I have Reached the max rank in Halo 4, here is my "Review"

@Agent47CSim2 said:

@EuanDewar said:

@mrfluke: i feel like im pretty up on my Halo fiction but i have no idea who that is

@mrfluke said:

@Agent47CSim2 said:

The issue for me about the campaign is that I just find the Extended Universe set up by Glasslands and Thursday War infinitely more interesting and complex than the plot of the game sadly. h.

you should also read the forerunner books as the didact has a prominent role in it and they flesh him out to be such an interesting character,

itill make you bummed out on how they use the didact in this game. :/

I do own and have read Cryptum and while I think it's a good book I think it's a bit confusing to read (being from a Forerunner perspective obviously), also i never once got the sense that the Didact was in any way evil or hated humanity in the book :/ . Maybe I missed something, and I definitely need to read it again as It's definitely the kind of book that needs a second reading. Also I've also heard that there are apparently two Didact's? and the one in Cryptum was killed by the Master Builder, which apparently went completely over my head as I had no idea that happened, and the Halo 4 Didact is a different one?

I pride myself on knowing a shit tonne about the Halo lore and the fact I don't know something I should annoys me lol ;)

i dont blame you at all, cause i was confused the same way as the impression from cryptum was that hes kind of a good dude as well, maybe the third book justifies it? i only read the first 2.

and yea there are 2 didacts, in cryptum the original didact essentially gave bornsteller some of his dna, and he became the didact as well. and at the end of cryptum the original didact got captured by the master builder but wasnt killed, he is apparently alive in space somewhere,

while the halo 4 didact is bornsteller, (maybe someone here can explain it better)

i hope in the next games they explain this better, as i totally think they will pull a halo 2 and weill be playing as the original didact, or that the 2 didacts will meet up, as theres no way the bornsteller didact from halo 4 is dead.

@mrfluke said:

@Agent47CSim2 said:

@EuanDewar said:

@mrfluke: i feel like im pretty up on my Halo fiction but i have no idea who that is

@mrfluke said:

@Agent47CSim2 said:

The issue for me about the campaign is that I just find the Extended Universe set up by Glasslands and Thursday War infinitely more interesting and complex than the plot of the game sadly. h.

you should also read the forerunner books as the didact has a prominent role in it and they flesh him out to be such an interesting character,

itill make you bummed out on how they use the didact in this game. :/

I do own and have read Cryptum and while I think it's a good book I think it's a bit confusing to read (being from a Forerunner perspective obviously), also i never once got the sense that the Didact was in any way evil or hated humanity in the book :/ . Maybe I missed something, and I definitely need to read it again as It's definitely the kind of book that needs a second reading. Also I've also heard that there are apparently two Didact's? and the one in Cryptum was killed by the Master Builder, which apparently went completely over my head as I had no idea that happened, and the Halo 4 Didact is a different one?

I pride myself on knowing a shit tonne about the Halo lore and the fact I don't know something I should annoys me lol ;)

i dont blame you at all, cause i was confused the same way as the impression from cryptum was that hes kind of a good dude as well, maybe the third book justifies it? i only read the first 2.

and yea there are 2 didacts, in cryptum the original didact essentially gave bornsteller some of his dna, and he became the didact as well. and at the end of cryptum the original didact got captured by the master builder but wasnt killed, he is apparently alive in space somewhere,

while the halo 4 didact is bornsteller, (maybe someone here can explain it better)

i hope in the next games they explain this better, as i totally think they will pull a halo 2 and weill be playing as the original didact, or that the 2 didacts will meet up, as theres no way the bornsteller didact from halo 4 is dead.

Fair enough then, at least it's not just me who missed something then haha. I never read Primordium because I've heard pretty middling things about it :/ I'll have to read it myself at some time but does anything major happen in it?

WAIT WHAT!!! you just blew my mind! I never would have guessed Bornstellar was the Halo 4 Didact... but wasn't the original Didact married to the Librarian? Also Humanity had already been devolved by the time Bornstellar arrives on Earth so where did his hatred of humanity come from? Garrrrrr so confusing lol

@Agent47CSim2 said:

@mrfluke said:

@Agent47CSim2 said:

@EuanDewar said:

@mrfluke: i feel like im pretty up on my Halo fiction but i have no idea who that is

@mrfluke said:

@Agent47CSim2 said:

The issue for me about the campaign is that I just find the Extended Universe set up by Glasslands and Thursday War infinitely more interesting and complex than the plot of the game sadly. h.

you should also read the forerunner books as the didact has a prominent role in it and they flesh him out to be such an interesting character,

itill make you bummed out on how they use the didact in this game. :/

I do own and have read Cryptum and while I think it's a good book I think it's a bit confusing to read (being from a Forerunner perspective obviously), also i never once got the sense that the Didact was in any way evil or hated humanity in the book :/ . Maybe I missed something, and I definitely need to read it again as It's definitely the kind of book that needs a second reading. Also I've also heard that there are apparently two Didact's? and the one in Cryptum was killed by the Master Builder, which apparently went completely over my head as I had no idea that happened, and the Halo 4 Didact is a different one?

