Teh Halos

A small warning that minor spoilers are ahead but if you want a truly untainted review I suggest simply seeing it's relative score elsewhere and forgoing any reading whatsoever.

I refer to my 360 as a $400 Halo box. There is no other way to describe it because the rest of the exclusives on it just aren't for me and if it's not an exclusive I have a PC. Halo 4 has been the first Halo game I've bought on release and when I went to pick it up the Limited Edition was dangled in front of me. I had intended to get it to begin with but when I saw it was unavailable I did what anyone would do: convince myself the Limited Edition wasn't worth the extra dosh anyway. When faced with the opportunity to hypocritically go back on my own mind I took it. I mean I had the cash so why not?

No, this scene is fairly accurate. He falls from space, again.

Limited and Collector's Editions of games are pretty much all I buy now as my purchasing whims are becoming less frequent as to avoid the many dodgy reboots and sequels (and because a church mouse has more cash) and it's the only way to really harken back to what you used to get in a new standard release. I hear the regular release didn't even come with a manual as the warranty information was printed on the back of the cover. Classy. The innards are all themed, which I liked, and to my surprise it came with the season pass for multiplayer maps which is bittersweet. I've always believed multiplayer maps are firmly in the domain of the community and the absence of any way for said community to make maps is an egregious decision by many companies. Actually paying for map packs is something I've never done and never will. Not directly, anyway. When you take into account that the base game here is $69 and the pass is about $30 it's only another $25 or so for the rest of the gear so I wasn't too upset.

I treat new game releases with a bit of ceremony, the last release was the Loot Chest Edition of Borderlands 2 and some mates and I had a LAN that spanned a weekend. I treated Halo 4's release with similar reverence: Pepsi Next and off-brand deli style corn chips (this is important information for later). The order of operations for new releases is singleplayer first, then dip my toe into the multiplayer before shelving it for when I feel like playing it again.

Halo 4's story hinges heavily on the notion that you've read some of the books and considering the audience I'm not sure that was a savvy decision. 343 Industries may have dug themselves into a bit of a hole by adhering to lore laid down in books because it can lead to a slippery slope. There's a reason why many movies let authors work around them instead of the other way around as it kind of sets the tone of who's boss. But I digress.

"I can't keep you out of my head, Sugartits." - Anonymous

Chiefykins is rudely awoken by his AI girlfriend almost 5 years after the events of Halo 3 and told shit's about to go down. Cortana back in head, gun back in hand, Chief back in business. I felt a real similarity to Mass Effect 2 once you hit the new artificial world and listen to a recording by Halsey. I wasn't sure if it was the atmosphere, the music, the voice actress for the introduction of the recording but there was definitely some deja vu. It could have also been the similar feeling of recent resurrection and getting back into the widowing business. You're quickly reintroduced to the newest iteration of the Warthog, which now sounds more like a dirt bike. You cruise around some bends enjoying some air time for a bit before your joy ride is foiled by a 1 metre high wall. This brings me to my biggest gripe: the outdoor driving sections are very sparse.

They actually thought of a way to make one of the few outdoor sections an escort mission. Clever bastards.

You have access to a banshee a couple of times (the only flying vehicle apart for the Pelican (yes the Pelican is finally freakin' available to pilot (but not in multiplayer))) but each time you're locked into a very small area, usually with walls and a ceiling. The majority of the game you're slogging it in corridors or small arena like areas but at least these settings have several alternate paths to surprise the enemy. I've spent more time with the first Halo than any others and the best thing about it was that each level was like a sandbox with very little scripting to break the way you chose to play the mission. Weapons and vehicles remained where you left them and there were many large outdoor areas. 4 is almost the opposite and ammunition disappears with the weapons once you've turned your back. It's almost as if 343i couldn't fathom anyone wanting to regress through a level and promptly sent anything behind you to the abyss.

The new enemies, Prometheans, drew a bit of my ire. For one can we all stop using 'Promethean' for any and all alien races? Ridley Scott's film Prometheus has Prometheans, Mass Effect has Prometheans, now Halo does as well - just stop it. We get it, the titular Titan gave humans fire and you're drawing a parallel to us using advanced foreign technology to the same advancement seen by ancient humans using fire. It's a neat analogy, I know, but when everyone's using the same gimmick it loses it's punch. The second annoyance was the look of the new targets. When I first took a gander at the new menace it reminded me of the Cephs from Crysis 2 with the detachable angular armour. There are really only three varieties of these lads (antdogs, giant ticks and mosquitoes) but the AI is really quite good and I mean frustratingly good. Little shits float around the big'uns deflecting grenades, shielding damaged enemies, reviving them if dead and taking pot shots at you when they get bored. For all my gripes I still prefer them over the motherfucking Flood.

They're not identical, but someone's mother was cheating.

The music in Halo 4 is really nice; different, but nice. The problem is that now the volumes are off with no way to alter them. Guns are so loud that I never actually noticed the music at all and it wasn't until I grabbed the soundtrack that I was able to hear the tracks. There isn't really a main theme like Marty O'Donnell's work on the previous Halo games but some of the tracks are well worth the listen to. If I had to pick a theme from the soundtrack that I would use to represent the game it'd be Awakening, a track apparently used early on judging by its position in the album. A similar version is used at the end of the game but with more heroic overtones which I thought was really neato. Treat your ears below.

To top it off the entire multiplayer experience is unified by the UNSC Infinity, humanity's largest and longest throbbing space erection which I think is quite a neat idea. You get two main packages (hah!) here: the episodic cooperative Spartan Ops and War Games (marketing speak for matchmaking). I love cooperative games and it seems 343i have taken a bold move by releasing weekly installments of Spartan Ops, akin to a TV series complete with little cutscenes and side story. Each episode has 5 chapters (read: missions) and they plan the first season to have 10 episodes which means 50 cooperative missions, just to start with. I'm fairly sure that the first 5 episodes are actually on the disc and each week they unlock it. I'm fine with this because it's at no extra charge and they're trying to create a TV feel. If 343i can pull this off then hats off to them.

War Games is the regular multiplayer content with some game modes not quite ready by launch causing a few people to be upset. I only played a small amount of Halo: Reach and I was terrible. I was fighting the controls as much as the enemy and nobody I knew played it which meant I was attempting it solo. Solo multiplayer, especially on a foreign platform, is like masturbating with a waffle iron: simply not for me. For a pleasing change I had company for my first foray into 4's multiplayer and I genuinely enjoyed myself. After a rough start and switching control schemes (Bumper Jumper 4 lyfe, dawg) I started to take the enemy team out to Danger Town with Mr and Mrs Pain and serve up some violent quiche. Obviously I've not been on Xbox Live long enough to learn real smack talk. Still it did leave me with the desire to actually get better at it and learn the maps which is a first for any multiplayer game let alone one on a console.

Oh I am so going to seduce your parent/guardian with the intent of coitus tonight, you blackguard.

It's not an easy task to inherit a legacy like Halo but I feel that 343i really did a stellar job at making it theirs. I had my reservations about the whole deal after the Halo Anniversary release which was mostly outsourced to Saber Interactive. The campaign was a bit reliant on the novels but was able to introduce a credible threat without raising the danger level so high that by the end of the new trilogy el Chieferino will be eating entire planets and sodomising deities. The cooperative side is fresh and interesting and introduces a new way of delivering content. The multiplayer, which isn't usually my bag, had me wanting to keep playing. The whole deal feels familiar but yet also different, like off-brand soft drink. Not exactly bad, just different.

Halo 4, essentially.

shit that was a bit long...