Halo 4 vs halo 4 game of the year edition: Halo 4 Game of the Year Edition

The reasons for such darkness and lack of education are, in general, banal. Firstly, at the beginning of the last decade, almost no one even held the first Xbox in their hands, let alone played on it. Secondly, the thesis about the superiority of computers over consoles has become too deeply ingrained in the brains of Russian users, from which it follows quite ridiculously: they say, it is physically impossible to play shooters on a gamepad. True, the first and second parts of Halo came out on the PC — but they were so crooked and belated that it is impossible to remember without tears. And this, by the way, thirdly.

Meanwhile, thanks to Halo, most modern action games look exactly the way we are used to. So, you think, where did the fashion for auto-regeneration of health / armor and, ultimately, the rejection of first-aid kits come from (yes, we know your youthful love for this stupid convention, when during the battle you frantically look for a white box with a red cross somewhere on the floor )? From Halo: Combat Evolved. And where was almost the first time a convenient control layout for FPS on a gamepad was implemented? In Halo: Combat Evolved. And in what game were we given the opportunity not only to shoot at each other in online matches, but also to ride across the battlefields on a variety of vehicles? No, not in Battlefield 1942. And whose conceptual clone are all parts of Call of Duty, except for the very first one? Halo: Combat Evolved. Well, and so on.

So, despite all the internal protests towards a purely console gaming culture, a semi-fantasy universe and ridiculous aliens, just trust that Halo is actually incredibly cool. And the fourth part of the reason was one of the most anticipated games of the year.

⇡#Cowardly against change

Halo 4 has a special intrigue associated with it — this is the first full-fledged part from a new developer. The «fathers» of the series, Bungie studio, having released Halo: Reach two years ago, said goodbye to the universe and set off to conquer other heights. The baton was taken over by 343 Industries, which had not previously worked on independent projects. The trouble is that the new studio was somehow worried about the responsibility it had taken on and did not even try to hide its cowardice. At the beginning and at the end of the story campaign, we are shown in all seriousness a pitiful message from the authors: they say that we really appreciate the honor given to us, we love John-117, but this is our first game, so don’t be angry if something happens — in the future we will definitely improve . It’s funny to read this!

That’s the whole point of Halo 4 — the game is too reminiscent of its predecessors. Of course, there was a place for fresh ideas, but for some reason the picture in the office of 343 Industries is clearly visible: the local boss literally forces game designers to postpone most of the innovations until the inevitable Halo 5, and this time not to strain too much and borrow from their colleagues.

As a result, more than half of the total time you have to fight with hateful covenants. Over the past five games, we have killed almost the same opponents, who finally capitulated in the final of the triquel. Everything, the war is over, why repeat the past again?

Very timidly and cautiously, closer to the middle of the story, new enemies appear — Prometheans, guards of some ancient creatures. And this is where the real fun begins with new (and, no doubt, wonderful) weapons, a variety of opponents and in a good way chaotic fights. Artificial intelligence is more adequate than ever: monsters attack in groups, take the right positions and intelligently use their additional abilities like sentinel drones or force shields. Although, as soon as the last Promethean breaks up into “pixels” and the annoying covenants reappear on the scene, the desire to throw a mental stone in the direction of 343 Industries immediately arises.

⇡#Your style is in the details

However, in some ways Halo 4 is a significant step forward compared to the creations of Bungie. The latter were famous for their rough work with level design: open locations almost always gave off inappropriate gigantism, and interior decorations “boasted” of constant self-copying. Now there is nothing like this at all: locations are exactly the size you need, nothing is repeated more than once. And purely visually, everything is completely beyond praise — thanks to successful artistic decisions, the game looks better than many modern blockbusters, even despite the tired Xbox 360 hardware. , and even a fun recreation of the Death Star scene from Star Wars.

There are also some positive developments in the narrative part. The story revolves around the platonic relationship between Master Chief and Cortana, an artificial intelligence in the form of a charming girl. She suffers from an illness due to the expiration date — the period of operation has expired, and then only madness awaits Cortana. The protagonist is already very attached to his companion, so he hurries to help her. But first you need to get out of the mysterious planet Requiem, which is inhabited by an unknown enemy.

In general, Halo 4 is loyal to newcomers to the series. The stories of the past parts have almost no influence on current events, and all the most important things will be told to you along the way. At the same time, the game perfectly demonstrates all the advantages of the universe — there are various levels, and many different enemies, and excellent directing with voice acting (we are not talking about Russian localization, if anything), and the presentation of the whole plot as a whole did not let us down. Therefore, the fourth part is great for getting to know the whole series — after all, one must once begin to join the beautiful.

In addition, the game should be the beginning of a new trilogy. At the end of Halo 3, John-117 successfully saved the galaxy, defeated the Covenant alliance, and stopped the interstellar parasites. The new story is dedicated to the «awakened evil» — the Forerunners, an ancient civilization that built artificial ring planets as a weapon of very mass destruction. Apparently, Halo 4 will be one of the last major exclusives on the Xbox 360, and all subsequent sequels will be released on the next generation of consoles.

⇡#Millions of Spartans

Talking about network modes is somehow even uninteresting and trite — any part of Halo has always been almost an exemplary console shooter with a multiplayer component, the continuation is also no exception.