I pride myself on knowing a shit tonne about the Halo lore and the fact I don't know something I should annoys me lol ;)

i dont blame you at all, cause i was confused the same way as the impression from cryptum was that hes kind of a good dude as well, maybe the third book justifies it? i only read the first 2.

and yea there are 2 didacts, in cryptum the original didact essentially gave bornsteller some of his dna, and he became the didact as well. and at the end of cryptum the original didact got captured by the master builder but wasnt killed, he is apparently alive in space somewhere,

while the halo 4 didact is bornsteller, (maybe someone here can explain it better)

i hope in the next games they explain this better, as i totally think they will pull a halo 2 and weill be playing as the original didact, or that the 2 didacts will meet up, as theres no way the bornsteller didact from halo 4 is dead.

Fair enough then, at least it's not just me who missed something then haha. I never read Primordium because I've heard pretty middling things about it :/ I'll have to read it myself at some time but does anything major happen in it?

WAIT WHAT!!! you just blew my mind! I never would have guessed Bornstellar was the Halo 4 Didact... but wasn't the original Didact married to the Librarian? Also Humanity had already been devolved by the time Bornstellar arrives on Earth so where did his hatred of humanity come from? Garrrrrr so confusing lol

The Didact in Halo 4 is the original Didact, not bornstellar, at least I believe that is the case.

Some people, including me thought he was Bornstellar before launch, but at that point in was assumed that the original Didact was dead.

@big_jon said:

@Agent47CSim2 said:

@mrfluke said:

@Agent47CSim2 said:

@EuanDewar said:

@mrfluke: i feel like im pretty up on my Halo fiction but i have no idea who that is

@mrfluke said:

@Agent47CSim2 said:

The issue for me about the campaign is that I just find the Extended Universe set up by Glasslands and Thursday War infinitely more interesting and complex than the plot of the game sadly. h.

you should also read the forerunner books as the didact has a prominent role in it and they flesh him out to be such an interesting character,

itill make you bummed out on how they use the didact in this game. :/

I do own and have read Cryptum and while I think it's a good book I think it's a bit confusing to read (being from a Forerunner perspective obviously), also i never once got the sense that the Didact was in any way evil or hated humanity in the book :/ . Maybe I missed something, and I definitely need to read it again as It's definitely the kind of book that needs a second reading. Also I've also heard that there are apparently two Didact's? and the one in Cryptum was killed by the Master Builder, which apparently went completely over my head as I had no idea that happened, and the Halo 4 Didact is a different one?

I pride myself on knowing a shit tonne about the Halo lore and the fact I don't know something I should annoys me lol ;)

i dont blame you at all, cause i was confused the same way as the impression from cryptum was that hes kind of a good dude as well, maybe the third book justifies it? i only read the first 2.

and yea there are 2 didacts, in cryptum the original didact essentially gave bornsteller some of his dna, and he became the didact as well. and at the end of cryptum the original didact got captured by the master builder but wasnt killed, he is apparently alive in space somewhere,

while the halo 4 didact is bornsteller, (maybe someone here can explain it better)

i hope in the next games they explain this better, as i totally think they will pull a halo 2 and weill be playing as the original didact, or that the 2 didacts will meet up, as theres no way the bornsteller didact from halo 4 is dead.

Fair enough then, at least it's not just me who missed something then haha. I never read Primordium because I've heard pretty middling things about it :/ I'll have to read it myself at some time but does anything major happen in it?

WAIT WHAT!!! you just blew my mind! I never would have guessed Bornstellar was the Halo 4 Didact... but wasn't the original Didact married to the Librarian? Also Humanity had already been devolved by the time Bornstellar arrives on Earth so where did his hatred of humanity come from? Garrrrrr so confusing lol

The Didact in Halo 4 is the original Didact, not bornstellar, at least I believe that is the case.

Some people, including me thought he was Bornstellar before launch, but at that point in was assumed that the original Didact was dead.

