Halo 4

[Guest]

Why are people so scummy ?
I just dont get what the point of posting a spoiler or going out of your way to ruin a story for someone is ?

I see your point and I agree with it, but just watch some of the YouTube videos that people have on there from the Harry Potter 6 midnight releases, where people are driving by the lines with "Snape kills Dumbledore." It's done for the lulz, plain and simple. For me personally, I can find a better use of my time and enjoyment by not doing that.

[Swarley]

IGN's review will be up in less than an hour (12am PST).

[Swarley]

No actual spoilers, just trying to keep the post under a mile long.


IGN: 9.8 - 343's debut effort out-Bungies Bungie

 

Halo 4 is really Cortana’s story.

As usual, of course, the fate of the universe rests on Master Chief’s long-dormant shoulders – the green-armored super-soldier has been on ice aboard the Forward Unto Dawn since Halo 3 faded to black five years ago – but this time our hero bears an even greater burden.

Saving humanity is the easy part. In Halo 4, his more difficult task is rescuing Cortana from herself. She is slipping into rampancy – a condition that plagues all UNSC AI constructs after they’ve been in service more than seven years. As their knowledge base expands, they eventually, as Cortana explains, think themselves to death. And that’s the unexpected heart of Halo 4’s greatness. The plot delves deeper into John’s humanity than ever before, but Halo 4 is more about Cortana and the fight for her own – ironically enough – humanity.

Amazingly, Halo 4 is not only a success, but a bar-raising triumph for the entire first-person shooter genre. And just how new developer 343 Industries has done it will surprise, delight and excite you.

Familiarly Unfamiliar

It starts with a mesmerizing CG cutscene that flat-out knocks you on your ass. The lighting is flawless, subtle movements and animations abound, and it even goes so far that Commander Lasky (yes, the same Lasky we see as a teenager in the Forward Unto Dawn webseries) has crooked teeth – not the usual polygon-perfect Chiclet choppers that every other animated video game human has. It strikes a fine balance between old-school fan service and establishing context for new players, and it quickly segues into gameplay, where Halo 4’s greatest strength becomes immediately apparent: its gunplay.

Halo’s weapons continue their trend of working in complementary harmony, where each gun has a purpose, and every situation a fitting firing solution. The inaccurate Promethean Suppressor and undesirable Covenant Storm Rifle proved near-useless at times, but Halo 4 still hits on a ludicrously high percentage of its death-dealers. The short-range Energy Sword or new Scattershot are great to pack alongside mid-range delights such as the DMR or Battle Rifle, which also pair nicely with the ferocious Sniper Rifle if you’re into the long game.

In the opening mission, Master Chief is thawed out and immediately put back to work shooting Covenant, evoking both Halo: Combat Evolved (it’s set aboard an under-attack spaceship) and Halo 2 (the stage’s major battle takes place in zero-G on the hull of the ship). Expect your jaw to drop at least once on every level of Halo 4’s eight-mission campaign, especially after crash-landing on the Forerunner planet Requiem, emerging from the wreckage, and ascending a hill whose apex overlooks a gorgeous valley. It is your introduction to the planet you’ll be spending most of the game exploring and fighting the new Promethean enemies on, an obvious callback to the unforgettable moment when you touched down on the Halo ring for the first time in Combat Evolved.

Now Hear This

Of course, gorgeous graphics are only one responsibility a console’s killer app must bear. Perhaps equal to Halo 4’s monitor-melting visuals is its bar-none, best-in-class sound design. If you think you’ve heard Halo, check your ears and listen again. Nary a gunshot, MJOLNIR boot clank, or Covenant Elite’s “Wort wort wort” passes through your speakers without a significant, authoritative overhaul that lends an aggressive, testosterone-inducing punch to Halo 4’s combat.

Few game series are known as much for their music as Halo, and thus much has been made of British electronica producer Neil Davidge taking over for the beloved Bungie incumbent, Marty O’Donnell. It’s a bold shift – and probably wise of 343 to go in a tonally different direction rather than attempt to emulate O’Donnell – but the results are mixed. The trademark monk chants are gone, and Davidge’s moody tunes are complementary rather than additive. The new tracks simply aren’t memorable and never elevate the action happening on the screen the way that O’Donnell’s bombastic scores did, though this may be intentional, as Davidge’s compositions are decidedly atmospheric.

Hello New Day

Resplendent set-pieces are ubiquitous during your quest, matched by what is inarguably the finest Halo sandbox yet. Halo 4 feels much more open-ended and organic than Halo Reach’s paint-by-numbers sequences because of its massive scale, scope, and freedom for possibility. Go it on foot, or take the Scorpion in front of you? Hop in a Ghost, or take the riskier strategy of trying to get to a heavily guarded Wraith? All of these choices exist in a moment, not a spectacular scene, allowing for emergent encounters dictated by the opportunities you seize.

To be clear, Halo 4 certainly has its share of dedicated vehicle sections. The walking two-story Mantis robot packs a high-caliber machinegun alongside a rocket barrage. It’s even sporting a mean foot stomp attack to flatten any Covenant or Promethean scum who dare venture within spitting distance of you. The time you’ll spend behind its controls is both empowering and refreshing.

Halo 4 also finally lets me do two things I’ve always wanted to do in a Halo campaign: fight alongside other Spartans and fly a Pelican. It’s a treat to blast Covenant Phantoms out of the sky with the silver bird’s beefed-up Spartan Laser, giving a classic Halo vehicle its long-overdue moment in the sun. Furthermore, an amazing near-final sequence tips its cap to the Halo finales of yore – you’ll know it when you see it and I dare not spoil it for you – even if it’s very obviously reminiscent of another powerhouse pop-culture phenomenon.

Digging Deeper

All throughout, the Halo 4 campaign is paced better than any first-person shooter this side of Half-Life 2, deftly mixing on-foot combat, vehicle sequences, quiet story moments, and key Chief-and-Cortana interactions. That pacing is most evident on Normal difficulty, where you won’t run into the patience-testing battles for the next checkpoint that define the Heroic and Legendary settings.

