Halo 4 Review

It's been 11 years since Master Chief first appeared on our screens and since then he has become the face of Xbox. With the new release of Halo 4 the Chief returns to our screen to fight old and new enemies across the universe, so, with 343 Industries taking over Master Chief’s fight will you still get the same feeling of immersion that you did from Bungie? Thankfully first impressions are good, upon first loading up the game you will see a familiar looking menu with the all too familiar orchestral music that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.

Out of all the FPS’s out there, most sadly don't pull me into the single player but that is where Halo is different, right from the word go I was immersed into the Halo universe and loved playing as Master Chief. The main career thankfully carries on from the previous game, but first we see a cinematic of two people talking about how they created the spartans by kidnapping children and training them from a young age to fight against the human rebels but with the Covenant invasion the spartans went on to defend the world. Then we see Cortana (Master Chiefs AI) for the first time as she tries to wake up the Chief who has been floating through the universe for four years. When you are awoken, the ship that you are on is being invaded by the Covenant and you will get straight into a battle to fight your way off the ship. Right from the first encounter with the enemy you will see that, even though Halo has changed developers, it is hard to find a difference which is a good thing, given that 343 Industries could have changed the whole gameplay structure and started everything again.

One thing that is new is the addition of another enemy that you will need to fight, with the Flood being obliterated in Halo 3 it’s the turn of the Prometheans which, like the Covenant, come in different sizes: Crawlers, Watchers and Knights. Crawlers are like little armoured dogs with a gun on there face, either a pistol or machine gun. Watchers are floating turrets that will shield your enemy as well as peppering you with constant gunfire. The Knights are rather large human like figures that are harder than most thing you come across in the game because of their teleport ability which will make them disappear when their health is running low and more than likely appear right in front of you and kill you.

Throughout the campaign mode you will have regular contact with Cortana but in this instalment she will have spells of madness because she has got rampancy, that makes her forget things and eventually go insane. One thing that is noticeable is the amount of time that has gone into the visuals, everyone knows that from day one the Halo franchise has been top notch on the graphic front but thinking that in Halo 3 the Chief was the best he could look I have to say that 343 have somehow made him look immense, from the battle scar on his armour to the reflection in his visor. Everything from the Covenant and Prometheans to the world around you has had time taken on it and will leave you feeling like you have just watched a movie. As with every Halo game all the way through your eyes will orgasm from jaw dropping visual effects of the environments and the blood splatter of killing a grunt. It is a series that has been well known for the soundtrack and Halo 4 in no different with spine tingling orchestral music at vital points in the game and cutscenes.  

But as with every FPS most people will bypass the single player campaign mode, doing this will  be a big mistake, and go straight to the online modes (Infinity Mode) which contains the new Spartan Ops and War Games. Spartan Ops is for up to four players, more players obviously means more fun for you. The plot runs alongside the single player campaign and will have DLC chapters to download in the future. War Games is where the Halo online experience real starts and where players will spent days fighting and killing everyone around the world, the famous Red team vs. Blue team fight will continue across multiple maps. As with every online FPS now, you will need to win games and earn kills to level up and unlock weapons by using Spartan points, every increase in level you will earn Spartan points to buy weapons and you will also unlock different looking armour plates to make your Spartan look unique. War Games includes a variety of game modes that will be easily recognisable to the veteran Halo player. Game modes like Slayer, a team deathmatch style game, as well as Oddball where teams of players fight to hold the ball the longest to win. There’s also Kill Of The Hill and a new mode, Regicide, when the leading player in each team is king and has a bounty on their head for their death, so if you are a good player you will be getting hunted down a lot in this game mode. Also, within the Infinity mode there is the opportunity to edit the levels that are in the game whilst in Forge mode which  gives you the freedom to change everything from load points to where and what weapons are placed at the start of the game.      

Halo 4 is the best instalment of the Chief’s life so far with a pulsating campaign mode with stunning visual and an equally stunning soundtrack, as well as the addition of Infinity mode that will let you lose yourself in the Red vs. Blue fight in War Games and the Spartan Ops mode that you and your friends go and fight the Prometheans and Covenant. I feel that Halo 4 is possibly one of the best shooters, if not games, of the last couple years. The Xbox has been missing something and thankfully he is back, the Master Chief.