Halo 4 review

[teddymeow]

->Open Spoiler<-

Does Chief know Lasky? Is this a story point you'll only understand if you've read the books and are totally steeped in Halo lore?

[Riskbreaker]

Watch Forward Unto Dawn buddy.

->Open Spoiler<-

Short answer is Yes, the Chief saved Lasky at the start of the war.

[Uli]

my main story-related gripe is that for a first contact scenario there was little sense of surprise and mystery. every one seemed to be totally aware and knowing of the Forerunners or Prometheans. was there some important story in-between Halo 3 and Halo 4, maybe told in one of the Forerunner books?

[MisterBubbles]

Watch and read everything on Halo Waypoint Uli, if your wanting more backstory and try, and find the terminals in Halo 4.

[MisterBubbles]

Some info on Spartan Ops, if anybody needs kept up to date, http://www.google.co.uk/url?q=http:/...hpw4qHCPnFDQ2g

[EvilBoris]

Well it sort of did. I know in Reach you could set connection options to "best connection" away from the default that was just "fastest" or something like that. Matchmaking would then search for best ping times and drop you into matches with similar region players.

I think Halo3 had something similar but my memory is hazy. This however has absolutely no options whatsoever.

It didn't work based upon the ping with other players thought, having a good connection was based a much more complex overall ranking of the players performance.

All that would happen should you pick "good" connection, is that it would match you up with a player, from anywhere in the world who had a connection with the best rating, I frequently ended up playing people in japan or west coast America with that option selected.

[MisterBubbles]

I'll tell you what is wack, the collision dectection on the multiplayer is. I got sniped and my shield got taken out fair dues, then sniped again , watched on kill cam and i swear the second bullet was about 5cm away from me on the screen, absolutely nonsense , plus i think sniped should do more damage than hip damage, yup somebody sniped me again but from the hip, im not sure if they made it so NOOBS can kill , but its an absolutely joke, i guess you can say it works both ways, but on numerous times this happened , then i shoot 5 or 6 rounds of the DMR into enemy Spartan and nothing he turns round, bam bam, two shots dead with DMR, its totally wack.

[PeteJ]

I coop'd through campaign (Heroric) and Spartan Ops (Legendary) yesterday so here are a few thoughts...I'll keep it all spoiler free.

Campaign first. Clock said 8 hours but it was more like 7 with breaks and Live issues. From a gameplay point of view it felt like a good length though the last few missions were a bit of slog (which seems to be tradition for Halo titles). As has already been mentioned many times, technically this blows just about every other 360 title out of the water - possibly Crysis 2 being the only other FPS to match it. It's staggering in scale and implementation. We had a few framerate issues later and towards the end of the game even cutscenes were stuttering, but that may have been a sign of xbox overheating!

The campaign feels fresh again and brings back feelings of the first title. The first half in particular is excellent, nice mystery with new enemies to figure out, new weapons and of course a whole new planet. The campaign is consistantly good with no duff missions, which immediately sets it above most of the games in the series. On the flip side, the number of stand out set-pieces seem to decrease as the game goes on so familiarity sets in as you plod through the last hour or so.

On a big downer, the plot for Halo 4 is utterly baffling. In Halo 2 Bungie massively overcomplicated the story, something which they never really recovered from. I was looking forward to what 434i could to starting with a new story but they've arguably come up with something even worse than Halo2. Halo 4 starts really strongly but by the end I had absolutely no idea what was going on.

The problem is that 434i have made massive assumptions that everyone will have read all the books before hand. This isn't just me missing out on the odd nod and wink to the books (which no doubt I have), the entire "Ancient Evil Awakens" plot is based entirely from a book and the game makes next to no effort to fill in the gaps for people who haven't read it. Major characters are suddenly introduced and everybody talks as if we all know who they are. Suggestions of plot lines early on are never explored or passed over so quickly you wonder why they were there in the first place.

It's a shame because the actual cutscenes are easily the best in the series. The acting is really good, it's just most of it doesn't make sense!

There is additional content you can unlock during the game, but quite frankly the videos you get are so massive in scope that I can't understand why they've hidden it away in Halo Waypoint.

The game felt long enough from a gameplay point of view, but it was hugely lacking in story. It either needed to be much longer to explain what was going on or 434i needed to cut back a lot of their ambition.

All in all I'd put the campaign below Halo Reach as the best in the series. Perhaps equal to the original or maybe just below. No set piece is as good as Halo3's double Scarab battle but it doesn't have weak levels like Halo2, 3, ODST or the original. Reach, to me, is the only Halo title which got everything right.

Spartan Ops is a bit of a damp squib and not as fun as Firefight. A great idea but the battles aren't as strong as those in the campaign. We got through the five missions in about 40 minutes on the highest difficulty and I see no reason to return (to episode1 part 1). Is the whole episode free or just part 1? Haven't tried normal multiplay yet.

Halo 4 is still excellent though. I thought I was done with the series after Reach, but 434 have made me excited about where it's going again... despite the plot issues. It's a great debut.

[EvilBoris]

I'll tell you what is wack, the collision dectection on the multiplayer is. I got sniped and my shield got taken out fair dues, then sniped again , watched on kill cam and i swear the second bullet was about 5cm away from me on the screen, absolutely nonsense , plus i think sniped should do more damage than hip damage, yup somebody sniped me again but from the hip, im not sure if they made it so NOOBS can kill , but its an absolutely joke, i guess you can say it works both ways, but on numerous times this happened , then i shoot 5 or 6 rounds of the DMR into enemy Spartan and nothing he turns round, bam bam, two shots dead with DMR, its totally wack.

The Killcam isn't accurate at all, if they did kill you legitimately it can look totally **** on the Killcam. Same as it is in COD, I'm suprised they put in Killcam for this very reason.

[EvilBoris]

There is additional content you can unlock during the game, but quite frankly the videos you get are so massive in scope that I can't understand why they've hidden it away in Halo Waypoint.

Tis because there is not enough space on the disc

[Synthesthesia]

Halo 4 is still excellent though. I thought I was done with the series after Reach, but 434 have made me excited about where it's going again... despite the plot issues. It's a great debut.

Without meaning to sound like a dick... It's 343i mate not 434. Easy mistake to make I guess.

I finished the Spartan Ops missions last night with a mate on legendary, took us around an hour with messing about etc, we quite enjoyed them, I'm looking forward to more of them and hoping that the story they have on it comes together more with the additional episodes in the coming weeks.

[PeteJ]

Lol.

I actually realised just after posting but couldnt be bothered to edit!

Still doesnt excuse hiding vital plot points in a book very few will ever read.

[charlesr]

I haven't played since Halo 2 but friends are raving about it. How is the MP compared to Halo 2 (which I liked)?

[bcass]

As fun as it is, the campaign is deeply flawed. I'd even go as far as to say that it's broken. The rate at which weapons disappear is totally out of kilter with how Halo is supposed to work. It makes a Legendary run-through needlessly frustrating. I know that weapons in all Halo games disappear after a while, but in this, it's ridiculous. Totally spoiling the experience for me.

I agree with others too that the story is a joke. Really, tragically embarrasingly bad. Amazing that people actually got paid to write that junk. Easily the worst of all the Halo (game) stories.

[charlesr]

Is it region free?