The series has long been lauded for its brainy bad guys, and they’ve gained a whole host of IQ points for Master Chief’s return. As you’d expect, the full smarts of Halo 4’s brilliant enemy AI are most evident at higher difficulties. Vehicles get brought down to earth – sometimes literally, in the case of the Banshee – now that enemies are proficient at firing ride-disabling overcharged Plasma Pistol bursts. And the new Promethean aggressors are wicked intelligent without being unfair.

To be clear, Halo 4 certainly has its share of dedicated vehicle sections. The walking two-story Mantis robot packs a high-caliber machinegun alongside a rocket barrage. It’s even sporting a mean foot stomp attack to flatten any Covenant or Promethean scum who dare venture within spitting distance of you. The time you’ll spend behind its controls is both empowering and refreshing.

Halo 4 also finally lets me do two things I’ve always wanted to do in a Halo campaign: fight alongside other Spartans and fly a Pelican. It’s a treat to blast Covenant Phantoms out of the sky with the silver bird’s beefed-up Spartan Laser, giving a classic Halo vehicle its long-overdue moment in the sun. Furthermore, an amazing near-final sequence tips its cap to the Halo finales of yore – you’ll know it when you see it and I dare not spoil it for you – even if it’s very obviously reminiscent of another powerhouse pop-culture phenomenon.

Digging Deeper

All throughout, the Halo 4 campaign is paced better than any first-person shooter this side of Half-Life 2, deftly mixing on-foot combat, vehicle sequences, quiet story moments, and key Chief-and-Cortana interactions. That pacing is most evident on Normal difficulty, where you won’t run into the patience-testing battles for the next checkpoint that define the Heroic and Legendary settings.

The series has long been lauded for its brainy bad guys, and they’ve gained a whole host of IQ points for Master Chief’s return. As you’d expect, the full smarts of Halo 4’s brilliant enemy AI are most evident at higher difficulties. Vehicles get brought down to earth – sometimes literally, in the case of the Banshee – now that enemies are proficient at firing ride-disabling overcharged Plasma Pistol bursts. And the new Promethean aggressors are wicked intelligent without being unfair.

Halo 4’s other drag is one that’s only really evident on Heroic or Legendary difficulties: some of its fetch quest-y, flip-three-switches sequences feel like they artificially lengthen the game because of how long you can get hung up on them when the going gets tough. I spent upwards of an hour trying to trudge through one of them on Heroic, but when playing again on Normal I cruised through on the first try. At one point, Cortana even makes a self-deprecating remark about the repetition, which I recognized and appreciated.

These are mostly just scrapes in the paint of Master Chief’s MJOLNIR armor, however. His return in the Halo 4 campaign is a success of mission design, art direction, level design, technology, and story writing. Underpinning it all, though, is that irresistible combat. Some shooters get a few weapons right, or, like Sniper Elite v2, they build their entire experience around one facet like long-range. Halo, however, boasts the best of all worlds. As you’d expect, this plays exceptionally well in Halo 4’s robust multiplayer modes.

Great Expectations

No console shooter has a richer, deeper, more revered multiplayer history than Halo. So how does Halo 4’s multiplayer suite live up to the legacy in 343’s hands?

It’s golden.

Halo has evolved, wrapping its multiplayer in an unexpected narrative context – the Spartan-on-Spartan battles are presented as training sessions aboard the UNSC Infinity ship – complete with more of the same visually arresting introductory cutscenes for both the adversarial War Games and the new Spartan Ops co-op mode.

With Halo 4’s immaculate weapon balancing and gun-for-every-situation combat strategies, it needs only a great crop of multiplayer maps in order to qualify for classic status. Fear not, as 343 packs War Games with 10 mostly stellar stages and three additional Forge-built battlegrounds. Exile leads the vehicle-heavy Big-Team Battle complement, Ragnarok shines as a Mantis-showcasing remake of Halo 3’s Valhalla, and Haven is among the series’ all-time finest small and symmetrical levels. Oh, and one of the official Forge constructions, Settler, is a smaller, crazier evolution of the franchise’s most famous map that I absolutely love: Blood Gulch. Halo 4 might not have its instant-classic (a la Halo 2’s Lockout), but this is an impressive collection of outstanding battlegrounds, with a seemingly greater emphasis placed on the large-scale, vehicle-inclusive levels that are Halo’s bread-and-butter.

Meanwhile, Halo 4 includes all of the same matchmaking, playlists, customization, and social options you’ve come to expect from the series. The more visual lobby screen, where player cards depict each person’s custom Spartan, is a bit more cluttered and difficult to parse through than previous Halos, but that’s the only downgrade. Everything else is on par with what Bungie had previously established. The Theater returns virtually unchanged, as does the Forge editor, with its notable improvement being a magnet feature that allows you to more easily connect Forge pieces.

That leaves Spartan Ops, a downloadable series of 10 episodic side missions for Gold subscribers, each of which include a lengthy CG cutscene. The first one spans five chapters, and it took about an hour to play through in four-player co-op on Legendary difficulty. As you’d expect, the more friends you bring the easier it’ll be – and, while it’s perfectly enjoyable and makes for a good excuse to jump online with your pals once a week, once you’re finished with each episode, it lacks the replayability and score-based incentives of the Firefight mode it replaces. However, the incredible pre-episode cinematics make the mode a must-play regardless, and it opens up a number of interesting narrative possibilities for future episodes and seasons. So even if you only play each episode once, you can’t complain about the fact that nine more weeks of downloads await you.

The End of the Beginning

After soaking in the new game, I am beyond thrilled to be so in love with Halo again, more than I’ve been since Halo 2. Halo 4 is a masterstroke everyone can and should celebrate, and its two guaranteed sequels instantly make the next-generation Xbox a must-own system, with Halo 5 its most anticipated title. Halo has been rebuilt. It has been redefined. And it has been reinvigorated. The Xbox’s original king has returned to his rightful place on the throne.

