Halo 4 Review

[repeating integers]

Oh look, people are getting disappointed it was only 4/5.

Personally, this is what I expected and wanted. Probably gonna get the game when able.

 

[Erttheking]

The story is actually pretty damn excellent if you've read the books from what I've heard.
I'm happy they're rewarding people for reading the books, especially after the massive Fuck You that was Halo: Reach.

If I read the plot summaries of the books will that do? Also I liked Reach, so if people thought that Reach was bad and 4 was good, then hopefully 4 will blow me out of the park

 

[Shocksplicer]

The story is actually pretty damn excellent if you've read the books from what I've heard.
I'm happy they're rewarding people for reading the books, especially after the massive Fuck You that was Halo: Reach.

I haven't read the books, where does that leave me then?

Rather confused and underwhelmed I should imagine. The books are pretty good though, so it isn't exactly too much of a suffering to read them.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

Well, that's kind of a bummer. I feel like Halo 3 really would have been better off without an open ending.

 

[Shocksplicer]

The story is actually pretty damn excellent if you've read the books from what I've heard.
I'm happy they're rewarding people for reading the books, especially after the massive Fuck You that was Halo: Reach.

If I read the plot summaries of the books will that do? Also I liked Reach, so if people thought that Reach was bad and 4 was good, then hopefully 4 will blow me out of the park

Umm, summaries would help I guess, but you'd be better off reading them.

Also, the reason I and many like myself hate Reach is because it violated the canon established in the book in like 8 different ways for no good reason. Stuff like how Spartan 3s work and the fall of Reach happened in the books were tossed out the window and replaced with stuff that was no way near as good.

As far as I'm concerned Reach is non-canon, and so long as Halo 4 doesn't follow on from how things were handled in Reach that is actually possible.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

The way that multiplayer seems to work and how it has its own cutscenes etc makes me wonder if there's a way to enjoy it offline...Are there bot matches or, am I screwed if I want to look around on that second disc without subscribing to XBLG?

Either way, I'll be waiting for this one to drop to $20 or so.

 

[Erttheking]

The story is actually pretty damn excellent if you've read the books from what I've heard.
I'm happy they're rewarding people for reading the books, especially after the massive Fuck You that was Halo: Reach.

If I read the plot summaries of the books will that do? Also I liked Reach, so if people thought that Reach was bad and 4 was good, then hopefully 4 will blow me out of the park

Umm, summaries would help I guess, but you'd be better off reading them.

Also, the reason I and many like myself hate Reach is because it violated the canon established in the book in like 8 different ways for no good reason. Stuff like how Spartan 3s work and the fall of Reach happened in the books were tossed out the window and replaced with stuff that was no way near as good.

As far as I'm concerned Reach is non-canon, and so long as Halo 4 doesn't follow on from how things were handled in Reach that is actually possible.

Well I don't really feel like buying three different books and grinding through them in less than a week. I'll just read the plot summaries, that should at least give me a gist of what's going on. I will watch Forward onto Dawn though. I hear it's surprisingly good.

 

[Shocksplicer]

The story is actually pretty damn excellent if you've read the books from what I've heard.
I'm happy they're rewarding people for reading the books, especially after the massive Fuck You that was Halo: Reach.

If I read the plot summaries of the books will that do? Also I liked Reach, so if people thought that Reach was bad and 4 was good, then hopefully 4 will blow me out of the park

Umm, summaries would help I guess, but you'd be better off reading them.

Also, the reason I and many like myself hate Reach is because it violated the canon established in the book in like 8 different ways for no good reason. Stuff like how Spartan 3s work and the fall of Reach happened in the books were tossed out the window and replaced with stuff that was no way near as good.

As far as I'm concerned Reach is non-canon, and so long as Halo 4 doesn't follow on from how things were handled in Reach that is actually possible.

Well I don't really feel like buying three different books and grinding through them in less than a week. I'll just read the plot summaries, that should at least give me a gist of what's going on. I will watch Forward onto Dawn though. I hear it's surprisingly good.

That's fair enough. You'd probably have to read more than three anyway, because most of the books lead on from a previous one in one way or another, apart from the Forerunner stuff. In order to get the whole picture you'd probably have to read the Forerunner stuff, and the Kilo-Five stuff, which leads on from the other standalone stuff...

