Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Solid"

First of all, I was not a fan of the Halo series before I played this game. Therefore, I feel this is an impartial review from a gamer outside the Halo fandom. My initial exposure to the Halo series was terrible. The very first Halo game that I played was Halo Reach, and I absolutely hated it. (However, because I've already reviewed it, and because this review isn't about Halo Reach, I'll just move right along.) In addition, I played the remastered version of Halo: Combat Evolved, and was appalled when I found out that the game's multiplayer was copy and pasted from Halo Reach. I nearly gave up on Halo games entirely. However, the recent disappointment of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 led me towards buying Halo 4 and trying it out.

Henceforth, I became a fan of the Halo series.

Halo 4 is an awesome first person futuristic shooter. It has a solid, enduring multiplayer, a decent campaign, and an extended storyline presented through "Spartan Ops". This review will primarily focus on Halo 4's multiplayer. The campaign will also be reviewed, although to a lesser extent. Lastly, because I haven't completed the campaign, I never tried Spartan Ops, which is an extended storyline of the campaign. Therefore, this review will not cover Spartan Ops.

First of all, I'll briefly review the Campaign. Nearly everything about the campaign is excellent. Gamers can adjust the level of difficulty, which truly affects how easy or difficult the campaign will be. The most difficult level, "Legendary", is very difficult but possible to complete. This is great for anyone interested in a serious FPS challenge: gamers who want a story that is very difficult to complete, but certainly not impossible (like other games which wrongly justify their impossibility due to difficulty). In addition, different "skulls" can be activated, which change the conditions of the game - usually adding to the difficulty. In addition, the graphics in the campaign are of unbelievably high quality. In fact, when I played through the first mission, I remember thinking that the people in the cut scenes were real actors - only to find out that they were just really detailed and realistic animations. Finally, being able to earn experience points and challenge commendations towards multiplayer through the campaign adds to the campaign's excellence. The only reason why I never finished the campaign was because I decided to use the remainder of my free time (which is fairly limited, in all honesty) towards leveling up in multiplayer - a very long process, which I will explain later.

The highlight of Halo 4 is the game's solid, masterful multiplayer. In fact, Halo 4's multiplayer is so comprehensive that I decided to break up my review of multiplayer into six sections: 1) Controls, 2) Weapons, 3) Customizations and Loadouts, 4) Leveling Up, Commendations and Challenges, 5) Vehicles, and 6) Maps.

1) Controls

Halo 4's controls will appeal to anyone, including many Call of Duty players switching over from Black Ops 2 into the Halo series. First of all, the original controls, for seasoned Halo fans, are still around and are offered by default. However, for those who are used to Call of Duty style controls, there is a new button layout called "Fish Stick" which is basically the default controls for Call of Duty. Sadly, there is no Halo equivalent of Call of Duty's "Tactical" controls, which COD fans would use to "drop shot". However, because there is no prone position in Halo 4, the need for tactical controls isn't present. The bottom line: If you're a Call of Duty fan who wants to start getting involved with Halo games, but is unsure of how the controls will feel, rest assured that the "Fish Stick" controls will feel just like the default controls in Call of Duty.

2) Weapons

There are 7 primary weapons and 3 secondary weapons to choose from. While this may seem highly inadequate, in comparison to other, overly hyped first person shooters with long lists of available weapons, understand that where Halo 4 loses in weapon variety, it gains significantly in weapon balance (a severe problem in Black Ops 2). In Halo 4, all of the primary weapons are decent, but fairly weak in comparison to what you can earn by scavenging the battlefield or calling in ordnance drops (which are basically reliable care packages similar to Call of Duty). This means that no one will start off with overpowered weapons, which was a huge relief for me, considering how often I used to be abused by OP weapons in my past gaming experiences. In addition, because there are fewer primary and secondary weapons, there are fewer redundancies, since each weapon offers something a lot more unique than other games that have long lists of weapons that actually do the same things. For example, the automatic assault rifle and suppressor weapons are really powerful and easy to use when up close to an enemy. However, because they can only hip-fire, having no "ADS" or zoom ability, players will need to use the challenging semi-automatic primary weapons and secondary magnum pistol in order to improve their killing range. Lastly, grenades are few in variety, but very unique. The standard "frag grenade" deals raw damage and can be thrown the farthest. The "plasma grenade" is the only EMP style grenade that can be used to take down vehicles, which are usually present. Lastly, the "pulse grenade" can be used to challenge larger groups of enemies, instead of the frag grenade, but deals less raw damage. All in all, the weapons in Halo 4 are fewer in variety but solidly balanced. Therefore, based on the weapons alone, I would say that Halo 4 is the most competitive-friendly first person shooter available currently - relying more on skill and knowledge of individual weapons rather than just picking the overpowered weapons in a long list of weapons.

