((SPOILERS BELOW!))
Hello there. Before I begin, let me introduce myself. I consider myself a Halo fan, but I’m not as deeply rooted as many of you are. I started playing at Halo 3, played ODST, Reach, Anniversary, and now Halo 4. If you think that this somehow discredits my opinions…well, perhaps. But I’ll try anyway.
Campaign
The first couple of missions I was rather worried. They seemed too short, but after I hit the level Forerunner that concern melted away. I played a few levels on normal before jumping straight to Legendary, and whew, it was indeed quite difficult. But I managed to complete it and unlocked my Mark VI armor without issue. Though some people have reported problems about this, I experienced none whatsoever.
As for the storyline, it seemed a little sketchy at times but rather moving throughout, especially at the end. When I got and watched all the terminals, they basically answered all the questions pertaining to lore I had built up, like ‘why?’. This left me with only one: where can they possibly take Halo next? If not for his nature as a Spartan I would say that he was tired of this by now, especially after losing his companion (Which wasn’t really shocking; Cortana’s rampancy led to a sort of situational irony that went through at the end).
Multiplayer
So far I’ve played about 30 games, not enough to get a totally well-informed opinion, but enough of one to cover the scope.
Firstly, the loadout system: not bad at all. Everything is balanced almost to a fault, and nobody starts out the game with a distinct advantage over anyone else but skill (Unless the poor guy’s an SR-1, but that only lasts for one game). People have been complaining that the DMR is OP, but I’ve seen little to none of that. Sure, it dominates at long range, but that’s what it’s designed for. As long as I’m at a decent range, my BR and Lightrifle have more than fighting chances.
Secondly, the new mechanics: sprint fits quite well into the game. In combat it’s not a cheap tactic because getting shot at all when sprinting will throw you off. Otherwise, it speeds up the gameplay and makes it interesting. Speaking of speeding up, the instant respawn isn’t really a jarring issue for me. On smaller maps, it means that there isn’t much rest between firefights, but the whole point of a good slayer map is to make sure you don’t spend half the match finding someone to shoot. Talking of which…
Thirdly, skill in Halo: yep, it’s still there. Many people have been saying that Halo might as well be Call of Duty for all the skill it takes now, things like whoever shoots first wins. I’m here to tell you this is not the case. Maybe those people are too bad or too good at Halo, but as far as I can tell it comes down to player skill. If I get the first shot on someone and they’re better than me it’s not only possible that they’ll turn the tables and kill me, but probable. This works in reverse, when I’m at a disadvantage, too. Teamwork and map control are still vital parts of the game, especially in Objective gametypes. I remember one match in Haven in which my team (Including me, sadly) would run and gun at the enemy team’s position only to die again and again, as they chortled at our feeble attempts from their defensible position and autosentry. That’s a nice segway…
Fourthly, armor abilities: they’re okay. All are useful in certain situations but some are harder to use effectively, like Thruster Pack, Camo, and Autosentry. But when a player had learned how to effectively integrate them into their playstyle, it’s all fun and War Games. None are overpowered or gamebreaking, by the way, even Promethean Vision. X-ray vision only helps you so much unless you’ve got the skill to work on what you see.
Fifthly, maps. Nice maps. More asymmetrical this time around, but all that I’ve played (Only six so far) have a good feeling to them. I won’t really elaborate.
Sixthly, JIP: maybe it’s a problem for you, but not for me. I’ve only ever joined games in progress that have just started so I’ve never had a bone to pick with JIP.
Lastly, infinity slayer. Looking at this from an objective standpoint, personal ordinances are really not that game-changing. Sure, there are more power weapons in play, but in every Halo game you can surprise an enemy and get the kill with a power weapon when they didn’t expect it, like nabbing the rockets on Reflection or the Beam Rifle on Snowbound. Plus, since the ordinances are technically medal streaks, you’ll only get them quickly if you kill with style.
Spartan Ops
Sure, the missions are short, but they’re story-driven and really do encourage teamwork, especially on Legendary. And at five missions an episode, five episodes, and even more in later seasons, they’re a handy replacement for firefight and an equally handy distraction from War Games.
Forge
The new systems are nice. I’ve made only one fully-fledged map so far (A practically symmetrical arena called Backstop set over the ravine in, well, Ravine) and the only thing I can really complain about is the push-movement-button-slow-object’s-movement feature or, rather, the removal of it. However, the coordinate and magnet systems help make up for it. The Forge Maps are kinda limited, but I will endeavor to make mountains from molehills.
Suggestions
Ah, the inevitable. As a member of the Halo community, I (Like many others) definitely know what’s best for Halo so I’ll do everyone a favor by calling the devs out on it.
Nah, just kidding. I’m probably one of the least entitled players out there, so please do take my suggestions in good humor. And here they are:
DLC Forge: in each DLC, I’d suggest making one of the maps quite forgeable, most likely the largest of the three, just for variety’s sake.
Custom Gametypes: Here’s one everyone lives to spout off about. Allow me to concur with them; please do give the Flood the ability to hold other weapons in a future update, add Race (Not for my sake, but for the Racing community’s) and Juggernaut. But I do have a fun little way you can make Juggernaut pretty awesome, and it’s called Composition.
Composition: A playoff of the Juggernaut gametype. I like what you did with Infection in making it into Flood, so I figure the next step would be to make the Juggernaut a Promethean Knight. That’s right: the Juggernaut is a Promethean, armed with a hardlight broadsword with the same traits as a gravity hammer. A bigger character model (And thusly a bigger, easier target) is balanced out by the single AA that the Promethean gains when he kills the old Promethean (The transformation is marked by a spray of orange particles), which is the teleport inherent to all Knights. It is a long animation, though, and he can’t attack right after teleporting, so it should be balanced.
Summary–Tl;Dr
I like Halo 4, and many of its ‘issues’ are not really issues, as I outlined above. I apologize for the wall of text. Feel free to respond and I’ll try to reply.