A return to form, and a new beginning.
First, let me say that this review should be read knowing that I am THAT kind of nerd. You know, the one that read all the books, saw Forward Unto Dawn (which is amazing, by the way), has a few Halo Mega Bloks adorning his office, and so on. Granted, I'm not exactly the non-showered still-lives-in-grandma's-basement-type, but I'm still one of the most rabid Halo fans out there. At least I have a tendency to approach even the things I love objectively. With that warning, please proceed to the review in earnest.
After Halo 3, many questions were left unanswered, especially with the Legendary Ending of Halo 3. What will become of the Chief? What will happen between the Sangheili (Elites) and the humans? Will the Arbiter take up the mantle of leader of some new Covenant? What happened to the remnants of the Covenant that was trying to splat humanity? And... what the hell is that giant Cybertron-looking thing the Chief is floating toward in the Legendary Ending of Halo 3?
Unfortunately, Bungie/343 decided to allow these things to be answered across two separate trilogies. One was a book trilogy by Karen Traviss, who was known for writing some of the Gears of War books, amongst other things. The other trilogy is the Halo "Reclaimer Trilogy," spanning Halo 4, 5 and 6.
I won't go into detail about WHY everything is happening, as that's part of the journey, but rest assured that there is very little in the way of oversights, and most things are foreshadowed or slightly clarified. Mind you, there isn't quite enough answering, and too many questions. Halo 4, for example, adds FAR more questions than it answers.
Going into Halo 4 was a great return to form. The first level felt very much like a modernized version of the Pillar of Autumn escape scene from the original Halo, but was different enough from it that I didn't even realize it was a sort of reference/homage to the first game until I sat down to write this review. The overall feel of the game is actually very different than its predecessors. It tends to remind you of what a Halo game is while constantly revising it.
I'm fairly confident that the dev team spent a little too much time sitting in rooms thinking about how they can distance the new trilogy from the original, and it felt like the art style was an odd combination of Ghost Recon, Call of Duty, Halo, and some (slightly) H.R. Giger-like character design; lots of shiny stuff and things that are part-machine, part-monster. Overall, the effect was good, but I do think that the game mechanics could have been improved somewhat if the extra effort hadn't gone into the equivalent of someone waving a sign and shouting "HEY! GUYS! LOOK! It's Halo, but it's DIFFERENT!"
That said, I feel that it hit all the notes it should have. They deepen the relationship between Chief and Cortana, gave good ol' John 117 a personality, and explored the human element of a universe that was rich and well-thought-out in every medium BUT the games. It may be jarring to many people who just want to play the game, as the cross-medium storytelling was likely a marketing ploy to get the non-psychotic fans to go buy all the books, watch the web-series, etc. For people like me, though, it was AMAZING. The game hit on every major point I was hoping for, except for the new Covenant/old Covenant explanation. Yes, Elites are back, and yes... they are the least of your troubles.
I remember playing through every FPS Halo game on Legendary, each time dreading the appearance of an Elite. Most veteran Halo players view them as ammo sponges that make whatever you have to tackle after them much, much harder, thanks to the amount of ammo you have to spray at them to put them down. Now, however, the real foe comes in the form of Prometheans. I can't go too deep into what those are, as that's a MAJOR spoiler, but they're a sort of bio-mechanical alien/monster thing that has a penchant for killing you JUST when you let your guard down. They can teleport, work as a squad with other unit types, and so on, all with the end-result of making the player throw his hands in the air in frustration.
Don't get me wrong; I love the change of pace for the series, but while the Flood are no longer the stress-inducing element that so many people hated, the Knights are much, much more frustrating to fight.
Overall, the story is amazing. I feel the ending is a bit of a cop-out, but remember that they're trying to start a new trilogy with this game, and it's nowhere NEAR as pathetic as the ending to Halo 2. (Finishing this fight? Like Hell, it took you nearly THREE YEARS to finish the fight!!)
It's great to see that they tie the trilogies together with story, mechanics, and music that all feel like they belong in Halo, but stand apart as something new and exciting. It has a very blockbuster-film-type approach to pretty much everything, including the scripted events. It actually goes to a point where I tend to forget I'm playing the game, and keep waiting for the next scene to start. I only wish some of the new questions asked got at least part of an answer, but I suppose I have to play the next two games to see what the answers will be.
Spartan Ops is a new inclusion, replacing Firefight from Halo 3: ODST and Halo Reach. Personally, I prefer Firefight, but many multiplayer-minded folks will feel right at home in the non-stop frenetic action of a Spartan Ops mission. Most of the levels are objective-based, though it usually boils down to "kill everything or die trying". In fact, the game really does little to discourage the die trying part. Even if all four players simultaneously die, there is no penalty, no pool of lives for players to draw from to respawn, and no checkpoint-loading to slow the action. I do see this as a bit of a problem, as it seems like the homogenizing Call of Duty syndrome is finally taking root in Halo. That said, I think with a little more time to polish the newer gameplay mechanics this game introduced that Halo 5 and 6 will be some of the best shooters ever made for a console.
Multiplayer is probably the greatest improvement to Halo. It looks like Reach, but grittier, with more interesting maps, and a GUARANTEE that you are only a few seconds away from a firefight at any given moment, as opposed to long sprints across a map where you will inevitably be picked off by a sniper upon finally arriving at the battle you've been diligently trudging towards. The game really showcases what makes Halo... well... Halo. It feels like Halo, with the pacing and an improved version of the loadout system Call of Duty popularized, while including the most brutal assassinations I've seen in a first person shooter to date. The weapon spawns are largely randomized, except for a few centrally located power-weapon spawns. Seemingly also derived from Call of Duty is the ordinance system. Unlike Call of Duty, though, a player can request weapon and powerup drops regardless of whether they died between kills or not, which helps to prevent things like one team taking an insurmountable lead in the beginning via helicopters, dogs or whatever other painful way to die the support packages can offer. In Halo 4, however, the ordinance is usually a medium-heavy weapon that still feels balanced against the other weapons available on the map.
In summation, Halo 4 is in no way, shape or form an original game. But it took everything I love about Halo while incorporating elements of other popular genre-definers without becoming the sort of homogenized dribble that EA has been pumping out for the last few years.