Halo 4 (2012)

This review is only for the campaign.

I have very mixed feelings about Halo 4. I liked the game overall, and I thought the story was genuinely strong, but the gameplay could become incredibly frustrating.

The Covenant were still enjoyable to fight, but the Forerunner enemies were a completely different story. The Promethean Knights were especially annoying, with their teleporting, heavy shields and Watchers constantly reviving enemies or protecting them. It often felt like they were designed to waste your time rather than provide an enjoyable challenge.

This would not have been as bad if the encounters were easier to avoid, but the game frequently forced you into unskippable fights before allowing you to progress. By the later missions, I found myself running past as many enemies as possible just to continue the story.

That is frustrating because the story itself was one of the game’s strongest elements. The relationship between Chief and Cortana was handled extremely well, and the ending was emotional and memorable. Part of me wishes Cortana’s story had ended there, especially considering the direction Halo 5 took afterwards, although I am still unsure whether permanently removing her would have been the right decision.

Halo 4 is a game I liked, but it could have been much better. The story was great, but the repetitive and deliberately irritating enemies often made the campaign feel like something I had to push through rather than fully enjoy.

Probably the most bungie-like game 343 has made. But it is still filled with so many confusing ideas, and just a lot of misses for me. Specifically I personally do not like the new Promethean enemies or weaponry, things which I feel were kinda pushed heavily in the first half of the game as this new cool thing that needs to be present constantly. Idk they just weren't interesting. I also disliked the missions that were more forerunner focused, things that took place in forerunner environments that just felt sterile, empty, and monotonous in a way that was not fun for me. That being said there were a few missions that brought some of that Halo magic back. The swamp, mammoth, and pelican missions were really fun and felt really natural and familiar. But idk the others just didn't do much for me. Even the covenant don't feel as entertaining as they usually do. They feel more alien and robotic, I guess in an attempt to make them feel more serious and mature, but it just ends up coming off kind of boring in my opinion.

I was also unhappy with the visuals and sound design. I found the visuals to be too clean, sharp, and shiny, just felt like they were trying to come off as super high quality and cool, which just does not feel like Halo to me. The sound design of a lot of the weapons suffered from this too, ending up feeling very clunky metallic and just less unique and cool than previous iterations.

All these negative comments aside, I do think the overall experience wasn't that bad. The story while mainly sad and a bit rushed at times, was enjoyable. I like their attempt at bringing forerunners into everything although I never cared for the didact. I also feel like their use of Cortana and Chief's appreciation of his own humanity was done well, even though I wish they could have expanded on some things and added more fleshed out characters to the front of the story.

Kinda sad that they pivoted fully away from the good parts of this towards what became Halo 5, and then tried to clumsily pivot back for Infinite (which worked in some ways but didn't in others), but that's just what happens when core members of a game's team move on and others come in with their own ideas and approaches. Still I'm glad this exists as a way to experience the Halo story, and I feel it's a nice little epilogue to the story of Chief (even though it continues later on lol).

FIRST-PERSON SHOOTER - Master Chief returns to face a new threat as he confronts the ancient Forerunner, the Didact, while also trying to deal with Cortana's rampancy.

PROS:

++ Solid gameplay. Gunplay, along with decent mobility, made for incredibly solid moment-to-moment gameplay. It still feels good to engage in firefights.

++ Good arsenal selection. I liked the new weapons that were introduced. Combined with the past Halo weapons, it results in Master Chief having a diverse arsenal.

++ Pacing of campaign. Moved from gunfights to vehicle sections frequently, so it never felt too stale.

++ Gorgeous graphics. I'm indifferent towards the new art style.

++ Prometheans. Contrary to most, I quite enjoyed fighting the new Prometheans. Although I wish there were more scenarios where you had to fight both the Covenant and the Prometheans simultaneously. They forced me to be mobile and always moving. Limited ammo also made it so that I was forced to use what was on the field to take care of enemies, which is something I personally enjoyed.

++ Great production quality. Cinematics and general quality was top-notch.

