My thoughts on the Halo 4 campaign.

[Darren Colquhoun]

Hi all,

 

Just completed Halo 4 and wanted to share my thoughts, so I'm gonna randomly list some stuff and see what you guys think.

 

First off, it's absolutely NOT a Halo game. The missions are absolutely nothing like the previous games. If anyone has played Vanquish, it feels very much like that, but with some Halo weapons and characters thrown in. Also as some people have already said, it's too short.

 

I also noticed a few things they added that reminded me of CoD, and it really frustrates me when companies try to copy them because they do well money wise.

 

The title of the game is "Halo", yet this game seemed to have very little to actually do with the Halos.

 

The graphics in most of the game are excellent though. In the very few missions that you're on the ground in a large battlefield, the scenery around you isn't great in my opinion, but when in the spaceships it looks excellent particularly during cutscenes, although I did notice that the audio quality in the cutscenes is incredibly low which kinda sucked.

 

One other thing is that I feel they got the music completely wrong. For example, there are some really epic missions where everything is blowing up, but there's some relatively soft music playing in the background :S

 

 

Overall I'd say I enjoyed the game, but to be honest I think that if you took the Halo aspect of it out, I wouldn't have enjoyed it anywhere near as much. In my opinion they should stop trying to do there own version of Halo and just follow as closely as possible to Bungie's Halo games.

 

 

All replies are welcome as I'd like to see how other people are feeling about it. Thanks for reading

[skummgummigubbe]

i think it is great

but OFC it is to short

and the only thing a have a hard time with is i don't really get it why the didact is in the game, who is he?

[Sierra1117]

i think it is great

but OFC it is to short

and the only thing a have a hard time with is i don't really get it why the didact is in the game, who is he?

Read Cryptum and Promordium and you'll find out how important he is to the halo universe

[03gade]

they did an ok job of explaining the whole backstory situation. as one who did not read the books i was ok with it. The gameplay was on point, fighting the knights was awesome and a good challenge. The thing that makes it NOT halo is the whole vibe, im fine with the mature take but uhh....where are the marine buddies yelling funny things. They are non existent. It kills the whole vibe and makes one level just blend into the next. I appreciated the liberal use of banshees because we haven't flown one in campaign since halo 2 (and odst). And yes it was short, but halo games become a grindfest, and its not obnoxiously short. Rather play this than grinding away on the level cortana or back tracking in CE. Reach though stayed away from these issues and was certainly longer, but this is only shorter by 1 or 2 hours. Not like it was a 4 hour campaign.

 

 

tldr: Gameplay: AWESOME Story: ok Atmosphere: whacked out

 

 

oh and i love vanquish and have no idea how you came up with the comparison, its so different

[Francis Aitken]

Hi all,

 

Just completed Halo 4 and wanted to share my thoughts, so I'm gonna randomly list some stuff and see what you guys think.

 

First off, it's absolutely NOT a Halo game. The missions are absolutely nothing like the previous games. If anyone has played Vanquish, it feels very much like that, but with some Halo weapons and characters thrown in. Also as some people have already said, it's too short.

 

I also noticed a few things they added that reminded me of CoD, and it really frustrates me when companies try to copy them because they do well money wise.

 

The title of the game is "Halo", yet this game seemed to have very little to actually do with the Halos.

 

The graphics in most of the game are excellent though. In the very few missions that you're on the ground in a large battlefield, the scenery around you isn't great in my opinion, but when in the spaceships it looks excellent particularly during cutscenes, although I did notice that the audio quality in the cutscenes is incredibly low which kinda sucked.

 

One other thing is that I feel they got the music completely wrong. For example, there are some really epic missions where everything is blowing up, but there's some relatively soft music playing in the background :S

 

 

Overall I'd say I enjoyed the game, but to be honest I think that if you took the Halo aspect of it out, I wouldn't have enjoyed it anywhere near as much. In my opinion they should stop trying to do there own version of Halo and just follow as closely as possible to Bungie's Halo games.

 

 

All replies are welcome as I'd like to see how other people are feeling about it. Thanks for reading

may I add that the grunts and jackals are'nt the same, the seem very timid and not as good as in the other Halo games

[Jay Marcase]

Hi all,

 

Just completed Halo 4 and wanted to share my thoughts, so I'm gonna randomly list some stuff and see what you guys think.