THE VERDICT

Cortana once asked Master Chief what would happen if he missed his target, and in the single greatest line of dialogue in Halo history, Chief replied with the coolest, calmest confidence, "I won’t."

With Halo 4, he doesn't.

9.8 - Amazing - Halo is in new hands, but guess what? 343's debut effort out-Bungies Bungie. Halo 4 is a triumph.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/11/01/halo-4-review

Game Informer: 9.25 - 343 Industries Balances Old And New

 

343 Industries had a series of challenges in front of it when it began to create Halo 4: Take a beloved series from the original developer Bungie, maintain the legacy established through a decade of development, and reignite enthusiasm by delivering something new. That is a daunting list, but 343 Industries was clearly up to the task. Halo 4 is a thrilling adventure, and takes the science fiction franchise headlong into the future. The magic formula is intact, but the new development team isn’t afraid to put its own signature features into play, assuring that Halo is on a path to growth instead of stagnation.

Recent Halo entries felt ancillary to the core story. Halo 4 returns to the resonant drive of the series – Master Chief and his unrelenting defense of humanity. For the first time, the story has an emotional core that grounds the fiction: the connection between John and Cortana. As the two characters face a reemerging threat to the galaxy, we finally gain insight into the mysterious Forerunner race hinted at since Combat Evolved. Along the way, 343 Industries plays around with some heady science fiction concepts, from the nature of artificial intelligence to the planned shaping of a species’ evolution. While these ideas might be bewildering to newcomers, the story is the most cohesive and well-structured in the series.

As I played through that story, I was struck by the extraordinary production values on display. Halo 4 is a visual marvel, with gorgeous environments accentuated by high dynamic range lighting and breathtaking particle effects. However, the experience is more than the graphics; I rarely feel the need to call out the sound effects of a game, but Halo 4 is an exception. The first time I fired a gun, I was startled by the forceful burst, and the impression only improves as the fights progress. From the distorted static of a scrambled audio communication to the revving propulsion drive of a speeding Ghost, Halo 4’s audio drags players into the game world by their ears. Several stirring new musical themes add to the effect, but those melodies are sometimes obscured within the sound mix. I wish Halo 4 allowed for manual adjustment of the audio mix like most high-end games on the market.

Enemies have defined the feel of Halo gameplay since the beginning, and Halo 4 balances familiarity and novelty. The Covenant returns (for reasons the in-game story fails to articulate), providing the classic experience Halo fans love – popping Grunts, zeroing in on distant Jackals, and furiously dueling Elites. Thankfully, new foes enter the picture before long. The Prometheans offer a robust tactical challenge, from the infuriating regenerative abilities of the floating Watchers to the savage Crawlers and teleporting Knights. Each battlefield becomes a tense puzzle as you decide which bad guy to engage first. That’s why the widely spaced checkpoint placement is such a bummer; I love the searing difficulty the game exhibits on higher challenge levels, but Halo 4 often sends its players too far back as a punishment for failure.

Master Chief has new toys to bring into the fight, including several powerful new guns. Added to the array already introduced previously, the armament variety is impressive, and trying them all out is fun. The game encourages experimentation by severely limiting ammo on most pick-ups. At times, the strategy succeeds by making players use all the tools at their disposal. However, frequently running out of ammo slows the momentum of the action as you’re forced to scavenge for an alternative.

Levels are thoughtfully structured and entertaining. One breathtaking environment is followed by the next, and several alternative gameplay sequences offer variety, from the new walking mech Mantis battles to high speed flights in outer space. The ever-changing locations and set pieces give Master Chief’s adventure a scope and grandiosity that’s lacking in many other shooters.

For many, Halo 4’s excellent campaign will be secondary to the endless battles of the newly introduced Infinity multiplayer. An integrated cooperative and competitive narrative tracks the progress of your Spartan as he or she trains aboard a UNSC ship and then heads out on missions, ranking up and improving on the way. Advancing your character is a joy, as you unlock armor pieces, customizable loadouts, and bonuses to boost performance in battle. The smooth and streamlined front-end interface is easy to navigate. Playing with friends is seamless; only time will tell if matchmaking can stand up to the rush that will hit after launch.

A few small changes to the flow of competitive multiplayer help Halo 4 feel more vibrant and replayable. Points have overtaken kills as the primary scoring mechanic. Random powerful weapon drops remove the chance for experienced players to camp equipment spawns. Support abilities and customized loadouts offer more flexibility. Combat is fast and intense, and hews close to what I’ve always loved in the series. New multiplayer modes like Regicide and Dominion join perennial favorites like Slayer, Oddball, and Capture the Flag, and all the modes play out across an impressive set of over a dozen strong new maps.

Along with the returning option to play through the campaign cooperatively with friends, 343 Industries introduces an episodic cooperative experience with enormous potential to change the way post-release content is delivered in games. Spartan Ops brings a new cinematic episode every week, along with five connected missions. The large battles and objectives available in these missions are ideal for a group of friends, and at a little over an hour per episode, it’s perfect for a weekly gaming meet-up. I’m disappointed that this new cooperative mode replaces Firefight, but I’m stoked about a continuing narrative that I can follow after the game is out.

Multiplayer is rounded out by the return of Forge and Theater options for the more creative. Each of the multiplayer maps plus several variants can be fleshed out into wholly new levels inside Forge. I especially appreciate the new tools to make iteration easier, from magnets that click pieces together, to simple button taps that replicate your last object placed. Along with broadened options for environmental effects, such as gravity shifting, I can’t wait to see what the community comes up with.

Whether I am watching a grenade explode a Promethean into a shower of sparks or charging with friends at my side through a cooperative adventure, Halo 4 makes the series feel new again. 343 Industries’ clear affection for the property shines through, leaving me thrilled to join Master Chief for another decade in defense of the galaxy.

