Review: Halo 4

Halo 4 is a first-person shooter for the Xbox 360. It was developed by 343 Industries.

Master Chief fighting some Covenant.

Master Chief, his AI companion Cortana, A human military spaceship the Infinity, and a fleet of Covenant ships are sucked into, and crash land in, a Dyson Sphere called Requiem. While trying to escape Requiem, Master Chief and Cortana accidentally release the evil Foreunner the Didact and his army of Promethean machines, who take control of the Covenant fleet with the intent of wiping out all human life. Master Chief, Cortana, and the crew of the Infinity have to stop the Didact from escaping Requiem and leading his army to Earth.

Halo 4 is a basic shooter. It is eight levels long, each level broken up into several parts, and all you have to do is get from point A to point B without getting killed by the small army of Covenant and Prometheans between you and your goal. Sometimes you do not even have to kill everyone, though you will probably be cut down by gunfire if you try to run for it.

The bar at the top represents your shield, which recharges on its own if you give it a couple of seconds.

The main bulk of the Covenant come in two small aliens and one large alien. The small Covenant do not have recharging shields, but make up for it in numbers, while the big Covenant, the Elites, are big, fast, and do have a recharging shield. Master Chief can only hold two weapons and grenades, so I usually held onto a rifle to pick off the small ones with headshots, and a large weapon like a rocket launcher or sniper rifle to kill the Elites quickly. The Covenant AI knows how to duck behind cover, dodge, and can otherwise put up a decent fight, and the different designs of the aliens that make up the Covenant keep fights interesting.

Unfortunately, the new enemies to the Halo universe, the Prometheans, are not as fun to fight. There are two kinds, small swarming dog machines, and big fighter beetle guys. The dog machines are easy to pick off and are just cannon fodder, but the beetle guys though are overpowered; really strong recharging shields, instant teleportation, the ability to resurrect each other if you do not kill their flying support machines, and some of the beetle guys have one-hit kill sniper rifles. They also have an annoying tendency to appear nowhere near any powerful guns, so my usual strategy against the Covenant did not work, and often it felt like I beat them through luck.

Master Chief never travels anywhere more interesting than grey space ships, grassy canyons, and deserts, but the levels are full of twists and turns and lots of cool places to have shoot outs. They are also huge, which does not affect how you play that much, but are impressive to look at.

The first part of the story is just Master Chief and Cortana trying to escape. That is fine, but when the Didact is released it gets confusing. His motivations or plans for going after humans are never explained well, nor is the plan for stopping him, or why the Covenant follow the Didact. There is one giant plot dump in the middle that goes by too fast, is way too cryptic, and just makes things more confusing. There are also terminals that you can find that explain the backstory, but they are hidden, and I should not have to track down those things to know what is going on. The cast do not help the story, Master Chief has absolutely no personality and Cortana overreacts to everything.

I was disappointed with the story. At the beginning some people talk about the consequences of using child soldiers, but nothing comes of that. Master Chief dutifully goes along with everything he is told to do without comment, except for one inconsequential instance. The Didact’s characterization is shallow, with nothing more to him than his poorly explained hatred humans. The only interesting plot point is Cortana’s programming falling apart, which happens at the most dramatic moments.

Naturally there is a multiplayer mode, standard stuff like team deathmatch, capture the flag, king of the hill, team deathmatch but no shields and grenades and toys. You design a character and choose what guns you want to start out with, and as you do well in matches you unlock new weapons and cosmetic awards like pieces of armor and emblems.

I found the multiplayer to be nice and addictive. The game tries to match you up with other players of a similar level so you are not outclassed, which is good way to keep from feeling frustrated, as long as new people join all the time. Most of the weapons are balanced and none of them are too powerful, so even people who have been playing longer do not completely dominate every game. Compared to what I remember of the multiplayer of the last Halo game, Halo: Reach, this multiplayer is better because it is easier to find a match and the menus are less of a pain to navigate. But I do not know if that justifies paying full price for a whole new game.

Halo 4 is a solid first-person shooter that does not do anything terribly wrong, but does not bring anything new that is good to the genre or its own series. I guess I would recommend it if you have to have new maps for multiplayer or are desperate for any kind of campaign, but I would not say to go out of your way for it.