 

First off, it's absolutely NOT a Halo game. The missions are absolutely nothing like the previous games. If anyone has played Vanquish, it feels very much like that, but with some Halo weapons and characters thrown in. Also as some people have already said, it's too short.

 

I also noticed a few things they added that reminded me of CoD, and it really frustrates me when companies try to copy them because they do well money wise.

 

The title of the game is "Halo", yet this game seemed to have very little to actually do with the Halos.

 

The graphics in most of the game are excellent though. In the very few missions that you're on the ground in a large battlefield, the scenery around you isn't great in my opinion, but when in the spaceships it looks excellent particularly during cutscenes, although I did notice that the audio quality in the cutscenes is incredibly low which kinda sucked.

 

One other thing is that I feel they got the music completely wrong. For example, there are some really epic missions where everything is blowing up, but there's some relatively soft music playing in the background :S

 

 

Overall I'd say I enjoyed the game, but to be honest I think that if you took the Halo aspect of it out, I wouldn't have enjoyed it anywhere near as much. In my opinion they should stop trying to do there own version of Halo and just follow as closely as possible to Bungie's Halo games.

 

 

All replies are welcome as I'd like to see how other people are feeling about it. Thanks for reading

 

It feels and plays just like Halo...at least how Halo should feel 11 years after the original. It is time for the game to evolve and I'm glad 343 has begun to grow it into something bigger. Only thing I didn't like is the fact that the missions are the typical Halo "press this actuator, now press these three, and then press three more". I definitely think 343 needs to get more creative with the missions.

[Darren Colquhoun]

they did an ok job of explaining the whole backstory situation. as one who did not read the books i was ok with it. The gameplay was on point, fighting the knights was awesome and a good challenge. The thing that makes it NOT halo is the whole vibe, im fine with the mature take but uhh....where are the marine buddies yelling funny things. They are non existent. It kills the whole vibe and makes one level just blend into the next. I appreciated the liberal use of banshees because we haven't flown one in campaign since halo 2 (and odst). And yes it was short, but halo games become a grindfest, and its not obnoxiously short. Rather play this than grinding away on the level cortana or back tracking in CE. Reach though stayed away from these issues and was certainly longer, but this is only shorter by 1 or 2 hours. Not like it was a 4 hour campaign.

 

 

tldr: Gameplay: AWESOME Story: ok Atmosphere: whacked out

 

 

oh and i love vanquish and have no idea how you came up with the comparison, its so different

 

I think the environment feels a lot like Vanquish. Previous halo games were all about outdoors in wide open environments with hills and tree's ect, but in Halo 4 all you see is metal everywhere 90% of the time

[PIITB]

I've just started the 2nd level, and first impressions through the first level were "damn, this sucks".

Grunts look like something out of a comic strip.

Elite AI seems to be on par with CE...."hey look at me, I'll take 4 BR volleys to the head, THEN decide to side-step away."

Legendary is extremely easy, but maybe it gets harder as you go on.

Pistol sounds terrible, kind of like the tin-man from Oz is shooting it.

Frags seem weak as hell.

Music on the first level is just so much worse than previous campaigns.

After all this time in development, and this is the best they can come up with? Really?

[XiKeiyaZI]

Well, here is my input - which won't really grab the attention of any important ears (AHEM343AHEM)

 

1 : Gameplay - The Gameplay of Halo 4, I feel, was on par with what it should have evolved into after over a decade of living the dream. The controls are smooth, walking was enhanced, being inside of the helmet gave me an immerse feel that I have not had since Halo 2. The feeling of firing the weapons I had grown to love made me feel like I was holding them - all save for the Magnum which felt a bit more like a pea shooter. The changes to the Warthog were different but welcome as they included a more realistic feel to them as to what they would actually need with the extra fuel, mounting room, and the sound of the engine. It felt beefier. Implementing more up-to-date looking weapons to match the technological triumph of the MJOLNIR armor was also a welcome change. Cheif moved and maneuvered the same as ever to me and thats' what mattered. Including the short button-mashing or dropping out of the way sequences was a bit different but again, welcomed.

