Well, since you asked...
Campaign: disappointingly short and low-key compared to recent titles. It ticks all the right boxes - new plot reveals, the ante gets upped, ancient evils get unleashed as promised - but it's done in a way that completely lacks any gravitas or panache. Halo 1 and 3 in particular had moments where you were introduced to the jaw-dropping scale of the alien constructs you were fighting over. Halo 2's High Charity was quite good at representing a sprawling alien Capitol city-ship, and even Reach had some memorable moments that made you feel like a very small piece of a much larger conflict. In Halo 4 the action takes place inside a Dyson sphere, which should be a recipe for instant awesome. Except it isn't. There's no grand reveal, no size comparison to make you gasp, and very few far-off vistas. Quite the opposite: a remarkable amount if exposition takes place just in cutscenes and sometimes, criminally, even off camera (the overused mechanic of "chief wakes up on the floor with blurry vision", and that diabolically lazy bit just before the start of the Composer level). No campaign scoring, no campaign theatre mode, skulls unlocked by default and the least challenging set of campaign terminals ever (which you have to watch on Waypoint anyway, not in the actual game) round off a lacklustre set of credentials.
Forge: Shit. Next!
Spartan Ops: whoever decided this was any kind of spiritual successor to the tried-and-tested survival mode that was Firefight needs to have their head examined. It's not totally bad, but in attempting to be jack of all trades ends up being master of none and simply mediocre. The expanded narrative aspect shows the UNSC in a thoroughly incompetent light; the Spartan IVs are a bunch of bro-fisting jocks led by a catty and anti-intellectual harridan of a woman. The scientists are button-jabbing dolts and the enemies, Covenant and Forerunner alike, are given precious little motivation beyond "For vistory!" or "For the great Journey!". The gameplay aspect is a fleeting amusement at best. I say again: no theatre, the most rudimentary scoring imaginable, no skulls to enable, and if you play online you can't even vote for the difficulty. Lengthy and tedious in-game cutscenes bookend each chapter, further decreasing the enjoyment of repeated plays.
Multiplayer: 343 are martyristically sticking to their guns and providing us with a limited number of playlists, some of them incredibly unpopular. DLC seems to be being handled incrementally better this time around (thank fuck) but Team Snipers and Grifball are still conspicuous by their absence. The networking is abysmal - at least one black screen per game is the rule, rather than an occasional occurance. The new weapons and vehicles (and conversely, all the weapons and vehicles that no longer feature - Falcon, anyone?) have divided opinion, and the Ordnance system whereby you call in personal weapons rather than pick up respawning weapons on the battlefield further changes the classic Halo feel. It's still good fun, especially with friends, and is undoubtedly the strongest part of the overall Halo 4 package.
Other: File browser still isn't working. The new Armory is yet another bone of contention - some players have welcomed the new Crysis-style suits, others bemoan the absence of long-time favourites and the damn ugliness of many of the more experimental new designs. The rank/level system is notably easier to max out than it was in Reach, and with less payoff in terms of high-end gear or perks.
Overall it's a fairly solid core game but almost defined by the numerous blunders, omissions, delayed features and poor design choices 343 have made. There's a decent game under there screaming to make itself heard but it's smothered in layers of gelatinous shite.
Me, I'm taking a break from Halo 4 until new Spartan Ops episodes get released; I feel as if I've seen everything the game has to offer, something I never got with either Halo 3 or Reach.
Campaign: disappointingly short and low-key compared to recent titles. It ticks all the right boxes - new plot reveals, the ante gets upped, ancient evils get unleashed as promised - but it's done in a way that completely lacks any gravitas or panache. Halo 1 and 3 in particular had moments where you were introduced to the jaw-dropping scale of the alien constructs you were fighting over. Halo 2's High Charity was quite good at representing a sprawling alien Capitol city-ship, and even Reach had some memorable moments that made you feel like a very small piece of a much larger conflict. In Halo 4 the action takes place inside a Dyson sphere, which should be a recipe for instant awesome. Except it isn't. There's no grand reveal, no size comparison to make you gasp, and very few far-off vistas. Quite the opposite: a remarkable amount if exposition takes place just in cutscenes and sometimes, criminally, even off camera (the overused mechanic of "chief wakes up on the floor with blurry vision", and that diabolically lazy bit just before the start of the Composer level). No campaign scoring, no campaign theatre mode, skulls unlocked by default and the least challenging set of campaign terminals ever (which you have to watch on Waypoint anyway, not in the actual game) round off a lacklustre set of credentials.
Forge: Shit. Next!
Spartan Ops: whoever decided this was any kind of spiritual successor to the tried-and-tested survival mode that was Firefight needs to have their head examined. It's not totally bad, but in attempting to be jack of all trades ends up being master of none and simply mediocre. The expanded narrative aspect shows the UNSC in a thoroughly incompetent light; the Spartan IVs are a bunch of bro-fisting jocks led by a catty and anti-intellectual harridan of a woman. The scientists are button-jabbing dolts and the enemies, Covenant and Forerunner alike, are given precious little motivation beyond "For vistory!" or "For the great Journey!". The gameplay aspect is a fleeting amusement at best. I say again: no theatre, the most rudimentary scoring imaginable, no skulls to enable, and if you play online you can't even vote for the difficulty. Lengthy and tedious in-game cutscenes bookend each chapter, further decreasing the enjoyment of repeated plays.
Multiplayer: 343 are martyristically sticking to their guns and providing us with a limited number of playlists, some of them incredibly unpopular. DLC seems to be being handled incrementally better this time around (thank fuck) but Team Snipers and Grifball are still conspicuous by their absence. The networking is abysmal - at least one black screen per game is the rule, rather than an occasional occurance. The new weapons and vehicles (and conversely, all the weapons and vehicles that no longer feature - Falcon, anyone?) have divided opinion, and the Ordnance system whereby you call in personal weapons rather than pick up respawning weapons on the battlefield further changes the classic Halo feel. It's still good fun, especially with friends, and is undoubtedly the strongest part of the overall Halo 4 package.
Other: File browser still isn't working. The new Armory is yet another bone of contention - some players have welcomed the new Crysis-style suits, others bemoan the absence of long-time favourites and the damn ugliness of many of the more experimental new designs. The rank/level system is notably easier to max out than it was in Reach, and with less payoff in terms of high-end gear or perks.
Overall it's a fairly solid core game but almost defined by the numerous blunders, omissions, delayed features and poor design choices 343 have made. There's a decent game under there screaming to make itself heard but it's smothered in layers of gelatinous shite.
Me, I'm taking a break from Halo 4 until new Spartan Ops episodes get released; I feel as if I've seen everything the game has to offer, something I never got with either Halo 3 or Reach.
