Halo 4 Multiplayer Review (Written by xl Prado lx)
Introduction
I’m a huge fan of the Halo series, and I haven’t missed a single title. My story with Reach was special, Halo 3 was actually boring to me, and I think Halo 1 is the worst Halo (When compared to the series)
Going on from what I said about CE, each new Halo improves upon its predecessors in some ways. All the way up to ODST, we see phenomenal improvements. Then, Reach showed us a different playing game that failed to cater to its casual market. After, I see Halo 1 Anniversary. I was a little worried from what I saw, because I didn’t see any improvements on the game as far as gameplay is concerned. That made me and 343 not so good friends.
With leaks, trailers, and gameplay being littered into Youtube before its release I was impressed with what I saw. I even had some thumbs up from some Pros, making me sigh in relief. Finally, the game comes out and all my friends pick it up on midnight. They grow to hate it, even the newcomers.
But, all my friends had a record of terrible judgment and I wasn’t gonna believe them. I just told myself, “They’re just butthurt, nothing to worry about.” Who would’ve known I would join them in casual rage sessions?!
-Interface
As the title states, this is a multiplayer ONLY review. Imo, the Campaign was fantastic and Spartan Ops was uninspired. Anyway, I’ll start from the beginning of purchase.
The second disc could not be more of a waste of plastic. You put it in, install the multiplayer, and switch back to the first disc. You’ll never use that second disc! (WARNING: This review is nitpicky, but it all adds up)
Upon starting the game for real, you’ll see that the main menu has been downgraded. Gone is the extremely conventional Reach menu. I’ll have you know, there is no excuse for this other than to give more evidence that this game is a reboot. I’m serious; I looked at the interface and said “GOOD GOD, WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOU! T.T”
The Reach menu was the most organized and easy to navigate menu in Halo so far. This game gives it the finger and walks away. Before, I didn’t have to worry about not having a HDTV, but now I do! I’m being serious, why is the text so small?! AND WHY IS EVERYTHING BLUE??!!! None of this would’ve been a problem had they just kept to the Reach style and improved upon it! I don’t even want to go into how it isn’t even finished. (File Share & Theater)
-Matchmaking Searching/Playlists
For the first time in my Halo career, I have to bite my nails in fear hoping that we get even teams. Why? Oh wait, JOIN IN PROGRESS. Searching doesn’t prioritize on even teams, expecting the join in progress feature to fill in the gaps. What were they thinking? I don’t want to play Halo and hope to have backup when I’m outnumbered 1 to 3!! This is a step back, and it can cause some unbearable situations. (Thankfully, there is no penalty to leaving as far as I know) Join in progress is no excuse for this, and I hope they fix this.
Now, I’m going to compliment the game. I loved the selection of playlists! It stuck to the core of Halo, and it even offered Flood for the guys who didn’t care. Great job 343, keep up the good work on these playlists!
-Customization
Good god, why 343. Why. Why. Why 343.
I can accept them putting in classes, I can do it. As long as they don’t copy paste the concept, and instead adjust it to Halo! They don’t, and it is really hurting this game. The grenade and sidearm category is NOT necessary! WHY THE F*** WOULD YOU LET PEOPLE CHOOSE GRENADES?! WHY? WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?! If I’ve learned anything about customization in Halo, it is that you don’t let people in charge of your game.
EVERYONE chooses the plasma grenade. “Oh wait, Prado, not everyone uses i-“
SHUT. THE. FLIP. UP.
Everyone uses plasma grenades, and when they know they won’t win they’ll resort to spamming stickies. (If you’re good at Halo, this happens to you CONSTANTLY) Was the sidearm category even necessary? Honestly, the plasma pistol is the really rude uncle at a family reunion.
“Hey! The whole family is here- oh, who invited him.”
“Sorry… we couldn’t just ignore him. It wouldn’t be right.”
