Halo 4 mania has officially entered overdrive following 343 Industries' Halo 4 event at the Rooster Teeth Expo over the weekend.
The developer, making its first entry in the popular shooter series made famous by ex-Microsoft developer Bungie, revealed the Halo 4 Forge map editor for the first time, as well as showcasing a number of exciting new and recognisable features. The game is shaping up to be one of the year's biggest releases, and certainly the biggest exclusive across all consoles to be released this year. Here's why.
Halo 4's Unique Ranking System
The ranking system in Halo 4 will be unique to similar features in other shooters. While your rank will factor into game matchmaking to balance teams, it won't actually be visible to other players, only to you. The experience and ranking system will be similar to what was available in Reach, but 343 has limited its visibility so as to limit cheating.
A Few Aesthetic Touchups
You'll be able to customize each body party with unique body armor, and although such changes won't have a direct affect on gameplay, they will give you the freedom to mess around with your character's appearance. You'll also be able to choose a female character to enter battle with, which certainly adds a new dynamic to the Halo multiplayer experience, at least aesthetically.
Discussion: Halo 4 Thread
Subtle additions like a grenade warning might seem lifted from the likes of Call of Duty, but certainly provide an extra edge in combat. 343 has made an obvious effort to clean up the at-times confusing and distracting logos, medals and match updates from Reach, reducing visual noise for a cleaner yet still readily informative game HUD.
Wide Loads
While the idea of customisable loadouts certainly isn't foreign to Halo players, Halo 4 takes it to an entirely new level. While there are obviously similarities with Call of Duty, Halo 4 still has limitations in not offering Custom Classes. However, the level of freedom is certainly new for Halo, with weapons, support and abilities (with Spring being the default choice) all open for customization before each match. This will certainly allow for more refined classes heading into particular maps that call for certain weapons and abilities.
Video: The Evolution of Master Chief
The Final Expectation
There's a lot of expectation leading into arguably the biggest Xbox 360 release since Halo 3. With a new developer at the helm, and a refined experience that seems to (at least attempt to) mimic certain features in Call of Duty, Halo 4 looks to offer both a recognisable Halo experience, with enough new vision and spark to separate it from its predecessors.
Which new feature in Halo 4 are you looking forward to the most?
By Gaetano Prestia - Bio