Paradiso in of itself was an abomination. Exile and Longbow look genuinely fun. I expect the story to be utter crap. but multiplayer looks like it has a lot of potential.
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Paradiso in of itself was an abomination. Exile and Longbow look genuinely fun. I expect the story to be utter crap. but multiplayer looks like it has a lot of potential.
Just want to say, I've had the game, and I absolutely loved the campaign. Some of you may have issue with the story, but It was some of the most fun I've had in any Halo campaign. I also got to play all the way up to last mission of Spartan Ops of week 3, and I think SPOPS is a the real gem of this game. The sandbox gameplay and encounters and environments are amazing, but the Campaign is restricted in what types of combat scenarios it can put you in due to story and pacing and such.
SPOPS is all about the cool encounters they could do, but can't justify in Campaign. One mission was all about hogs vs vehicles, one was like firefight, one was like 343 GS, one as like the exterior of T&R, another was like the start of the covenant, another was like the first part of the ark and then tank combat, another took place on the complex mp map and valhalla. For the complex map, it was really cool as you could capture points to get guns online, which would then clear the skys of the banshees that were after you. In valhalla they made a story about the map, where you have to save the marines from the pelican, then take out a makeshift covie camp, and then acess a base. Then defend it with frickin Manti (which aren't overpowered at all btw).
MP is fun as well, but it's much faster paced, and all I played was infinity slayer. I'll do a more in depth review later, but unless your a hater (which is about 80% of this forum), I think you'll agree it's one of the best Halo games in the series.
I got bored
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Halo 4 Review
Campaign: Where to start here, well I will say I enjoyed this campaign more so than any other games. I will admit I was a but worried when I started, The first mission is really cool and fun, but also short and has many elements where it is linear and trying to set a mood and atmosphere, with scripted sequences. It took me about 20-30 minutes to beat. Then the second mission started, and I began to wonder more about this game. The second mission is about exploring the planet, and just general wandering, it's not to different than the mission Halo in H1, without the marines. Parts of it were repedative, and I began to really worry. Then came mission 3, which blew my mind. Promethians, Covenant, an amazing cutscene at the end that had me "oh shit oh shit oh shit." Then came mission 4, which I just recently replayed on legendary. This might be my favorite mission out of any halo game. It's the E3 mission, although the events of the E3 demo are simply of that of a demo, and not the actual level. Anyway, it goes from wandering in the jungle, to fighting alongside marines, to fighting covies and promethians as a unified force, to tank combat, to mantis combat. For those concerned about the mantis, let me say it's awesome, and not overpowered. Think of it as a less powerful, slower, weaker tank, but with a smaller footprint, higher firing point, and can be used by one person. Anyway, by the time I was done with this mission, I was sold on 343's design. The rest of the missions are all very good, although I did have a problem with the last 2. One is similar to a mission earlier in the game, and the last one while really cool, does not try to encompass everything the game has been about.
In all levels, except Dawn, the environments are incredibly open. There are so many ways of going through encounters, even on legendary. On my third play through of some missions, I was still finding new areas and ways to attack through exploration. I really feel I'm on another planet, exploring these huge natural environments. Halo hasn't had a more open environment since H1, and this is even more open. The gameplay is fantastic too. Even on legendary, your enemies are tough but never unfair. Your deaths are a result of your actions, not unfair AI. If you are dying, change your tactic, don't hate the game hate the player. Anyway, the enemies and weapons are all great, I'll go into more detail later.
What I do want to note, because it is important, is that the Campaign does a great job of telling the story 343 wanted to tell. Some people may have an issue with the story and the way it's told, but unlike every game since H2, this HAS a story. Some of the melodrama between the Chief and Cortana made me roll my eyes, but this new perspective for them is so much better than the old bungie way. The chief feels like a character, which I really loved. The missions suited the story well, as the missions conformed to the story, unlike reach where it was a bunch of mission ideas with a story shoehorned into them. One of my big problems with H2, comes back in H4. Because the story is so specific in locations and situations, there are levels where the entire game sandbox is not available. However, there are lots of cool things in campaign that could have been done with the sandbox they have, but weren't done. And this is where Spartan Ops comes in.
Spartan Ops.
I love single player, I love spartan ops (SPOPS). I was able up to play till chapter 4 episode 3, until I could no longer sign into XBL which is required to play. Let me first say what I don't like about SPOPS.
- Infinite live: When you die when playing with others or yourself, you always respawn at the last checkpoint, but the enemies don't reset. Basically, you could throw your team at the enemy until you win, rather than have to be careful. IDK how the point system works, but I assume you don't get as much points to your next rank the more you die. Eventually, I began to embrace infinite lives and respawns. the truth is, it's annoying when you have to restart from the last checkpoint and all the enemies respawn. Most of the time when I die, I think "shit, I can't do it that way" and now I can go back to the encounter the way I left it, and try a new strategy. When the enemies reset like in regular campaign, you have to go through all the motions to get back to where you were before. This is after all, the Firefight replacement, and I can see why they made it work this way. however, onto point 2.
- No skulls!!! I wanted to turn iron on, but I couldn't. Also, even on legendary, they may become to easy with 4 players. I just wish this was an option.
- The game has no Brutes, Buggers, Engineers, or Skirmishers. Not a big deal for the main campaign, but when you consider by the end of season 1, you will have 50 chapters, each at a minimum of 10 minutes a piece. I think there could have a place for these enemies, especially if we get 2 more seasons, bringing us up to over 1500 minutes of SPOPS campaign. Maybe they'll show up in later seasons? If so I'll be happy.