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/halo_4/b/xbox360/archive/2012/11/01/halo-4-review-343-industries-balances-old-and-new.aspx

GameSpot: 9.0 - A thrilling, moving story and intense competitive multiplayer help Halo 4 continue the series' reign as one of the premier shooter franchises.

 

Halo is in new hands. After chronicling humanity's defeat in Halo: Reach, developer and series creator Bungie passed the reins to 343 Industries, who has charted a new course for the iconic Spartan and his AI companion, Cortana. In Halo 4, the duo confronts a fresh new threat to the human race and grapples with mortality in a way the series never has before. The result is the most compelling story a Halo game has ever told, conveyed through a campaign that combines the excellent combat, pacing, and environmental design that have long been hallmarks of the series. The intriguing new cooperative mode feels flimsy, but the competitive multiplayer reasserts itself as one of the most exciting offerings in the genre. Halo 4 doesn't just take the franchise baton in stride; it sprints out confidently to keep Master Chief and company at the head of the pack.

At the end of Halo 3, Master Chief and Cortana were adrift on a derelict ship, having just struck the final blow to bring an end to the Covenant's devastating campaign against the human race. Chief then entered cryo-sleep for the next four years, while humanity poured its energies into fortifying its defenses and expanding its galactic presence. A captivating opening cutscene shows this new initiative taking a critical look at the past, foreshadowing some interesting tension later in the game. Meanwhile, Chief and Cortana are roused when they stumble upon a dire threat to humanity's existence. This foe provides the series with its first proper villain, one whose roots in previously-vague Forerunner mythology soon come into frightening focus.

These galactic machinations are dramatic and intriguing, and they are brought to life vividly by Halo 4's stunning technical prowess. From sweeping panoramic vistas to claustrophobic jungle clearings, the environments are rich with detail enhanced by thoughtful lighting and sharp textures. The excellent artistic design that makes human, Covenant, and Forerunner architecture so instantly recognizable is on display once more, helping to create a cohesive sci-fi world. Expressive facial animations bring characters to life, imbuing the cutscenes with extra emotional weight and making the story that much more engaging. It's all tied together with an amazing soundtrack that complements every aspect of the game. Alien environments ring with eerie strains, characters' emotions are reflected in plangent chords, and the intense action is driven along by urgent orchestrations.

Yet for all the excitement and emotion of the main plot, the most engrossing drama of Halo 4 takes place between Master Chief and Cortana. Everyone's favorite artificial intelligence is nearing her expiration date, forcing these two all-but-invincible characters to face the prospect of death in a way they never have. This delicate, degenerative process is handled eloquently, and great voice acting, animation, and writing combine for some poignant moments. 343 Industries delivers a compelling narrative on both an intimate and a grand scale, with a satisfying conclusion that will make you excited for what's to come.

Halo 4 is a striking step up in storytelling for the series, but when it comes to the action, things are more familiar. Halo has always been a shooter built on clear gameplay systems that combine in complex and gratifying ways. The crafty and aggressive enemy AI squads work together, adjusting their tactics as you assault their ranks. Your four-pronged arsenal of guns, grenades, melee attacks, and armor abilities fuels a variety of different battlefield strategies. And the environments both large and small provide enough space to maneuver creatively, occasionally furnishing a vehicle or two for your driving enjoyment.

These systems are a through line in the series and they continue to hold up well in Halo 4, right down to the Covenant enemies that you fight at various points throughout the campaign (apparently not everyone knows the war is over). They still make great foes, but the new Promethean enemies offer a fresh combat challenge. Canine crawlers fire from a distance or swarm up close, while hovering watchers flit back and forth, offering maddening support to their allies. The hulking knights look fearsome and put up a mean fight, teleporting both defensively and offensively to make killing them from a distance a tricky proposition. New enemies come with new weapons too, and though these guns fit familiar niches, neat tweaks like the boltshot's shotgun-esque alternate fire and the scattershot's ricocheting bullets make them feel distinct.

As you balance aggression and restraint, you see your enemies doing the same thing, and this tactical interplay makes the core combat eminently engaging and replayable. The campaign is well paced and often challenging, and though some Forerunner areas flirt with repetition, the whole endeavor is exciting for the 8 to 10 hours it takes to finish it. Playing with up to three other players is a blast, and Halo 4's campaign thrives in cooperative play. More Spartans means more freedom for you to employ team tactics, put vehicles to good use, play around with the various game-tweaking skulls, or simply have fun horsing around.

You can also flex your cooperative muscle in a new mode called Spartan Ops. Planned as a regular series, each free, downloadable episode of Spartan Ops comes with a CG-animated short depicting life among the Spartans, as well as a number of brief playable combat scenarios. The first video features a lively cast and some enjoyably dramatic scenes, with animation quality comparable to the cutscenes from the campaign. Though the commanding officer from the video lends some voice-over supervision to the individual scenarios, the missions themselves feel fragmented and disconnected from each other. Though they can be played solo or with up to three others, these skirmishes are over in a matter of minutes, and this brevity makes them feel inconsequential and unsatisfying. Still, it's a flexible and novel way to deliver fresh postrelease content, and it will be interesting to see how the Spartan Ops story builds in the coming weeks and months.

Back on more familiar ground, War Games is the new name for the vaunted competitive multiplayer action that has been a genre standout for more than a decade. The classic deathmatch and objective-based game types return in free-for-all and team varieties, with only a few tweaks and additions. Infection has been renamed Flood, casting the "zombie" characters as Flood-mutated humans with super speed and a giant spike arm that behaves like an energy sword. Regicide is a new free-for-all game type that puts a bounty on the player with the highest score and occasionally grants him or her an overshield or other perk for remaining on top. Invasion is gone, and in its place is Dominion, a team contest focused on capturing and maintaining control of three bases. Bonuses for holding them include spawnable vehicles, automatic turrets, and weapon drops, making for some feisty back-and-forth struggles.

