Halo 4 Review (spoilers)

Discussion in 'Let's Plays, Reviews, and Other Videos' started by Geoff, Nov 7, 2012.

  1. Geoff

    Geoff Sir "Let's Play"

    Halo 4: Greatest Halo or Massive Letdown?

    I always admit this upfront, I'm a proud Halo fanboy. I've played every game (excluding Wars) and loved them all. Anyone who has been on these forums (ffn and VF4) will know that I've been excited for Halo 4. Hell, excited doesn't even describe it. I bought the Limited Edition, I took a couple days off work for the game. With that in mind, I was still open to judging this game on how good or bad it truly was. I can set aside my fanboyism enough for that.

    Campaign - Halo 3 ended with us in half a ship, floating in space. We now awaken, 4 years (almost 5) later and we have Covenant attacking. The campaign is done wonderfully. It's based around Cortana basically dying. AI's start to "die" and go crazy after 7 years, she has been in service now for 8. We also have floated towards a Forerunner planet, Requiem. Throughout the Campaign, we see Cortana get a bit crazier, we have a UNSC ship pop in and help and we face a new threat. The Forerunners returning. The Didact himself appears, along with the Librarian.

    The weapons have really all changed with new sounds and they are amazing, especially the Promethean weapons. All the Covenant have been kind of redesigned. I mean, they are all just ugly as all fuck and really detailed. We also have a new HUD, so we see the helmet a bit on the corners of our screen making it look really cool. And anyone who has enjoyed the story will most likely love the ending. I was co-oping with a friend and I was in tears when it happened. I won't spoil it for anyone who is interested, even if this topic will have spoilers. Campaign is probably the best one I've played.

    Spartan Ops - This mode is a continuation of Campaign, set 6 months after the campaign IIRC. I went through it all today with my friend and it is just pure awesome. If anything, it takes over as the "firefight" of Halo 4. You get 6 missions with the first chapter. Truly a lot of fun and I will easily go back and try to do it on Legendary. I know we are getting more Chapters later, I just don't know when, and then we get Season 2 and so on. So, it just keeps going.

    Multiplayer (War Games) - So a big thing with Multiplayer is that it now is "tied in" with the story. We are Spartan 4's onboard the Infinity ship. the Red VS Blue is all a training simulator. Within Multiplayer we get things like Infinity Slayer, Big Team version of that as well, Odd Ball and Capture the Flag of course. Flood, the new Infection Mode. it's all a lot of fun. And this is easily the best Multiplayer I've played in awhile, especially when you are playing modes that give you Ordinance drops. Greatest thing ever.

    The biggest thing with all of this is ranking up. You rank up by playing the game obviously, and you get more XP when you get kills, killing spress, multi kills ect.. To get things like the Battle Rifle or DMR or Light Rifle, or to use Armor Abiliies, you now have to BUY them using Spartan Points, which you get 1 (sometimes 2 but I don't know the intervals) each time you rank up. Personally, I like this system. Like I said, multiplayer is awesome. All annoyances will be posted at the bottom. =P

    Forge - To be honest, I haven't touched Forge yet. I never plan on doing it, but I may give it a shot later tonight if I get bored. So, sadly, nothing more can be put here.

    Theater - Can still only view by yourself, which sucks but again, I haven't watched any of my videos yet in this mode so I will update this part when I give it a try.

    Music - The music in this game is amazing. Just play through campaign and you will understand. But hey, the music has ALWAYS been great in the Halo series, so it was no surprise here.

    Gameplay - It all feels pretty damn good. And one of the biggest things I hated in Reach was TRADING KILLS. That happens very rarely in this game, thank God for that.

    Annoyances - XP cap. That is the biggest fucking thing. I had 130 games or so of 2x XP. I hit the XP cap my first day at about 3PM or so. I had played Campaign till 6 AM, then some Multiplayer till 10 AM and got back up at 12PM. Once I hit the cap, I set my time forward to gain more for the next day. I stayed on for maybe an hour, then turned the time back and today, I hit the cap for today and tomorrow. The cap is very tiny. I'm only rank 32. Ugh.

