Prior to E3, I was struggling to get excited for Halo 4. I played Halo 3 like a man possessed, but never rekindled that ineffable passion with the more recent releases and always struggle to find enthusiasm for the fourth game in a trilogy. Finish the Fight.
Actually, keep going.
New developer 343 Industries hasn’t reinvented the wheel. If you weren’t reading the gaming media right now, you would be forgiven for playing through the entire game believing it is a Bungie product, if the demo is anything to go by.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. 343 may have missed a massive opportunity to rejuvenate the decade old franchise, but they’ve also successfully filled the imposing void left before them. That’s no easy feat, and it would be unfair to judge the game’s innovation from a 20 minute demo.
Gone are the days of the overpowered Battle Riffle-melee run ‘n’ gun approach.
We were treated to one mission from the new Spartan Ops mode and several rounds of multiplayer during E3 all the ways back at the start of June. The changes are more like tweaks, but they’ll be immediately apparent to anyone who has picked up a Halo game before. Whether they make a substantial difference to the gameplay is an entirely different kettle of fish.
Spartan Ops allows up to four players to join forces in the ultimate co-op adventure, separate to the main campaign. New missions will be released weekly following the game’s release. Better yet, they’ll be completely free; clearly no former Activision staffers were involved.
Master Chief and Cortana both return, but in a new storyline. It comes with aggressive new enemies and a batch of advanced weapons to go with those returning from the games of yesteryear.
I should also note that melee has been deceptively shifted to the left bumper button by default, which totally screwed me in our 4 vs 4 team deathmatch. My inner Halo 3 fanboy was not prepared for such trickery. I would have done much better had I known about that beforehand, seriously. No, really.
343 has rebooted the armory by developing a series of recommended loadout options to choose from. These can be customised by the player, but the default options offer more than enough tactical support for the average player. Amour and perks are also at the discretion of the player, giving us more options than ever before as how to actually play Halo.
Gone are the days of the overpowered Battle Riffle-melee run ‘n’ gun approach.
The multiplayer gameplay was reminiscent of classic Halo; which is a nice way of saying that it hasn’t changed in the past five years. Having the option to customise your loadout, however, will make a monumental difference given time, as each character will genuinely be diverse in both approach and ability. Aside from that, Halo fans will feel at home in the hands of their new developer.
Have you enjoyed any of the Halo games over the past 10 years? Halo 4 is the game for you!
By Ben Salter - Bio