Basically what I'm saying is you'd have a lot of reading to do

Also, I just realised I probably know far more about Halo than I should.
I'm really not that big of a fanboy, I swear...

 

[Korten12]

That's fair enough. You'd probably have to read more than three anyway, because most of the books lead on from a previous one in one way or another, apart from the Forerunner stuff. In order to get the whole picture you'd probably have to read the Forerunner stuff, and the Kilo-Five stuff, which leads on from the other standalone stuff...

Basically what I'm saying is you'd have a lot of reading to do

Also, I just realised I probably know far more about Halo than I should.
I'm really not that big of a fanboy, I swear...

EMBRACE THE HALO UNIVERSE, JOIN US! XD Yeah I know a shit ton of Halo stuff as well, and can bring up even more obscure facts off the top of my head.

Like how Chakas was actually Homo Sapiens where as Riser and everyone also were older forms of Humans.

Just to name one.

 

[m19]

You shouldn't have to read any book.

 

[snowbear]

Thanks justin, it's good to read unbiased reviews. While 4/5 is a great score, I wanted to know the flaws too. So many reviews are "its halo so it's amazing" without saying why it is, and then completely ignorning any flaws whatsoever. Now Thanks to you I know it's a great game but won't live up to all these perfect reviews that Xbox magazines have been giving it.

Thanks again Justin keep up the good work!

 

[Korten12]

You shouldn't have to read any book.

Thing is though, Halo is a franchise, not just a game series, like someone also said on this forum, 343i is essentially Halo's LucasArts. Halo has too big of a universe to ignore it, and 343i knows that.

You can understand the story fine without reading, but many references will go over your head.

And.... 10k POSTS!!! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

 

[Vrex360]

This does look like an interesting game and might be fun for those inclined but honestly I can't say I'm thrilled. I mentioned the Elites not being in multiplayer and I admit that's not really my problem with it (I'm over it, have accepted that there are worse things that can happen and I'm starting to move on) it's just that everything about Halo 4 (With the exception of the aforementioned sexism thing which should have been implemented years ago I think) feels like it's moving away from what I liked about it. Where's the colourful visuals and the humorous self aware one liners? Where's the epic music? Where are the funny and very humanized aliens? Where are the clear parellels to mythology and religion and historic events? Where is everything that I loved in this franchise?

I see bits and pieces of it every now and then but I just don't feel the attachment that I used to. You never know, a friend of mine is inexplicibly getting two Halo 4 copies so I'll probably get one, might play it and see if it is any good. I might be wrong but I still express my paranoia.

 

[Shocksplicer]

That's fair enough. You'd probably have to read more than three anyway, because most of the books lead on from a previous one in one way or another, apart from the Forerunner stuff. In order to get the whole picture you'd probably have to read the Forerunner stuff, and the Kilo-Five stuff, which leads on from the other standalone stuff...

Basically what I'm saying is you'd have a lot of reading to do

Also, I just realised I probably know far more about Halo than I should.
I'm really not that big of a fanboy, I swear...

EMBRACE THE HALO UNIVERSE, JOIN US! XD Yeah I know a shit ton of Halo stuff as well, and can bring up even more obscure facts off the top of my head.

Like how Chakas was actually Homo Sapiens where as Riser and everyone also were older forms of Humans.

Just to name one.

Y'know, I suppose I probably am, I just never really considered myself a fanboy. But since I've played every game (Except 4, obviously) and read more than half of the books, (and with Uni holidays coming I'll probably read the rest) I guess I am pretty big into Halo. I am buying 4 ENTIRELY because I like the universe after all...

 

[Korten12]

That's fair enough. You'd probably have to read more than three anyway, because most of the books lead on from a previous one in one way or another, apart from the Forerunner stuff. In order to get the whole picture you'd probably have to read the Forerunner stuff, and the Kilo-Five stuff, which leads on from the other standalone stuff...

Basically what I'm saying is you'd have a lot of reading to do

Also, I just realised I probably know far more about Halo than I should.
I'm really not that big of a fanboy, I swear...

EMBRACE THE HALO UNIVERSE, JOIN US! XD Yeah I know a shit ton of Halo stuff as well, and can bring up even more obscure facts off the top of my head.

