Injustice Leagues Asks: Halo 4

[Zhukov]

It was... ok, I guess.

It had a weird feel to it. Like it was made by, well... by fanboys. Like the folks that make up 343 Studios were people who had loved the first Halo game(s) and were excited for a chance to make one of their own.

That might sound like a good thing, but it kind of isn't. They end up slavishly sticking to the conventions of the previous games while at the same time giving the characters a loving tongue bath. For example, I feel that the rogue Covenant were invented purely because they couldn't conceive of a Halo game where you don't fight them for once. Although maybe it's just as well, since the new enemies were mostly annoying and a bit boring. Meanwhile, now Master Chief is not merely hyper-competent, but is also apparently The Chosen One. Urgh.

I disagree wholly! I like Chief being "the one" as much as I did when he was before! He was the last super soldier, he saved the universe a couple times now; being "the one" doesn't change much. Also, play Reach again, it will give you a large sense of "The One" plotline. Noble Six has to sacrifice his life to transport Cortana, because there is a larger plan at play; like there is already some sort of destiny. I just love the space alien mythos non-sense convolutery all together.

No, previously Chief was just the protagonist. Sure, he was ridiculously capable and generally ended up being the only one who could save the everything, but that comes with the territory of being a video game protagonist, for better or for worse. (Same with Noble Six.)

But now? Now he's The Chosen One, Foretold by Ancient Prophecy and Shaped by the Winds of Fate to Fulfill His Destiny and Save Us All from the Ancient Evil of Doom. It like 343 loved their boring, featureless protagonist soooo much that they couldn't bear for him to be anything less. So they turned the cliche up to 11.

I appreciate the attempt to add a bit of depth to the characters, but it's a little late. It was kind of funny watching them staying slavishly faithful to the previous games while at the same time trying to squeeze some dimensionality out of ol' Master Chief, since all they had to go on was "He has no personality and he kills all the things."

 

[Saviordd1]

It was good, not flawless, but good.

The prometheans got annoying right quick, and I wish they had something cooler for enemies.

That said the guns all worked, the story was mostly strong and I was glad that the game actually decided to start using motifs and themes instead of "POW POW ALIENS ARE DANGEROUS".

Though Chief being the chosen one seems a little weird, then again its hard to argue he wasn't that before now honestly. Now its just official from the ex-bosses of the universe.

 

[Saviordd1]

-snip-

Really?
Because "Luckiest, bravest and most perfect soldier out of a group of perfect soldiers chosen to have a super smart ally and given the best equipment and the most support" wasn't "the chosen one"?

I mean, I agree with you, it's a little weird, but you can't deny that he was the chosen one before this. Even if it wasn't in the normal "As it was foretold" format he really was.

 

[Skin]

Only played the multiplayer, and it is surprisingly good. Although, it seems completely to be built around BTB, I find it ok since thats the mode which I primarily play.

 

[White Lightning]

Campaign: Crap. Terrible pacing, bad story, boring enemies, just overall a huge let down. I was looking forward to it too.

Spartan Ops: Crap. I was excited for this, and so far it's been the same thing over and over. Fight through enemies, Hold X, fight more enemies, Hold X again... they should of kept Firefight.

Multiplayer: Surprisingly not that bad. It's really unbalanced and uncomfortably CODified but still it's pretty fun if you can get a party.

Forge: Haven't tried it, but from what I've heard it sucks.


Overall: 6/10, and that's being generous. It's not bad, it's pretty much just "meh".

 

[Korten12]

snip

most of the staff at 343 are former bungie employees
just telling you
in case you didn't know...

its good, play it there isn't a huge market on space shooters especially fps space shooters , there is samus and master chief, that's it.
everyone else is 3rd person or more likey in a modern-esque setting

wanna shoot some future aliens with a universe more interesting than the protagonist himself, go nuts. also one good muliplayer, go double nuts.

Actually only like 4 or 5 from 343i are from Bungie, most are new.

 

[Reaper195]

The gunplay lacked that satisfying feel. Way too much "pew-pewpew" and nowhere near enough "thump-boom" if you know what I mean.

Fuckin'...right there, man. I was annoyed at the sound of the new AR compared to it's clearly better version from Halo 1. It wasn't as accurate at longer ranges, but it sounded brilliant and deep, had a sisty round clip and you could carry six hundred rounds in check.

