Halo 4 Review

I will be honest I haven't played a Halo game before Halo 4. Sounds crazy doesn't it? And I will say I made a huge mistake missing out on some high quality games in the past but I wasn't going to make the same mistake with Halo 4, and I thought the first ever Halo game I played was awesome. Why did I think it was awesome? Well continue reading and you will get to read why I thought this game was awesome.

For the first time ever in one of my reviews I actually will talk about the Online modes first because of how important Online was to me in Halo 4. There is so much to do in Halo 4's Online modes. When you first load up Online in Halo 4 you will be given the option to customize your character which we will talk a lot more about later in the review. The main menu of Halo 4's Online offers you 4 different options either War Games, Spartan Ops, Forge and Theater.

War Games is first thing you should see on your Online menu, and is the first Online game mode I will be talking about in this Review. War Games is Halo 4's competitive multiplayer which includes many, many different game modes. These game modes range from Infinity Slayer which can be a 4 vs 4 or a 8 vs 8 game, and the main objective of Infinity Slayer is to simply kill people from the other team so you can earn points, and try to be the top of the score table. Other Online game modes you will see in the game include Capture The Flag, King Of The Hill and other game modes. Altogether Halo 4 has 9 different Online modes for you to play competitively which should make Online fresh and not repetitive.

Halo 4 also has an (Optional) Online mode called Spartan Ops which can be played with up to 4 people. Spartan Ops is a side story split into 5 episodes that each have 5 chapters. Each chapter will have about 3 different objectives to do and can last around 15 minutes per chapter. Before each episode a new video will play to add to the story and connect each episode together. If you are playing Halo 4 at the time I am writing this review (November 6th) you will only have one episode to play that is because there will be new episodes unlocked free of charge on different dates which will give you even more reason to come to Halo 4.

There is also a mode that allows you to make your own custom Multiplayer games called Forge. In the Forge you will have 3 different options to choose from to create your own Halo 4 map, and they the actual game type like Infinity Slayer or King Of The Hill for example, the next option is which map you want the game to take place so you can choose from the 13 maps already in the game and finally you will have to choose the custom games options. There is lots of different options to choose from like how will it take to re spawn, edit Shield Resistance, edit health, edit how much damage weapons do and lots of other different things to make your own custom map. Once the map is done you will have the option to save it if you liked it and keep it for another game.

Customization is a big part of Halo 4's online along with having the ability to customize your own maps you can customize different things about your online character like the characters different pieces of armor for each body part, the color of his Armor, what weapon load outs they have and the characters gender. This is all done in what is called the "Spartans Hub" along with character customization you can also customize your own I.D that you will be using online this includes your emblem that ranges from the Legend of Zelda Triforce to a selection of animals like Lions. Emblems can also be customized with backgrounds and color changes.

Halo 4 gives you the option to create 5 custom load outs. Each load out has 6 slots, and these are Primary Weapon, Secondary Weapon, Grenade, Armor Ability, Tactical Package and Support Upgrade. One loadout that I loved using as my Armor Ability was the Jet pack which was fun as hell to use online, and it also got me out of some near death shootouts. Along with customizing you will also find in you Spartan Hub a section about your online career. This part of the Hub will tell you different online stats, game time, how your doing in challenges and some other things too. There is also a Halo 4 theater were you can watch your greatest moments online and upload them as well.

On top of all this Online/Spartan Ops to dig in to there is also a 8 chapter campaign to play through. I did enjoy the campaign but I did find the campaign to be pretty short with me finishing it in just under 5 hours. Don't let that 5 hours put you off at all there is still so much to do in the campaign like playing it a harder level for a bigger challenge and finding the terminals in the campaign. The A.I was really smart in the game, and was that good I had to start the game on Easy but as I got used to it more I finally managed to do well on Normal. If you're new to Halo starting the campaign on Heroic is not a good idea as I just kept dying at first. Graphically the game looks amazing during gameplay and during one of the first cut scenes in the campaign I legitimately thought it was a real person. Along with great graphics you have some very well done sounds, and that includes everything like voice overs, soundtrack and other sound effects sound really well done.

The Final Verdict

Halo 4 to put it short is amazing. I am not really big on Online Multiplayer but Halo 4's online made me think otherwise. Online was fun to play and was really addictive and hard to put the controller down even during writing this review I just want to play the game more. On top of the awesome Online modes you have tons of content to play through and future Spartan OP's episodes to look forward too. With all this and tons of other positives I think Halo 4 might be the GOTY for 2012. If you own an Xbox 360 GET THIS GAME NOW!

+ Online is fun and addictive
+ Graphics look awesome
+ Great gameplay
+ Lots of customzing and content

- Campaign could have been a bit longer but still the story was great

Final Score

9.5/10