My Brutally Honest Halo 4 Review!

[OMG Treason]

I felt, I need to review every component of this game so buckle up and lets go for a ride into the Halo 4 world.

 

Campaign-

First off many will say this is one of the best Halo campaigns for awhile. However, I did not enjoy it it felt quite bland actually, like a all you can eat buffet promising everything by those who have eaten at it walking up then sighing with dissapointment when your greeted with a sea of assorted rice. Many people raved how fun the campaign was but it just didnt feel like Halo any more. Past game we are fighting on Earth and assorted places for humanities survival, and in this... well we are chasing some giant grey ******** with a hankering for genocide. I don't know I never really felt like the main antagonist for some reason felt weak, really this was the guy who brought people to there knee's when..*SPOILER ALERT* you can off the poor bugger with what was it a grenade? Kind of like Halo 3 were you fought some tiny floating ball whose only attack was really to yell at you while you turned it into a bubbling concoction of assorted metal and a light bulb Armed with the Destructoid 6000 the final boss fight in that game I felt was weak; in this game however they made it easier. I've never really been a fan of press A to overthrow the Evil overlord type of boss fights. I also never liked how much running around you have to do, In the first few missions it was like well find this button, okay you found the button now find it's 6 other sister outlets, because well why not right?

 

I guess it just didn't fell like past Halo's fighting for survival in different areas and bathing in so many bodies of grunts you could probably fill up the Grand Canyon, and then a really big swimming pool full of their odd coloured blood. I'm not saying it was a bad campaign it was pretty good, it just didn't feel like the Halo I remember.

 

Spartan Ops-

I never really understood this, what exactly was wrong with Firefight? Atleast in Firefight I didnt lag, and bounce around like a drunken schizophrenic walking on Legos. I don't think I ever experienced any lag playing Firefight in previous Halo titles. In this "Spartan Ops" I can barely navigate as I walk to the left then continue to glide an extra 15 feet to the left like Bambi on bloody ice. Oh good it comes with a cinematic, that's very well done but it doesn't make up for the amount of repeated maps and missions with the same objectives. You think Crimson team would take a look around and say, Gee whiz we have been here before. The dialogue is also poorly written and honestly isn't that funny, its like they are trying to be funny but just stand up on stage like a deer in headlights, while Sarah Palmer makes some lame Egghead joke.

I feel its un-neccesary and I have way more fun playing Firefight.. if only it was in this game.

 

Forge-

Id like to start off by saying I loved the Forge in Halo: Reach, all it needed was a bit more colour I made a map that I spent days on built around that one hidden cavern in the corner of Hemmorhage. I loved how there was massive selection, a intimidating buffet of options that are only limited by my ability to not come up with something to do. 343i however really kind of ruined it. They looked at the Halo Reach forge and kinda went like. Hmm, well they have had their fun now lets limit them to a tiny bland map. The main theme of this map? Grass. What bonerkills, why limit us like that. A fair portion of the community is made up of people who love the Forge. I thought the logical thing to do was to expand on the amazing thing that was Halo Reach Forge. But no lets kick over their castle of blocks, like the 343i pictured for their loadout selection screen was everyone would kind of use a plethora of different weapons. The Kindergarten bully who kicks over your block castle, then drinks your minute maid orange juice said 343i. Well, that's just what they did.

Thumbs Down on the Forge 343i

 

Matchmaking-

What some would say is the backbone of the Halo series, something that always changes between each and every game. Those who hate it. complain about it, then are drowned by a giant Tsunami of people screaming ADAPT!

So far I have been having a good time with the Multiplayer, but there are a few gripes I have. The DMR, what I know community however does not do that. It's human nature, the EASY WAY OUT. Dont tell me you havent encountered a corner camping Carl, and his companion corner camping Conrad who sit 100ft out from the action and pick you off in a matter of seconds. Yeah that's not balanced I get it the DMR= Long range, but it does that and close range a little too well. It overshadows weapon like the BR, and Carbine. Dont Xbox's come with Mics anymore, I mean how hard is it to plug it in and communicate with your team a bit. Playing objective based games with people who dont have Mic's and spend more time on there back than some turtle you just pushed over is about as fun as having my teeth removed with a pizza slicer.