 

2 : Aesthetics/Atmosphere - I feel like they -tried- to give us that Halo feel that we're used to : An ever expanding environment, filled with harsh terrain, different alloys, gleeming surfaces, and stunning visuals... but they fell short when it came to delivering it. I found myself staring at the Forerunner Pillar when you first walk out of the wreckage thinking " That's really nice! But.. it could certainly have a little more looming feel to it. " I wanted to look up at it and feel fear that it was going to topple over ontop of me. They gave us air combat, vehicle combat, a MAC cannon, and phenomenally animated cut-scenes.. but it was just lacking. There was too much emphasis on Drama and not enough on what John (MC) is good at - Blowing **** up. Going through we take note that the Sentinals are 'friendly'. Where was the coursing interaction where one floats up to John and he draws his Gun, only to realize that it's not fired and nor should he and accept that it's attempting to assit him? We needed action. We needed thrill. We needed the music with that single guitar rift going insane in the background like in Halo : CE while fighting Hunters. Speaking of fighting~

 

3 : Combat - Combat was very up and down. I felt alive when I ran into the enemy. I always play every first playthrough on Heroic and then on Legendary. There were moments through my first (and so far only) playthrough where I thought " Dammit! These Knights are beastly. " Then there were others where I pee'd a little as two hunters plummeted down in front of me from a Grav-Lift...but then there were the lack-luster contacts with the enemy where I just stood back, fired off rounds, and thought " Huh.. this could be more interesting." The Elites seemed...dumber. The Jackles were not as tenacious. Grunts were dead on, however. They were all for running up and unloading their rounds until the Elite dropped - then they scattered. Perfect to Lore. As for the Promethians...what? That was a pathetic attempt, 343. I mean THEY were neat. Their abilities and such were neat.. but don't you think they should have been a little more sparse, tactical, and overwhelming? We ARE talking about the FORERUNNERS here.

 

4 : Lore-Friendliness - I was disappointed.. sorely. My butt hurts so badly from how butt hurt the game hurt my butt. Leaving this fact out as well as the one following this one.. I think the game was an accomplishment. But really, 343? You picked up a UNIVERSE full of lore and branches and endless tethers and just kind of skimmed over it. It's like you knew the terms and some facts here and there but you have the HALO BIBLE. We have the books - and from the books we are left thinking " What the hell were they doing? Why write a game plot-outline drunk? " because we just assume you were drunk. We have spent over a decade talking up the Forerunners. Admiring their technology. Stressing how much more advanced the Covenant is and that Covenant technology is no where near Forerunners... and we're killing them with basic bullets? Hacking their software? Interpreting their transmissions? KILLING THEIR DIDACT?! Look, I've been a huge fan of the Novels as there is so much depth and I've become connected with every single spartan and from the Forerunner trilogy which has not been completed yet, connected with the Forerunners, the Didact (Bornsteller), Chakas, The Librarian, etc. WE WERE IN THE DIDACTS' HEAD. Now, everyone wants to say " It's the Ur-Didact" and not Bornsteller and while I stand to see that as true I don't quite think 343 did. We go from the lore we having with the Didact befriending, trusting, and assisting humans while preserving their race to "I'm going to blow you all up, kill you, and transfer you into the digital realm." Even Ur-Didact would be beyond this. The way the Didact looked? Off. Entirely off description. "Patches of Fur." turned into thick catfish hairs from the top of his head. I cried in my heart when he was shown. The armor? Awesome. Accurate enough. Showing his face? You're kidding me. Then you potentially killed him off? Wha-.. I'm stopping. This could go on forever. I'll move along, but just know that you absolutely need to pick those books up and read instead of trying to make something your own. You picked up a Universe already created - Do NOT try to restructure the Universe.

 

5 : Audio - ..... There's stuff blowing up left and right...I'm in a Mantis firing off rockets with my shields sounding off...and what's that I hear in the background? A piano? ... What more can I say? The guns, environmental sounds, creature sounds.. all awesome. But that music.. terrible.

 

6 : AI - ...... Again.. what? We have ALWAYS known to never let the AI drive while you're gunning. You will be driven off of a cliff. It happens. But when the AI hops in a Banshee and slams into a mountain and just sits there.. or all of your Spartan IV's hop in a Warthog and just drive back and forth, back and forth, back and forth...and the Combat Assistance? Come on now..Even the Enemies weren't that much better. I felt like the Elites were childs-play. I want to FEAR them again, like I did in Halo 1. I want to see a Hunter and get a sinking feeling in my gut. I want to kill Hunter #1 and see it's linked brother roar in rage and become stronger and more brutal! Come on!

