pissonthercorpse

Agreed, this campaign was the least creative and had boring level design. My least favorite halo campaign. Also I thought the story was poorly told, if I have to read multiple Halo books to understand who and what is going on, then it's not a very well told video game story then is it?

Sadly I have to agree. The creativity of the level design was weak. In previous Halo's I never really got the feeling I was doing work (besides the odd bit like the Library in #1). But this campaign constantly felt like a chore. The warthog also sounds and drives worse, AI seems dumber than usual, the music wasn't as epic. I know the friendly AI driving has always been somewhat dodgy, but I was in disbelief when I saw a marine repeatedly driving back and fourth into a wall for eternity. The campaign just lacked any wow moments for me compared to Halo 3's large scale battles involving scarabs, marines and vehicles. I wonder if it's just a symptom of growing bored with this generation of consoles, I mean by this point we've pretty much seen it all. I just think in this particular case, in the past Halo campaigns I've seen it done better.

Yeah it makes sense from a story perspective, but from a gameplay perspective it felt like the level designers were thinking "Here's 2 warthogs for you if you're playing co-op, but if you're playing single player then **** YOU, you're on your own". It's not that big a of a deal to be honest, but it's symbolic of a lot of little issues that Bungie wouldn't have allowed. I got the feeling 343 looked at a couple of the levels from Halo 1 like two betrayals and Halo, and thought "people liked fending off waves of enemies and following waypoints to flip switches, so let's give em more of that" all the while not actually knowing how to create good, original levels themselves. I'm not asking for a Call of Duty style rollercoaster setpiece tour, but it felt like it was seriously lacking exciting moments like in Halo 3 where you and a bunch of marines are riding around rocketing a giant scarab. Instead of anything fun like that, all I got from it were dull, hollow imitations of Halo 1 style levels, but not pulled off as well. It also felt too serious and lacked the soul of the past games but it's not suprising considering 343 are an essentially souless studio who only exists because Microsoft don't know how to let a good series of games die with grace, whereas Bungie actually liked to have fun and it showed with all the dialogue, easter eggs and humor they put into their games. I guess I just never really cared about the serious side of Halo, I was always more of a fan of the crazy **** grunts would say and sargeant johnson etc. Then again, I felt that way about Halo Reach's campaign too, but atleast the levels were all quality, can't say the same about Halo 4. I will say though, the actual gameplay and the feel of controlling the Chief is better than ever, it just feels right. Maybe I was just expecting something more from the campaign. I do have hope Halo 5 will be better.

I agree with cbr and some of the others. Halo's graphics havn't always been immediately as impressive as stuff like Uncharted but it always delivers in the small details like no other game does, a lot of the stuff is always incredibly detailed when zoomed in up close and there was always attention to detail. As for the campaign in Halo 4, i thought it was probably the worst out of all of them (even ODST). It showed me that 343 just aren't as good as talented as Bungie, not even close. They posess an obvious lack of creativity, with many of the missions revolving around fighting off wave after wave of enemy, or flipping 3 switches etc. The missions just felt like more of a chore than any previous Halo. Missions like the one in Halo 2 where you stormed the bridge with the tank and took over the scarab were so exciting, well paced and memorable, and there were tons of good missions like that in the previous Halo games, I litterally can't think of ONE standout level in Halo 4. The level design took a serious step back for sure. Also there was a serious lack of humor, no more talking grunts or marines and the AI seemed dumber than usual, there was a serious shortage of ammo in the campaign, some things just felt off like in the 2nd mission where you had a warthog but no marines to gun for you just felt wrong. Here was this big area of covenent and here you are with a nice new warthog.... and no gunner, so what's the point? Just so many little things like that proved that 343 don't have it where it counts (level design).

I thought it was missing the spirit and humor of the Bungie games and the level design was weak, mission objectives tedious. Every single level felt like The Library to me, like a chore. I barely even noticed when you had companion marines fighting besides you, whereas in Halo 3 they were always shouting funny things, and why don't the grunts talk anymore?

Yeah there's always an ammo shortage, i was constantly scrounging around like a poor begger and there is no theatre for campaign.