Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Solid"

It's been a little while since this game came out. So I guess you can say I'm late but I think I've gotten a full grasp on the game. I've played it all and I finally have a pretty solid opinion. While I've always been a fan of the Halo fan it wasn't until Halo: Reach were I really began to enjoy the series. I think that Halo: Reach is out of all the Halos the best. At least it has the best ending in recent history. I recommend that all of you should play it. So with that lets begin.

Halo 4's campaign takes place roughly 5 years after the ending of Halo 3. Master Chief is on the Forward Unto Dawn which has taken massive damage. When the Covenant attack the Forward Unto Dawn, Chief is awakened by Cortana as is sucked into a Forerunner Planet. After exploring around for a while, Chief frees an ancient evil known as the Didact. It is up to you to stop the Didact from. . .well I'm not entirely sure. I think it was to stop him from destroying the human race or something but I really didn't understand what he was trying to accomplish. Maybe I wasn't paying good enough attention but I just never fully understood the story. While I got the big picture, character's motivations and such were lost on me.

The whole campaigned just felt like a jumbled mess to me as well. It seemed rather disjointed and loosely connected. One moment I'm traveling through a Tropical Rainforest environment and then I'm in some arid valley. Once again this could just be my failure to pay close enough attention but their's some piece of me that feels that this was a failure on the game's part. I am playing the campaign for a second time so I'll see how that goes. Overall, I'd say that while I have my issues with the campaign I still think that it's pretty good.

Let's face it, campaign is just one component to the Halo series. Now the multiplayer, well there's a lot to talk about. First off let's talk about Spartan Ops. While I haven't played much it seemed pretty decent. I like the fact that 343 is trying to deliver weekly installments in the Halo story. I really enjoyed my time with Spartan Ops and I'm really hyped about this inclusion.

Finally, War Games. The traditional multiplayer. Let's just get this out of the way, there isn't anything that has downright p***ed me off, besides the moments when others were just being douchbags. I found that all the game modes were pretty good (however I have not played Flood.) My favorite was Big Team Slayer as I felt that was were I played best. I liked the new armor system where some were unlocked by ranking up and others were unlocked by completing special challenges. I think that there are a lot of useless equipment though (the Storm Rifle, the Pulse Grenade, Thruster Pack, etc) they didn't detract from the experience.

Besides that the graphics are beautiful and are some of the best I've seen all year. The sound is very good with great work from all around. The rest of the game is just great and it was a pleasure to play.

Overall Halo 4 is a great game. It isn't the best in the franchise but 343 has proven themselves as competent developers for one of the biggest franchises in gaming history.