Like how Chakas was actually Homo Sapiens where as Riser and everyone also were older forms of Humans.

Just to name one.

Y'know, I suppose I probably am, I just never really considered myself a fanboy. But since I've played every game (Except 4, obviously) and read more than half of the books, (and with Uni holidays coming I'll probably read the rest) I guess I am pretty big into Halo. I am buying 4 ENTIRELY because I like the universe after all...

It's why I am also getting it. Well not entirely true, I do love the gameplay and Multi seems awesome but SP is where it's at.

 

[Blue Jay]

Hmmm the multiplayer portion of the review seems a bit lackluster, that is to say multiplayer seems to be the big draw card for Halo and it seems to have been skipped over a bit. I'll still pick it up as my friends will all be and it still looks above average.

Also, grats to the guy above me for getting 10000.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Wow, it seems that the misconception about review scores has been even further skewed. Now it's not even 3/5 that's terrible, apparently 4/5 is the new threshold. And then, of course, if something gets 5/5 that's garbage too because either the reviewer got paid off or 5/5 is just an impossible score because no game is perfect.

Anyway, the game does sound good but probably not new game at launch price worthy for someone like me who plays the Halo games for their story and only occasionally dabbles in multiplayer. I'll be adding it to my "buy it when it gets cheaper" list.

 

[Saulkar]

IGN! You ass kissing fuckwits!

Spoiler: CENSORED FOR YOUR OWN PROTECTION

I more or less expected this kind of response from the Escapist review staff, it has become par for the course for the previous installments. The campaign does not completely suck and multiplayer remains solid. I feel that is a fair summary. IGN on the other hand makes it sound like the second coming of sliced bread.

CAPTCHA: kosher dill - is dill bread really kosher?

 

[Erttheking]

The story is actually pretty damn excellent if you've read the books from what I've heard.
I'm happy they're rewarding people for reading the books, especially after the massive Fuck You that was Halo: Reach.

If I read the plot summaries of the books will that do? Also I liked Reach, so if people thought that Reach was bad and 4 was good, then hopefully 4 will blow me out of the park

Umm, summaries would help I guess, but you'd be better off reading them.

Also, the reason I and many like myself hate Reach is because it violated the canon established in the book in like 8 different ways for no good reason. Stuff like how Spartan 3s work and the fall of Reach happened in the books were tossed out the window and replaced with stuff that was no way near as good.

As far as I'm concerned Reach is non-canon, and so long as Halo 4 doesn't follow on from how things were handled in Reach that is actually possible.

Well I don't really feel like buying three different books and grinding through them in less than a week. I'll just read the plot summaries, that should at least give me a gist of what's going on. I will watch Forward onto Dawn though. I hear it's surprisingly good.

That's fair enough. You'd probably have to read more than three anyway, because most of the books lead on from a previous one in one way or another, apart from the Forerunner stuff. In order to get the whole picture you'd probably have to read the Forerunner stuff, and the Kilo-Five stuff, which leads on from the other standalone stuff...

Basically what I'm saying is you'd have a lot of reading to do

Also, I just realised I probably know far more about Halo than I should.
I'm really not that big of a fanboy, I swear...

I admit to knowing nothing about the Forerunner stuff minus the Ancient Human Empire, but from what I know about the new trilogy a team of ODSTs, ONI agents and a couple of SPARTAN IIIs get sent to recover Dr. Halsey because the director of ONI wants someone to take the fall for the SPARTAN project now that they don't have a constant invading force to justify its existence. They get her and the other SPARTANs off of Onyx, while ONI goes behind the back of Lord Hood and starts helping out an Elite separatist faction in order to keep the Elites weak and divided. A brief conflict breaks out on the Elite homeworld when the Separatists charge Thel Vadam's keep, but Lord Hood intervenes and saves him, but from what I remember ONI destroys a couple of Thel's ships so that the separatists can escape and fight and cause trouble another day. Also a Shipmaster escapes from his prison on a shieldworld, only to make it back after the conflict happens and finds his wife dead (I forget if she was killed by Hood or ONI) he is rather pissed by this and takes control of the Seperatists, using the information he got on the shieldworld to set out to find Requiem and Diadect so that he can have his revenge on Humanity. If there is anything else you believe that I should know, please PM me.