CONS:

-- Poor attempts at characterization. They made an attempt to characterize and humanize Master Chief by exploring his relationship with Cortana, but it just didn't hit for me. None of their dialogue with each other was particularly endearing. By the end, I wasn't moved at all when Cortana "sacrificed" herself for Chief.

-- Confusing and convoluted plot. Why? Because the Didact's backstory and his ideologies were tied down to terminals and other sources of lore. Games should never require the user to consume outside sources of lore, in order to fully understand the game's story. So even though I enjoyed the gameplay, it felt like a soulless experience since I wasn't hooked by the narrative. Also, the final confrontation with the Didact was incredibly underwhelming.

-- Bland characters. All of the characters, including Chief and Cortana, just felt bland and forgettable in this game.

-- No memorable moment. No particular level or facet of this game is particularly memorable.

-- Downgraded enemy AI.

I was very late to playing Halo 4 after having completed 1-3 originally at release for all three of them at their respective times, and then even doing ODST and Reach about two years before 4. I feel like if nothing else, this may give a bit better perspective on Halo 4, since the comparison is not so immediate.

Halo 4 does not seem as well received. Its clear 343 wanted to try something different, which seemed fine. New enemy to fight, new weapons, and maybe a bit of a weak story picking up after Halo 3. Overall, its fine. It's a Halo game. It wasn't the best Halo game, but that is also fine. The one thing I hated was that Cortana was always so quick to put up a marker for everything. Like 10 seconds of looking around or less and she says "here go over there". Like give me a chance to find it myself.

This is also exclusively a review on normal difficulty campaign. No multiplayer. Playing Halo on anything above normal is insufferable to me, always has been. Early on, they force you to play a specific way to beat a game on Heroic or Legendary and I don't like that. That has always been a weak point to me, that you can't fully utilize the game to play how you want at a harder difficulty. Its like Halo at harder difficulties is the epidemy of hard for the sake of hard. Also, I have never enjoyed Halo multiplayer except for the early days of LAN Halo 1 and XBL Halo 2. Was not my style, however it does not mean its bad (maybe it is in Halo 4?)

In my opinion, if you like Halo campaigns, this is worth playing.

SPOILER WARNING

Halo 4 was my very first Halo game growing up. Now I understand the negative stigma around this game. And I agree for the most part. Is this game as good as the Bungie games? Nope... But It's not a bad game either. It's just... Fine. Not much else.

So Halo 4 is an extremely interesting title in the series. It is the beginning of a new story in the Halo series. Known as the "Reclaimer Saga". And it for the most part starts off well... At least with the story.

This is the first mainline Halo game to not be made by Bungie. It was instead made by 343 Industries, a developing company made by Microsoft whose only purpose is to make Halo games. It does show that they didn't fully know what they were getting themselves into.

Now I think it was obvious from the beginning that Halo wouldn't end after Halo 3... Even if the story ended perfectly, we all knew there would be another one. I mean, look how much money this franchise makes for Microsoft. It was to be expected.

Now, what does Halo 4 get right? Well, its story is not that bad. Taking place 4 years after the events of Halo 3 and the end of the Human-Covenant War, Master Chief is woken from his cryosleep on the abandoned "Forward Unto Dawn" by Cortana. He and Cortana are sucked into the planet, Requiem. Chief must stop the returning ancient civilization known as the Forerunners and save Cortana from her condition known as Rampancy. The game does a good job at humanizing Master Chief and it makes Cortana's "death" all the more sadder.

I also think the music is not that bad. I love the new vehicles and I loved the performances. And I love the easter eggs in this game. Especially the cameo of Conan O'Brien and Andy Richter

But this game does A LOT wrong. The multiplayer is underwhelming, the secondary campaign, Spartan Ops sucks, and the gameplay is horrible. Ammo Capacity is broken in this game. You don't get nearly enough ammo so you end up running out of ammo and having to use the guns you don't want. The game is too linear again and does not allow you to approach firefights in creative ways. Doesn't help that the AI is really bad in this. The game is way too easy because the Covenant is not that smart this time around. The new enemies, the Prometheans are also very unfun to fight. And the final boss is an absolute embarrassment... It's a Quick-Time Event. And not a very good one at that.

