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Halo 4 Review
by on 2012-12-03 at 00:27 (6791 Views)
On several different occasions, I have expressed my fondness for the Halo franchise. Something about the franchise has always held a soft spot for me. Over ten years, Bungie did a phenomenal job of not only crafting the Halo universe, but also maintained a relationship with their player-base that few companies can compare with. Given the amount of time I’ve spent enjoying the franchise, the news that the reins of the franchise has been handed over to a new studio, even one comprised largely of former Bungie personnel, naturally instilled me with a lot of concerns. Halo 4 puts players back in control of Master Chief in the first entry of a new trilogy of Halo games to be released by 343 Industries. So how does 343’s first entry into the franchise compare with its predecessors?
At the end of Halo 3, Master Chief and Cortana were left floating through space aboard the Forward Unto Dawn after the slipspace portal collapsed following the firing of rebuilt Alpha Halo. Those who beat the game on Legendary saw that the ship eventually approached a mysterious dark planet. Halo 4 picks up four years later as the remains of the ship approach this planet, Requiem – a shield world left behind by the Forerunners. Cortana wakes the Chief from cryo sleep as renegade Covenant forces board their ship and before long, they’re drawn into Requiem. Similar to the Halos, the Forerunners constructed Requiem as a hybrid of rich natural environments and complex artificial structures. While on Requiem, the Chief and Cortana are confronted by the Covenant, new enemies called Prometheans, and Cortana’s rapidly degenerating programing. Luckily, the Chief is not alone. Soon after he arrives, Cortana detects the behemoth UNSC Infinity on approach to Requiem. Before long, they are reunited with humanity and Master Chief must work with the crew of the Infinity, including a new batch of Spartan IVs to help combat this newly reemerged threat. Requiem holds its share of secrets, and as Master Chief confronts this threat, many of them reveal a conflict that has been building for many, many years.
Halo 4’s gameplay strongly resembles its predecessors, albeit with the requisite next-game-in-the-franchise changes. A large number of the human and Covenant weapons from the previous games return in one form or another, as well as a healthy addition to both arsenals. With the unexplained absence of Brutes, their weapons are naturally absent. However, with a new third race that actually uses weapons comes a new store of powerful tools for Master Chief to cut through the armies that obstruct his mission. The Prometheans provide a pistol, automatic rifle, precision rifle, shotgun, sniper rifle, and explosive weapon. Overall these are exceptional weapons which were easily my first choice whenever they were available. A number of them also have secondary features (for instance, the pistol can be charged and becomes something of a shotgun and the Light Rifle condenses its three round burst into a single shot when zoomed) which make them even more useful. The interface remains fairly similar as well. Weapons and ammo are presented in the top right with grenades in the top left. Health has been removed again, leaving only the shield bar at the top of the screen. A number of the abilities from Halo: Reach also return and are displayed in the bottom right above the radar. Strangely, a number of the abilities do not activate instantaneously and have pointless animations. For instance, the regeneration field pulls the camera back as your Spartan “summons” the field around them. While these aren’t too problematic during the campaign (I actually don’t remember them during the campaign), during multiplayer, the split-seconds you lose to activate them can be disastrous.
As we approach the end of the current console generation, games are pushing the boundaries of the current hardware. Now, the Halo games have never offered the best graphics available on the 360. Reach was good, but was definitely outclassed by other games at the time. Halo 4 arguably breaks this trend. Simply put, Halo 4 is visually gorgeous. As soon as players start the campaign, they’re greeted to a beautiful cinema featuring an interrogation of Doctor Halsey. The initial focus on her face, where the lines from age and years of stress can be clearly seen, is downright stunning. Unfortunately, this level of detail is only really present in the opening and closing, but the rest of the game doesn’t disappoint. Requiem offers a wide variety of environments, and my only real complaint is that the lighting effects in some of the outdoor locations could have been toned down a bit. The characters that have carried over from the previous Halos have received a number of graphical overhauls. The Covenant rebels wear smaller and more fragmented pieces of gear, befitting their extremist status. Master Chief and Cortana have also been redesigned. Cortana’s design has repeatedly changed throughout the franchise, so her redesign doesn’t bother me. The same cannot be said for Master Chief’s. Somehow, while he was frozen in a cryo tube, Cortana upgraded his armor and added a jetpack. Would it have been so hard to have him receive his new armor upon arriving at the Infinity? As far as the new Spartan IV armors go.. the less that is said about them, the better. Far too many are a bit too geometric for my tastes. The Promethean designs, on the other hand, work well and fit within their Forerunner roots. I could actually picture armies of these mechanical entities facing hordes of organic and chaotic Flood.
Martin O’Donnel has always done a fantastic job with the music in the Halo franchise. Five years later, listening to One Final Effort still exhilarates me and gets my blood pumping. Seemingly, none of the tracks from the previous games have made it into Halo 4, not even a new iteration of the iconic Gregorian chant. Worse, beyond the opening cinema, the majority of the tracks are of such a low standard that the soundtrack is supplemented by a collection of electronic remixes (which are just as disappointing..). Thankfully the voice acting is up to par. Steve Downes and Jen Taylor continue to excel at portraying Master Chief and Cortana, respectively. Taylor especially is worth commending for the impressive job she does of depicting the insanity and terror gripping Cortana as she descends into rampancy. One audio quirk is that 343 decided to rerecord a lot (if not all) the weapon sounds. They all sound fine, but if you’ve spent a lot of time playing Bungie’s Halos, it’s definitely jarring at first. Another thing to note, 343 has gone to special lengths to make Master Chief sound, for lack of a better word, large. All his movements provide sounds that help convey the fact that Master Chief is a hulking and powerful weapon of war.