Ahh that makes more sense, I'll still read Cryptum again just so I can be clear about some more things

@big_jon said:

@Agent47CSim2 said:

@mrfluke said:

@Agent47CSim2 said:

@EuanDewar said:

@mrfluke: i feel like im pretty up on my Halo fiction but i have no idea who that is

@mrfluke said:

@Agent47CSim2 said:

The issue for me about the campaign is that I just find the Extended Universe set up by Glasslands and Thursday War infinitely more interesting and complex than the plot of the game sadly. h.

you should also read the forerunner books as the didact has a prominent role in it and they flesh him out to be such an interesting character,

itill make you bummed out on how they use the didact in this game. :/

I do own and have read Cryptum and while I think it's a good book I think it's a bit confusing to read (being from a Forerunner perspective obviously), also i never once got the sense that the Didact was in any way evil or hated humanity in the book :/ . Maybe I missed something, and I definitely need to read it again as It's definitely the kind of book that needs a second reading. Also I've also heard that there are apparently two Didact's? and the one in Cryptum was killed by the Master Builder, which apparently went completely over my head as I had no idea that happened, and the Halo 4 Didact is a different one?

I pride myself on knowing a shit tonne about the Halo lore and the fact I don't know something I should annoys me lol ;)

i dont blame you at all, cause i was confused the same way as the impression from cryptum was that hes kind of a good dude as well, maybe the third book justifies it? i only read the first 2.

and yea there are 2 didacts, in cryptum the original didact essentially gave bornsteller some of his dna, and he became the didact as well. and at the end of cryptum the original didact got captured by the master builder but wasnt killed, he is apparently alive in space somewhere,

while the halo 4 didact is bornsteller, (maybe someone here can explain it better)

i hope in the next games they explain this better, as i totally think they will pull a halo 2 and weill be playing as the original didact, or that the 2 didacts will meet up, as theres no way the bornsteller didact from halo 4 is dead.

Fair enough then, at least it's not just me who missed something then haha. I never read Primordium because I've heard pretty middling things about it :/ I'll have to read it myself at some time but does anything major happen in it?

WAIT WHAT!!! you just blew my mind! I never would have guessed Bornstellar was the Halo 4 Didact... but wasn't the original Didact married to the Librarian? Also Humanity had already been devolved by the time Bornstellar arrives on Earth so where did his hatred of humanity come from? Garrrrrr so confusing lol

The Didact in Halo 4 is the original Didact, not bornstellar, at least I believe that is the case.

Some people, including me thought he was Bornstellar before launch, but at that point in was assumed that the original Didact was dead.

ya primordium is important, theres a lot of nothing that happens in it, but there are some very core things that happen that are all important.

so doing some research into this, it seems ultimately, no one knows which didact was in halo 4 and its all speculation, and people are divided between which didact it is.(heres a link to another discussion by people https://forums.halowaypoint.com/yaf_postsm1704415_So---Which-Didact-was-it-in-Halo-4.aspx)

as for what motivated the didact to be a bad guy, someone in those forums brought up a good point, ill post what they posted here

Cryptum and Primordium take place before Didact loses the plot. That's why he's not "evil" in those books.

The Didact is in fact measured and reasonable up until something sparks a change in him. I think he held some resentment of humans, but I think the hatred for humanity he developed was a result of the Primordial's words, more than anything else.

The Primordial pretty much told Didact that the Flood did the Precursor's bidding ("there is no difference", and that the humans had been spared on the Precursor's say so.

Now, Didact would not immediately believe this, but as the Forerunners were losing the war against the Flood, the horrific possibility that the Primordial was telling the truth.

Notice that he blames humans for the Flood, an attitude that would stem from the Primordial's claim. As the war worsens, the Primordial's taunts get louder.

So these fears and thoughts play on Didact's mind:

1. The Forerunners will be annihilated by the Flood.

2. Humanity will claim the Mantle. The Didact believed only the Forerunners could hold the Mantle; the notion of the Forerunners losing it was probably worse to him than being consumed by the Flood.

3. The Humans did the Precursor's dirty work by bringing the Flood into Forerunner space. He sees this race, which murdered his children, survive while his people are wiped out by the Flood.

4. The prospect of the Precursors' revenge coming to fruition.

what lends credence to this theory is the didact's speech during the ending of the game how he says the mantle is meant for forerunners alone, also., like shit, this trilogy really is their own spin on the mass effect story huh? :P

all this really just shines on how much 343 blew it in fleshing out the 1st game in the trilogy, having a terminal movie where you see the didact talking to the primordial would have gone a long way in justifying his turn into a bad guy and give a hook for a sequel.

heck, when you get the macguffin from the librarian and you start hearing the didact while you play, they should have have him name drop the primordial and mention the stuff that the primordial told him.