(An important logistical note: To play these modes, you need 2GB of storage space to install War Games, and 1.5GB per episode of Spartan Ops. It's unclear how much space Spartan Ops will demand in the future, but suffice it to say, a memory card won't cut it.)

Halo's competitive multiplayer modes have always dictated the weapons available to players in a given match, creating a level playing field from the get-go. But now, in a move reflective of modern shooter trends, Halo 4 introduces loadouts. These consist of familiar categories like primary and secondary weapons, grenades, and armor abilities, as well as two new attributes that grant small bonuses, like quicker weapon switching, bigger grenade explosions, and broader motion sensor range. You unlock extra loadout slots and the ability to equip these bonuses as you level up, and you must also pay to unlock individual loadout items with points you earn with each rank. It can feel a bit limiting at first, but regardless of your rank, there are always a few fully stocked predetermined loadouts to choose from, so you're never at a disadvantage for being low-level.

Not knowing the map is also less of a disadvantage now, because weapons spawned on the battlefield are clearly marked. Furthermore, players who do well can call in their own ordnance drop mid-match. Familiar weapons like needlers, shotguns, and swords are accessible only through such drops, as are new entries like an explosive railgun and a light machine gun. There are even boosts to shields, movement speed, and damage output. Picking one of the three random options in your personal ordnance reward is an interesting strategic decision that affects how you proceed and adds another defensive consideration for your opponents.

New abilities can help you deal with these variables; Promethean Vision lets you see your enemies' silhouettes and identify which weapons they're holding, while a hardlight shield can save you from an imminent explosion. The online battlefields of Halo 4 are more varied than their predecessors, but none of the changes or additions are powerful enough to destabilize the core balance. This plays like a richer version of the competitive Halo that many have come to love over the years, and the new tweaks add a welcome freshness to the action.

If you want to avoid or embrace any given element, you can always fire up a Custom Game and tinker with the battlefield conditions to your heart's content. Options are as robust as ever and are exponentially expandable once you dip into the still-incredibly-powerful Forge level editor. Though it can be daunting, some changes to Forge have made placing objects easier and the whole experience generally more user-friendly. Play around with friends, tweak existing levels to your liking, craft something using the new tools, or simply download the fruits of other people's labor--Forge remains an impressive platform for creative play and thoughtful design.

Halo 4 is every bit the massive shooter package that its predecessors were, and it holds the series' standard high. The thrilling and emotional return of Master Chief and Cortana is the highlight, and the campaign breaks new ground in narrative quality for the franchise. The top-notch competitive multiplayer picks up where Halo: Reach left off, infusing the action with some mainstream elements while still remaining undeniably unique. Spartan Ops may stay a mere sideshow or prove its worth in the weeks to come, but there's no doubting that the next planned Halo trilogy is off to a great start. 343 Industries should be proud of what it has accomplished, and you should be excited to experience it for yourself.

http://www.gamespot.com/halo-4/reviews/halo-4-review-6399288/?tag=Topslot;Halo4Review;Halo4Review;ReadIt

Joystiq: 5 Stars - Our new Chief Operating Officer

 

Halo 4 is adamant about proving its competence and convincing you of its necessity. You don't often see a monolithic franchise putting up a fight for fans, but longtime developer Bungie's departure has awakened enough doubt to incur a fierce response from Halo's new custodians at 343 Industries. And so the developer launches the best kind of protest, which is to wave an impressive, throbbing shooter in your face. Trust me, you want this.

The speed at which that uncertainty evaporates is the real surprise. You enter with a fair fear of Halo being stale; then Master Chief exits the cryogenic casket like a crisp piece of let-us-start-killing-things. Meanwhile, his companion Cortana skirts around fatigue, madness and Microsoft metaphor – the inevitable fate of software that's been in service for much too long. But she too comes out stronger, more endearing and heroic than ever before. Maybe she's just been inserted into one too many alien plinths over the years.

Chief's alarmed awakening in the Forward Unto Dawn, a ship misplaced and beset by invaders, is at once a perfect remembrance of Halo: Combat Evolved's opening and an ideal showcase of 343's quickened approach. The game waits for you to advance, of course, but the rousing music and implied degradation of the environment makes a leisurely pace seem ... wrong. Halo 4 is an expert at making you play along with the unfolding spectacle, and makes sure you're never ensnared by it.

Even this early level is littered with powerful weapons, and a harsh restriction of ammo forces you to loot, drop and juggle them whenever you can. There's a faster, harder edge to combat now, and the Covenant sect that boards your ship seems more fanatical and wily than you're used to. The increased difficulty shakes you out of playing Halo on auto-pilot, though it might make it tough on those who aren't familiar with Halo's amorphous encounters or cunning AI.

Once Chief lands on Requiem, a vividly realized planet and vector for a new villain's vengeance, he enters a breathless push from one urgent objective to the next. Halo 4 can be haphazard in filling in the gaps between plot and lore, but top-notch acting and jaw-dropping facial capture pair up for entrancing presentation. 343 is also wise to avoid the easy callbacks, so don't expect to set foot on yet another ring world.

The introduction of challenging new enemies – the armor-clad Prometheans – is a major alteration within Halo's intricate and iterated combat. Whereas the Covenant evoke responses that border on muscle memory at this point, the Prometheans will trip you up for a good while. The airborne Watchers can shield their companions and return your grenades, while the hulking Knights can disorient your aim by teleporting. If they finish you with a brutal hit, it's because your shields were whittled away by a pack of canine-like Crawlers, who wield all sorts of guns in their mouths. No bees, though.

You're a good match for the Prometheans once you learn their stellar weaponry, but they're another symptom of what could be Halo 4's biggest problem. I've never concentrated this hard in "Heroic" level Halo. I'm split between thinking that success under pressure is inherently rewarding, again and again, and suspecting that "again and again" will be how some players describe their deaths. It irks especially when the story calls for climax and triumph, while the game kicks you back and restarts the music's fanfare. Nothing deflates drama quite like the protagonist's ignominious death.

