My Review of Halo 4

[The Director]

Hello everyone. I thought I'd go ahead and put this thread out there since a lot of people have been asking me about what I like and dislike about Halo 4. This is going to be a very long thread, but it still saves me from having to explain it over and over again. This is all in my own opinion, and is based off of my personal experiences with the game.

 

Likes

 

Campaign:

I loved the storyline and the campaign gameplay. I've played it through six times so far, and of my own free will rather than for challenges. That's something that Halo Reach was not able to do for me. The campaign engaged me, and left me feeling satisfied but wanting more.

 

Vehicles:

1. I like that they balanced the banshee a little bit. In Reach, the thing was far too OP. The only people who couldn't get at least a frenzy in it were those that didn't know what left bumper did. Now, there is a small delay between flips, and the weaknesses are easier to exploit. This doesn't mean that it's a cardboard vehicle, just means that it can be taken down fairly quickly and needs an experienced pilot in it.

2. The Gauss Hog in matchmaking is one thing I missed about Reach. Yeah, I'm one of "those" guys, who can use the gauss hog as a sniper rifle. It doesn't feel as OP as the Halo 3 gauss did either for some reason. Also there is no "shot drag", which I think is pretty fair.

3. The Mantis is one of the best defensive vehicles in the game. I'm not exactly pro with it, but I can get a killing spree with it. I can also take it down pretty quick. The sniper rifle is excellent against this vehicle mainly because of it's slow movement speed and it's size.

 

Weapons:

1. I like the way that you need to adapt to each different map with your loadouts. I've never been a weapon fanboy, so it doesn't bother me that the DMR beats the BR in long range and vice versa in short range. I do like that I do better in close quarters maps with the BR and better in long maps with the DMR. Puts a little bit of strategy into the game.

2. I like the sounds of most of the weapons. I'm glad that they now sound more realistic, albeit slightly quieter.

3. I love the way that the weapons are balanced out now. That there is no "king weapon", because all of them are made for different scenarios.

4. The power weapons for the most part feel like power weapons now.

5. The needler is boss again.

6. Bullet spread is a whole lot less than it was in Reach, and I'm thankful for that.

 

Gameplay:

1. I like the new unlock system. It takes the feeling of Halo 3, where you actually had to accomplish things to unlock different armor, and adds the simplicity of Halo Reach. I like that some items are difficult, but that they tell you how to unlock them.

2. The spawns seem to be a step up from Halo Reach, where it was so easy to spawn lock people that it was ridiculous. There are still some hiccups, but it's definitely an improvement.

3. It feels like I'm actually playing as a Spartan again, rather than an overhyped GI-Joe knock-off. The jump height is back to what I like to call "weeee" level, the fall damage is greatly reduced (still there, but a trip off a curb won't take your shield all the way off), and the ability to punch through a sliver of shield is back.

4. The armor abilities feel useful without feeling OP to me. With each and every one, there is a different tactical approach you have to take to use it effectively, and I love that.

5. The ability to ninja people without having to be on an incline or jump crouch is back. Nuff said.

6. Overall the gameplay feels familiar, but new and refreshing.

 

 

Dislikes

 

Campaign:

The only thing I didn't like was the ending. I simply wish they had gone in a different direction with it.

 

Vehicles:

1.The "power" vehicles still feel like overburdened cardboard boxes with cannons attached to them. In the grand ol' days, the tanks used to be the map control vehicles. In Reach, they were laughable. Someone would shout "Tank!" and everyone else on the team would laugh as they nade spammed it into oblivion. Now, the scorpion is slower than it's ever been, and feels as if it does less splash damage. One of my biggest pet peeves is when things get nerfed to the point that they are nearly useless, and that fits the bill perfectly with the tanks. These are supposed to be the vehicles that everyone rushes for at the beginning of a match, and now they sit there gathering dust, or getting the crap blown out of them with SMALL ARMS FIRE, which they are supposed to be immune to. Seriously, it's a few hundred years into the future in this game. Even in real life a magnum isn't going to do jack against a tank. C'mon. -.-

2. The spontaneous ordinance drops make the maps less vehicle friendly than they have been in past Halo games. One thing that separates Halo from games like CoD is vehicular warfare.

