Hey guys, i was lucky enough to play Halo 4 at a big Expo here in New Zealand this weekend just passed, and thought i’d share with you guys everything i can.
NOTE; Im pretty sure this was a final build, but i could be wrong. Also Some of the stuff im going to talk about is opinion, not fact lol…
First off, i loved the game. I cant really complain about anything. The sound was incredible, the guns felt great, maps played really well, and while it felt new, it also most definitely felt like Halo. You feel right at home when you pick it up.
Things (hopefully) worth mentioning;
Aim Assist; I could be wrong, but it felt like aim assist had been toned right down. It probably didnt help that we were playing on like 50 inch TV’s standing half a meter away, but it definately felt harder to get those headshots than it does in Reach.
Grenades; Seemingly do a lot less damage. Pulse grenade has no bounce , ‘detonates’ on impact. It can also kill enemies, not just EMP thier shields, no sure how as i didnt see it happen (i threw a grenade at someone right before falling into the creek on valhalla, and didnt actually see him die).
Rifles; This is my opinion guys, so take this relatively lightly, but the DMR definately felt like the best of the four primary rifles. I don’t know why, but i wasnt a fan of the BR. I used it for a few lives, then went back to my DMR. Carbine was ok, fires nice and fast, but semed to take longer to strip away the shields. Light rifle, im still not sure about. Didnt seem to be as good as the dmr in closer to mid range battles, but i will admit its a freakin beast when zoomed in. For overall use however i stuck with the DMR.
I did try to mess around with other weapons, but didnt get too much of a chance. Magnum feels quite powerful, but i only got to use it once. Boltshot, i liked, and it has a powerful alternate fire mode (liek a shotgun blast) however was hard to use. Plasma pistol, about the same as Reach, however its homing cababilities have been toned riiiight down. Took me a lot of misses (that would have been definate hits in reach) to get used to it.
I didnt use much of the sidearms however because of my favourite tactical package, Firepower. Allows you to equip say a DMR and a Lightrifle, or an assault rifle…
Only other weapons i really got to try out were the Railgun (hard to hit a target with, didnt get much time to get used to the timer, fires similarly to the Splaser, but is very powerful), Sniper rifle (still the same old gun, though worth mentioning i wasnt alone in finding it harder to use than reach’s sniper rifle), concussion rifle (much the same as reach) and the Sticky Detonator, possibly my favourite new gun. Very handy little gun, and very powerful, explosion radius and strength much like the grenades in Reach lol.
Vehicles;
Banshee; Reminded me a lot more of Halo 3’s banshee than Reach’s. Felt a lot slower, especially when maneuvering. It does a slow (and awkward, if your too close to the ground) loop, during which you cannot adjust the direction at all, until the animation is finished. Still very powerful, got plenty of multikills, including two overkills with it. Plasma cannons feel a lot more powerful.
Warthog; Didnt get to use this much. To be honest it felt very under utilised on Ragnorok with the mantis’ and Banshees dominating the map, along with all the anti-vehicular weapons, though the few times i did get to drive it i loved it. Sounds incredible, very grunty and powerful, and feels heavy on the ground, like its made of metal not paper lol. Also you seem to take less damage in it, and bullets barely seem to knock it around at all.
Mantis; This ones a bit tricky. Yes it felt very much so overpowered. I jumped in it for the first time and dominated lol. almost got a perfection. I would have, if it werent for the teamate who thought crashing into me and blowing us both up was a great idea. Destroys banshees, and foot soldiers alike, is faster than a spartan at full sprint, and can spin around really fast, making it hard to board. Also worth noting i took a direct Splaser hit and survived, with only a little superficial damage, and smoking, but not on fire…
On the other hand, in the few games i managed to play, i also destroyed 5 of them. Pulse grenades seem to have no effect on them, but plasma pistols are very usefull against them, though very hard to hit them with the nerfed homing capability. In the Hands of the right player, the Mantis can dominate a match, however i think as long as you and your team are well co-ordinated, they hopefully shouldnt be toooo hard to take down.
I also tried the ghost and mongoose, which both felt pretty similar to their Reach counterparts.
Ragnorok; felt so awesome to play on this map again. works well with the new sandbox, however i will admit we wer getting around the maps a hell of a lot faster than back in Halo 3…
The rest has pretty much been talked about by everyone else, though one last thing i havent seen mentioned;
Nemesis Perk; I rememebr a lot of people worried about this, but worry no longer lol. I tried it out to make sure it wasnt overpowered, and to be honest, especially on a amap like Ragnorok, it felt useless. Id spawn with a small icon on my hud giving me the exact location of the guy who killed me. By the time i got from inside the base to the top, on my way to the mancannon so i could actually determine exactly where this icon was pointing, it was gone lol… It could perhaps be usefull on smaller maps, but ill never use it, not when theres much more usefull perks you can use.
Overall it felt amazing, potentially the best Halo yet, and i just wanted to keep playing. Im more excited than ever for it to come out…
Well thats about it, sorry for the structure/typos, to be honest im still tired from the weekend and really cant be bothered fixing it all up etc. Hope some of you find this info interesting, feel free to ask me anything else, to which ill answer the best i can lol.
NOTE; we had everything unlocked, but not a lot of time in customization screen, and we only got to play regicide on Haven, and Infinity slayer on Ragnorok, so i cant answer anything about anything outside of these playlists/maps lol