Please, direct your petty arguments about the game to here. I am tired of going to threads hoping for information, only to find hate-filled wars about the game and the series which cite "facts" that are bold-faced lies. Do you think the game was perfect? Absolute trash? I don't care, just keep it out of threads that don't need it. Post it here so that you can't be yelled at for being off topic.

Technically, it was on topic.. It was about Halo 4.. So it kinda was still on topic.

Halo 4 is my favorite game since the original. While it has a few flaws, it had a well paced story, interesting new gameplay elements, and looks gorgeous. It has the most fun and most balanced gameplay IMO. Nevermind how incredible the encounters and their environments were designed and executed. Oh and the sound is awesome too.

as far as i see it, Halo 4 was a pretty meh game.

Story was OK, but it wasn't as amazing as masterz1337 says it is. I personally felt pretty iffy about the end of it as well (Not spoiling).

The Music score was absolutely amazing, Neil Davidege did a great job and i would give the OST a 10/10 personally. Models were very split in terms of quality imo.

Enviroment models are godlike, with a very immersive feel, while other misc models such as scenery models and the like were also very well made.

The character models and weapon models were either mediocre or down-right garbage to me. The Re-used reach models were annoying, as i've played reach enough times to care, while other weapons such as the AR, BR, and Forerunner weapons were pretty well made. The spartan models actually made me want to throw up several times, likewise with the Jackal and Grunt models (Lesser so on the grunts, as they still look relatively grunt-ish). Elites i have mixed feelings about, as some of the peices of the models (Lower Body and Torso Armor) were better than the rest (Helmets and the [lack thereof] arm armor). The only exception is Jul 'Vadam's (or w/e his name was) helmet.

Gameplay was similar to all the other halo games, and i'm somewhat grateful for that. The Addition of new armor abilities and sprinting made the game feel a bit more fun than before, but other things such as the ridiculous aim assist and no-flinch when getting shot set it back pretty far.

Overall, 6/10 from me

I think the thing that annoys me more than anything is when people compare it to call of duty, saying "der, they addid ordnance drops and loadouts too the gaym. Its Call of Halo 4: 343i sucks edition!" Really? First off, ordnance drops as they might appear in CoD are only present in one gametype (infinity slayer). Second, Call of Duty did not invent the loadout system, nor is it the only game to utilize it. If we were looking at CoD loadouts in halo, there would be the option to choose between 3 different models of the dmr, two models of the br, 7 variations of the ar, 4 variations of the shotgun, 8 versions of the smg, 6 versions of the sniper, and 5 types of the saw. And that would be just the primaries. You could also choose between 6 types of the magnum, the sword, and 3 types of the rocket for your secondary.
Now let's move on to gameplay!
If Halo 4 were even remotely similar to Call of Duty in terms of gameplay, it would be an absolute ####fest of randomeness. The main gameplay point would be pretty explosions, and the word "teammates" would mean nothing at all.
Now just for fun, let's see if there is a game that actually is similar to Halo 4
Let's try Battlefield. Both games have a bit more limited choices for loadouts (I know there is four different palettes in battlefield, but it still is closer). Both titles' gameplays revolve around larger scale maps focused on team play and vehicular combat. And both games happen to have the handy-dandy little feature that allows one to edit their loadouts mid-game.
Point I'm trying to make
If you don't like the game, that's fine. But if you are going to compare it to another game, at least choose one that you can back up with valid points.

My review

Personally Halo 4s armor was horrid except for a few. If I remember correctly 343i made the majority of things, certain affinity made multiplayer/infinity, and liquid development made most maybe all of the multiplayer armor. I wonder what would've happened if 343i made every aspect of halo 4. When I play it I keep bouncing back between the game is great and horrible. They tried to not change things that should've been changed and change things that shouldn't have been changed. Compared to most games today its pretty good. Compared to mast games in the halo series, its mediocre.

The map design in halo 4 is great while the gameplay contradicts it. It feels almost as if all the maps were made for other halo games (i.e. meltdown would work really good in halo ce multiplayer). The multiplayer is being balanced out by 343i currently. It also felt like custom game gametypes were limited. Custom loadouts are good, but the weapons are always unbalanced one way or another (looking at you DMR and boltshot). If they were to change the options of loadouts (i.e. no grenade or "perk" selection) it would maybe fix a lot of the game's problems. If they were to keep the perk system only limited to custom games it would be nice (specializations could be an exception though). I'm not going to get into the ranking system considering it is good to certain people like casual players.

