Halo 4: Reviews and Opinions of the Game

[Flecktarn92]

Hey, so I thought I'd start a thread talking about Halo 4. I felt my Mass Effect 3 thread did rather well so lets do one for Halo 4.

Let's try to keep it SPOILER FREE for the time being. I haven't finished the game yet so lets keep it to the basics right now.

I am a huge Halo fan. I've played every game, read most of the books and know almost all there is to know Halo and to be honest so far I'm not really liking the story of Halo 4.

For those who don't know it starts 4 years after Halo 3. Master Chief is still chilling in deep freeze above the half destroyed Forward Unto Dawn. Right there is the first problem with the game. It immediately takes off leaving little to be told to you. There are just so many questions that don't seem to be answered in great detail and has actually made me confused about anything Halo for the first time in my life.

The things that really annoy me though are some of the changes 343 did. They changed Chief's armor and don't say why (in previous games you start out with it but because you've been refitted with it by the UNSC). In this you pop out of the Crio Freeze and oh look new armor.

Here are some other changes that really irk me:
-Changes to the gun sounds are ok but the Warthog's noise sounds like a dirtbike being pushed to the limit and is really annoying.
-The Jackels and Grunts look like dinosaurs and it isn't explained why (I kind of know because of further research but still).
-The new guns and enemies are really annoying to fight.
-The terrain to me looks all the same, shiny and sleek. Even landscapes that are supposed to be dark and destroyed look clean.
-Most of the game so far is all "go press this button" or "turn this on...no now off".

-Finally and I feel this is the most important one: 343 seems to be rewriting Halo history with the Forerunners. If you play the game you'll know the part. Its a pretty major cut scene that is supposed to be a revelation about the flood and the Prothians as well as telling the motives of the main antagonist. However its so convoluted that I had a hard time keeping up and will have to watch it again and do some further research. Maybe this was the plan all along or they felt they needed to change it, either way it comes out of the blue and catches you off guard.

So, so far my ongoing assessment of the game is...meh. I will reserve my final assessment once I finish the game but I feel like I will be saying to myself "Maybe Halo 5 will be better"

/Rant.

Your turn.

 

[Wes R]

I just ordered it, the first ones in the series are never good. Halo 1 wasn't all that impressive either due to having to set up the storyline plus we all know they tend to cater to the online players more. I agree the unexplained changes are a bit annoying. I find it funny that they have Prothains just like Mass Effect.

 

[MooMooEgg]

Regarding the change to the armor... Didn't Cortana say right in the beginning after he came out of cryo that she did a few upgrades to the Chief's systems, with him responding "You've been keeping busy."?

I've only played about 2 hours, so I can't comment much, but the game looks gorgeous. I still hate that Cortana's voice actress hasn't taken any acting lessons.

 

[familyman]

I was able to buy the limited edition Halo Xbox for my son for Christmas. it is sitting up stairs in the cupboard at the moment. Damn I really want to open that thing but just can't bring myself to open my kids presents.

 

[MooMooEgg]

I was able to buy the limited edition Halo Xbox for my son for Christmas. it is sitting up stairs in the cupboard at the moment. Damn I really want to open that thing but just can't bring myself to open my kids presents.

You should go to him and scream "DO YOU WANT YOUR CHRISTMAS PRESENT EARLY?" He'll say "YES!" and then you... er... he can play some Halo 4. Maybe even together, if you want :lol

And then watch your wife on the sidelines, shaking her head in disgust. :lol

 

[Vinom11]

Doesn't feel like Halo anymore to me. Some of the new enemies seem to have no weakness. Very frustrating and not fun at all. 343 has given us "Call of Halo". If I wanted COD I would buy COD. They also changed the theme music completely. So far I am very dissapointed.

 

[Redtogusa]

Yeah MooMooEgg is right, it was kind of a throw away comment but Cortana did reference the armour change.

Besides not mentioning upgrades is not a new thing. in Halo 3 the Chiefs armour changes quite a bit from Halo 2. Hand plates change, lights on lower thighs, different black nose piece, total colour change and so on but none of these are explained.

I'm not very far in (just got up to what was shown in this years E3 demo) but I'm enjoying it very much overall. The visuals are the best they've ever been in a Halo game ( but that wasn't hard since Halo games never really set the bar very high), the opening CG cutscene blew my mind.
Audio is great, weapons sound punchy and intimerdating. The score, although not by Marty O'Donnell, is nice, the theme on the main menu is especially powerful.
Character interaction between Cortana and Chief has been fully realised at last, the Chief talks more in the first 30mins than he did in the whole of Halo CE. He's still a stoic character but he's been fleshed out a bit more.

I agree with some things, the warthog sounds silly, the covies do look a bit odd and it does have a lot of "go here, switch this on." But then all the previous Halo's did exactly the same thing as that last one.
Level design is also so-so at times.