Halo 4 has a great story and tackles really interesting themes, but it sorely lacks the fundamentals that make Halo a rewarding and fun experience.

3/5

Would Lightly Recommend

Built up enough Bing Rewards for another few months of PC Game Pass (converted to Ultimate for a buck so I can stream Halo 5).

I've always heard how people hate 343's Halo games. I honestly don't understand why. This just seems like more Halo to me. But much, much, much prettier (and a touch harder on Normal than the previous games, since you take more damage and shields take forever to recharge).

I originally posted a review of this game based on my personal memory from back in 2012 (in which I erroneously assumed I had completed it) where I sort of shrugged and said that it was an unremarkable continuation of the Halo story that didn't do anything to justify the continuation of the franchise, now divorced from it's original developer Bungie.

What I didn't necessarily expect to happen was that with the release of the Xbox Series X/S, I found myself craving some of that Halo hype once again. I mean what even is an new Xbox without a bit of Halo. Without Halo, there would be no Xbox today. I truly believe that. It's like Nintendo with no Mario. It just doesn't compute.

I want to give a whole-hearted commendation to The Master Chief Collection, a prettied-up collection of nearly every Halo game ever made, and easily the most valuable single piece of software available on Xbox Game Pass. It's a shocking amount of content packaged together, refurbished and lovingly presented. For me Halo 4 was the perfect place to dive back in, as I had zero recollection of the game's story, a continuation that I had deemed superfluous upon first contact. It was also the last Halo game I played, all the way back in 2012. I have to say, what I found here upon revisit left me surprisingly impressed. Firstly, I was delighted by the production value. I struggle to imagine this game being played on and Xbox 360 as it looks like like a full console-generation leap ahead of it's closest sibling Halo: Reach. It helps that the whole thing runs at a silky 60fps on the Series S, something I'm realizing with this new console generation I care about a LOT. As the second studio to handle the franchise, 343 had big shoes to fill and I now realize that I really didn't give them a fair shake at proving that they were up to the task.

That's not to say the game is perfect. The story is certainly an expansion on the previous trilogy that ups the stakes even further but it does border on the unbelievable and absurd at times. All these years later though, the silliness doesn't bother me. And to be honest, it was always pretty damn silly. It's just good to see my pals Chief and Cortana again after all these years, looking damn good in 4K, and I liked the way that an authentically emotional relationship emerged between the two.

So yeah, even though we will apparently have to keep waiting for Halo Infinite for the time being, I'm assuming that a lot of people are in the same boat as me where they sort of "fell off" of the series at some point. The Master Chief Collection is an incredible package because it lets you pick up right where you left off. So while there isn't a proper new Halo to play right now, there's an entire buffet of "new-to-me" Halo that may have been unjustly dismissed the first time around. Here's hoping that Halo 5, a game I've never so much as touched, similarly surprises.

Halo 4 was my second Halo game after Reach, and I was simply amazed by how stunning the game looked--and was blown away by the gameplay at the time. However, I was in middle school at the time, and I've gotten a bit older before replaying the game.

Halo 4's campaign is pretty good. The story is alright, not amazing, but the levels are fairly fun--I'd argue that they are a bit more enjoyable than some sections of the older games. Hell, I've played the first mission at least fifteen times, and it's still pretty enjoyable on replays. 4 definitely falls behind compared to 2 and 3, but I wouldn't argue that it's bad by any means.

Halo 4's multiplayer--I feel weird saying this--is so much fun. This might be due to the fact that I grew up in a more modern age, without touching Halo 1 or 2 until the MCC came out, but I loved Halo 4's fast pace multiplayer. I certainly agree that it's far less competitive than other Halo games, but the gameplay is so addicting, and I love a lot of the big maps. Precision rifles are incredibly overpowered, however, but running around the map with a single magnum getting double kills became to addicting. I still have more fun playing 4 rather than Reach in general deathmatch.

Overall, Halo 4 is good. It's extremely far from perfect, but I'd argue that on an enjoyment level, at the very least, it's about an 8/10 from me. If you want more fair and competitive multiplayer with a much worse campaign, check out Halo 5.