Spartan Ops was promising but fell way to short. Yes I understand it takes time to make new levels, but if they were to make fewer, bigger/better levels, they could've prevented the repetition in it. They fixed this problem in episodes 6-8, but by 9 and 10 those levels got boring. Often it feels like the majority of Spartan Ops is bloodgulch ai maps, while a few levels feel legitimately good. Overall halo 4's Spartan Ops is a huge disappointment, but I found episode 6 and 7 to be really fun and live up to that promise Spartan Ops made.

Campaign was really what kept me deciding between whether this game was good or not. The campaign had many good and bad points. The story is pretty predictable, but there were a few characters (Lasky) that I hope make a good return in Halo 5. Combat wasn't necessarily the best in the series while still not being the worst. It felt like the ai was dumbed down for newcomers (which is to a point understandable). The only challenge I got was from Legendary ai. If the ai was just as aggressive on all difficulties, it would maybe make it up for veteran players. Legendary was about as easy as halo 3s which I personally found pretty easy. In conclusion, the campaign had a meh story, good levels, was too easy for veterans, and was a little bit too short.

Combat in halo 4 was a little bit of its own mixed with a hybrid of halo 3 and reach. Ai encounters ranged from exciting to tedious because of the different enemy types in halo 4. Covenant played like they did in halo 3 and reach mixed. The Promethean knights would've been great if they used they special abilities (teleporting, deploying watchers, telport in front of a scoped player, ect.) more often rather than being bullet sponges like halo 2's brutes. The watchers have more health than they should, and crawlers are just outright annoying to fight. Weapons are balanced in campaign but not in multiplayer. Always having sprint makes halo's multiplayer more fast paced like a modern shooter, rather than the more tactical like multiplayer halo is classically known for.

Overall halo 4 is an above-average shooter and a mediocre halo game. Multiplauer is below average, campaign is above average, combat is bad to great at random moments, and is overall a non-extraordinary experience. Also I absolutely loved halo 4s environmental art (my personal opinion).

I thought the campaign environments were awesome, but the story was predictable.

The music was really amazing.

The AI were pretty stupid, if I was hiding behind a rock picking off the enemies, they would just look at me and maybe strafe side-to-side every once in a while.

I beat the campaign on legendary and it didn't take too long, I thought it was ok.

I think Halo 4 was great, I destroy people with the magnum, but I always find myself wanting to play reach. When I think about Halo, I imagine myself playing Reach.

It seems that a common complaint is that the campaign was too short. Which it was, there's no arguing that it alone was short. I always think of it as Spartan Ops being a co op extension to the campaign, more than doubling the length.

I don't have xbox live, so I have to mod to play SPOPS. But as far as the campaign went, though it was cheesy and somewhat predictable (stupid easter eggs, too), I thought it was a hell of a lot of fun to play. Most of the MP Helmets are hideous (I like Deadeye, Recon, Warrior, MK 6, and Rogue, not really any others) and the Fotus and Stalker helmets are insults to people with mental deficiencies eveywhere. They look like something my brother would've modeled back when he was 4. The music and environments were gorgeous.

and den expoze it do teh public cauz tat makez me look col.

I forgot to mention that the MP armor looks like crap. Red and blue perms especially. I stick with the MK6 armor all around, including the visor color set to orange or whatever. Who thought it was a great idea to put hexagons on the damn visor?

It doesn't look bad IMO

I also liked the Mk6, which is why I beat it on legendary the day I got it.
I liked the hexagons on the visor, though.. Reminded me of Crysis, almost.

The only real thing Halo 4 had going for it in my opinion was art.

Otherwise, it was a pretty terrible game in my opinion. Horrid Level Design, story was mediocre and predictable, music was okay, it was different, but definitely not Halo, etc... I could keep going on about it but I'll spare you guys the details.

Now with Castle map pack, as well as the other two, alongside added playlists and such, Halo 4 has become a pretty enjoyable game for me.

I think Daybreak CTF and Perdition KotH are some of the funnest matches I've played in the past few years of Halo.

Of course, nothing beats BTB Sandtrap CTF

Design was great for the SP, the rest eh.

Wasnt a fan of the art style of the elites and jackals. But I had a blast playing the SP.

I've never been a fan of the MP armor except recon so I just go with that.
I don't get why the colors and shaders on the player models are so bad though, they look so out of place amongst the great backgrounds.
The MP maps themselves were okay, the best being Ragnarok and Exile being absolutely atrocious.
I like the combat in MP mainly because of hologram lols.

With Forge Island out, Forge has been fixed IMO.

Wish Halo 4 had theatre mode for solo though, always loved the ragdoll in slowmo, or when you kill a elite on legendary and he fall's of a cliff and hits his head on the way down very satisfying, aaahhhhh good times.

