A year later: what do you think of Halo 4 ?

A

AuthenticM

Member
I've been a halo fan since the first game for the original xbox. I bought and played the first three games at their release, never played ODST, bought and played Reach at its release, and waited a while before playing 4. I never played Halo Wars. I read three novels but didn't bother with the rest. As you can see, I'm a big fan, but not the biggest. So when I decided to rent Halo 4 at the beginning of the summer, it was mostly out of obligation. I needed to play this game, as it was Halo 4, after all. But my excitement for the franchise wasn't what it once was. Me refraining from buying the game at its release is a testament to that. Not because the franchise had changed hands or that I didn't like the previews; in fact, everything that I was seeing before the game's release was telling me that 343 Industries was taking its job very seriously. Every trailer pushed me to believe that Halo 4 was more than capable of delivering what fans awaited of the franchise.

And it did. I beat the game in two sittings over two days, and three months later, my opinion doesn't seem to have changed. I can confidently say that I consider Halo 4 to be the best game in the series to date. Better than everything Bungie has done. Great weapons, great enemies (NO FLOOD !!) that force the player to think and strategize, great OST and a great story.

The story is definitely where this game distinguishes itself from its predecessor. The first Halo game had a very minimal, but effective, story. Halo 2 and 3 felt like a mess, even though I enjoyed them. This may have been a result of the massive cuts they had to do in both games' content to ship the game on time, but no matter; the games are what they are now. Halo 4 has a beginning, a middle and an end. Great pacing. The story has a satisfying conclusion that didn't overstay its welcome. The chemistry between Master Chief and Cortana was palpable and touching, and the game had one main antagonist whom was the focus of the story's conflict, which is more than what can be said of the previous games.

In the end, after beating the game, I was left more excited for the franchise than I had been in years. I had not bought a 360 to play Halo 3; my friend lent me his. Now, I will probably buy an Xbox One when Halo 5 is released. My passion for the franchise has been rekindled, and I look forward to seeing more of Master Chief and Cortana.
 
I really enjoyed the gameplay of the campaign, but the story was too nonsensical for me. Halo in general has a pretty poorly told story so it didn't bother me as much as it probably should have.

The multiplayer felt too attuned for the very skilled players. I think I'm a little higher than mid-tier in terms of skill, but the game didn't have that Halo fun factor that every game prior to Reach had.

The multiplayer felt too serious to me, if that makes sense.
 
We LANed it A LOT when it first came out on our movie theater screens via the ad projectors, which was a ton of fun. I haven't touched it since, but I cherish those memories and thought it was the best Halo multiplayer wise at the time.
 
I'm pretty sure you just made this thread because you saw in today's other Halo threads that most of this forum hates Halo 4 and you want people to disagree with you.
 
I overall like both the single and multiplayer. Still feels like a Halo game to me with a bit of COD mixed in. Some stuff needs to be tweaked but overall I like it. Definitely looking forward to Halo 5.

IMO it is a much better game than Reach. I never got into reach and didn't like it at all. The Halo Anniversary map pack for it was pretty good but even that was it's own thing.
 
MP currently is soooo much better than it was at launch, the amount of changes they made to please the fanbase puts hope back into Halo 5 for me. The campaign felt like a fun enough cookie cutter FPS campaign, but a missed opportunity, having Chief alone exploring a brand new planet could have been amazing.
 
C/P from the other thread.

I thought the story itself was the most disappointing in the whole series. It just feels like a massive missed opportunity. Yes, the cutscenes look nice with the new mocap tech, but overall I was hoping for something new and different in the vein of a Metroid Prime in terms of isolation and mystery.

You've got this great setup where Master Chief is alone on an unknown world, and yet it turns into a generic Halo military sci fi story with none of the mystery that the original Halo had. MC meets up with the humans from Forward Unto Dawn, and there's zero character development here at all. You're expecting to be treated like a real badass after the first 3 games, but instead it's just an "Oh wow never thought I'd see you again." The relationship between Lasky and Chief that was setup in the webseries is totally ignored, and Del Rio is essentially a huge piece of shit for no reason other than to be a contrived roadblock to Chief saving Cortana. On top of the horrible character development, there's moments like the introduction of Didact that make absolutely no sense. Cortana and Chief automatically know his name despite him not being formally introduced, and we aren't given any indication of why his awakening is so terrifying.

For a story that seemed so focused on building the "return" of Master Chief, they did a whole lot of nothing in making him even seem like an important character, and downplaying what happened in the first 3 games.

All of that is not even getting into the horrible Promethean enemies, overused Covenant, hilariously short, linear, and standard campaign, and questionable multiplayer design decisions.
 