It's refreshing to read a review from somebody who actually plays the multiplayer for more than a weekend. I understand that most gaming critics don't have the time to devote to multiplayer, but the undeniable downside is a lot of them are so out of touch with that aspect of gaming.

Nice review, duder.

@Carlos1408: @pweidman: @Trilogy: Thank you very much guys.

@mrfluke said:

@big_jon said:

@Agent47CSim2 said:

@mrfluke said:

@Agent47CSim2 said:

@EuanDewar said:

@mrfluke: i feel like im pretty up on my Halo fiction but i have no idea who that is

@mrfluke said:

@Agent47CSim2 said:

The issue for me about the campaign is that I just find the Extended Universe set up by Glasslands and Thursday War infinitely more interesting and complex than the plot of the game sadly. h.

you should also read the forerunner books as the didact has a prominent role in it and they flesh him out to be such an interesting character,

itill make you bummed out on how they use the didact in this game. :/

I do own and have read Cryptum and while I think it's a good book I think it's a bit confusing to read (being from a Forerunner perspective obviously), also i never once got the sense that the Didact was in any way evil or hated humanity in the book :/ . Maybe I missed something, and I definitely need to read it again as It's definitely the kind of book that needs a second reading. Also I've also heard that there are apparently two Didact's? and the one in Cryptum was killed by the Master Builder, which apparently went completely over my head as I had no idea that happened, and the Halo 4 Didact is a different one?

I pride myself on knowing a shit tonne about the Halo lore and the fact I don't know something I should annoys me lol ;)

i dont blame you at all, cause i was confused the same way as the impression from cryptum was that hes kind of a good dude as well, maybe the third book justifies it? i only read the first 2.

and yea there are 2 didacts, in cryptum the original didact essentially gave bornsteller some of his dna, and he became the didact as well. and at the end of cryptum the original didact got captured by the master builder but wasnt killed, he is apparently alive in space somewhere,

while the halo 4 didact is bornsteller, (maybe someone here can explain it better)

i hope in the next games they explain this better, as i totally think they will pull a halo 2 and weill be playing as the original didact, or that the 2 didacts will meet up, as theres no way the bornsteller didact from halo 4 is dead.

Fair enough then, at least it's not just me who missed something then haha. I never read Primordium because I've heard pretty middling things about it :/ I'll have to read it myself at some time but does anything major happen in it?

WAIT WHAT!!! you just blew my mind! I never would have guessed Bornstellar was the Halo 4 Didact... but wasn't the original Didact married to the Librarian? Also Humanity had already been devolved by the time Bornstellar arrives on Earth so where did his hatred of humanity come from? Garrrrrr so confusing lol

The Didact in Halo 4 is the original Didact, not bornstellar, at least I believe that is the case.

Some people, including me thought he was Bornstellar before launch, but at that point in was assumed that the original Didact was dead.

ya primordium is important, theres a lot of nothing that happens in it, but there are some very core things that happen that are all important.

so doing some research into this, it seems ultimately, no one knows which didact was in halo 4 and its all speculation, and people are divided between which didact it is.(heres a link to another discussion by people https://forums.halowaypoint.com/yaf_postsm1704415_So---Which-Didact-was-it-in-Halo-4.aspx)

as for what motivated the didact to be a bad guy, someone in those forums brought up a good point, ill post what they posted here

Cryptum and Primordium take place before Didact loses the plot. That's why he's not "evil" in those books.

The Didact is in fact measured and reasonable up until something sparks a change in him. I think he held some resentment of humans, but I think the hatred for humanity he developed was a result of the Primordial's words, more than anything else.

The Primordial pretty much told Didact that the Flood did the Precursor's bidding ("there is no difference", and that the humans had been spared on the Precursor's say so.

Now, Didact would not immediately believe this, but as the Forerunners were losing the war against the Flood, the horrific possibility that the Primordial was telling the truth.

Notice that he blames humans for the Flood, an attitude that would stem from the Primordial's claim. As the war worsens, the Primordial's taunts get louder.

So these fears and thoughts play on Didact's mind:

1. The Forerunners will be annihilated by the Flood.

2. Humanity will claim the Mantle. The Didact believed only the Forerunners could hold the Mantle; the notion of the Forerunners losing it was probably worse to him than being consumed by the Flood.