The story campaign can be completed in co-op. Although, perhaps, it’s not worth it — this will destroy the authenticity of what is happening, and in the commercials, the Master Chief always remains in splendid isolation. Therefore, this feature is rather a pleasant addition, nothing more. For fans of the “feeling of the elbow”, the Spartan Ops mode is provided — a set of almost story-driven missions for the Spartans from the Infinity ship. 2-4 players perform simple tasks: clear the territory from the enemy, explore the area, and so on. A new «episode» is released weekly, each containing five fragments (hello, Left 4 Dead!). At the time of writing this review, the third “release” had just appeared, and all fans are promised to please as many as ten weeks in a row. Not bad, although «Spartan Operations» is only available to subscribers of a paid Xbox Live Gold account.

Well, among competitive online modes, almost every conceivable entertainment for shooters is represented: “death match”, team death match, capture the flag, “King of the Hill”, domination, and so on — only everything is called in the Halo lexical style. There are always tens of thousands of users online and, best of all, there will be enough people at least until the release of the next part of the series. The leveling system is quite traditional — for the experience you get access to new weapons and armor modifications.

Whether it’s multiplayer or a single-player campaign, it’s fun and exciting to play, and Halo 4 itself remains the premier first-person fantasy action game to date. To be honest, it would be possible to put all ten points, but, as noted above, some cowardice of the creators spoils everything — there are too many repetitions in the game that have long been passed. However, at this rate, the fifth part has every chance to completely get rid of any minuses.

Advantages:

• dynamic and vibrant single player campaign;
• excellent presentation of the story;
• multiplayer, which has just everything your heart desires;
• is quite a pleasant co-op in Spartan Ops;
• visual style and music — as always in the series — on top.

Disadvantages:

• still the story part is a bit short;
• has a lot of borrowings from its predecessors.

Graphics	Now, probably, everyone is surprised: how can you put the maximum mark for the graphics of a console shooter?! And it’s very simple. It’s not about the number of polygons and pixels, but how the game looks thanks to the design, visual design and sense of style of the developers. Halo 4 is extremely cool with this.	10
Sound	The series has a new composer — Neil Davidge. Its soundtrack is simultaneously similar to the work of Martin O’Donnell, Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore, Daft Punk and something else known. And this music more than successfully fits into the overall picture.	10
Single game	Getting to know the plot will hardly take you more than five or six hours. We have already talked about the notorious battles with the covenants above — for this, another minus point. The asset is the story and excellent direction of what is happening.	8
Team play	A separate and long co-op mode, all kinds of online battles — what else do you need in a modern shooter?	10
General impression	A good independent start of 343 Industries was overshadowed only by the timidity of the developers themselves. But nothing, next time they will definitely be bolder and give free rein to their own imagination.	9

Learn more about the grading system0107

We express our gratitude to the Belconsole store (Belarus) for providing a copy of the game for review.

News Halo 4 — Shazoo

cyber_samovar 16:30, July 19, 2022

7

Halo veteran leaves 343 Industries after 14 years

Nicolas Bouvier, aka Sparth, has announced his departure from 343 Industries after 14 years on the Halo franchise. He served as art director on Halo Infinite and previously served as artist on Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians….

Cohen scavenz 15:40, October 22, 2020

16

Halo 4 4K Screenshots for The Master Chief Collection

Microsoft and 343 Industries have launched a closed test of Halo 4, which will be the final addition to The Master Chief Collection. Edition DSOGaming published screenshots of the game in 4K at maximum graphics settings. In addition to the increased resolution, the developers have improved the quality…

cyber_samovar Magnus 18:20, September 25, 2020

6

Halo 4 PC beta starts before the end of October

On September 22, 343 Industries released the PC version of Halo 3: ODST, exactly 11 years after the release of the game on the Xbox 360. Tonight, the developers announced that it will soon come to Halo 4. From the new…

ILYA scavenz 20:00, August 1, 2018

eleven

Halo: Master Chief Collection gameplay in 4K on Xbox One X

343 Industries announced yesterday that the updated Halo: The Master Chief Collection has become available to all pre-registered Insiders. Previously, only selected users tested the build. The developers have been making changes for several months and …

Cohen Magnus 11:56, November 3, 2012

15

Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn — Episode Five

While millions of Xbox 360 owners are counting down the days until next week’s release of Halo 4, Microsoft has decided to lighten the expectations a little and published the fifth and final episode of the web series Halo 4: Foward Unto Dawn. I don’t…

Cohen Cohen 07:24, November 2, 2012

10

Halo 4’s soundtrack is the best-selling game of all time

The Halo 4 Official Soundtrack ranked 50th on the overall sales chart, thus becoming the top soundtrack of all time. About 9,000 copies are reported to have been sold already, which is higher than the previous record holder, Guitar Hero III: Legends…

Cohen Cohen 11:03, 30 October 2012

9

Halo 4: Spartan Ops Season 1 trailer

A trailer for the first season of Halo 4: Spartan Ops co-op has been released online. In essence, this segment of the game will be a cooperative campaign broken into parts that will be released along with a short series on weekends….

Cohen Lord_Soth 06:33, 19 October 2012

13

Halo 4 trailer by David Fincher

If you remember, not so long ago, I wrote about the new trailer for Halo 4, which is produced by renowned director David Fincher. Yesterday, NBC premiered this trailer titled «Scanned», in which we…

Magnus 10:06, 16 October 2012

20

Halo 4 leak led to a wave of permanent bans

As you already know, a pirated version of Halo 4 was leaked to the Web a couple of days ago, although Microsoft has not yet identified the source, giving up the desire to download the game for free a month before its release is extremely.