The Boltshot plain and simple needs to be looked at something is just off about it. While there at it they could look at some vehicle and weapon spawns. Scorpion Tank does not equal Gauss Hog and Banshee.

All in All though I enjoy the multi player Im having fun Im sure lots of you are. I would give the game a solid.

8/10 It is fun but needs allot of tweaking.

 

Any ways thanks for reading if you made it this far please leave a comment, or yell at me that works too.

 

-Cheers

-OMG Treason

[Bloody Initiate]

Funny I found myself agreeing with your numbers, but for some reason I want the game to be so much better.

 

8/10 sounds about right. That's really pretty good. It's a very good game. So was Reach. I just thought the multiplayer somehow got its details neglected. They put forth a solid chassis, but didn't seem to try very hard to polish the thing. Someone said "Why not 5 shots instead" and somehow no one else argued with them. Or someone said "I know let's leave them one-shot for EVER" and no one said "No." Overall though I've been enjoying the multiplayer.

 

I haven't played a lot of Spartan Ops, but I agree with everything you said about it EXCEPT the repeated maps. I just know they can only include so many maps in a game, and unless you design your game to randomly generate maps you're going to hit that limit.

 

Barely touched forge yet, can't speak to its aptitude. Will only touch the campaign as much as I have to in order to clear out my achievements, I couldn't take that campaign as a brand new creation on its own, it exists in the shadow of former greatness. I actually thought Reach's campaign was excellent, so even the game whose multiplayer I couldn't suffer through exceeded this game's campaign by soo much.

 

I feel like a jerk seeing a game as an 8/10 and still demanding more, just hard to overlook the wrinkles and warts I suppose.

[OMG Treason]

Indeed it is, and I completely forgot about the eternity you can be one shot for.

[Bloody Initiate]

I'm still one-shot from when I was playing last night.

[Damien Andino]

All I can say...

Is i was expecting way too much from this game.

 

I almost got the new halo 4 xbox and the whole 9 yards.

Buut, im still being killed with a DMR no matter what weapon i use similar to Reach where the only weapon that you could use was a DMR. In my opinion the DMR should not exist in the halo universe, as it makes no sense, theres short-mid range and then theres mid range, theres no long range thats what the snipers for! but in a way the sniper gets mauled, Also if you've noticed in halo 4 they turned up the aim assist on the sniper rifle just to make sure that the DMR and Sniper Rifle dont equal eachother. I agree with the spartan ops total 100% as well as the campaign. The multiplayer in a way dissapointed me in many ways as I am always being set in matches where it is DMRs and I am the only one with a BR or DMR, I eventually have to switch to the DMR and eventually get depressed how i waited a YEAR! to get rid of that damned gun from my arsenal only to be obliterated by it in the next halo! I was playing a BTB and was starting to get upset as my BR would not work nor my AR even in there distances as the enemy with the dmr simply did a 4 shot on me and i was gone i dont even think i got to my 1/4th of my mag emptied on my AR, I was also in a tunnel in valhalla... or ragnarok... Why did they even change the name?? And so I decided to call up a weapon from the infinity (ordanance drop) and it lands right in front of a team mate, soo far away from me.. And my team mate just ups and steals my ordanance... That is when I broke my thresh-hold with my patience for halo 4. I Miss fighting fully armored noble covenant along side friendly UNSC forces, in this halo I felt like I was killing covenant that were half dressed. I agree I miss firefight as we were actually in a firefight with the covenant even though we were out numbered by tons of thousands of covies, but hey, were spartans!