But it's rare to bite into these hard, unheated popcorn kernels, and they can't come close to undermining a proper blockbuster campaign. Exploring the deserted, vibrant realms of Requiem is like walking through the matte paintings of an old sci-fi film, albeit one that costs as much as thirty of those. The immense levels open up when Halo's mammoth vehicles come in to play, and subtly hem you in when it wants more claustrophobic shootouts. Later, an arid canyon envelops a jet-packing Chief in the campaign's best moment – an escort mission that doesn't suck in the slightest. In terms of consistency, scope and player motivation, this is the best Halo campaign yet.

Once Master Chief's mission concludes, the operatives in the Spartan-IV program – Chief is only a Spartan-II, remember – carry on in the game's ambitious co-op mode (which is offered in addition to the campaign co-op). The nature of Halo's fighting, which is to push back just as hard as you prod it, translates beautifully to a four-party team, but it's the method of delivery that makes the Spartan Ops mode exciting. Every week a new episode will add five missions, exploring the fallout of Halo 4's events and giving direction to your slaughter of the alien hordes. If you find less and less time for games in your life (i.e. you're an adult), this bite-sized commitment is ideal, and well worth being bossed around by the voice of Jennifer Hale. (We should start calling her Jennifer Halo.)

There's a literal connotation to the progression of multiplayer in Halo 4. The introduction of an XP-driven system of gameplay unlockables is risky, and perhaps a call to dutifully invite comparison to other shooters. But this concern also disappears in 343's vicious war against doubt, this time coinciding with the first, kick-ass KERPLUNK of new ordinance being dropped from the sky. Fine-tuning loadouts and unlocking new abilities introduces a mesmerizing array of strategies to the frantic shooting, and changing them on the fly can help you stay fluid with every map's layout.

There's an addictive sense of discovery with each new weapon and ability in your loadouts (which is why it's best not to list them here), and perhaps some educational value in discovering them piece by piece. The slick, easy interface keeps things orderly, and respects the time you'll spend coming up with sets that empower long-distance fighting, close-quarter scrambles and diversionary tactics. The aforementioned ordinance drop, a choice of weapons to summon once you earn a string of kills, is a thrilling reward for playing well, and it meddles with Halo's gameplay as much as any of the unlocks do: it adds rapid-fire choice and complexity to moment-to-moment fighting, but doesn't wobble the pillars of Halo's refined systems. Way down there at the bottom, it's still about dropping shields, exploiting grenades and using melee attacks at the right moments.

Halo 4 is Halo – a surprisingly successful, mandatory step for 343 Industries. But the game strives for more than competence, giving it a forceful march and a decadent show of strength. Our doubt and questioning of Halo's continued existence has, in some small way, helped deliver one of the best games in the series and one of the finest shooters in years. Of course, if we want to use this tactic for the next one we'd better start now.

Halo 5 is going to suck!

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/11/01/halo-4-review/

Kotaku: Should you play this game? Yes

 

I’ve never seen Halo like this before. Halo 4 is emotional, something I’ve never felt from the franchise quite like this. Sure, invested fans will protest and say that the lore is fascinating and the war struggles moving, but I can safely say I’ve never sat through a Halocampaign quite at the edge of my seat like I have in the first title by 343 Industries.

People, especially gamers, seem to be afraid of change. That’s understandable when it comes to the Halo franchise.

Halo is a legacy. When Bungie introduced the sci-fi, first-person shooter franchise over a decade ago, it wowed fans with a perfect formula of alien creatures and versatile weapons. People obsessed over the game’s multiplayer modes, playing iterations that were years old, even after new titles in the series were released. Halo sold Xboxes. It’s a household name, and for good reason.

So change seems like it would be scary. Like it might ruin the integrity of something that’s formed such an impressive community. Hardcore Halo fans can rest assured that 343 has stayed true to the core of Halo, and I urge them to keep an open mind when confronted by its new skin.

Because that skin is beautiful. It’s cinematic, and features lovely music. Cut scenes look absolutely phenomenal, with performance capture done so well that I sometimes confuse the rendered characters for real, live actors. The soundtrack, by Massive Attack’s Neil Davidge, is expectedly wonderful, and the realistic sound effects are a delightful surprise. The crunch and squeaks of Master Chief’s armor as he moves around, and the hazardous hum of damaged vehicles are little details that go a long way.

343’s take on the franchise humanized what was up until now mainly just a really fun, well-made series of games.

Master Chief is an icon, in both our world and the Halo world. He’s a super soldier and the people of the future look to him for safety and assurance. When he walks through those doors, there’s a sense of ease that washes over the other soldiers. Everything will be okay now.

I have never felt that connection to Master Cheif like I have in Halo 4. But I’ve also never been able to see under his helmet, at the kind of person he has to be to maintain the hero status. If you read all the Halo novels and get really invested in the Halo culture, you’ll know that it’s a struggle to carry the weight of the universe on your conscience. But this was something that never quite came across in the video games.

Halo 4’s single player campaign feels like two stories. It’s a story about war and the introduction of a new species of enemies: the Prometheans. It’s a story about a fanatical sect of the Covenant that, ignoring the peace treaty set during previous games, are fighting humans again. It’s a story with religious subtext and dense lore. But it’s also a story about Master Chief, a human who can barely connect with humanity anymore, as he is so strongly focused on carrying out his obligations that he doesn’t allow himself any other response to tragedy other than a devotion to eradicating it. And it’s a story about Cortana, who has stuck by Master Chief for years. Their relationship is a strong one. It might be the last shred of any sense of normalcy Master Chief has left. This half of the story lends itself to Halo 4’s emotional side. And it is a fascinating and lovely experience.

