It’s not an overstatement to declare Halo 4 as Microsoft’s future in hardcore gaming. If the Kinect was Microsoft’s attempt to penetrate the casual market dominated by Nintendo and Apple… then the Master Chief’s return is a form of reassurance to Xbox gamers who have stuck with the company since 2001. Microsoft and fledgling studio 343 Industries has a lot riding on this title and they know it.
Four years after the events of Halo 3, we find the Chief and his AI companion Cortana drifting towards an uncharted Forerunner planet aboard the remains of the Forward Unto Dawn. Halo 4 marks the beginning of the Reclaimer Trilogy, a new story arc which 343i has promised will shed more light on the series’ protagonist and explore the humanity behind that iconic mask.
Back together… and it feels so good.
Halo 4’s campaign is the most technically accomplished story in the franchise. It builds on the momentum of Bungie’s Halo 3: ODST and Halo Reach to craft an engaging narrative which offers some interesting insight into Sierra-117 outside of the novels. Filled with poignant moments between the the Chief and Cortana, the game feels incredibly well paced and engaging. There’s a solid progression in difficulty with organic level design which mixes things up whenever things start getting a little routine. Tired of plugging grunts? Here, take this Warthog for a spin. Need something a little stronger to take down a swarm of Promethean Knights? Here’s a mounted turret and a railgun. Halo 4’s campaign is filled with memorable moments, both big and small, and  features one of the series’ most emotional and introspective endings.
Halo titles have always prided themselves on the series’ famed combat loop. Success in Sierra 117’s universe requires more than twitch reflexes and the biggest  pea shooter  on the battlefield. Built on a solid foundation of strategic encounters, each shoot-out is often determined by numerous factors. This lends the firefights in Halo 4 an almost balletic quality.
The rhythm and flow of battle can produce truly transcendent levels of interaction when a veteran Halo player takes a control pad in hand. Even after a hundred similar battles, dispatching a charging Elite with a well-placed headshot following a plasma pistol overload remains one of gaming’s euphoric highs. To master combat in this shooter is to master a dance of death.
Those Black Friday sales are really getting out of hand…
What 343 Industries has accomplished with Halo 4’s visuals is nothing short of sorcery. Light streams through thick canopies and an impressive range of particle effects are on display at any given time. This is complemented by the series’ traditionally brilliant art design. There are moments in the game when you will encounter scenarios which feel lifted from a coffee table art book.
Early in the game, we find the Chief navigating through a cave, only to emerge into blinding light. As your eyes adjust, you find yourself on the side of a mountain, greeted by towering Forerunner spires. It’s a breathtaking moment which harkens back to that moment when gamers first stepped foot on the grassy fields in Halo: Combat Evolved. 343 Industries has included numerous callbacks to memorable moments throughout the campaign; a clear demonstration of the respect and affection which the studio holds for the franchise.
The in-game models are an exponential improvement from Halo Reach and feature some truly astonishing facial models with excellent lip-synching. Familiar allies and enemies return looking better than they’ve ever looked.
Neil Davidge of Massive Attack fame takes over scoring duties from the legendary Martin O’donnell. Gone is the iconic theme featuring the monastic chants, replaced with a broad range of electronic tinged tracks. From the stirring ‘To Galaxy‘ to the eerie ‘Immaterial‘, Davidge’s score succeeds in underscoring the action on screen. However, as good as the soundtrack is, it never quite reaches the transcendent levels of past entries in the franchise. More than any of the other changes made to the Halo formula, the absence of Halo’s familiar score proves to be the most jarring.
On the other hand, the overhauled sound effects are an unmitigated success. 343 Industries has built each and every effect from the ground up. The roar of the assault rifle is easily distinguishable from the punchy three round burst of the battle rifle. Enemy shields fail with a satisfying pop and Promethean Knights let out intimidating roars which echo throughout the battlefield. The sound design is a master class in artistic and technical excellence, and it goes beyond the superficial. The first time you get the jump on an enemy because you heard him creeping around the corner, you’ll fully appreciate the excellent job done by sound team.
Classic Halo multiplayer returns with a decidedly orange tint.
Beyond the single-player campaign, Halo 4 packs a host of other game modes. Competitive multiplayer makes it’s return as War Games. Series favorites such as Slayer make their return with a number of gameplay tweaks. For starters, gamers can now save up to five load outs, determining their primary and secondary weapons as well as equipment such as grenades, armor abilities and tactical packages which offer buffs to certain play stats such as weapon reload speeds. Other returning multiplayer modes include King of the Hill and Oddball.
Perhaps the biggest experiment is Spartan Ops, a series of weekly episodic missions which the developer has described as a second campaign to Halo 4. Picking up six months after the events in the campaign, each episode contains five chapters which take around 10 to 15 minutes to complete. These range from sabotaging Covenant energy cores to hunting down specific enemy targets. Every episode comes with a beautiful CGI movie, which lays out the plot and offers some context for the missions. 343 Industries has announced 10 episodes for season one with a second season in the pipeline. Although lacking in the customisability of Halo Reach’s Firefight, Spartan Ops’ development of the campaign’s story should prove popular with fans of the extended Halo universe’. Whether this mode is judged as a success will largely depend on the quality and variety of the mission objectives in upcoming episodes.
Halo 4 continues the highly popular series’ legacy of quality. New custodians, 343 Industries has proven to the critics that there’s life after Bungie. The changes and tweaks made to the well-established formula serve to update the franchise, making the wait for Halo 5 on the next Xbox that much more difficult. If you own a Xbox 360, you owe it to yourself to play one of the finest games on Microsoft’s console.