Other than those 3 things, it's amazing. On my own, they took about 10-20 minutes to beat. The majority of these are new environments, specificly for SPOPS.. They are "forged" for different missions, to give them different twists and to open up new areas, which at first I kind of groaned at, but I still had lots of fun and they seemed fresh each time I revisited. MP maps also are featured (I played on Valhalla and Complex in some missions), and one was recycled from SP. The SP area was great, didn't even realize it was from SP until I played that mission again, and the complex mission was fantastic too, as I ran around the map, I activated auto turrets that actually cleared the banshees out of the sky that I'd been avoiding. The valahalla missions… well they were cool, but I had a lot of trouble on them. At one point I had to go up against 4 hunters all by myself, which was a total pain in the ass. However, I can see it being fun with 2 or more players, which is what it was designed for. Of the missions I played, one was firefightish, one was heavily reminiscent of the Truth and Reconcilliation exterior from H1, one was like the Ark from H3, and one was like 343 GS from H1.
If campaign is about telling a story, this is about showing all the different kinds of encounters and missions can be achieved with this game. I think there is a lot of potential here, and I would gladly pay 30-40 dollars for extra seasons. If each weeks missions take about an hour to beat, and theres 10 per week, you're getting a 10 hour set of campaign style action, which is longer than any halo's campaign since H2. In fact, it would be 2 hours longer than H4 itself which took me 8 hours on heroic to beat. Anyway, I hope they realize the potential for fun for the players, and the potential for them to make a lot of money.
Another thing I loved was using your custom spartan. The perks and Loadouts are fantastic. It's really cool to have your Spartan prepped for your play style. I found overall in the game, ammo to be in short supply, so I changed my max ammo counts through a perk, and also improved my shielding. Add in some promethium vision so I can quickly find targets to use my DMR on, and I was a happy player. This addressed one of my problems with Campaign, which was the lack of human weapons in certain missions and the max ammo you could cary.
Multiplayer
I only got to play a bit of Infinity Slayer, but it plays a lot like h3, but faster paced. I don't want to draw any conclusions, as I think it takes a while to see the flaws in the MP in any halo game. I had fun playing it, and I think it's a good evolution of Halo's gameplay.
There does seem to be lots of power weapons in infinity slayer, but I also played on small maps where the LMG, Sticky Launcher, and shotgun, and Rail gun are going to be more effective for obvious reasons.
Sandbox stuffs
Vehicles: Nothing new to see here really, except for 2 minor vehicles that I don't want to ruin for anyone. But nothing substantial has been added other than the Mantis. There is no falcon or hornet, and the covie's are back to the Ghost, Wraith and Banshee. Vehicles are back to the H3 health system, but are faster like in reach, which makes sense with sprint and so many ways to EMP the vehicles.
Weapons: All awesome. Pistol feels like H1 more than ever, but with minor bloom if you fire to fast and a 8 round clip, AR feels like reach but stronger and less accurate. BR and DMR are fantastic, and for the first time in a Halo game, I enjoyed the carbine. Also, I enjoyed the beam rifle for the first time ever too. It's slightly weaker, but can fire more rounds before overheating at the same ROF as the human sniper, plus it's not as effective against vehicles as the human sniper. Promethian weapons are cool, although I used the surpressor as a weapon of last resort. I miss the PR and the SMG, I think they'd have been great as secondary weapons for the load outs. It sucks I have to start with a DMR and 3 pistol types, unless I use a perk to use the AR. The Storm Rifle is cool, but it seems like a reskin of the AR with slower projectiles and heat instead of ammo. It's slightly effective against shield. Boltshot I like a lot, you can use it for lots of head shots real quick like the H2 magnum, and the shotgun bast from it can be a life saver against a Knight, or a Watcher trying to revive one. The shotgun is now slower to fire and more powerful, while the Scattershot is faster firing and has more range, at the cost of less damage. I was disappointed by the light rifle, the burst is so quick you may as well be shooting single shots. It's still useful and cool though.
If anyone has any other questions, I'll be happy to answer and integrate them into this review. Also for anyone wondering, I have already paid for my full game, and will be picking it up midnight at launch.
When are we getting Halo 4 CE from CMT?
plz stop slacking Masterz.
Actually, the majority of the weapons are pretty close in behavior to ours, I felt quite at home and it didn't take me long at all the adjust to the weapons both CMT and H4 shared.
Yeah it ain't bad, I played a bit of mulitplayer at PAX for about 30 minutes and it seemed fun.
Would still be better on PC, and I won't be buying it anywhere near release, but yeah.
I haven't been able to play SPOS yet, and I must say, if there are no skull options then someone at 343i needs to get their head out of their ass. You can't tell me there weren't that many players in ODST/Reach who played FF for the use of skulls, or who got extended enjoyment out of FF because of the use of skulls.
Also, no falcons, or any multiperson air carrier, in MP is teh lame.
Include any vehicle that appears in campaign into Forge, please.
I wanna fly my pelican in spaaaaaaaaaaaaace!
The 3 hogs, tank, Mantis, ghost, banshee, wraith
Theatre-mode is still in this game, right? They didn't take that away? Furthermore, does anyone know if the pan-cam function can still be accessed?