3) Customizations and Loadouts

Halo 4 offers the most customization out of any Halo game – according to many Halo fans, as well as my own limited experience of the series. Aside from the usual aesthetic customizations of armor color, design, visors, emblems, clan tags, etc., Halo 4 offers a robust loadout system for the first time in the series. As mentioned, you can choose which primary, secondary, and grenade you want to start off with, and you can do this 5 different times with different 5 custom loadouts eventually being unlocked. In addition, gamers are able to choose armor abilities, which are basically highly balanced super powers you can activate within reason, as well as "Tactical Packages" and "Support Upgrades", which are basically one and two-tier perks like those from Call of Duty – very balanced, though. However, and ultimately, it will come down to the individual gamer's reaction speed, button fluency, coordination, and overall skill in the game that determines who will do really well – not necessarily based on the perks and abilities you use. However, one criticism of Halo 4's loadout system is that there aren't very many different loadouts you can unlock: only five. While the developers may have created this due to balancing issues, I personally felt that having more loadouts wouldn't interfere with the game in any way, and I found the lack of more loadouts as inadequate. Remember, this game is a solid 9.5/10, but is certainly not flawless!

4) Leveling Up, Commendations and Challenges

First of all, leveling up in Halo 4 is excruciatingly slow. To be honest, I don't see how this can be good at all. So while the game is very balanced and enjoyable, the leveling system is very flawed. To help alleviate the boredom of slow leveling, the game offers daily, weekly, and monthly challenges that encourage you to try different things, like weapons, game modes, and actions that will reward you with extra experience points once the challenge has been completed. In addition, a list of "commendations", or personal achievements, allows gamers to earn even more extra experience points by achieving personal bests: for example, winning a certain number of matches in "Big Team Infinity Slayer" mode, using the magnum pistol to earn a certain number of notable kills, taking down vehicles, etc. In addition, certain "waypoint" challenges are offered, which offer very large amounts of extra experience points for accomplishing bigger personal bests, like earning 250 kills in a week, for example. However, with all this being said, the leveling system is still very slow. One of the rewards for getting from level 1 to level 50, for example, is being able to choose a "specialization" that will give you a slight edge in multiplayer. However, it personally took me a month to get there and, once I unlocked the specialization, I had to level up an additional 10, slow levels before I unlocked the multiplayer edge. As of now, I still haven't unlocked it. So am I saying the leveling system is flawed in Halo 4? Of course it is! However, considering how enjoyable and balanced the gameplay is, gamers will usually realize that level doesn't really matter in this game.

5) Vehicles

Like Halo 4's weapons, the vehicles in Halo 4's multiplayer are few in variety but superb in uniqueness and balance. The most common vehicles you will find in multiplayer are the "Warthog", "Ghost", "Mongoose", "Banshee", and "Mantis". The warthog is the decently armored hummer, which is equipped with either a machine or "Gauss" incineration cannon. The vehicle is the most well balanced between offense, defense, and maneuverability, and are very common. The ghost is the fastest and most maneuverable vehicle in the game, in my opinion. It has weak lasers, but its primary offense is its ability to run enemies over with its powerful thrusters. In addition, the powerful thrusters can be used to quickly cross the battlefield and transport one person to and from places like flag bases, dominion bases, etc. The mongoose has no weapons and heavy armor, and is considered the most inferior vehicle in the game. However, it is also the most widely available vehicle, so finding one and not being worried about trashing it is its greatest strength. The banshee is the only aerial vehicle and, while this might seem like a factor that makes it overpowered, the vehicle is very balanced because of it's slowness and inability to stop. The mantis is the robotic bipod that seems to be the most maneuverable and powerful vehicle in the game. Some people believe it's overpowered, but I don't think so. That's because its lasers are very weak, and it is slow enough for soldiers to get right next to it and take it down. This leads me to my final points on vehicles. While, in the usual sense, having vehicles in a game usually leads to an imbalance between those on foot and those in a vehicle, Halo 4 remains balanced, somehow. First, all vehicles can be "hijacked", where, with proper timing and knowledge, a gamer can jump on top an enemy's vehicle and throw him out: usually stealing the vehicle and severely wounding the enemy in the process. In addition, other strongly armored vehicles, notably the mantis, can be instantly destroyed when a soldier climbs on top of it to take it down up close when prompted for a single grenade. Therefore, soldiers are just as deadly to vehicles as vehicles to soldiers. In addition, nearly all vehicles can flip over, which stops the vehicle, driver, and passengers dead in their tracks. While this was used to balance vehicles, I often found this really annoying, and I felt this made vehicles too weak. Therefore, I consider this a flaw in the game that makes Halo 4 imperfect.

6) Maps

In all honesty, I am not a complete fan of all of Halo 4's maps. However, I believe that all of the maps are fair and balanced. There are hardly any "camping" spots, so movement in the game seems necessary nearly all the time. In addition, all of the maps are fairly well lit, so you won't struggle to see anything in this game.



Overall, Halo 4 is a solid first person futuristic shooter that I'm sure will be considered a classic game in the future. It was designed extremely well with balance and competitive play truly considered. Where it lacks in variety it significantly gains in uniqueness, fairness, and balance. In fact, because of it's near flawless balance, the game feels a little too controlled and toned down. There aren't many unpredictable deaths or explosions in this game, which can be both a relief and a source of boredom. However, if you're like me, who was new to the Halo series, who wanted to get involved in Halo, who was tired of the injustice in Call of Duty nowadays, I highly suggest you give this game a chance. Whether or not you like it, you will probably agree it's a solid game on its own.