A bold new direction for a game we all know and love so much. Great job 343 Industries. Great job.
But you will soon learn the true enemy here is the Forerunners, the Didact to be specific that the Prometheans fight for. The Halo 4 story is quite good and engaging and I can't help but think it's even better and deeper than I thought. Between Cortana and the Forerunners the Librarian and the Didact explanations about the Halo and Forerunner history, mythology and terminology I can't help but think there is a great grand story than a video game can convey. But at the center of it all is a love story of Master Chief trying to save the malfunctioning Cortana by getting her back to earth.
The enemies here are two folds, the Covenant comprising our old favourites Grunts, Elites, Jackals and Hunters then there are the new Prometheans comprising of Knights, Crawlers and the Watchers. Promethean Knights are like the new Elites if you may; Crawlers are dog like, attack aggressively in packs and can crawl up walls. Watchers are these flying robot things that can heal, create shields to protect other Prometheans and just plain shoot at you. Graphically Halo 4 is visually stunning, its looks amazing and very detailed up close as you look at the jungle, the architect and environment around you. Out in the open environment it looks even better and varied from rocky mountains, ship wreckage, oceans, outer space and an amazing bird's eye view from the Pelican (a fighter plane) of the planet below. The voice acting is great too with some very good heated augments and voice overs explaining some deep Forerunners stuff. Then there are the vehicles, Warthog is fun to drive as ever, the Covenant Ghost is a blast if you want to drive and do some shooting yourself. And all this put together makes Halo 4 one heck of a superbly superb game. But it's not all a joy ride there are some very frustrating long driving sequences and the transition from gameplay to cutscene is not that smooth, it looks very clumsy.
Then there is the gameplay its self, if you ever played a Halo game or any of the top AAA shooters you will feel right at home. It all feels so natural and intuitive but this not the Halo that we know there is no Floods here, and this lack of the relentless, unforgiving, always-on-attack Floods that attack in their hundreds is felt hard on the gameplay. With no Floods and the introduction of many guns with a scope that can shoot from a distance the game can be played at a slower pace, you can simply stand from a distance and take down enemies from a far. But don't, you will be doing yourself a great injustice, Halo is meant to be played at fast pace, aggressively attacking your enemies. Don't worry though the lack of Floods doesn't make this any less of a challenging game. There are times when Halo 4 throws a tonne of enemies at you; there will be wave after wave of enemies coming at you. It's all so exciting and challenging you will wonder if you could make it on higher difficulty setting.
It may not be the Halo we know but rest assured The Reclaimer Trilogy is in good hands with 343 Industries. They off to a great start and it can only get better on next gen technology.