Halo Without Bungie

For Unwinnable's Endings Week, video game journalist Dennis Scimeca (Ars Technica, The Escapist, G4TV) laments what the Halo universe has become without Bungie. Halo 4 is a new beginning, but also an ending.

[cl1983]

So many things I have to disagree with.

[otherZinc]

Please:
Halo 4 is absolutely Terrific, period!

To say otherwise is ridiculous.
Story is fantastic.
Campaign Co-op is great
Campaign is great
Spec Ops is great
Spec Ops Co-op is great
Spec Ops Episode movies are great
Multi-player is great
Forge is great
Theatre mode is great

Now, WTF do people want? Please, there are no games that offer this much.

[Knight_Crawler]

Well said dude...people should go play Reach then play HALO 4, the work the 343i did on H4 far surpasses what Bungie did with Reach while keeping the same Halo feel - I am not saying that Reach was bad but it did feel like Bungie was doing the game becuse they had to finishe there contract.

Look what happend to Socom when it switched developers...343i kept it real while adding new thing to Halo4.

[whoyouwit04]

yea any gamer who can't find something good in halo is a Sony or Nintendo fan boy period, now I'm not saying that you should like the whole package as I do but with all the great content in the entire halo 4 package you are bound to like something.

[Eiffel]

Story was bland and character focused on a bland character, didn't really improve anything. Also Spartan's have been dumbed down to cannon fodder with the IV's, the UNSC's best are a bunch of jarhead noob's with bad jokes and personalities. Awesome idea.

Campaign Coop was horribly implemented, for example on the Requiem chapter as your driving the ghosts coop partners will crash and constantly get stuck in a death spawn loop as the level collapses for whoever is in the lead.

Spec Ops is a poor change from Firefight, all the chapters are the same thing. Kill that, wait for dialog to end, rinse repeat. A missed opportunity to do something different and interesting. You can't even play it beyond Heroic, so it's hardly challenging just adding to the monotonous nature of it all.

Multiplayer issues as follow.

XP Cap
Lag compensation
Lack of playlists
Less variety within playlists; primarily slayer focused.
Join-in progress, who doesn't love cleaning up a rage quiter's mess adding up their losing game total, or better yet joining matches two minutes till end game and sitting through double the load screens?
The map design was outsourced, many maps feature spawn and vehicle balance issues. Nuff said when the Valhalla Halo 3 map remake is voted up every rotation.
A lack of beta made this game a glitch fest on release.
Theater mode is multiplayer only, seems every new Halo they're slowly trying to make it worse.
Custom game options are extensively lacking in this new title. Bungie wrote the book on it, how did they manage to screw this up?
Forge is absolutely horrible in Halo 4 missing many key features that were present in Halo Reach and Halo 3, it's so bad that Machinima directors are struggling to work with it.

The game was so clearly rushed that it's painful. So much in this game is lacking and does a worse job of what was already available for past Halo's. A real crap effort on 343's part.

[League_of_Draven]

Halo without Bungie is just like Halo with Bungie. Halo 2 was the last good Halo and it looks like it will stay that way.

[Tzuno]

Halo 4.

[Eiffel]

Can't even bother to play Halo 4 anymore. A rushed and lacking start to a new trilogy, like the Star Wars prequels I'm jumping ship and I've been playing this franchise's multiplayer since Halo: CE on PC. Bungie's Destiny or bust it seems at this point, that is if it's even a FPS.

[MariaHelFutura]

343i made Halo 4.

[Eiffel]

Obvious. Reading comprehension, use it.

[Bobby Kotex]

Buying Halo 4 was the biggest purchase mistake I've made this year. I probably put in 2 hours before I got bored. Nice graphics though.

[Hufandpuf]

Halo 4 = disappointment for me.

[tdogchristy90]

Just read your article. Amen my brother. While I haven't played halo 4 I did fear, being one that literally grew up with the original bungie series, that it just wouldnt be the same without bungie. As a result I felt I should wait and see...and I think I found my answer. It's just time to bow out and let a new generation take over instead of ruining my own love by playing something that ruins it for me personal.

[Walker]

Halo Without Bungie was Epic Fail, IMO .

[aviator189]

I'm not disappointed in Halo 4 one bit.
It's pretty obvious Bungie were getting tired of the franchise with Reach. Almost any developer would, after nearly a decade of work.

The mp of Halo 4 is reeling me in and keeping me playing in ways that Reach never did and the way Halo 2/3 did.

Sure, there are changes, some quirky, some needed, and some questionable. But, overall, I feel that Halo 4 is a highly accomplished title from the studio as their first fully developed game, and I'm not going to let anyone else convince me otherwise.

[Convas]

This, that, more.

Agree, Bubbles, etc

[FarCryLover182]

Halo 4's campaign wasn't the greatest, but the game felt like Halo, unlike Halo: Reach. Halo 4's multiplayer is more balanced than Reaches and I think Halo would have gotten worse if Bungie kept making them. I think 343i are at a good start, but they need to pick it up a bit on the next Halo title "amazing".

[grayfoxx881]

This article doesn't really bring up too many strong points. I don't think I've heard any complaints about the different sounds the assault rifle and warthog makes now compared to older games. Some of the Covenant do look different, but I think these are very minor changes.

Too me, Halo 4 plays smoother and faster than Reach. I like the maps more in Halo 4, but there needs to be more Slayer maps. However, Spartan Ops is a wash, and 343i needs to rework it. There is no point in bringing something like that to the table, only to reuse maps and have the players push buttons for the majority of objectives.

I would also have to call into question 343i's lack of interaction with the Halo community. If you look at the forums, there are still many people that have not received their Specialization unlock codes, and are stuck at SR 70. Also, they blatantly lied to users concerning the Crimson Map Pack fiasco, stating it was a trial rather than a mistake on Microsoft's part.

These complaints aside, I think 343i has done a good job with their first Halo title. Sure, mistakes will be made, but hopefully the team will learn from them.

[Belking]

Halo without the Bungie name is still awesome. Some of the members of 343 were with Bungie. Can't wait for the next one on xbox720.

[Indo]

343 did a terrific job with Halo 4, graphic wise i think. I played online, through campaign, through that Spartan Ops mode and all felt the same as what Bungie tried before. Nice cutscenes and sum what good story mode but can't complain since its 343 second go. Not much of a Halo fan but I feel that Halo 5 will be 343's real vision of Halo.

[whoyouwit04]

Look if you are a halo fan you already knew what to expect but people need to stop saying that they were disappointed cause if you weren't disappointed and Kill Zone 3 or black ops 2 then you have no reason to be disappointed in halo 4, cause why those 2 were more of the same halo actually did have a lot of new stuff even though the campaign was more of the same.