This is just annoying, and will constantly bother you. There is no escaping it; you will see stickies and the occasional plasma pistol. (Don’t say the plasma pistol isn’t that bad, they changed the sound so that it isn’t even discernible among gunfire now)
Moving onto armor. The armor isn’t that cool in this game. Only the helmets are good, and the other pieces just aren’t that distinctive. The stances and visors are cool, making you want to level up if you care about it. Leveling up is laughably easy, making the game feel unrewarding. I’m bored already, and I bought this thing a week ago.
-Ordinance
Ordinance, the newest and main feature in Halo 4 multiplayer, sucks. Of course, you have the first drops and those are ok. Just your normal power weapons, some placements are more debatable than others. What I’m saying that sucks though is the killstreaks. Killstreaks are completely random, and aren’t adjusted to the map you play on. You could literally get any weapon, no matter what map you are on. It isn’t even that hard to get one! Eventually, even some n00b will get one.
This is where the game mainly fails. You aren’t punished for dying, you will eventually get an ordinance and so will the enemy. A complete n00b will be given an incinerator on HAVEN! This turns Halo into a crazy and unbalanced arena shooter! Everyone is running with power weapons, and the maps aren’t designed for that!
The maps in this game are fantastic! Some of the best in this series even! BUT. They weren’t designed for all these random ordinances and grenade spams! The maps feel like they were designed for Classic Halo, and it shows when you play Slayer Pro.
^This is my biggest gripe in Halo, and it is completely game breaking.
-Some Significant Nitpicks
This is the loudest Halo ever. The sound system has been completely redesigned, and it is actually downgraded. Reach & 3 were very silent games which helped you discern the exact distance and direction of shots and footsteps easily.
This is much harder to do now. I played in three different setups. One with my Tritton AX720’s, Turtlebeach X12’s, and my Surround Sound Speaker system in my man cave. Significantly harder, but not to the point where it isn’t there. There is just too much guess work and not enough precision to my liking.
Speaking of precision… scoping in and out. A lot of you knew I was going to mention this. It doesn’t take any argument to say that this change was not needed. For those who don’t know, whenever you were shot in past Halo games when aiming down the sights (ADS) you would be forced out of your scope. Now, if you’re shot while ADS you aren’t forced out of your scope. THIS SUCKS.
Part of the skill to Halo was in this concept! This was major to sniping, since it forced you to no-scope if you wanted to survive a close up fight. Not now! This has been replaced with recoil! When shot while ADS your sight will be shoved upward slightly. This can be easily adapted to, making recoil a terrible balancing tool.
Some Weapons need to be thrown away. The Binary Rifle is the definition of OP. The Incinerator is insane, and the Carbine and BR don’t stand up to the Light Rifle (Hip) and DMR.
Just want to throw in a compliment. The grenades are perfect in this game. (By themselves, they’re still spammed beyond belief) Also, thank you for the grenade indicator. Whoever finally put that in deserves a dinner and night with me 
-Armor Abilities
Sprint: I know it’s default, shut up. I just shoved it in here. Honestly, I don’t even use it. It is pointless, especially when shot. That is my big gripe with this. When shot while sprinting, you’ll be slowed down to walking speed, but you’ll still be sprinting! Why not just force us back into walking?! Instead, we have to take those precious 45 milliseconds into getting out of sprint.
Hologram: Awesome, truly a good and balanced armor ability. You can’t kill someone with it, doesn’t protect you directly, doesn’t hurt your team, it just distracts enemies. True support.
Thruster Pack: WHAT A JOKE. This thing is a joke! 9/10 times if they thrust toward me I slap them dead! It only sends them a whole body forward!
Hardlight Shield: Pretty good. Good defense/support ability. But… WHY DOES IT GOTTA BE BLUE?
Auto Sentry: Laughably weak. It really is a beginner’s trap, and once you know it is weak it’ll be no threat.
Promethean Vision: Thank the lord they nerfed it after E3. This is honestly the best this ability could ever be at. A lot of people hate this, but it lets you see through WALLS. Of course it is annoying, but at least it’s meter is balanced.
