First impressions: Halo 4

Let me point this out before I start – I love the Halo universe and the progression and impact the game series has made within the industry. I remember picking up Halo: CE many years ago and not having a PC that could play it, faster than I could draw the frames with a novelty pencil the size of the Eiffel Tower. But I still played the hell out of it. The idea of an artificial world, in the shape of a ring, created by an ancient and long-dead race, worshipped by your mortal enemy and explored by a super-soldier just pushes all the right buttons in my book. That being said, I never finished it – the damn flood can keep the library. I never liked books anyway.

So, a quick future-history lesson for those who’ve continued past the first paragraph. In the 26th century, humanity is a space-faringrace, having a stroll around the galaxy and creating settlements all over the place, when it bumps into the Covenant. The Covenant declares war against humanity, citing that their gods don’t like us. No match for the fervent and aggressive nature of the Covenant, humanity was on a losing streak. On the frontlines of these battles were the Spartans – genetically engineered super-human super-soldiers, who wear kick-ass armour. You’re one of them. Despite your awesomeness, humanity was on it’s last legs and the main bastion is Earth. You’ve the original three Halo games, covering the journey of Master Chief (a.k.a. John//Spartan-117) and his fight to save Earth from the Covenant and the ancient parasitic life-form known as the Flood. Charming name. Halo 3: ODST covers the exploits of an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST) squad that’s been sent to clear up the covenant remnants after their quick invasion of Earth (as seen in Halo 2) – no superpowers in sight – you’re just regular squishy humans. 2010 saw the release of Halo: Reach, a prequel game, set before the events of Halo: CE. As the original Halo series mentions the fall of Reach often, as you can guess, it doesn’t end well for anyone vaguely human. Let’s not talk about Halo Wars.

Practically spoiler-free history lesson over, we’re onto the main exhibit - Halo 4. As the numbering convention would suggest, we’re back with Master Chief, who was last seen sticking himself in cryogenic suspension, after the cruiser he was escaping on, was cut in half by a closing intra-dimensional portal, leaving him stranded. I would’ve been happy with leaving it there – it allows for speculation, movies, fan-work, you get the jist. Bungie, the original creators of Halo up until now, was disbanded and a new Microsoft studio took up the helm, with the name 343 Studios (343 Guilty Spark is the name of the A.I. in charge of the original halo). There was quite a lot of discussion over why this studio-swap happened and lots of people weren’t happy, claiming that they wouldn’t be able to get the feel of Halo right. Well, I’m glad to say, they were wrong.

I’ve only gotten about a quarter of the way through the storyline (2/8 chapters completed, according to the info boxes that pop up), so I can’t give a complete review of the game, yet. More annoyingly, I can’t spoil the whole thing for you guys, as I don’t know the storyline myself. Even this far in however, I’m loving it. The engine has been heavily modified since Bungie’s departure, and the whole look and feel of Halo 4 is great. It’s not the dark and lonesome world of ODST, nor the bright and happy world of Reach: the atmosphere of Halo 4 is a mixture of gloominess, but there are also some wondrous moments as you come across large pieces of forerunner (the guys who made the Halo system) technology and architecture, that make me want to sit there and watch for hours. I have to keep on reminding myself that I’m still playing on a 5 year old console – it doesn’t feel, or look like it.

Weapons, armour and upgrades have altered within the campaign. I’m not completely sure how your armour upgraded whilst you were in stasis (maybe I just missed that part), but the new weapons I’ve seen so far seem a little... dull. The Covenant’s storm rifle seems to have replaced the trusty plasma rifle, and the UNSC’s SAM is simply a weaker, less accurate, higher clip-size assault rifle –º not really my thing as I actually prefer to kill my enemies than tickle them. There will be much jubilant crying and weeping when people realise that armour lock has now vanished. The ha-ha-I’m-so-indestructible-that-even-a-nuke-can’t-touch-me-armour-lock has been replaced by a hard-light shield that faces whatever way you’re looking, and is able to block most small arms fire.

Reach did something new for multiplayer – it gave you a recurring persona. You were a Spartan and you could customise your armour with hundreds of different pieces. These pieces were bought with XP and unlocked according to your level, and I’m very glad to see that it hasn’t changed... much. Weekly and daily challenges are still around togive you more XP than you can shake a gravity hammer at. I’ve yet to play any proper amount of multiplayer, but it feels like Reach+ – there are more options, more maps and just as many opportunities to assassinate people.

So for those of you still on the fence, I’d say to get it. For those of you who don’t want to get it, I’d say to get it. To everyone who has already bought it – see you on the battlefield.