When they add the race gametype, it's banshee boardwalk time. As for the shaders of the spartans, I kind of agree to some extent. They seem rather muted like Halo 3's spartan colours but worse. Like, they're mute but they're not as reflective which gives off the impression that it's dry-ish, I guess. I like the shaders on master chief because his armour looks alive. Maybe if they enhanced the reflections on the spartans and brought the saturation of the colours up, we'd be good. Btw, did anyone see that Tsavo Highway's reflection map was in Forge Island? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0g33SwSbVQ OMG if they made a H3 mappack port to Halo 4, I would scream. Oh, and I hope they release an update with the hornets/falcons. Falcons aren't in the BSP but I know the Hornets are. I'd be fine if I were only able to bus 3 people at a time.

Campaign Theatre wouldn't have worked because H4 uses Havok AI, the movements of which would not be able to store for later viewing. Same for SpOps.
And Ally, I don't mean to be a killjoy, but an "update" couldn't add in Hornets/Falcons. They would have to put the tags into all the maps, and then all the players would have to download ALL of the maps. Needless to say, that'd take a hell of a lot of time. Not really worth it.
Edited by clonecam117 on Apr 15, 2013 at 11:40 AM

Edited by clonecam117 on Apr 15, 2013 at 11:47 AM

MY personal review:

The Campaign was satisfying. It was well done, in accord with the books and the previous chapters, and kept me in tension until the last level. Someone is in disagreement with the ending, but it satisfied me. It was too short, though, even on Legendary. The scenarios are amazing, they give a sense of hugeness.

The AI was clever enough, though I've seen that 343i preferred the strenght instead of the intelligence. The Prometheans are a good addition, I was bored to fight always the Covenant, though I would have preferred more Promethean classes, instead of just three. I hope 343i will add more classes in the next chapter.

I was sad about the absence of the Arbiter and the Separatist Elites, though the Storm faction is still cool. Some of the Elite armours are meh, but I really enjoyed the Zealot armour. Nothing to say about the Grunts and the Jackals, they are fine to me.

The weapons are good, I really missed the BR and the Carbine. Unluckily, though the UNSC weapons have beautiful sounds, the Covenant weapons have horrible sounds, except the Carbine (thanks to God), the Needler and the charging sound of the Plasma Pistol. Storm Rifle is stupid.

I'm a bit disappointed for the recycle of some Reach models, though it was just a way to welcome new Halo players. I still hope for a better Banshee...

The OST is beautiful, nothing to say about the previous songs, but this time I really enjoyed it. In Reach and ODST I thought that Marty was running out of ideas, honestly, but in Halo 4 Neil Davidge did the soundtrack like a movie one. 10/10 for "117", "Arrival" and "Revival".

Spartan Ops are cool, but a bit too repetitive. I understand that 343i didn't want to change too much things, but they could have made something more exciting. Hope for a Season 2.

The Multiplayer is definitely better than Reach, expecially because they removed those overpowered AAs like the Armour Lock (though it wasn't really bad to me) and because they constantly update the game and nerf unbalanced weapons and AAs. This is justice.

My judgement is 9/10. It is amazing, but not perfect. Hope 343i will learn from their errors, and try to make something original. What I want is the return of the Arbiter, better sounds for the Covenant Weapons, a longer Campaign and more Promethean classes. Oh, and I'd like to see innovative missions, instead of always killing enemies, activating buttons and destroy cores...

The Storm Rifle shoots cotton balls. I still find it effective.
The Carbine was my #1 weapon on XBL for, like, the two weeks I had it.

https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/players/clonecam117/halo4

A lot of the tracks that most people enjoy were actually composed by Kazuma Jinnouchi (like 117, Green and Blue, Lasky's Theme, etc). Also, his version of Never Forget was beautiful. Don't get me wrong, Niel is still vital to the music. But while Niel's tracks are usually seen in game, Kazuma's are usually the ones in the cutscenes.

117 is actually Niel's, but Green and Blue, Lasky's theme, and Pursuit are Kazuma's. Either way, they're both brilliant composers.

After some 2 gb for SPO, I'd take that risk. Tbh, though, it wouldn't be too bad. The update could be optional like Forge Island. Besides, like I've said before, the tags are already in the maps.

Well, the hornet tags are only in skyline, which obviously would be a crap level to have an air vehicle (everyone would be hiding behind dat tarp), and the only falcon tags in the maps are just some bitmaps and effects, no models or animations or whatever. But however, I might look into making the Hornet on skyline flyable (banshee model swap) if only for the novelty, as like I said that is NOT the level to have an air vehicle.