3. The ghost's weak point is less exploitable than it has ever been, making the ghost into a force to be reckoned with unlike in Halo 2 and Halo 3, where it was mainly a hit and run vehicle.

4. All of the vehicles weapons (with the exception of the ghost and banshee) seem to have been nerfed a little bit. As I've said before, I hate nerfs.

 

Weapons:

1. The DMR/BR five-shot seems to slow things down a little bit in slayer. I honestly would have preferred that they make the DMR 4-shot instead of the BR 5-shot.

2. The grenades don't do as much as they used to, and seem a bit glitchy at times. I've seen people at medium-low shields walk right over a frag grenade and just lose their shields. This seems to encourage grenade spam, rather than slowing down how many grenades are thrown, which is annoying.

3. "Flinching" is very, very annoying. Especially in games like Team Snipers, where accuracy is king. For instance, if I am aiming at my opponents head and he hits me in the foot just as I fire, I feel as if I should get the kill rather than having my shot go wild. Flinching makes it more difficult to "make a comeback" during a firefight. Normally I prefer a challenge, but when someone who is blatantly spamming manages to get a kill on me simply because my character is flinching and thereby I cannot hit him, it awakens a primal fury inside of me.

4. While bullet spread is down, I have noticed bullet spread in sniper rifles. The most "precise" weapons in the game. The fact is, in the human sniper the shot speed has already been turned down. There really is no need to add bullet spread into a weapon that can't be spammed.

5. The Light Rifle is supposed to be a mix between the BR (when unscoped) and the DMR (when scoped), however that's ruined due to the scoped 4-shot it's capable of.

6. The BoltShot seems to have supposed to be a mix between the Magnum and the Plasma Pistol, with the magnums headshot capability and the PP's overcharge capability. However, it turned into a spammable Magnum/shotgun. This is not supposed to be a power weapon, and yet it can easily be considered as such.

7. The overcharge on the Plasma Pistol takes up far more ammo than it ever has before. In previous Halo games, you could go for an extended period of time with it oc'd. Now, however, you cannot take your time and aim it at an oncoming (or outgoing) vehicle. It has turned into a knee-jerk reaction weapon, which I do not like.

 

Gameplay:

1. I do not like that it's based off of score rather than kills. This allows someone who goes 20/25 to top someone who goes 20/10 on the scoreboard simply because they got more revenges. In objective games, I get it, but non-kill based scoring doesn't feel right to me in slayer gametypes.

2. The glitchiness of certain aspects of the game. For instance, the Legendary Armor Unlock glitch. It didn't happen to me, but it has happened to quite a few of my friends, and I don't like that. The challenges glitching out are also annoying.

3. Black screens now aren't always a black screen for everyone. In previous Halo games, when someone went into a black-screen, EVERYONE went into a black-screen. This prevented certain modifications (e.g. lag-switching) from being super-effective. Now, players will be in black screen while other players are still playing, and will appear to be afk in the actual game itself. I've only noticed this twice, but it definitely left a sour taste in my mouth.

 

 

 

Overall

 

I love this game, even though certain bits of it annoy me. It's not everything I always wanted out of Halo, but I'm still happy with what I got. I waited five years for this game, and it was well worth the wait. I cannot wait until Halo 5 comes out.

[Zelda]

I say fair enough. Good job on the observations of the game.

[skummgummigubbe]

a agree it's a perfect game now they can only make them worse or slightly better

[a live dinosaur]

I too agree with the Boltshot thing, its like my main power weapon lmao but seriously, these all seem pretty fair :3 great opinions Director

[Admiral Ackbar]

I agree with you on that. Well worded.

[SternuS]

As always, good job. It seems we share almost the same opinions, ALWAYS! lmao

But could you be a little more specific on the "overhyped GI-Joe knock-off" thing? How is the feeling changed?

[Halogeek99]

You want to reduce the shots needed for a DMR/BR kill?

Are you nuts?

[PlexVanguard]

Good job, A fine review, I just wish you had reviewed spartan ops and its infinite re-spawn bullcrap. That is my one and only gripe with halo 4.