I thought I would drop by & give my opinion; furthermore, I’ll be posting it in this thread since I could not find an official thread. I’ve been writing this for weeks (I’ve been busy), so forgive me if some of this seems dated or unconnected.
Pros:
The campaign in this game is the best yet; although, I will say Reach & ODST were also good in their own right. There is shier emotion between cortana & the chief, & I think this makes for a good story. I will say though that the voice actor behind chief could try to change is tone a little from time to time though; moreover, it’s hard to tell how he’s feeling without imposing your own feelings onto the chief. Since you can’t see his face, the only way you can tell how he’s feeling is through his voice…the words were there, but the tone was not. I meet said voice actor at Ohio Animation & Gaming last year & he seemed like a nice guy so don’t can him, but he could use a little help in the delivery department (go talk to the guys at Epic games for tips [gears 2/3]). I do believe Cliffy B is looking for a job…just sayin…
Cons:
The multiplayer is a real disappointment for me this time around; moreover, where Reach took 3 steps forward this game took 4 or 5 back. I won’t lie, I won’t be playing this game too much after Spartan Ops is done, heck I might not even play outside of Mondays at all now that I’ve finished the campaign. Halo4 seems to have caught modern day shooter-ists…it feels too much like Black Ops – this is a bad thing. The maps are WAAAAAY too small, & the team sizes are horrible. I’m sorry…but CTF just isn’t fun with 5v5 on a small map. Theres not room for team work & no room to move vehicles around. Where are the big expansive maps 343? Where are are all the vehicles you killed off? There just isn’t any spice left in the game, it doesn’t feel special to me. You know…I can’t explain to you the rush I got playing 8v8 CTF in reach having two gunners in my helicopter & a flag carrier standing on the top trying desperately not to fall off, all the while having a banshee hot on our tails – amazing. There just isn’t anything like that in this game, & I find that very depressing. Also, where are all the game modes: Invasion, stock-pile, head hunters, forge world, custom maps, & griff-ball? Yeah…you guys brought back infection & that’s nice…but everything else it just some variant on death match – boring. The only reason I’m still playing is Spartan ops, & even that is starting to ware thin. Why hasn’t it tied itself into the main story at all yet? Heck, the missions don’t even feel like they are connected to the Spartan Ops story…one min I get an awesome cut scene…then the next I’m running some random mission that has nothing to do with it. I just don’t feel like my spartan is doing anything important at all – filler. This in my opinion could be the best part of Halo 4, & it is a shame you guys didn’t take the time to make it flow together better. Hell…I’d pay for extra seasons of Spartan Ops if you’d just up the quality a little; moreover, it’s good…just not good enough.
Lastly, I’m very dissatisfied with my overall purchase – special edition. Normally when you buy a special edition of a game you get some kind of collectable with it; however, I found nothing of value when I opened the Halo4 SE. All I found was useless pieces of paper, paper that didn’t even help push the story forward. See, Halsy’s journal in Reach SE gave you detailed information regarding the over all story in Halo…the booklet in this package gave hardily any story at all about a side character that gets barely any screen time in Spartan Ops – worthless. Then the forward onto dawn garbage…I DON’T EVEN HAVE MY OWN COPY!! All the retailers and advertisements led you to believe that you’d be receiving a DvD, blue-ray, or downloadable version, but low & behold all you do is get access to a web site that might not even be around in 5- 10 years. This is what pissed me off the most, epically since they have copies of forward onto dawn on the shelves at Wal-Mart now. I do not own a copy of this awesome film, & it’s not garenteed that I can watch it whenever I want since it’s streaming – it’s not mine. Don’t try to sell people stuff they cannot use at will or keep in a collection! I understand we got the 3 map packs; however, this is a $30.00 value at best. I paid $100 bucks: 60 for the game, 25 for maps (season pass price), & 15 for paper. I feel ripped off 343 & you should feel bad about it, honestly I think you should give us SE owners something for free (DLC) to make up for it. Next time I’m buying the standard version or renting unless you guys step your game up.
Conclusion:
I’m a HUGE Halo fan, & by all accounts Halo4 is a decent game – not great. This is your first outing making a serious game so I understand why all the pieces aren’t there. In light of that this is probably an excellent game under those standards, but not good enough to stand up to the juggernauts of our industry. Please try harder next time…pretty please.,…
With love,
~Lecto sama