Home > Categories > Games & Puzzles > Xbox 360 > Halo 4 review
An Ancient Evil Awakens
The Master Chief returns to battle an ancient evil bent on vengeance and annihilation. Shipwrecked on a mysterious world, faced with new enemies and deadly technology, the universe will never be the same. Enlist aboard the UNSC Infinity to experience Halo's original multiplayer and Spartan Ops - episodic fiction-based co-op missions.
• The Reclaimer Saga Begins: Experience the dawn of an epic new Halo adventure, solo or split screen with up to three friends
• Go Beyond the Story: Halo 4's Infinity Multiplayer features a vastly expanded suite of multiplayer modes, weapons, vehicles, armor abilities, a new loadout and Spartan IV player progression system.
• Spartan Ops: Extend your campaign experience in a massive-scale adventure that builds upon the "Halo 4" Campaign. Receive a weekly series of cinematic episodes on Xbox LIVE followed by new game play missions, played solo or cooperatively with up to three friends - effectively delivering two campaign experiences in one game!***
• War Games: Battle the competition in fresh, immersive new game modes and strategies.
• Track your stats and scores on HaloWaypoint.com
• Edge-of-your-seat Entertainment: Immerse yourself in Halo 4's graphics, sound and epic game play including a mysterious and deadly new class of enemies
Product reviews...
Lo and behold! The return of Master Chief! Getting on in age, the trials that he has been through are evident in the opening scenes. Cortana is also present, and her connection with Master Chief is stronger than ever. She has been one of my favourite supporting character of all the game franchises I've played.
With the Covenant war over, we finally get to experience a new enemy, on a new planet. An engaging story line, that has Master Chief have to resort to going AWOL to save humanity. Going alone with only Cortana for support, Halo 4 is a darker grittier game. I love it!
Along with the campaign, is the multiplayer. Multiplayer comes in two versions. The first is similar to the multiplayer from Halo: Reach, where you can create your own battles, and capture the flag games etc online against other characters. The second version is a new concept, that involves co-op missions separate to the campaign, that are completed with teams created with other online players. So you can choose your style. Working with other players, or against them.
As with most online multiplayers, you can level up, and unlock new items to customise your character. I really wish that this option was available offline too. With a dodgy internet connection, Spartan Ops was not available to me, but I still wanted the experience of leveling up and improving my character as my friends did. But overall and enjoyable game. Have access to a stable internet connection and have a Gold Membership to fully take advantage of this game.
As a huge Halo fan I was ecstatic to hear about the announcement of Halo 4 as the original studio who created halo (Bungie) had said Halo reach would be their last Halo game. It was then handed on to a new studio called 343 industries... get the reference halo fans?
At the end of Halo 3 you see Master Chief and Cortana floating off in to space with Master Chiefs last words to Cortana before going in to cryogenic sleep being "wake me when you need me".
The beginning of Halo 4 sees you back in the helmet of Master Chief being awoken by Cortana due to a disturbance being detected. after a short wonder around to find your bearings, you are thrown in to action, the covenant are back...or are they?
Halo 4 is jam packed full a new enemy's called Promethean's with a whole lot of new weapons to keep you guessing! the story will keep you guessing up to the last scene (and even a secret scene at the end of beating the game on legendary ending)
After you have completed the story there is a secondary campaign mode called Spartan ops. it is made up of 10 episodes with 5 chapters in each episode with flawless and amazing CGI scenes between each episode. it follows 6 months after the main story and has Captain Lasky in charge of the UNSC Infinity taking on missions.
Last but most certainly not least is Multi-player! A very fast paced and popular experience amongst halo fans. there is nothing more fun than teaming up with your friends and working together to take out the enemy team. with so many game types and a ranking system that hooks you in to unlocking everything you can, you can easily spend hours upon hours and not even notice.
if you were to buy this game I would recommend getting the game of the year edition as it will also include all of the DLC (downloadable content) which contains all of the multi-player map packs, at no extra charge.
I love playing the xbox360 and FPS games but up until now I have never played the Halo games even though everyone keeps telling me how awesome they are. I was glad to get the chance to review a copy and I must admit now I'm a little addicted and my poor husband may have to fight me for time to play his games!
The graphics on the game are very impressive, the details and special effects were amazing! I love the explosions and sprays of blood throughout the game! If your going to play a game that involves shooting things up you need all the special effects that go along with it.
The sound effects on the game are also cool, the sound of the weapons going off in the surround sound is awesome.
Though I haven't played the other Halo games the story line was interesting, It picks up where the last Halo left off and I managed to pick up what was happening quick enough. I now want to play the rest of the Halo games so I can get the full story.
I keep taking silly risks and dying through the game so and still making my way through the entire thing but I would recommend it to anyone and I'm not giving up until I have completed the game. There is something fun about escaping from reality and playing full on brutal shot em up games! I found you could really lose yourself in the game and lose track of time really quickly! The awesome graphics and sounds make for a really enjoyable game!
Having loved the First Halo game on the original Xbox, I stopped the series due to loosing interest in the Xbox and never picked up the Xbox 360 due to dealing with too many Red rings of death in my work (I was the one calling Microsoft about a return authority). When my wife got us the Xbox 360 (a few years later) I managed to get my hands on the Halo 4 thanks to my mate letting me play his copy, I got back into it and now having my own copy, the hardest part is convincing my wife to let me keep the gold subscription to play online (wonderful to play).
Having seen the graphics on the PlayStation 3 and knowing that the Xbox 360 wasn't as good (in my opinion) I did wonder how the graphics would compare. Suffice it to say I was blown away, the details, you could tell, had a lot of thought put into the game and the special effects are just as amazing too. The flames and explosions look like they came straight out of real life. When you land/crash on a planet the only thing missing from the realistic part is if you are walking on a surface where there is sand or stones or even has debris, they just stay there and don't move, however on some surfaces if shooting the ground it will leave imprints, so close enough I think for now.
The story line of the game was interesting where you start in your chamber being woken up by Cortana the AI, from there you are thrust into battle with the covenant trying to survive. After you complete the introduction you then get the halo logo, then you start the rest of the game starting from crashing onto a planet. Sadly for me I'm not very good at these games and keep dying often, and due to this I still haven't managed to get too far, and when playing with my mate, it's always co-op against each other making the story line mode a slow and long process to complete.
Having managed to get a one month sub for the gold membership I also tried out the online multi-player I found out very quickly that it is a fast and fun way to play, this lets you interact with other players of all levels, if you can imagine when I said I wasn't very good I ended up dying a lot more than normal but still had lots of fun doing so.
Some of the flaws that I think of apart from the shooting/walking over the ground and no dust or kicking of debris or dust, shooting some of the alien hardware like their hover pads that are holding up some of the sentry towers,(shooting their base and the top staying up and hovering) for me this was a little let down after knowing that I could shoot most stuff in sight and looking at the good explosions, but then shooting the base of the towers and still have it floating was a killer when I think of the tech being used and the uses for them. I do love even with how annoying it is that some of the weapons (if not all) have a cool down rate weather it's overheating or reloading or both. This was something that I found brought a great realism to the games development.
This is one game I would defiantly recommend to people if they are looking for a FPS (First Person Shooter) game that's in the realm of science fiction/science reality. I have to admit now that Halo 4 has just recently come out, I'm looking forward to the next halo game and can't wait to see what it will come up with to break through the confines of it's predecessor (Halo 4). This is a game worth buying even for a strategy as well as the enemy also does start to learn if you don't kill them in the first few shots.
Again I love this game and look forward to continuing on and finishing the game to the end.
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