 

7 : Game Length - Shorter than what I was used to, but I was alright with the length. There was quite a bit of content

 

8 : Overall - I'm... content with the game. I was happy, sad, and mad. We are seeing obvious distortions of lore, lack of information, over-dramatic scenarios in situations where we should have explosions, and disappointment in places where we should be amped. Why am I seeing the librarian for a total of 1-2 minutes in the first gave you've released? You've taken over a decade old Universe and just " HEY! We're new here! This is what the Forerunners look like! AHAHAHA." It's sickening. These forerunners should be faceless, mysterious, and inspiring. At the end of the game.. OH MAN. I thought 343 was about to reveal John's face... I know that kid at the beginning was him - dead on from the books. BUT DON'T YOU DARE EVER SHOW JOHN'S FACE. We have a -vague- description from the novels. Never in a game should he be shown. Ever. When I thought that helmet was coming up, if I would have even seen an Eye I would have marched to the damn 343 Studio office and snapped my game disk at the front door. John needs to retain his line between man and Machine. We need to feel like he is more than a man. We need to never let this die. Keep the distance. Keep the separation between the Spartan II's and the Humans. NEVER show me the face of a Spartan II. When Halsey was shown I was happy as that's how I had always imagined her.. but don't get too damn happy showing faces. You crossed the line with the "Ur-"Didact and the Librarian. Hell, you didn't even get either of them right. The Didact is supposed to be large, massive, intimidating...and you made him look like a skinny human/brute half-breed. If I could find the artist over that I would punch him in the teeth.

 

Summary : I am -happy- with the game. I am not happy about certain aspects. I hope to see them do a much better job with 5 and I hope I'm not waiting 5 years for it. Stick do your roots, stick to the storyline, and for God Sake realize that this Universe is Pre-existing with all of it's lore covered. Don't erase lore and write over it trying to to make it "your own." If you wanted your own universe you should have never picked up the Halo title. Remember, if you let us down you're going to lose your player-base. Bring us a good game while sticking to the Universe you were given. You don't go picking up the 40k Universe and say "Space Marines are made from Bunnies. Magnus is back! " so don't pick up the Halo Universe and go " Forerunners are back! They're an Ancient Evil! Here's what the elusive, long since thought extinct race looks like! " Why? Well because the Forerunners were never evil, only put the humans on their knees because they thought they were a threat to the galaxy and were mistaken in such thought as the Humans were fighting the Flood. But hey, you should know all of this - you now own that universe.

 

Don't play with my heart 343.

[MemoryDecay]

All of you guys complaining are crazy. 1, You see metal 90% of the time in missions, because you are on a FORERUNNER world. That's the enviornment setting for forerunners. And that's the way Requiem is. 2, I think the campaign was epic, and everything from the cutscenes to the graphics has been an improvment from previous Halo games. Bungie has been on a decline since Halo 3 in quality of the Halo games, and Bungie wouldn't have done any better than 343, so I bet 343 did a better job with Halo 4 then Bungie would have. Also the grunts look the most amazing, and have more detail than ever before, os idk what you're complaining about, and try hitting them in the head with your headshots, you will kill them. You probably were off an a little and hit them in the back, shoulder etc.... work on your aim, cuz I have no problem when a headshot is a perfect headshot, it = kill on a grunt. All you guys complaining are seriously picking the dumbest things to complain about or you are just being plain ignorant. Mostly everything about this game was made for a reason, the campaign was better than Halo 2's in my opinion, you got a variety of different epic interesting things as fas as gameplay is concerned. Banshees, flying the space craft (forgot the name of it), awesome different enviornments, great story, graphics, cool cut scenes, great detail and back story about the Didact and forerunners etc... the list goes on. And of course the campaign is a little different than past Halo's, it's a NEW trilogy, a new seega, and 343 even came out and said that. So what is your problem? Just because it's called "Halo" doesn't imply it has to be about "Halos". Obviously the Halo franchise has evolved and became something bigger. Halo 4 is the best Halo game yet!!