The only real problems I had with Halo 4 was the small ammo you could carry for weapons (fifteen shells for the shotgun?!). The amount of times I ran dry in that game is amazing. I've never had an ammo problem in a game before (I was playing it on Easy...but I've never been remotely MLG in FPSs). The second problem....FUCKING PROMETHEANS! If I never see those cunts again, it's still be too soon. The amount of times I died because those crawling dogs would scale a wall and shoot my while I was in cover. It was worse when they swarmed me early in a level...and there was nowhere to backtrack. And then there were those flying fuckers. The ones that bring back that one Knight you just spend half your ammo killing. And they don't show themselves half the time until you think you're finished. And then more Knights. Christ...I prefered Flood and Brutes.

Aside from those...I loved the game entirely. Although I wish there were sime bigger maps to play CTF on. As much as I like Ragnarok...the rest are all small maps with no vehicles. In fact...there's only about two or three large maps. Everything else is close quarters and better suited to SWAT...

 

[TheScientificIssole]

SAH-NIP!

If I remember from the last time I played reach(last month). Noble Six is chosen as her guardian by Cortana(like Chief), above Emile, Jun, and Captain White-guy. It seems like there has been a prophecy for a while now. And even since the Didact-Librarian plot introduced in the Halo 3 terminals. And I like the depiction of the primary characters as machinery. Noble Six just is supposed to have been used recklessly by government men to assassinate and destroy militia groups and leaders, the characters have always just been weapons. This game just makes the theme more effective.

-snip-

Really?
Because "Luckiest, bravest and most perfect soldier out of a group of perfect soldiers chosen to have a super smart ally and given the best equipment and the most support" wasn't "the chosen one"?

I mean, I agree with you, it's a little weird, but you can't deny that he was the chosen one before this. Even if it wasn't in the normal "As it was foretold" format he really was.

THANK YOU! And even then there were hints at a legit "Chosen One" plot line!

 

[Batou667]

OT: The story in Halo was a very big meh for me. The retconning especially soured my taste to the game. The big one being the Forerunners and Humans being a different and unrelated species. Throughout the entire original trilogy the forerunners were this cryptic, powerful, and long dead race that gave the setting of the Halo Universe a sense of atmosphere, awe, and mystery. A big question that lingered in the backgroud was a sense of curiosity about who or what the Forerunners were, why (and later how) they vanished from the Galaxy. Even when they answered that question In Halo 3 it still preserved the mystery of them.

Halo 4 (and the Forerunner saga) just go lol nope that didn't happen we were lying The Forunners were actually just a bunch of incompetent dicks, who hate Humanity because they Ran away from the Flood.

I thought the Forerunners were the same alien race that the Composer and Didact were part of, while the Reclaimers were the advanced humans? Or have I got my fluff confuddled?

 

[Euryalus]

OT: The story in Halo was a very big meh for me. The retconning especially soured my taste to the game. The big one being the Forerunners and Humans being a different and unrelated species. Throughout the entire original trilogy the forerunners were this cryptic, powerful, and long dead race that gave the setting of the Halo Universe a sense of atmosphere, awe, and mystery. A big question that lingered in the backgroud was a sense of curiosity about who or what the Forerunners were, why (and later how) they vanished from the Galaxy. Even when they answered that question In Halo 3 it still preserved the mystery of them.

Halo 4 (and the Forerunner saga) just go lol nope that didn't happen we were lying The Forunners were actually just a bunch of incompetent dicks, who hate Humanity because they Ran away from the Flood.

I thought the Forerunners were the same alien race that the Composer and Didact were part of, while the Reclaimers were the advanced humans? Or have I got my fluff confuddled?

Until Halo 4 (and the Forerunner saga) the forerunners were hinted at being ancient humanity and basically revealed as such in Halo 3. 343 Guilty Spark says at the end of the game to the Master Chief

"Unacceptable!! Unacceptable! That is absolutely unacceptable! Protocol dictates action! I see now that helping you was wrong! You are a child of my makers, inheritors of all they left behind. You are Forerunner, but this ring... is mine!"

The Forunner Saga Retconned this by saying the Librarian Reprogrammmed the moniters and sentinals to view the Humans as Forerunners rather than actually having what they built it up to.

The idea behind the word Reclaimer was presumably that the humans that were "new" were meant to Reclaim their lost glory.

 

[Erttheking]

It was a decent game, but there were some hiccups. Understandable considering that it was 343's first Halo game. I get the feeling that this is going to be like the first trilogy all over again, starting off small before expanding outward, and I didn't like Halo CE, so hopefully Halo 5 and 6 will improve.

 

[Flames66]

I haven't played it and am not planning to. A friend of mine who played it said it was like a halo game but subtlety off, like David Cameron's Face.