After some discussion, the GameOverviews team has reached a unified rating system. This review of Halo 4 will be the first to demonstrate this system. A more detailed explanation of this rating system and the meaning of the values is detailed here.
The Campaign
Halo 4’s Campaign brought us back to Master Chief and this time to fight Darth Vader… O.K. it wasn’t Darth Vader, but it felt pretty close! Seriously though, the campaign brought back the covenant as enemies, the covenant carbine, battle rifle, and gave us new weapons such as the Promethean light rifle and such… ESPECIALLY the binary rifle which is a personal favorite. The game starts off with a dark and mysterious feel and builds up the tension over the course of the game as everything that can go wrong goes wrong! 343 Studios did that aspect of the game REALLY well. The new weapons and characters where also interesting. The Promethean Knights even more so! BUT… What bothered me a lot is the fact that the game was short, EVEN on Legendary difficulty probably the shortest out of all the series. Also, after having the tension build up throughout the story I would naturally expect a half-decent ending at least… and I have to say it was really anti-climatic! To sum it up, the campaign had some pretty good elements but it also had some pretty bad ones in my eyes.
The Multiplayer
Halo as I see it (and as most of those I know see it) has always focused on the multiplayer, the good news is 343 Studios has not forgotten that and they have done a very good job with it. While I do find the multiplayer to be more enjoyable overall, there are some maps I miss which is a normal thing when transitioning from one game to it’s sequel. The one thing that I could truly say that bothered me is that while introducing new things to the way the multiplayer is played they left very little room for the older styles such as leaving weapons laying around in fixed areas to re-spawn, as players battle against one another in order to control the power weapons. The multiplayer however is so much faster in pace and I cannot rightly say I did not enjoy a single game so far! Even the ones I lost in! And while I have some concerns on how the load-outs will affect gameplay balance I know that I can simply swap to slayer pro without having to worry about any of that whenever I want. While the game does borrow heavily from from the Call of Duty franchise it still captures some of the Halo feel that gives the game its very own identity. Another thing to note though is how Infection has evolved into Flood mode which is seriously one of the most enjoyable modes I have tried in a while.
The Split Screen Multiplayer
I cannot explain how disappointing it was when I logged on with all three of my friends on a single Xbox (because its just a hassle for each of us to bring his own to a single hangout) only to find that the feature I respected the Halo series the most for was very poorly implemented. Now I am sure there are many people out there who will criticize me and this article for saying this but I would like you to bare with me till the end in order to understand what I mean. When 3 or more players log on an online game which holds 6 or more players in one game session, the game starts to choke. I mean really choke and become quiet literally what we in GO call a disaster. Still an absolute disaster though as the frame rate becomes so low it actually gave two of the guys a headache just walking around! This becomes more apparent in larger maps like exile and gets significantly worse in the Dominion and Big Team game modes. That being said, I do not depend on this feature anymore now that my friends an I can all afford our own console and only rarely rely on logging on with one Xbox. I truly hope that this feedback reaches 343 Studios as I hope that by the next installment of the series (Halo 5–which I’m already looking forward to) will be refined a little more. Halo 4 is rough around the edges for those who know where to look but shows great promise and is probably going to be my favorite multiplayer this season just as its predecessors where.
Graphics: 8/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Replay Value: 9/10
Story: 5/10
Total: 7.5/10 (Very good)
Who should get this?
- Halo Fans
- Potentially COD Fans
- Those interested in competitive FPS multiplayer
- Sci-Fi fans