[XiKeiyaZI]

All of you guys complaining are crazy. 1, You see metal 90% of the time in missions, because you are on a FORERUNNER world. That's the enviornment setting for forerunners. And that's the way Requiem is. 2, I think the campaign was epic, and everything from the cutscenes to the graphics has been an improvment from previous Halo games. Bungie has been on a decline since Halo 3 in quality of the Halo games, and Bungie wouldn't have done any better than 343, so I bet 343 did a better job with Halo 4 then Bungie would have. Also the grunts look the most amazing, and have more detail than ever before, os idk what you're complaining about, and try hitting them in the head with your headshots, you will kill them. You probably were off an a little and hit them in the back, shoulder etc.... work on your aim, cuz I have no problem when a headshot is a perfect headshot, it = kill on a grunt. All you guys complaining are seriously picking the dumbest things to complain about or you are just being plain ignorant. Mostly everything about this game was made for a reason, the campaign was better than Halo 2's in my opinion, you got a variety of different epic interesting things as fas as gameplay is concerned. Banshees, flying the space craft (forgot the name of it), awesome different enviornments, great story, graphics, cool cut scenes, great detail and back story about the Didact and forerunners etc... the list goes on. And of course the campaign is a little different than past Halo's, it's a NEW trilogy, a new seega, and 343 even came out and said that. So what is your problem? Just because it's called "Halo" doesn't imply it has to be about "Halos". Obviously the Halo franchise has evolved and became something bigger. Halo 4 is the best Halo game yet!!

 

The details on the characters were great - I forgot to add that. I -loved- the way the Covenant looked. I finally had some appeal with the Grunts.

 

The rest, though.. I.. I'm a little shakey. You flew a Pelican - For the first time in any Halo game you flew a pelican and it was absolutely wonderful. I loved it.

 

I think you are a little off about it being called "Halo" however. What you're overlooking is that we're not worried about the Halos in particular... We're worried about the Universe of Halo. The way they have openly went back and re-wrote parts of the lore and disregarded characters as a whole to get what they wanted. That'd be like taking Pokemon and changing Pikachu to a Water-Type. It's just... you don't do that.

[MemoryDecay]

The details on the characters were great - I forgot to add that. I -loved- the way the Covenant looked. I finally had some appeal with the Grunts.

 

The rest, though.. I.. I'm a little shakey. You flew a Pelican - For the first time in any Halo game you flew a pelican and it was absolutely wonderful. I loved it.

 

I think you are a little off about it being called "Halo" however. What you're overlooking is that we're not worried about the Halos in particular... We're worried about the Universe of Halo. The way they have openly went back and re-wrote parts of the lore and disregarded characters as a whole to get what they wanted. That'd be like taking Pokemon and changing Pikachu to a Water-Type. It's just... you don't do that.

 

Yeah I agree with how you feel about the details in reference to the books and detail. But then again, Halo Reach wasn't in line with the book "Fall Of Reach". I understand your pain, I hope they try better next time to stick with the specifics. I thought is was goofy how the Didact was so small like you said, I thought he'd be biggger and look less human, lol not a brute/human mix of a face, I agree with that one man. And the Librarin, I did not expect it to look anything like a human, especially with a humanistic face..... I think they should have looked like grim reapers, faceless etnities or something. Other than those specifics I think Halo 4 was awesome.

[03gade]

I think the environment feels a lot like Vanquish. Previous halo games were all about outdoors in wide open environments with hills and tree's ect, but in Halo 4 all you see is metal everywhere 90% of the time

 

 

yeah i see what you mean i kept thinking WHERES THE HUGE EPIC BATTLE, the mammoth level kind of delivered that for me though. The lack of marty's music was huge also, i personally think bungie should loan him out for halos. And mr. long post is right, I am CONTENT, but halo usually blows me away.

[XiKeiyaZI]

yeah i see what you mean i kept thinking WHERES THE HUGE EPIC BATTLE, the mammoth level kind of delivered that for me though. The lack of marty's music was huge also, i personally think bungie should loan him out for halos. And mr. long post is right, I am CONTENT, but halo usually blows me away.

 

The Mammoth was awesome in itself, but it failed to deliver that sense of urgency and raw power, personally. I would have enjoyed if there were more things going on in that level with the AI actively fighting instead of tiny encounters. Maybe some more skuttling about. Before I was half-way through that level, all of the team onboard save for the static ones just pressing buttons had all killed themselves running head-first at a Wraith.