Honestly, if they only put the hornet in forge Island, I'd be fine.

Plasma rifle, miss it made the elites more alien.

It was outdated and obsolete. Hence why you saw it in the prologue and no where else.

I guess I should do a review of it too.

What the game did right
1: Campaign. I thought the campaign was great. It didn't suffer from the same flaws that I saw with the first trilogy (like killing off major characters too early {h1}). The level design was well done. The story was, while somewhat predictable, still exciting.

2: Spartan Ops (mostly episodes 6-10). I admit, the first half of Spartan Ops was somewhat disappointing. It was still good, just not to the level that I expected. And I guess that's what happens when you try to make an experience similar to a campaign without the single player team. And that all changed for episodes 6-10. The SP team was free to help with the development, and the changes are easily seen. Much better dialogue (although from ep 4 and on, Roland started to become my favorite new character), new environments (even ones from war games were so modified that it took me a while to fully see the resemblance), better encounters. Even the variety in the levels can be easily seen (up to episode 5, the level with the most areas was the desert one, with two bsps. I believe Lockup from 6 and on had 4 bsps, and Infinity had 3). Spartan Ops also served to open up more ways for the next title to fit in (Prometheans made from regular human brains still retained memories of their past? And Cortana, made from an advanced human brain, stayed in the composer?).

3: Graphics. I know a lot of people like to say "oh, good graphics really don't matter at all", but they do. With Halo 4's incredible graphics, characters' emotions are much more easily conveyed and the environments are much easier to get into.

4: Sounds. The voice acting was amazing. So much more emotion was heard in it that any of the previous games. Also, the weapon sounds were (for the most part) really well done. Even if I didn't agree with some of the weapons' sounds, I had to respect how detailed they were.

5: The little things. You know, all those little things that could easily be missed that 343 took the time to make? Whether it is the campaign hud that has moving altitude markers, the sounds made when you fall enough to damage your shields but not deplete them, how the had shakes differently for each weapon, or even how a weapon's weight affects how your screen tilts as you fall, 343 went out of their way to provide a much more immersible game.

6: 343's interaction with the community. After nothing really got done in the first month of the game, people complained that "343 isnt listining to us! thay just want muny!" And that's not really fair for them, because they were spending the holiday season with their families- like normal people do. Upon their return, however, updates started rolling out. New playlists were added, community maps were put in the rotation. They even hired community members to help with the matchmaking. Almost everything the community has asked for, 343 has delivered.

What went wrong

1: Launch condition. When the game launched, there were LOTS of problems. Bugs, horrid weapon imbalances, etc. And while every Halo game after ce launched with problems that required a title update (343 actually rolled them out quicker than some of the other games), that doesn't excuse it.

2: Crimson dlc fiasco. As a new company, 343 is bound to make mistakes. But when something went wrong trying to make a dlc accessible to map pass holders, everybody got it for free. It took two weeks before the problem was fixed, and ms pulled the dlc from all non-pass holders, calling the last two weeks a "trial of the map pack."

what doesn't really belong in either category, but I still want to note

1: It is no closer to CoD than Battlefield is. Seriously, Call of Duty did not invent the custom classes. And past that, Halo's classes are not even close to CoD's. Ordnance drops are only present in a few playlists (most of which are in action sack, mind you), and there are things in it called VEHICLES. Stop looking at a few shared traits and automatically assuming that a sci-fi, slower paced, team/vehicular based game is a clone of a fast paced, individual based, twitch reflex military shooter. That's like saying "oh, halo 1 has an assault rifle. So does CoD. CE is such a CoD clone," even when Halo came out first and CoD does not own the term "assault rifle".

2: Give 343 a chance. They're a new company, and they even admitted that they made mistakes with Halo 4. And considering how much has been changed in Spartan Ops + multiplayer based off of community input, I would hold off on the blind rage.

Exactly. It's 343's first major title, and for most of their employees it's their first game Period. What they accomplished with so little experience is just staggering.

You forgot Halo CEA. CEA was horrible. It was laggy, didn't play like it was advertised, Looked inconsistent, and was pretty much just a reach port with new levels.

Guess what, genius? 343 didn't make CEA. Saber Interactive did. 343 just paid them to do it.

He sayd that Halo 4 is 343's first MAJOR title. CEA was just a way to celebrate the anniversary of Halo 1 and a way for 343 to enter in the gaming world. It was full of errors, but at least it was funny to play
Edited by SOI_7 on Apr 17, 2013 at 01:41 PM