 

I have to say I liked ODST the most because I was NOT a bulky spartan and i could INFACT get behing cover without my entire upper body showing, I could be stealthy and didnt feel like everyone looked up to me on the battlefield, i got to see what it was like from a non-heroic oh masterchief do it all. I was able to sit on the scorpion tanks sides I was able to be small enough to fit into places a spartan would other wise not be able to fit into. I was never really a fan of master chief, but more the whole story and the struggle of survival for humanity, it is what sparked me as the best part, I didnt really like being masterchief all the time, but the storyline and beauty of the unvierse made me look it over. But to me Halo ODST was the best, I had a squad, people got hurt, and it was very realistic in my opinion, most of the time while I was in mombasa I would stealth around the covies. I also REALLY miss the brutes, it seems 343 is taking this to the fore runners and not so much a survival of humanity, they showed in the storyline of halo 4 how it wasn't really covenant that were a problem, Hell! they were on a forerunner planet they werent almost extinct. And they also showed how masterchief was becoming not so special anymore, and he was just becoming a regular spartan, he lost a lot of respect, and a lot of new faces were in this halo.

 

One thing that has bothered me about the series is the assault rifle! every UNSC unit is equipped with it by default, but yet it hardly does any damage unless you are in the face of the enemy. In my opinion the assault rifle in halo 4 is ok, it needs a little more tweaking like the bloom of it. and a little more damage just a bit! To me it seems the took the DMR bloom put it on the AR and gave the DMR little to no bloom what so ever. I Believe that the assault rifle should get more kudos as it is the emblem of halo. In a cut scene what did masterchief have in his hands??

When 343 or bunjie advertises what is everyone using???

THE ASSAULT RIFLE YAAY!!

 

But seriously give the assault rifle more power, its an automatic, the bullets are bigger than the BRS and the rate of fire is higher give it more power.

[Halogeek99]

I agree with alot youre saying about multiplayer OMG Treason, but I think campaign was half cool, Gfx stunning of course, but first half OK, late parts boring and , like "Oh another five Knights to slay", and then "Wtf a mirror tower!" with more of the same... and, again, again. (only played on legendary, dunno if it was better on heroic feel wise). Spartan Ops I feel is real cool, much better than Firefight, and if you ask me, this is how they should tackle campaign in the next game (if any). Lots of high end vids pushing the story on, complemented with well designed chapters. They could even go in diary format if you ask me. Multiplayer I don't like. Insta spawns bad, Ordonance drops bad, optional weapon load outs bad, here they really need to fix things. IMO a game like this becomes judged by multiplayer alone in the end. Core is GOOD though! So much I like, but they really need to balance up things, eliminate the chaos, and realize the fact that gameplay is being too heavily focused on battle rifles. I despise some new AAs, like wallhack, which is very much NOT Halo (who came up with this idea? Sack him!). Also I feel they need to either give AAs a bigger impact or remove them completely. Jetpack is completely worthless in H4. That's a shame because its the only AA requiring skill (to be used as something more than just a method of movement), so they should REWARD players for the effort (which is also a very Haloesque approach to things), not the other way around! Also the vertical dimension is something real unique and cool. They should have put a much bigger emphasis into letting community know this is the next big thing in the Halo franchise (of course Bungie is to blame a bit for this also), not dumping it like in Halo 4!! Jetpack is a GEM! This are my feelings on Halo 4. In short.

[Dawn Wolf]

I'm tired, and I disagree and agree with some things posted here. There is one thing, however, that has not really been mentioned, so I feel the need to mention it. Regarding Spartan Ops...

 

It's UNLOSABLE. You. Can't. Lose.

 

There is no life limit. No spawn limit. No (heavens forbid) time limit. No anything limit.

 

There is no actual challenge. You spawn in the middle of the fight you just died in. And only benefit from it.

 

You are rewarded for charging and dying.

 

I do not understand their approach, spending so much effort on SO, to have it play like this. Absolutely dumbfounded.

 

I mean... Legendery mode is so praised for its good difficulty. Was checkpoints or something so hard for SO?