    Join in Progress can be annoying because I have had a few games where we joined in on Oddball, the enemy team was half way there and our team had zero. Fucking great. But otherwise, not that bad.

    Matchmaking lobby - This is very annoying. I liked Reach's. With this one, I dunno. It just feels strange, you can't see how far someone is into a game like you could with Reach.

    Overall - Get this game if you own a 360. Yes, there are minor annoyance and obviously on launch day, they had server issues. But hey, I've hit the cap for 3 days worth and the game has been out for less than 2. That should tell you how great it is. I'm glad I got the Limited Edition and I'm glad all my friends have gotten the game as well, because they make it all the more enjoyable.

    An easy 10/10
  2. DEVR

    DEVR Active Member

    such a shame i sold my xbox360 :(
  3. Roland Daemon

    Roland Daemon Active Member

    Just throwing my two cents cause I Want to point out my experience.

    Trade kills are Worse here than they ever were in Reach.. it's so bad that I don't go a game without a trade kill (generally in my favor).

    Was playing a few matches earlier today where they got the jump on me and I barely got visual before I enough damage to get that last bullet and get the kill after I died.

    Seriously, I shot a guy AFTER I was dead and got a kill... I doubt it's lag.. but I hope it's something that they patch as time goes on.

    Binary Rifle needs to GTFO: This game already has enough 1HKO weapons.. we don't need another sniper rifle that has half the ammo of a sniper but one shots no matter where you hit. Granted, this mean's people with skill will get double the skills with the normal sniper.. but I still find it silly that the binary rifle is just.. so... rediculously powerfull.. even with the GIANT lazer sight that's always there when it's being aimed.

    They're turning this into CoD more and more.. which isn't nessicarily a bad thing.. but I want my colors damnit.. the game feels too.. earthy/grey... It actually bothered me that the covenant weapons/themed area's weren't so vivid purple.. but.. this dull... crap.

    Assassinations need to be smoother.. they just.. don't feel natural and are way too jerky. I loved Reach's assassinations cause they had that moment/leadup to the actual hit for the kill.. ((as in most games that do this kind of thing where it plays while it's being performed.. i'll actually do it in real life... it's just that satisfying))

    I can't do that here cause it moves so fast and it just.. doesn't feel quite right.

    Overall, 343 has done a good job with what bungie has left them and i'm curious to see where they'll go from here.. is it perfect? hell no, but what game is?
  4. Dookie

    Dookie Well-Known Member

    Just picked up an xbox 360 and this game yesterday. Bunch of guys from work are always talking about it and what not so I figured I would give it a shot. Game play is pretty good. Takes some getting used to. The biggest part for me is that I have never owned a xbox before or played any of the Halo's. so getting the controls down is taking some time. I'm too used to playing on a computer so trying to move my aim with just my thumb is going to take some time. My thumb is either not moving the joystick or it's all the way down. I need to work on not moving it all the way. There are lots of different weapons that I know nothing about so again, just going to be a learning curve. Over all the game is good so far. I think it will get better as I play more.
  5. SoL DarkLord


    I've had the first one happen, between a friend and I, we were doing some Regicide, and sniped each other.

    As for the Binary, The Sniper Rifle has lost power, Now taking two hits, unless a headshot. The Spartan Laser is weaker against people, now taking two shots if target has full shields. The Rail Gun, can take 1, can take 2, depending on the explosions distance from target, this goes for all launchers. Other then that, the only 1HKO weapon I can think of is the shotgun, which is only effective at close range.

    The Incin canon is a bit over powered, on day one during one match, I got an overkill due to the little balls after the main explosion.
  6. Hobbo

    Hobbo Achievement Hunter

    Managed to play this games multiplayer on Friday with some friends and had a generally enjoyable time. All I am saying is that the rocket launcher projectile speed increase, Incinerator cannon and the hud being kinda hard to see in my opinion were all factors that made for some hilarity.
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