I haven't played Halo 4 yet but IMO the series has gone downhill since 2. About the story; why did bungie decide to make the elites friendly? IMO they should have kept the entire covenant enemy's the whole time. Story wise they should have also slowed down and told better smaller scale stories with each game.
 
It hasn't been a year yet. Still have almost two months left......

I already posted in the other thread, but to re-iterate:

Poker Face said:
343 killed my 10 year love of the franchise. I've gone from playing Halo multiple times a week, to maybe playing it once a month. Never have I been so disappointed by a single game, ever. I really hope that 343 catches that Call of Duty audience that they've been chasing, because they've pushed away me as well as many others. I will be getting the Xbone, but I will not be getting the next Halo game.
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Also if you like Halo 4's multiplayer, are you still playing, or did you stop a month after release?
 
It's not a very good Halo game. At all. Mediocre in every way other than graphics and Spartan Ops is a fucking joke.
 
Lingitiz said:
You've got this great setup where Master Chief is alone on an unknown world, and yet it turns into a generic Halo military sci fi story with none of the mystery that the original Halo had. MC meets up with the humans from Forward Unto Dawn, and there's zero character development here at all. You're expecting to be treated like a real badass after the first 3 games, but instead it's just an "Oh wow never thought I'd see you again." The relationship between Lasky and Chief that was setup in the webseries is totally ignored, and Del Rio is essentially a huge piece of shit for no reason other than to be a contrived roadblock to Chief saving Cortana.
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Yes. I agree that it's a huge missed opportunity. I had the same hopes as Jeff Gerstmann had: to see new stories of Master Chief without any humans or covenants. It would have been incredibly interesting. That being said, I still think 4's story is better than anything the franchise has gotten before.
 
Lets just say that no other game has or ever will capture the magic of Halo 3 for me, so I was inherently disappointed. At it's core I think 343 had the right idea, but there were so many poor decisionsmade on top that makes the gangame feel not like Halo.
 
I liked both campaign and MP - though I like certain aspects of the MP more than others. I think it's more successful in some gametypes than others.

However - the campaign's story was too dense, even for someone like me who has read all the lore. I found it confusing. And they really needed levels to end somewhere other than "Push this button" or "Grab this handle." But, shooters are shooters, and it comes down to the quality of the sandbox and the toys, and in that regard I thought the gameplay and scenarios were relatively fresh and varied and challenging without being cheap. (Especially compared to the old ridiculous jackal sniper days.)

I think Halo still has a lot of potential. Really I think the gameplay's biggest flaw in MP is not 343's fault, but Bungie's. And it's jetpacks. It breaks too many of the maps.

My least favorite part of H4 is the filter placed over MP. I think it's really unattractive and offputting. I get why they did it. I just don't like it.
 
i think its rather good. the campaign is pretty good, despite having amongst the worst halo vehicle stages and ZERO true warthog levels. its mainly corridor affairs, but they are well designed imo. the prometheans are a decent new enemy, but dont stack up to the covenant. and crawlers suck.

the story is my major beef. it really felt different. chief and cortana's relationship was taken to an unbelievable extreme. the didact was complete cheese. the librarian and master chiefs super powers was a bit far fetched, but most of all - halo lost its mysteriousness.

multiplayer is good-ish too. they took what reach did one step further and added a lot of dumb stuff to it like instant respawn and the infinity stuff. it feels way to hectic, but the core game is really really solid.

its a great game, but doesnt stack up super well for the franchise. i'd put only halo reach below it, mainly because that had one seriously dull campaign, bloom, and the worst mp maps.
 
(Halo 4/series paragraph)

Anyways since I never went into depth on my dislike for the game I might as well now.
Halo 4 for me was a big disappointment. One I went into with high hopes which didn't help matters. Whether it was the boring & uninteresting campaign, changing of the MP, or most of the lore being hidden behind books. I just felt it didn't live up to the promise 343 offered. Now I know others enjoy the game but I'm more saddened by the fact that Halo 4 didn't get me back into halo. With Halo 1 and 2 my love for the franchise was at a all time high. When 3 was released my overwhelming hype didn't live up to the game thus my interest in the franchise dwindled. Not enough to prevent day 1 purchases but enough to never get lost in the hype again. Then with the releases of ODST and Reach it was much the same. Being excited somewhat and it never be quite as great as the original games. Though i'll say Reach was my favorite Halo game on the 360. With Halo 4 being helmed by 343 and new blood I thought it was what the series needed to bring me back in. But as I said earlier it sure wasn't. I'll give them a chance once again with Halo 5 though. Just because my love of the first 2 games is that great.
 
In my eyes, there are basically 2 versions of Halo 4. The game at launch, and what it is now.