No discussion of a Halo game would be complete without discussing the multiplayer offerings -- after all, were it not for the original Halo’s phenomenal multiplayer experience over a decade ago, it is very likely the Xbox would not have had the same level of success, online console multiplayer might never have taken off like it did, and gaming would potentially look very differently today. One thing I’ve always loved about the Halo multiplayer experience is that it wasn’t restricted to a solo endeavor. While it might not seem like a big deal, Halo was one of the few games that allowed guests to join and offered an online split-screen experience. Part of this is undoubtedly stemmed from the fact that Bungie separated ranked and unranked playlists, only allowing guests in the unranked. Before its release, one major concern I had was that 343 was vastly overhauling the multiplayer structure. The ranked games have been removed and now, players earn experience for everything they do in multiplayer which raises the level of their Spartan IV to unlock new items and abilities. Naturally, I was concerned that this would ruin the ability of guests to join. After all, who wants to play a game where you’re only equipped with an inaccurate Assault Rifle with no ability to improve while everyone else is zoomed in on the creases of your visor. Thankfully, 343 resolved this issue by providing guests access to anything the main account has unlocked. While it’s a minor inconvenience to have to create loadouts whenever you sign in, it’s a fairly small price to pay for a far more inclusive multiplayer experience.
Beyond that, the multiplayer experience has transitioned fairly flawlessly from Reach with a few elements added from other FPS entities. Players can create loadouts with specific weapons, grenade types, offensive and defensive traits, and an ability. As I mentioned earlier, leveling up grants access to more options in each of these categories. Thankfully, unlike most games, it doesn’t take a lifetime and a half to unlock the majority of the alternatives. It’s important to note that there are a significant number of changes from the previous Halo entries. Importantly, there are no long random weapons placed throughout the maps. Instead, random ordinance drops scatter a collection of weapons at specific intervals throughout the game. Players can pick up weapons from fallen enemies (but not grenades), but they disappear a lot faster than the earlier games. Players also unlock specific ordinance drops after acquiring enough points throughout the course of each match -- essentially Halo 4’s version of the kill streak. 343 has stated that there are currently three map packs in the pipeline, but as it stands, there are not as many maps that provide the same level of enjoyment as many of Halo 3 and Reach’s maps. Honestly, this might just be a personal issue, but I really hope 343 devotes the same effort and research to developing maps that Bungie has shown in the past.
Halo: ODST introduced players to Firefight which was further refined in Reach. Unfortunately, 343 decided not to incorporate an updated version of this game-type in Halo 4. Instead, they have introduced a new game mode which is in many ways superior -- Spartan Ops. These episodic missions offer players the opportunity to develop their Spartan while completing objectives to advance a side story. Each week, a new set of five missions and cutscenes are released. I don’t know how many weeks each season will last or how many seasons 343 will provide, but there has definitely been a lot of thought that went into the current offering. While they lack the replay value of Firefight, there’s definitely a lot more depth to them than enduring an endless swarm of Covenant.
While it was in development, 343 said they wanted this to be a deeper game which delved beyond Master Chief as a faceless machine and explored his humanity. Now, while the books and extra material have delved into his backstory, Bungie has repeatedly stated that they didn’t want to expand on his story too much so that players could better picture themselves as the powerful Spartan, defending humanity and the universe. Halo 4 definitely tries to develop the Chief’s character and there’s no denying the game succeeds in telling a story that’s not solely focused on defeating the next big threat to the universe. However, 343 falls incredibly short in developing Master Chief’s humanity -- if anything, they make him seem less human than before. While the partnership between Master Chief and Cortana is expanded upon as she battles rampancy, that is seemingly the only interaction that truly serves to help players understand the Chief better. The key UNSC NPCs Master Chief encounters treat him in two ways; he’s either treated as an outdated hero who doesn’t understand the current chain of command and conflict, or placed on a pedestal as the mighty Master Chief. This is painfully evident in his interactions with the Spartan IV Commander, Sarah Palmer. Palmer simply comes across as too timid to interact with Master Chief, which is especially problematic given how much of a hard-ass she appears to be during the Spartan Ops missions.
Overall, I’m sure you’ve noticed that this review, while it contains certain praises of Halo 4, has been tempered by criticisms and disappointments. As a game, I whole-heartedly recommend Halo 4, but that is largely due to how much fun I have had playing the multiplayer. Were it only the single player campaign, my feelings would be very different. Honestly, the story of Halo 4 falls short of its predecessors and leaves me concerned about the direction and future of this franchise. 343 Industries took over a franchise that had recently seen great expansions in terms of storytelling through Reach and ODST. 343’s major entries into the franchise, Halo 4 and the movie Forward Unto Dawn, took steps backwards and restricted the scope of the universe back to Master Chief. Worse, the central conflict and story of Halo 4 is plagued by inconsistencies that clash with the original games. Now, I understand that 343 is trying to tell their own story, but it bothers me that has translated to rewriting parts of Bungie’s story. Only time will tell how well 343 manages to carry the torch handed to them, but so far, they’re off to a disappointing start. Still, if you can get past the problems with the story, the other pieces of Halo 4 come together to produce a game that is not to be missed.
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Don’t make a girl a promise if you know you can’t keep it ~ Cortana
All images owned by Bungie 343 Studios.
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