Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Rent it first"

This is still halo. Though it is missing a lot of little things from previous games, which hinders the experience some.

CAMPAIGN- the game is beautiful, however, the campaign feels just like the campaign you've played for the last ten years. Maybe thats a good thing, but for me, it's kind of boring, it always has been. Missing from the story mode is the ability to discover skulls and a scoring system to challenge, leaving the whole experience a little bland, or hollow.

MULTIPLAYER- a lot of changes to the formula here, some are welcome, some not so much.

CONS-The biggest omission is a real ranked multiplayer system. All you do is play for experience and there's little incentive to play proper and actually win. Ranked games encouraged smart play and a better experience for hardcore players. Also, you no longer can call out your "X" to your teammates when you die, because there is none, your icon just goes away. Looking at the scoreboard during the game disables your movement unlike previous games. When jumping into matchmaking playlists, your often thrown into a game in progress, on the team that is shorthanded, which is usually losing as a result. Thats not a fun way to play, and it makes your stats look bad. So again, hardcore players who are into that will not like that. To ensure that you play games from the very start, you must remain in the group after a game. But what if you don't like the group you played with? Oh well....you'll just have to stay, or take your chances jumping into a playlist again. Awful respawns still plague the game, as you respawn right in front of the person who just killed you a second ago. No firefight!

PROS- loadouts. They do have a major impact on how the game is played, with some time you get used to it, and you may even love the new flexibility it has to offer. smarter, well prepared players can now choose a loadout to take advantage of nearly any situation, as you can switch your loadout whenever you die. Ordinance drops have been added, giving you powerful weapons and player performance buffs for getting kills, allowing you to help turn the tide in battle. Loadouts and ordinances do change how fundamental the game is, as you can no longer rely completely on snagging the power weapons on the map. It's still a sound strategy, but if you cant ever get the best toys, your not out of the game. I welcome this change of pace. Territories has been revamped into a beefed up tower defense type of game. You gain a territory, and over time it becomes fortified and you also recieve powerful weapon shipments, helping you dictate the outcome. It's an interesting mode, perhaps the only one that is better than it used to be.

FORGE-it's still there, and it's alright, but it feels a bit unwieldy. Halo reach, is stillthe ultimate forge mode.

OVERALL- I've been mostly negative, but most importantly, as a standalone game, halo 4 would be fantastic. It's still a great game. It's made worse because of the games that came before it. If your avery devoted and hardcore player, this one probably won't fulfill your expectations. For most everyone else, it's still a lot of fun.