The other side of the story of Halo 4—that dense lore—is hard to approach. New concepts and names are thrown at you in such rapid succession that it’s difficult to follow along. I imagine this will be especially hard on newcomers, who might have a vague understanding of the sci-fi universe they are entering, only to get bombarded by such inaccessible lore.

This is unfortunate, because I really want to love the Prometheans’ backstory. So I can’t help but feel that Halo 4 does a disservice to players who are new to the franchise by rattling off so many new concepts without giving proper time or context to digest it all. I suspect even veterans of the games might find it difficult to parse the information as fast as the game is shoving it down your throat. The Covenant’s reemergence as a threat, for instance, was confusing. Certain parts of the story aren’t explained well, and it’s easy to get lost in new characters and abstract concepts that the game hurries to explain, and then just as quickly abandons.

Fortunately, digging into the Spartan Ops—solo or cooperative missions that will release weekly in tandem with cinematic episodes—reveal more detailed information that will hopefully help explain the campaign’s thick storyline. Unfortunately, I found the Spartan Ops missions to be fairly boring. I played five missions, each better than the last, but they didn’t interest me beyond functioning as another way to gain experience and therefore access new guns, abilities and perks. I can’t speak to how much you can learn more about the behind the scenes stories, because the first week’s content was severely limited and dry. I admire that 343 will release new episodes every week, but so far they’ve been mainly lengthy chores of killing waves of enemies with forgettable plot lines.

But what of the basic structure of the game itself? Is that formula of grunts, elites and jackals still respected? Are all your favorite guns included?

Halo 4 still feels like a Halo game. It’s full of Banshees and battle rifles. It has impressive setpieces. Some of the multiplayer maps are even recreated—or at least inspired by—classic Halo maps. Halo 4 is proof that 343 is clearly in tune with what fans love about the Halo franchise. But, as I’ve said, gamers are afraid of change. So the addition of ordnance drops in multiplayer—basically a bonus given to players who do well during a match—might not be desirable to you. I think it works. You might not. That’s fair.

Of course, you can tweak and customize multiplayer rounds to your liking, even opting to play around with ordnance options. There are a plethora of modes to enjoy, as well. I was particularly fond of the Flood mode, which pits a few players as Flood and most as human Spartans. As you kill the Spartans, they become infected and fight until there’s only one man left standing. In first-person shooters, it’s not uncommon for the community to take it upon themselves to invent their own game modes, listing out rules and relying on the honor code from players to carry it out, effectively creating their own unwritten mode. This Flood mode is a multiplayer game born of one such community-made mode from Halo 2, so it’s nice to see 343 giving that community a nod. The other multiplayer modes range from the classic Team Slayer, which pits the red team against the blue team, to Oddball, where the goal is to hold onto the ball the longest. Every mode had me cursing and giggling simultaneously. Granted, my experience may have been the most optimal, as I was in a room with roughly nine others, all of us calling out playfully to one another in the competitive environment.

But 343 has added exciting new single player gameplay options, too. Like the addition of mechs. Even if their placement in the single player campaign is a rarity, it’s very exciting to hop in an armored suit to shoot rockets and stomp enemies with your metal feet. In fact, there wasn’t much of an emphasis on vehicles in general, though you do get to play around with the Pelican aircraft. I have fond memories of flying around in space battles in Halo: Reach, and though flying missions do reappear in the latest title, they don’t feel as emphasized (or as cool as that space battle). They’re more like quick intermissions between main events.

Prometheans as a new enemy class are more annoying than I expected. They’re cowards. They immediately flee as soon as you shoot them. I expect AI to react to my threat, ducking under cover as needed. But I didn’t expect to play hide and seek with them. A few of these species are more aggressive than others, warping in front of your face with the protection of their tough shells of armor. But others—especially the service-type species that can heal the other Prometheans—dart away from your line of sight and stay hidden. Though fighting them grew stale very quickly, picking up their weapons was not. The design of the Promethean weapons is impressive, even doing a neat trick where the gun disassembles and then reassembles itself to reload. From shotguns to snipers to rifles and pistols, every gun feels great in my hands. I always prefer alien weapons in Halo games, but these new, orange/red-glowing weapons trump even the Covenant’s stock.

There are a few issues to pick out in Halo 4, whether they’re to do with the storyline or gameplay. But my experience with Halo 4 was an enjoyable one. The campaign held my interest as I watched Cortana and Master Chief’s emotions unfold. Missions were fun. Multiplayer is diverse and just as fast paced and unique a first-person shooter multiplayer experience as I have come to expect from the series. As afraid as you may be of Bungie passing the torch to a new development team to handle a franchise that has the foundation of years of quality behind it, I strongly urge you to keep an open mind for Halo 4, because you just may enjoy it as much as I did.

http://updates.kotaku.com/post/34748950516/halo-4-the-kotaku-review

[Point Blank]

Damn, better reviews than I thought. Cant wait till the 11th so I can play this with the boys!

[IamMedellin]

Cortana got sum big ole tittays

[Handleit_44]

Polygon - 9.5

In that way, Halo 4 is most like the original Halo, where the novelty and wonder of exploring something really alien and different is a key factor. While Halo 4 continues the series' tradition of iteration on its own design more successfully than any one of its predecessors, that sense of awe, of discovery, has been light since the first game, and I didn't realize how much I missed it until I played Halo 4. Halo is in new hands with 343i, but the studio nailed exactly why the series became a genre-defining franchise. And it's exciting to think about where it goes from here.

Destructoid - 10

At its core, everything still feels like a Halo game. While there are new some new elements that change the gameplay a little, that weight of playing as a super soldier is well balanced between the sense of speed and strength in the multiplayer. 343 Industries have done a remarkable job at continuing the Halo legacy. They've gone all out, creating a fantastic sequel that brought forth a major focus on storytelling while upping the visual and audio direction to a level that will be tough for anyone to rival with these few remaining years of the current console generation.

Above all else, Halo 4 proves that the franchise is in safe hands with 343.

