Halo 4

First review of 2012 and it's a big one from late last year that I just hadn't gotten around to finishing until recently. Now, you may or may not know this, but I was never the biggest fan of Halo as a franchise. Aside from Halo: Reach, I'd never really gotten into any of the games. For one reason or another, they don't scratch my gamer itch.
So with the covenant story arc winding down, is this the chance for me to get engrossed?

STORY
As Halo 4 opens, Master Chief awakens on the Forward Unto Dawn as it is attacked by Covenant forces. While fighting off the assailants, the ship's and everyone fighting among them are pulled down onto a mysterious planet. After learning that this is the Forerunner planet known as Requiem. In trying to escape Requiem and rejoin with UNSC forces, Chief and Cortana mistakenly free a long imprisoned Forerunner warrior, known as the Didact, who is hell bent on eradicating the Human race.

To be honest, I think Halo 4's story rushes things a bit too much. It seems like so little time between crash landing on Reqiuem, to unleashing the Didact, to escaping to the UNSC forces; it all just happens a bit fast for my liking. The story does have some high points, however. Cortana, being a rather old AI, is nearing rampancy, which she describes as when AI thinks themselves to death. The tensions between Cortana and Master Chief as her malfunctions increase and her personality frays make for some interesting scenes.

I also found it a little funny that Cortana seems to show more emotion that the Chief, and that, coupled with a question Cortana poses to him midway through the campaign, left me with a bit of a Bladerunner, is-Chief-what-we-think question near the end. I'm almost certain I'm wrong, but I just thought it was interesting.

PRESENTATION
I've never been able to fault Halo's presentation style, and Halo 4 is as stunningly pretty as you've come to expect. There's a nice variation in areas, from Forest areas, futuristic spires, rocky wasteland areas; and it's all very colourful. The only thing that annoys me about Halo 4's visuals is the amount of bloom. I prefer bright games over dark, this is true, but sometimes it's a bit too much. Everything gleams to an impossible degree. It's kind of annoying.

The soundtrack is as Epic as you'd expect for one of the headliners of the gaming medium, usually with ochestral tunes that really get you in the mood to shoot some alien bastards. Voice acting is pretty good, with Cortana's fraying psyche being portrayed about as well as you might imagine. Chief is still the stoic military badass you all (apparently) love, so it's nice to hear him actually get a little angry in certain scenes.

GAMEPLAY
In all honesty, if you've played any of the last few Halo titles before this, then Halo 4 will be as familiar to you as them. You run, you shoot, you jump, you grenade. Everything is as smooth and fluid as you could ask for. What makes this title worth noting are the new enemies and weapons.

The enemy designs of the Prometheans look great with their metallic designs and their vivid colours, but the way they impact on gameplay is the most interesting aspect. Dog-like prometheans scale walls and force you to watch all directions, while Promethean Knights can teleport, as well as spawning flying allies. These flying allies can in turn provide buffs, such as reviving destroyed allies and generating shields for them. Figuring out which enemies to deal with first and fastest is key to surviving, and blowing up these metallic foes feels truly rewarding.

As reward for taking these enemies down, you can get your hands on some sweet Promethean gear. They function somewhat similar to other weapons in the franchise, but have such a nice weight to them that I found myself always trying to keep one on hand whenever I could.

I still take a while to get my head around vehicle handling in these games, but that's probably just me. It's the whole steering with the right analog stick thing. It just feels odd. But, I guess it works.

REPLAYABILITY
Ok, one of the things that has kept Halo afloat in this industry is it's stellar multiplayer suite. While it's not my cup of tea, I do enjoy the occasional Slayer match, or Griffball game, and at the end of the day, that keeps me coming back to Halo 4 as well. On top of that, there's the Spartan Ops episodic co-op missions, so yaaay.

OVERVIEW
Halo 4 accomplishes quite a lot, at least in my eyes. It's the best looking entry in the series, with some awesome new enemies to blast, and some moments that really do their best to tug at your heart strings. Yes, it rushes things alot, and more often than not, the protagonist comes off as more of a robot than a man, but gameplay is still so fluid and fast that, in my eyes, 343's game feels almost superior than Bungie's efforts. It's at least on par with Bungie's best offering (which in my eyes, was Reach). Veteran Halo fans, get in there if you haven't already, and newcomers to the series, this is your time to jump in. A few plot points are poorly explained, but it's eaier than jumping in at Halo 3, that's for sure.