Halo 4 Review
It is time to see if Bungie was the only reason that the Halo franchise could succeed. This was 343 Industries' chance to shine, and also make the Halo series continue. You will once again be called into action as Master Chief, this time you will find that you are on a heavily damaged ship orbiting some strange artificial planet, but there's something more going on. The Covenant seem to be swarming this place, but not paying you any attention. What could possible be going on here, and what mystery can be found at this planet's core?
Graphically this game has a couple of hiccups when it comes to teleporting enemies in, and having some of the enemies get pinned to structure, but overall it's your standard Halo affair. It was refreshing to be introduced to new enemies that you'll have to battle, the race of Guardians (The Knights, the dog like things, the sure to piss you off flying disc things, etc).
The biggest strike against this game comes from the music, I feel like I'm listening to random scifi movie soundtracks that the composer that he could change a couple of notes here and there and call his own. The voices are what I expected.
The controls are the same as any FPS Halo game, so don't be too surprised if the learning curve for a seasoned player is none.
The one thing that 343 truly got right was the storyline. This in my opinion was what made the game worth playing. Now I really wish that there was more story to play with, though they sort of found a way around that, but the main storyline was solid. I got hooked from the beginning, became emotionally invested throughout the game, and when it ended I was screaming for more. That to me is the sign of a good game. Now let me quickly explain the way that 343 extended the storyline. There's an online piece, that you have to be a gold member of XBLive to access, it's called Spartan Ops. This will help you get your character up to snuff before trying to take on all comers in all out battles. In Spartan Ops you get a little video that tells you a story, then you'll have to take on 5 different levels that each have a mission for you to take on. Sometimes the mission can be altered while going through the level, other times its very straight forward. Your performance during the level will determine how many experience points you will gain, and that will then show you how fast your character is going to open up for better layouts of weapons to start with, what your armor looks like, and of course to better your crest that will be your calling card in matches. The Spartan Ops are episodic and are still coming out, so there's still more to play with in the future. What I can tell you is that you can try to take them on by yourself, or co op with others to try to conquer the level faster. There's also been some challenges in the multiplayer arena to keep things interesting for regulars and veterans.
So if you've played any of the Halos, and like what you've seen you've either got this, or are going to get it very soon. If you were on the fence because of a different developer, well I'm here to tell you that it's still good, and you need to get this game. The only way that I can see this game not really being worth it is if you're stuck with no internet connection, and you're expecting more that 6ish hours of a single player game. With all that being said I've got to give this game a 9.2 out of 10.
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