and unlock stuff is BS in my opinion, but you don't have to play that way. I've basically been treating those game modes as just for funzies, and when I get serious I go play Team Slayer Pro. I will say that I wish sprint was turned off. On some of these maps sprint ruins spawns. You'll have too many dudes on the map running in random directions, and the next thing you know you'll spawn with a guy behind you or vice versa. Running up on a dude and hitting him in the back happens way way too often. It takes little to no skill to do something like that, and that's not the way Halo should be. Every kill should be earned with as little randomness as possible. With that said, it's still nothing like Call of Duty. Dudes still take some time to kill. BR battles are still the main part of the game. No kill streak nucular bomb up your ass when you're already loosing.

@jayherman219 said:

Does it have the best maps since Halo 2 or the worst ones since Reach?

Maps are mostly new. There's basically one good map for Team Slayer, one good map for Capture the flag, and the rest range from meh to infuriating. I've mostly been playing TS pro, so haven't played much of the larger maps.

@jayherman219 said:

Is Spartan-Ops a good substitute for FireFight?

I dunno. I only played on round. The scoring system didn't seem to be there. Felt more like a small co-op mission rather than a multiplayer experience you would come back to, but I didn't like or go back to firefight much either, so you might defer to someone else's opinion.

@jayherman219 said:

Is it well-balance?

Well, all you need to kill someone in this game is a DMR or Battle Rifle, and you can get those loadouts from the beginning. All the jetpack/hologram stuff seems useless except for one thing. Promethean vision allows you to see through walls. I really like it. You can use it to spot people camping, and additionally see what weapon they have and what they're doing. So you know if you're about to get smacked by a hammer/sword around this corner before hand. It's a pretty good perk and fun to stomp on normal people with, but I think a little too overpowered for serious play. There are some guns that are pretty strong too. The saw feels like your duel wielding a plasma rifle and smg in Halo 2 all over again, but with a tiny bit more range. It's not like that gun is a starting weapon though (I don't think), so it's ok I guess. Most of the stronger guns drop through ordinace. None of this stuff is in TS pro though, so if you want balanced play go there.

@jayherman219 said:

Has forge mode improve this time? Is there still a theater mode?

Haven't used forge, and yes there's theater.

@jayherman219 said:

I have some questions concerning about Halo 4's campaign and multiplayer. Please keep it spoiler free.

Questions about the campaign:

• Does it have the best campaign as Combat Evolved or the worst one since Reach?
• Are the Prometheans fun to fight or are they annoying?
• How's the story, characters, and writing?
• Is the relationship between Cortana and Chief hamfisted?
• Are there still open ended levels?
• Are there really quick-time events?
• How's the enemy and friendly A.I.?

Let me see:

• That wording doesn't make sense. I think Reach and CE were previously the two best campaigns. I now think that Halo 4 is the best campaign in the series.
• They're tons of fun and do feel drastically different from their Covenant alternatives (and also feel significantly better than the Brute and Flood factions).
• Hits and misses. The core villain and the 'threat' is poorly done, but the human stories told are completely nailed.
• No. As far as I'm concerned, that conflict is the story for Halo 4 and it is spec-fucking-tacular.
• Tons of them.
• There are a couple. I can only think of 2 of them throughout the entire game.
• You don't spend a lot of time with friendly AI; it seems as functional as prior entries. Enemy AI continues to be spectacular: that's a series trademark.

@jayherman219 said:

Questions about the multiplayer:

• Does it in any shape or form play like Call of Duty?
• Does it have the best maps since Halo 2 or the worst ones since Reach?
• Is Spartan-Ops a good substitute for FireFight?
• Is it well-balance?
• Has forge mode improve this time?
• Is there still a theater mode?

Haven't spent a ton of time on multiplayer, but I'll give it a shot:

• It plays like Halo with a couple meaningful Call of Duty-like twists.
• I've only played the bigger, objective stuff. But as a fan of the 6v6/8v8 map size, they have the best cast of large maps in a Halo game since Halo PC IMO.
• No, not really. It isn't nearly as replayable. It feels a lot more like a side-campaign that is designed to be played cooperatively.
• It feels fine. It is way too early to tell (I mean, we're only 2 days into launch).
• Forge has a fair number of new tools that fix the issues I've had with it in the past.
• Yes.