Jet Pack: It is back in all its horribly grime. It has a significant nerf, but it still does what it could do before. It just has shorter window of opportunity to do so.
Active Camo: Why… WHY?! Jet Pack, Armor Lock, and THIS were the things that did NOT need to come back. I wonder what they were thinking when they made this…
“Why don’t we let them become invisible whenever we want?!!”
“YEAHHHHH!!!”
“Hold on, that is pretty cool but… do we really need to put it in? At least let it have a giant drawback”
“What?.. No. Who cares.”
It really doesn’t help that the dots are now BLUE!!! The same color as the radar and everything else in this game!!
Regenerator: Double Edge Floppy Sword. Helps any team, blurs vision and distorts sounds, but heals pretty dam fast. I’m indifferent towards it. It doesn’t do anything bad though.
-Conclusion
This game is… Ok. But, I will not sit down and say this game is balanced. Because it isn’t and I can’t believe 343 would release this. My friend had his rank and purchases reset, and + the fact that the File Browser and Searching are broken just show how unfinished this is. But, before I finish… This game is a reboot. I can’t help but make a couple of comparisons to the infamous game Sonic The Hedgehog 2006 for XBOX/PS3.
Everything in the series has been changed! (Its k, this is spoiler free) Master Chief’s look is completely changed along with his character! Cortana is much more witty and sassy, a rather small thing in the past. Heck, the pair speak much more than ever. Good thing, though.
The Covenant are fighting you again. The art style is much different, putting a GIANT EMPHASIS on lighting. The Flood have been sacked. Marty’s music has been replaced by what is no doubt the WORST composer ever! Here is an analogy I made about him. He is like the huge bags of bootleg cereal that try to act like the mainstream cereal brands. But the greatest proof that this game is a reboot is the complete REDCON of the Didact’s true opinion (book version) of humans, which is nothing like how it is in this game.
Everything is different, and it is kind of refreshing. Well, it depends on your tolerance of the color blue. But, whatever we had in the past is NEVER coming back. I miss my Sonic Adventure, and now I’ll miss my Classic Halo.
So, if you haven’t bought this yet, is it a rent or buy? RENT. The campaign is great, definitely something you shouldn’t miss. But, Spartan Ops is very uninspired and lackluster and not worth catching up on. It is nice to have, but you won’t miss out. The multiplayer… so hard to come back to. Rating: 7/10
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Bump for Justice!
This game is perfect for first time Halo players though.
> This game is perfect for first time Halo players though.
Very true. This game is a blast, and to those who don’t understand the concepts I bring up will be playing in bliss. The game is extremely fun, but, it just isn’t balanced. The competitive community are left with another unbalanced game that will need to be edited again.
Not only was your post extremely disorganized, you put your score in the thread title. What was the point in that? You save that for the end of the review so people will hopefully read or skim through it then see your evaluation, not the other way around.
> Not only was your post extremely disorganized, you put your score in the thread title. What was the point in that? You save that for the end of the review so people will hopefully read or skim through it then see your evaluation, not the other way around.
Sadly, you can’t import Word documents. This meant that the bolding, paragraphing, and certain other aspects have been thrown off. (That character limit isn’t helping) I’m working on that right now.
I put the score at the title so that people would be attracted. My review got no love on General Discussion due to its length. Same here, so I bumped it and posted it’s score in hopes of getting some eyes. You can trust me when I say that people on forums don’t like to read anymore.
> Halo 4 Multiplayer Review (Written by xl Prado lx)
> …and I think Halo 1 is the worst Halo (When compared to the series)
> Going on from what I said about CE, each new Halo improves upon its predecessors in some ways. All the way up to ODST, we see phenomenal improvements.
After you bash Halo CE and praise Halo 3 ODST, I cannot read the rest of your post. I know it’s just my opinion but I think halo 3 ODST was a $65 expanded spartan ops. ODST is the hair found in your gourmet meal.