Also I do find the new enemies annoying at times but I find that's due to my lack of skill, not the enemy AI being poor or unfair. In fact the AI is some of the best I've seen, the new enemies are ruthless.

Oh and MP is just so good. BR is deadly, maybe a bit too deadly.

 

[Wes R]

First thing i thought when the commercial came on the other day was that they were advertising the live action webseries it looks so real.

 

[Redtogusa]

First thing i thought when the commercial came on the other day was that they were advertising the live action webseries it looks so real.

You won't be disappointed when it comes to that. The opening CG is simply....just WOW. Facial animation is spot on, almost looks real.

 

[Wes R]

Are the voice actors all the same? I'm glad i got my HD tv, i'm finding new stuff in old games i never saw on my old worn out one.

 

[DuneMuadDib]

Same voice actors for Chief and Cortana. Steve Downes has noticeably aged so Chief sounds a bit different though.

Really a lot of the go here and push button stuff is a throwback to Halo:CE, so I didn't have too much of a problem with that. The mission near the end that's an homage to the first game was pretty cool, too.

I haven't played CoD so I can't speak to that, but as I was playing I got a bit of a Mass Effect 2 vibe from the story.

 

[Wes R]

You beat it already? man games keep getting shorter and shorter these days.

 

[DuneMuadDib]

Wasn't any longer than Halo 1-3.

 

[Wes R]

they always seemed longer. For 50.00 the thing should take 80 hours.

 

[Jodo]

I finished it as well, I played on Normal just so I could run through it once to get the story...And honestly...I wonder if either A. I didn't pay enough attention, or B. the story wasn't that good. :facepalm:lol Without giving away any spoilers...This time around it just seemed a bit too far out there for me. Aliens I can get, and even a horrible infection that wants to deystroy everything I can get...But this game pushed the limit on the story line IMO. :unsure

I don't play hardly any video games, and Halo 3 was actually the last game I actually purchased, so I don't know if I should have warranted the $60 purchase. Thankfully, my 360 is hooked up to the internet, so I can put the 14 day free Xbox live to work this weekend. I only played online once, and that was because I had a free trial then as well, so the 14 day subscription might make this game more enjoyable for me. I really can't say the story did it for me this time...

And the very end scene after the credits was outstanding though, EXCELLENT detail.

 

[DuneMuadDib]

they always seemed longer. For 50.00 the thing should take 80 hours.

For me I'd rather something short that I'd be willing to play through more than once over something stupid long that I have to force myself to finish once. Plus there's also the multiplayer, which no doubt is the sole reason a lot of people bought the game.

 

[Shade88]

I played it and beat it on Heroic... It took eight hours, for me... But I like to point out that the story felt so intense that I din't know what time it was when I was done, and it was so awesome that I played it in one sitting. I couldn't even bother to go to bed because of its sheer epicness.

The Prometheans are annoying, but they've made the game a lot more challenging, even more than the flood. :love

The ending made me awestruck, now I am playing a mixture of Legendary Campaign, War games, and a little bit of Spartan Ops for good measure.

This game rates 10 out of 5, 5 out of 5 was my expectations, and this game blew it... Blew it passed the epic level that is. :thumbsup

 

[Camaro91]

The armor changed since Cortana messed with the firmware, she says it right off the bat. She had four years to do nothing so why not upgrade Chief in that time?

As for the storyline the books are all written from different authors so you have to look at it in a different sense than one whole universe that works together doesn’t happen, Reach doesn’t go hand in hand with all the books, etc.

As for the Covenant I think they look different since this is a different split off group from the others since the Chief mentions that they had a truce with the Covenant last he checked.

The guns sound awesome; warthog noise is whatever since it’s not that big into the game. As for the new weapons I think they are amazing, look great, and are very effective.

The new enemies are solid and way harder than elites on Legendary, which is just what I wanted. It challenges you like no other Halo has, sure it has Hunters that are hard but the Knights and crawlers will just swarm you without mercy. Gives it that edge and makes you play harder.

I beat it the other day on Legendary and it took about 7 hours but I’m the type of guy that keeps playing and forgets about the time. For me anything under Legendary doesn’t challenge you enough in my opinion.

The ending is just fantastic; overall I loved it and am replaying it with all the skulls on…

 

[Flecktarn92]

I'm going to finish the game tonight so hopefully for me it pays off.

As for the Chief's armor thing she says she upgraded the firmware which I think means the HUD. There's no way she could have changed all the external components of the suit.

 

[clancampbell]

I was able to buy the limited edition Halo Xbox for my son for Christmas. it is sitting up stairs in the cupboard at the moment. Damn I really want to open that thing but just can't bring myself to open my kids presents.

I'm in exactly the same boat, fella!

Rich