Eurogamer - 8

Halo 4 is authentic, and assures 343's role is more than a mere tribute act. Their delicate yet sprawling work may be more continuation than true expansion - and perhaps the true test comes in the next step - but for now, Halo returns with a bang, not a whimper.

Giant Bomb - 4/5

From the moment I saw Master Chief put himself back to sleep at the end of Halo 3, all I could think about was how his next adventure--if he would even have a next adventure--should be something dramatically different from the adventures we had already seen. Moving him out into the middle of nowhere and cutting him off from his allies is an idea with huge potential. So that's why I find the storytelling side of Halo 4 to be fairly disappointing. Within the first few hours you've fought enemies that go all the way back to the first game in the franchise and you've reconnected with the human race. That's not to say that the entire story is a bust--and it does set up some potentially interesting things for the next couple of games to address--but it's good that the developers have backed this story up with sharp, time-tested gameplay that gets enhanced in meaningful ways across all modes.

Penny Arcade: This isn’t Bungie’s Halo anymore – it’s better

343 Industries was handed one hell of a ball with the Halo franchise, and it wouldn’t have been surprising had they tried to get away with a rote game in a known universe. This is a series that prints money and has a strong, dedicated fanbase that likely would’ve been happy with more of the same.

It takes a lot of guts to put this much of yourself into a property this well known, but 343 didn’t shy away from the challenge. This is a bold new look and feel for the Halo franchise. The storytelling is more layered, the combat and characters sound better, the graphics have been updated and overhauled, and the plot offers many amazing and unforgettable moments.

If you were curious about 343’s ability to pull this off, to make Halo 4 as good as Bungie’s games, here’s your answer: Halo 4 is not as good as Reach or Halo 3. It’s better. Wake up. Cortana needs you.

Gamesradar - 4.5/5

While 343 builds on the world, expands on characters, and adds to the lore of the Halo universe, its greatest focus in Halo 4 was investing in Master Chief--and a wise investment it was. By doing this, 343 Industries’ Halo 4 establishes itself not as “the next” Halo game, or “another sequel,” but instead opts to be a new beginning for the franchise--one with more commitment to its characters. It’s refreshing to see the series admit its shortcomings and catch up with its contemporaries without sacrificing what makes it unique, and that’s just what Halo 4 does, creating a name for itself without relying on its popularity, and getting us excited to start, continue, and one day finish the fight all over again.

Dallas News: Comfortably familiar, refreshingly new

But with Halo 4, 343 Industries has done something amazing. They’ve put more effort into the storytelling – humanizing the Master Chief and making more connections to those books we really nerdy gamers read – changed the setting, given us new, interesting enemies to fight and fun weapons to play with …

In other words, they’ve made me excited about Halo again.

1UP - A-

Halo 4 has all the big set piece battles players expect, along with dynamic A.I. that lends the enemy an astute level of self-preservation. The game presents a broad palette of tools and weapons to drive players to make impulsive decisions across its myriad sci-fi battlefields. Not every design decision by 343i works as well as others, as you might expect; but for a new studio tasked with delivering the most important Xbox title this year, they take an impressive first step into the future of the Halo franchise.

San Jose Mercury News: Halo 4 will surprise you

So it's a surprise that "Halo 4" turns out to be a tear-jerker, of all things. That's like discovering Mike Tyson sewing his own clothing line or Donald Trump volunteering at a soup kitchen. It defies our preconceived notions. Yes, we expect the first-person shooter to have action (there's plenty), explosions (I counted at least 15) and a few one-liners as Master Chief faces certain death. But making fans weepy? That's a hidden talent.

It's an auspicious start for 343 Industries, the new studio in charge of one of gaming's most popular franchises. ("Halo 4" hits stores Tuesday.) The developer gives the series a much-needed revamp in terms of visuals, presentation and story.

Arstechnica: Jumping head first without a Bungie (and loving it)

Halo 4's story dragged me in just as much as its gameplay. As a shameless fan of the Halo universe who's read all the books and consumed many other forms of Halo-related media, I was giddy to see where John 117 would go next. Every part of the campaign—from the extensive cut scenes to the drastic increase of dialogue—showed a laser-like dramatic focus that demanded my full attention. For once I cared about Cortana as a "person," not just as some disembodied lackey.

In previous Halo games, the lion’s share of the story was communicated during gameplay. In Halo 4, the spectacularly voice-acted cut scenes—by far the best looking in the series—do a better job of telling a much more personal story. Watching the emotion on Cortana’s face as she grows impatient with a commanding officer is more delightful than trying to listen for that same emotion while shooting a grunt in the face.

[Guest]

Sounds like this could be GOTY material according to some. With these reviews, I definitely can't wait for my copy to come in next week.

[MrBill]

I am hoping to have a copy today or tomorrow.

[Twigg4075]

Damn, better reviews than I thought. Cant wait till the 11th so I can play this with the boys!

Sounds like this could be GOTY material according to some. With these reviews, I definitely can't wait for my copy to come in next week.

I honestly can't see this game being GotY. The closest a Halo game has ever come to that was Halo 2. I'm sure this game will be great but not GotY. When you boil it down, it's just shooting aliens and trying to save the world. The mp is what keeps people hooked and that has gotten way stale over the years. Also, with these reviews you need to take into account that I think everyone of those sites, except maybe GB, has Halo 4 ads plastered all over them. Something to keep in mind.

[Leftwich]

It won't be GOTY because of Mass Effect 3

[DomePatrol]

So what's the best place to pre order this before it comes out? Med posted one for microsoft but I was wondering if thats the best one to go for

[Swarley]

So what's the best place to pre order this before it comes out? Med posted one for microsoft but I was wondering if thats the best one to go for

Best Buy will give you $20 in reward certificates if you're a Gamer's Club Unlocked member.

[MrBill]

[wingsfan77]

It won't be GOTY because of Borderlands 2

Fixed.

[Maynard]

wow..another halo. the gaming industry wins again