Introduction
Today we will be looking at the next entry of the Halo franchise, Halo 4! While this is a good game, with some neat mechanics, Halo 4 also has a convoluted story with some plot lines that are ignored. Also, there are a few missing enemies, but new enemies are also added in this game. The Master Chief and Cortana once again return to fight some aliens!
What did I think before playing Halo 4?
Halo 4 takes place several years after Halo 3 ends. Cortana seems to be having some issues with her A.I. This game also offers the same abilities that Halo Reach offers with some changes. A lot of the weapons have been updated as well as a new kind of weapon being added. However, a certain feature that I loved in the previous two games has been removed, dual wielding! For more information, we went to the Microsoft Store page!
The Microsoft store page
https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/halo-4/9p8cfxzh93ck
As you can see on the store page, a new saga begins with the Master Chief being shipwrecked on an unknown planet with a new enemy. However, this is also an old force that has been around long than anyone could imagine! The new weapons are mostly featured in this game. The Covenant and the Flood no longer play a prominent role, which ruins the story quite a bit.
Rating
I rate Halo 4 with a 5.8 before playing.
The new ark proves quite odd, as it not obvious what the developers wanted to reach with this ark. Even the Flood, my favorite enemies are gone!
Story
The story of Halo 4 starts with the Master Chief waking up after a lot of years in hibernation on the shipwrecked ship in space. The ship is being attacked by the Covenant despite there being a truce, there is also no word on what happened to the Arbiter. The Master Chief gets sucked into an unknown planet with new enemies. With new enemies, comes new guns to kill them!
Rating
I rate the story of Halo 4 with a 5.5
The story is quite odd and does not feature the Flood or the Arbiter. There are also a lot of loose ends and ignored story lines.
Gameplay
The gameplay of Halo 4 takes on more the role of the lone survivor of a war that happened in Halo 3. Shipwrecked on an unknown planet, you will face new enemies, a new big evil that wants to kill everyone with a giant laser. Off course, it is your goal to use your new weapons and abilities to stop this from happening. Whereas in the previous games, you ha haunting voices from Cortana and the gravemind, this time around you have a rampaging Cortana who tries to down talk you at a lot of points in the game!
The missions can take quite some time to complete in this new entry, but to help you, there are now new grenades! These go boom in a promethean way! Luckily, a new feature has been added, sprinting! Finally, I can run away from enemies that want to kill me instead of walking away in slow motion! You do not even need a special ability like in Halo Reach!
Some new weapons include a heat laser that can obliterate enemies! A lot of the other promethean guns act like guns that you know, but instead they act all floaty when reloading! Some new abilities include a shield to block incoming damage, which can be quite useful!
Rating
I rate the gameplay of Halo 4 with an 8.6.
While the story of Halo 4 gets worse, the gameplay does get upgraded quite some bit!
Sound and Graphics
Graphics
The graphics of Halo 4 are once again pretty unlike that of Halo 3 however some special enemies are missing which I am quite bugged about. The Flood have been a big part of the Halo franchise, and cutting them out just feels wrong to me. The missing characters like the Arbiter are odd to me as well, I also think it is odd how the Covenant is once again the enemy when in the previous entry they had a truce with the humans.
Sound
The sound is amazing in Halo 4 as are the strange sound effects that come with the new guns are cool as well. I always wanted to evaporate weird mechanical creatures with a laser!
Rating
I rate the sound and graphics of Halo 4 with a 7.6.
The sound and graphics are better than previous entries but not as good as Halo 1, the first time you got bombarded with epic music!
What did I think after playing Halo 4?
While Halo 4 was for me, hopefully the path of a new ark where the Gravemind shows up to say that he is not defeated, along with the return of the Arbiter to once again team up with the Master Chief. The developers had completely different ideas and completely cut out the Flood for the main story. The new enemies are odd and did not really fit well into the Halo franchise, I rather just kept shooting the Covenant.
Not only that, none of the missions actually take place on a Halo! The dual wielding also got deleted in favor of sprinting and new abilities. However, I would have loved to be able to dual wield while springing into these new out of place mechanical creatures. The new mechanics introduced a new gameplay layer, but the story took a too drastic turn, the story is getting convoluted, and Halo 5 needs to address a lot of issues, for example, what happened to the Flood?
Rating
I rate Halo 4 with a 6.3 after playing.
While there are some new fun gameplay mechanics, the story is getting quite hampered. The Master Chief is still awesome as he beats up poor machines and other things.
What are my personal thoughts about Halo 4?
I disliked Halo 4 a lot, I was looking forward to fighting with the Flood again, to see how the story continues with the Arbiter, how the Master Chief would get back to earth, but this game was a huge disappointment for me. Hopefully Halo 5 has the Flood once again!
Rating
My personal Rating of Halo 4 is a 4.0.
Yes, that is a pun, but this was for me the worst Halo so far!
Last Words
Pros
- Halo 4 finally lets you sprint, it is also not an ability!
- Halo 4 introduces new weapons for you to use along with new grenades!
- Fight against new enemies that are made of mechanical parts
- There are new abilities to use like a shield to block incoming damage
- The sound and graphics are once again good in Halo 4
Cons
- The story is very convoluted in Halo 4, a lot of plot lines are being ignored.
- Halo 4 does not even take place on a Halo world
- Dual wielding is removed in Halo 4
- The Flood enemies are also removed in Halo 4
It is quite noticeable that Halo 4 is taking a sharp turn into a different direction, which will pit you against new enemies while ignoring a huge portion of the lore established in the first three Halo games.
Final Rating
6.8
Let me know what you think of Halo 4 in the comments!
I hope you enjoyed reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!
If you liked reading this review, maybe you would like to share this review with your friends!
i like the halo series
It is fun, but Halo 4 has lost a bit of funk for me but it is fun if you do get into the game!
I think I’ll pass this part if I ever feel like I want play Halo game…
Play Masterchief collection
So far, Halo 1 is the best!
I own it on Steam but haven’t gotten around to playing it yet.
If you think it looks fun, you should start playing!
What about Halo Infinite?
A few more Halo games before we get to that game!
Sad to see that the Halo franchise lost its fire with the rest of its cast in Halo 3.
Might be the new developer, might be a funk, we will see in the next Halo review!
I haven’t played a game since the first. Sad to see it doesn’t seem to be as good. I’m still tempted to try i tthough.
It can still be fun, but it does need to grab your attention.
“Halo 4 does not even take place on a Halo world” really? then it should be 4.9 something.
Yeah, you do so one in the background but that is about it.
I´ve never been into Halo, only played the first one on PC ages ago, but how do you get to a 4 personal rating when you gave the gameplay (which should be the most important element in any game) an 8.6? :S
While the gameplay is good, it adds a lot of new layers to the game, like running and shooting, blocking damage with a shield or even using lasers! It can and is awesome, but the game was just not for me, I had to drag myself through the game for the review.
While I personally disliked the game, it does not mean the game is bad, in fact it has great gameplay elements compared to the last Halo entry!
I have only played halo infinite multiplayer, how does the gameplay compares with it? is it similar? just want to know your opinion
I will go into great detail for Halo Infinite in a review that is upcoming!
“The Flood enemies are also removed in Halo 4” — so they were your favorite? I didn’t play Halo 4, but I wouldn’t mind not having them.
I loved them! They are a great concept for enemy design!
very nice game
I quite liked the game, new enemies and weapons are always welcome.
The gameplay is very good, but the story takes quite a hit!