I think the multiplayer gets a 7/10 but with a tweaked join-in system and competitive playlist 1-50 ranks I’d raise the review to a 9.
Your complaints are reasonable. Please remember that this is just the beginning of Halo 4. Bug Fixes will come just like in previous halo’s. Also I think Halo 4’s campaign is the best out of all of them. Cortana’s not the same because she’s going through rampancy and this changes her. I like Chief’s new armor design and how he actually responds making me feel like he’s actually human.
It’s fresh and it’s out there.
What they’ll do with it, time will only tell.
I know that’ll it never go back to the Halo 2 days.
When all the addicts thrived.
I’ll just have to let it go.
(As I drift into a dreamy land with a well lit moon shining brightly through a fine fog)
It would be really nice of 343.
If they released a halo2 multiplayer.
Charging 1200MSP.
So some of the old school guys can play
With no Binary or mod in sight.
@Gidy800
Halo 4’s campaign is definitely up there. I’ll always remember it.
On the bug note, bugs are not Halo’s flaw. Some of the gameplay mechanics and concepts are flawed. These aren’t simple bugs, they are problems with the core of the game. It’ll be harder to fix.
@Traxoline
When compared to the series! That means it is the lowest on the list in the series IMO. It wasn’t bad, though I will admit, I hated it to death back then and I have never replayed it as much as I do the other Halos.
Anyway, the join-in-progress adds a problem to matchmaking (Read the review), and i’m not adding in points for something that should be a given (1-50). It is like praising a story for having a plot, all of them should have one. I stand by my decision, Halo 4 walks with a 7/10.
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Bump it UP
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Bumpity Mupb bump
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Shoop da BUMP
You pretty much nailed most of the issues in this game. The concepts just don’t work. This game was rushed and the direction they tried to force multiplayer doesn’t work. This isn’t Halo and its not COD. 343 sold out and they got away from the fundamentals of what makes Halo great in order to keep up with COD. This game is about how they can pull in more gamers without -Yoink!- off the hardcore Halo fans. 343 and MICROSOFT it doesn’t work. This game lacks the fun factor Halo is known for and is completely unbalanced for competitive play. The sound and graphics are the highlights of this game. I might not know how to make a game but as a consumer this game is a huge disappoint. Should have spent less time marketing and more time fixing this train wreck of a game. I paid 100 bucks to post launch beta test Halo 4. Don’t get your hopes up thinking they are going to restore Halo. They have a vision and concept for Halo that doesn’t work and they already spent boats loads of money. They would have to strip this game down for it to work. No way thats going to happen. These are the same people they have been playing this game for years in production and couldn’t figure out how unbalanced and broken it is.
Halo 4 reminds me of the Phantom Menace. After the hype wore off I was left asking myself why???
It is not even a month after being released and… I’m really hating this game. I’m sick of it! HELL, I EVEN MISSED OUT ON SOME PROBLEMS IN MY REVIEW. No compliments, no I missed PROBLEMS. I can’t compliment this game anymore!
For those who are wondering what I missed, well, it was a lot.
I forgot to look at:
The Boltshot
Individual Gametypes
Launch Day Maps
Bad incorporation of Killcams
Specializations
The Balancing of the 4 Carbines
AFK Booting
Some aspects of Instant Respawn
Terrible Custom Games
Lighting Issues
and some smaller nitpicks I wish I could’ve gone over.
I would make a V2, but, I don’t think this game is worth it anymore. It’s not the fact that the forums won’t read it but 343 probably doesn’t care anymore. I just WISH they would say, “We are not looking for areas of improvement in Multiplayer, and these improvements will come soon”.
But, that probably isn’t gonna happen!
For those who care, I might or might not make a V2. But, don’t hold me to it. This review hasn’t gotten the attention I think it deserves. If I do, everything will be changed and the two will not be comparable in format.
It’s the best worst game ever.
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Bumping it one last time before I get banned from the forums.