3. The Humans did the Precursor's dirty work by bringing the Flood into Forerunner space. He sees this race, which murdered his children, survive while his people are wiped out by the Flood.

4. The prospect of the Precursors' revenge coming to fruition.

what lends credence to this theory is the didact's speech during the ending of the game how he says the mantle is meant for forerunners alone, also., like shit, this trilogy really is their own spin on the mass effect story huh? :P

all this really just shines on how much 343 blew it in fleshing out the 1st game in the trilogy, having a terminal movie where you see the didact talking to the primordial would have gone a long way in justifying his turn into a bad guy and give a hook for a sequel.

heck, when you get the macguffin from the librarian and you start hearing the didact while you play, they should have have him name drop the primordial and mention the stuff that the primordial told him.

Awesome i'll have to see if I can find it then!

And yeah i think they did drop the ball. It's a shame because the've taken so much care with the lore lading up to 4, ah well hopefully know they've got over the hump of the first game then can adapt and make Halo 5 amazing!

You have some grammar that you need to correct, but nice review overall.

Good job man. I'm having trouble enjoying the campaign on Heroic. I can't seem to beat the 'randomness' of the battlefields. I always feel like I'm dying out of nowhere, especially when I've currently got three banshees flying overhead. Any general tips on how to understand the flow of Halo singleplayer better?

Take out enemies at range when they are numerous, take out the smaller threats with heads shots first, then close in in the larger ones once they're isolated. For Banshees, take them out one by one, there are usually heavy weapons to help near by, take them out with small arms fire if need be, and inch forward, if you are having issues with a section the issue is often trying to take on too many things at once.

Also sometimes you have to thin out the numbers around you before you get into a Banshee because the enemies range increases a lot once you enter a vehicle, meaning they ALL shoot at you once you're in one, assuming they are in line of sight.

Hope that helps.

@mrfluke: Battlefield 3 sold similarly, but we're at about 100k users combined (between ps3, pc, and xbox users). Granted, it's been over a year.

Fuck. Progression systems have ruined online multiplayer games.

I tend to agree, but I play for the fun, max rank does not stop me from continuing to enjoy the game.

I stopped playing Halo 4 except Spartan Ops on Mondays. good thing there are some map packs coming out so i could hop back in

I love the idea of adding the review after experiencing the game to it's fullest, like you said, most reviews only take into account a small amount of time with that game (most of the time), and opinions can change over time. You should consider adding this to the Halo 4 user reviews page.

Great read.

@big_jon said:

I feel you don't give yourself enough credit. Besides a couple of typos and cases of confusing syntax I thoroughly enjoyed your review. In a lot of ways, I can very much see where you're coming from as I do have similar viewpoints as a longtime fan of the Halo fiction and franchise as a whole.

For an "OMG HALO FANBOI", you managed to write a very well balanced and in-depth review of a Halo game, which is a huge compliment in my book. ;)

@spctre: @draugrim: @bucketdeth:

Thank you very much.

I wish I could have enjoyed the game like you did. I found the game to be my biggest disappointment of 2012 and I stopped playing the game completely in december. I thought the story was crap and more of a premise than actual story, and don't get me started on the ending...because its terrible. I found the game to be completely lazy. 343i actually did what I didn't think was possible: screw up Halo. 343i has made me not really give a crap about the series now. Instead I'm hoping Bungie can actually make something fun and worthwhile in their next attempt since its clear 343i has no creativity, or they at least didn't employ any of it. Whether or not they found a way to make it make sense, fighting mostly the exact same enemies again that I have for 5 games in a row is ridiculous and fighting the new enemies isn't even fun. Spartans Ops is also a cake walk and has 0 risk reward to anything you do.

My guess is your lag in the game has more to do with matchmaking search priority more than it has to do with the actual network code in the game. It may have been more relaxed in order to find games quicker or for filling up games faster. Personally I've found this game to consistently find less laggy games than Reach ever did. I consistently get 20+ down, 2 1/2+ up with ~20 response from central IL to Chicago servers and little jitter whatsoever. My connection may not be fiber but it's pretty solid. With that said I'm betting it's the way it handles the game search. I'm an ultracompetitve player who drops at the sign of lag and I can tell you I have found myself get shot aroung corners and through walls far far less often than the hit detection in Reach.

Also, I'm glad you didn't review the multiplayer until well after release. Review of multiplayer portions of games should not come out until a good month after release. These games have depth and complexity and gameplay not understood until it's out in the wild. Only then can you find the true value in a mutliplayer game.