At launch- A total disaster. Bugs, horrendous gametypes and settings, perks, armor abilities, sprint, flinching when shot, no "hardcore" playlist outside of Slayer Pro (even then it was was nowhere near a competitive gametype), poor skill matching, imbalanced weapon sandbox, free DLC glitches that were literally covered up with fake names that didn't actually exist, weak selection of maps, botched gametype redesigns

Now- loads better, but still some poor design decisions and still all around an average game that could be so much more, with the exception of customs. Rebalanced weapon sandbox that brought some improvements, better maps, Ricochet, more options in playlists (with a few big missteps though), improved gametypes. Sadly, flinch is still in, there are new perks that break the game even further, sprint is still a mainstay, and the skill gap is still small.

Campaign was forgettable with a few solid moments and I didn't even finish Spartan Ops. Played 7/10 missions sets I think. Visual design, especially on the characters felt uninspired and generic. Level design was very constricted in contrast to previous games (I'm guessing that was the cost of native 720p and FXAA). I spent $100 on the game, and regret it pretty badly. Still, I'd like to think 343 has taken this nearly universal backlash and turned it into good mechanics for Halo 5. Until then, I've basically been turned off from the franchise and Microsoft in general.
 
lionkitten said:
And Ricochet is really, really fun with equally skilled/experienced teams.
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Yup, we were neck and neck with another team. My heart actually started racing which is crazy, we ended up winning.

throwing that ball when its so close to your goal is a awesome feeling.
 
AuthenticM said:
Huh ? I haven't seen a Halo thread in a while.
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your conclusion is basically the complete opposite of the op in the other thread today.

AuthenticM said:
I had not bought a 360 to play Halo 3; my friend lent me his. Now, I will probably buy an Xbox One when Halo 5 is released. My passion for the franchise has been rekindled, and I look forward to seeing more of Master Chief and Cortana.
Click to expand...

"Halo 2 made me want to get a 360 Halo 4 makes me think I can pass on Xbone"
 
AuthenticM said:
Yes. I agree that it's a huge missed opportunity. I had the same hopes as Jeff Gerstmann had: to see new stories of Master Chief without any humans or covenants. It would have been incredibly interesting. That being said, I still think 4's story is better than anything the franchise has gotten before.
Click to expand...

Aside from the first Halo? Probably. I wouldn't say it was any sort of a jump though. For all they talked about in elevating the storytelling and putting an emphasis on the characters, they really didn't accomplish much more than the original trilogy.

I think my disappointment mainly stems from Halo 4 being the biggest chance they had to set the tone for a new studio and revamp of the series. They had what was essentially unlimited resources and still only managed to make a very standard Halo campaign that felt like mimicry more than establishing their own voice. It was a lot of boxes being checked basically.

But then you've got the multiplayer, which abandons some of the hallmarks that the franchise held onto in favor of a more COD style structure. Then there's forge which wasn't even really developed in house. It just leads to an overall disjointed project in the same vein as one of the big Ubisoft games.
 
Very disappointing. Campaign was not unique,Multiplayer was ruined with the additions made such as perks. Characters models needed to be more inspired along with vehicles,weapons,etc. They also should have some Halo music such as the main theme,it feels empty and strange without it. The interface for the lobby is convoluted and unnecessary, it was fine before and even every other game copies Halo's matchmaking so i dont see why they had to change it and it was not for the better either. Overall they really need to return to their roots for the next Halo game.
 
I like the hypothesis that Gerstmann put forward, about Halo 4 not taking a lot of risks. He said that had 343 made a Halo game that was completely different from its predecessors, they would have enraged the community who would have accused them of ruining the franchise. By making Halo 4 similar to the other games and simply sprinkling tweaks and changes here and there, they were able to avoid that. Now that that's done, maybe Halo 5 will be the game to break the mold.

That's just a hypothesis that he made; it may very well not be true. But it makes me hope to see interesting stuff in 5.
 
Pop said:
Still don't like it at all
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Yep. Unnecessary added mechanics like Sprint and AA's plus the perks from CoD and generally shitty gameplay, PLUS what they took away is stupid. If they had made a good game, I probably would've gotten an Xbone.

It's a shame they failed so hard and are continuing to do so, minus Ricochet from what I hear.

edit; to give an example, Reach put the knife in Halo, but it was only a flesh wound. Halo 4 was the one that took that knife out, then thrust it into the heart, and double-tapped the head to make sure Halo stays dead
 
Really liked the single player. I also played a bit of mp after release for like a month and I thought it was pretty fun, but stuff came up and I never touched it again.


But then again, that's the story for a lot of games I play nowadays
 
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