VR-Zone's own Derek Strickland delivers the verdict on 343i's newest iteration in the Halo franchise, Halo 4.
"343 Industries has proven that the Halo franchise is in safe hands with Halo 4, as they've ushered in a new era for the sci-fi shooter universe and delivered an experience that borders upon masterful. With an epic and illuminating campaign that sparks off a new war between an ancient and indomitable foe, and the classic fast-paced frenetic action found in Halo 4's Infinity multiplayer, this game is a must-own for any FPS gamer or Halo fan.
Halo 4 is a treat for the eyes, ears and heart, touching upon many secrets of the cryptic Halo universe while bringing irresistible and addictive multiplayer to fans throughout the world."
In Halo 4, 5, and Infinite, Master Chief became a more nuanced, human character.
In spite of the Halo series’ struggles, 343 deserves praise for adding nuance and characterisation to the ever-beating heart of Halo - The Master Chief. Playing through Infinite, it's abundantly clear that the events of the current and previous trilogies have irrevocably changed the iconic hero. He’s no longer the ‘blank slate’ that was previously presented by Bungie. He’s a fatigued, damaged and fallible protagonist, and one who is meandering through currents of grief, while reveling in his newfound agency. Giving the Chief a compelling and meaningful voice was no small feat, and 343 should be proud of that victory.
This article completely misses part of the appeal of the original iteration of character in the original game trilogy. It was the Chief and Cortana vs an entire alien collective. The blank slate Bungie displayed in their games was genius, he was an mysterious hero a wide audience could identify with because he wasn't as clearly defined as most characters.
The books added a lot of lore and backstory but most Halo players just want a fun game with exposition that doesn't get in the way of gameplay, it's why the Cortana level in Halo 3 was derided.
Not every character has to be a damaged soyboy, a soldier has to suck it up and do his duty.
The 343i Master Chief has is based on the books. However, in Halo 4-Infinite, the Master Chief overtime become. gradually becomes more willing to show some emotion.
It’s a law of nature that eventually, every long-running game franchise will have a particular entry that gets dinged for straying too far from what made it so fun in the first place. Your Super Mario Sunshine, your Dragon Age II, Assassin’s Creed III, and so on. Whether or not that opinion changes more favorably over time, the initial specter of negativity will forever hover it. Microsoft’s Halo is no exception, except that negative specter hasn’t hovered over one particular game, but one whole studio.
Halo 4 released 10 years ago today, and its disappointing reception was just an omen of things to come with 343 Industries at the helm.
Halo 4 and infinite have a 87 on metacritic and five a 84🤣. 343i need contents and everything else will play it self out.
Halo 4-6 are like the Star Wars sequel trilogy
They all just seem like a brand new games with small connections to the last one but no solid arc connecting them, you’re just told stuff that happened off screen in between the games and nothing makes sense
It’s like they didn’t plan a new trilogy out
I'm getting a good gaming laptop soon and i'm finally going to play through the Halo franchise again plus Infinite but i never played Halo 4 before .. can anyone tell me how's the campaign in comparison to the games before it and compared to Halo 5 ?
Truly a must have for all Halo fans everywhere!
This is a pretty nice and detailed and long review.
It's funny how all the bad reviews came the first few days, or even before the game released. Seems like they were already planning on hating the game without even playing it properly.
Lately all the reviews i'm seeing are 9's and 10's because the reviewers must've actually played the game for an appropriate time before judging it.
This games needs to be played for at least a week before understanding it's amazingness. I mean spartan ops itself is a 10 week campaign, that's considerable portion not being considered in reviews.