The very first
Halo game remains one of my fondest memories of escapism, sadly after their
first installment, the franchise kept on disappointing me, inconsistent from
second to third installment, even Halo:ODST in between, the game wasn’t nailing
it quite as well.
However, the
game’s numerous qualities allowed the franchise to rise to its iconic status
and Master Chief took his seats amongst the most popular game characters.
I never really gave
up on the franchise and Halo Reach was the answer to all my expectations from a
Halo game, but then it was over, Bungie decided to move on and 343 Industries
took upon the challenge to carry on the adventure with Halo 4.
It was clear that
their couldn’t be an Halo without Bungie and that every attempt to duplicate the
universe would turn out as a sad carbon copy, a shadow of the title’s spirit.
Well, I was proven
wrong by 343 Industries, which didn’t just created the best looking Halo game
of the franchise, but also managed to improve the experience on some levels.
The game picks up
right after the ending of Halo 3, Master Chief and Cortana have been adrift and a
derelict ship for years, when once again trouble manages to find them, ensue
chaos, firefights, new enemies and the human race to save.
The first thing
that I noticed is of course the game great looks, sharp and gorgeous it begs to
be played and admired, then small details picked my interest further, firstly
the slight modifications of the game’s controls, a permanent sprinting command,
and the ability to finally maintain a crouch position. 343 Industries seemed to
have picked up on the annoying little pickles in Halo’s control, and apply more
sensible commands, taking upon the Call Of Duty model, which simply makes more
sense.
Then I started
shooting and was genuinely excited by the sound effects, from the emblematic
assault rifle and pistol to explosions the game sounds great and even the alien
weapons have lost their toyish sound effects in favor of more engaging sounds. While
those details might seem superficial, they really are setting the base for a
good shooter.
I soon
rediscovered the armor attachments, from jetpacks to holograms, turrets and shields,
they are a nice addition to you arsenal and unlike Halo:Reach they can be used
without sacrificing the spiriting ability, which makes it even better.
Soon after this, the
story started to unfold, revealing that Cortana’s lifespan was reaching it’s
end and suddenly Master Chief seems distressed by his AI friend’s fate and
starts to show a softer side and perhaps feeling towards her or does he ? Between
the two characters, who really is the machine ? A question that is brought up, in
the course of the game. Above all, Cortana is Master Chief's best link to humanity, and losing it would also mean for him losing what humanity he has left.
The symptoms of
the friendly AI’s decay shows by violent arguments she has with herself, she
clearly demonstrates remorse about the chief’s origin and how he came to be.
During these
unexpected episodes, Cortana looses control and the ever reliable ally
fails to deliver, her condition gets worse as the time passes, affecting Master Chief as well, creating some close calls for our main character. This change
of pace between the dynamic duo is setting new foundations for a more character
centered storyline and as Cortana makes the ultimate sacrifice at the end, many
questions remain to be addressed on following titles.
The remaining bits
of the story are well in line with a Halo title, although the scheme is unsurprising, some specific moments are shockingly good and brutal and the overall is served
by a good voice acting, while still a man of few word, Master Chief is
letting a little more out this time around, which is a welcome change from the
silent protagonist.
Sadly, the end
battle is rather anti-climactic, while 343 made the interesting decision to use
quick time events to kill the main bad guy, those are not used enough in the
course of the game and during this fight to make them stand out, even if they
do get the job done in a more interesting way than a standard boss fight would have.
The game does suffers
from additional problems, while none are absolute deal breakers, it clearly
demonstrate that while 343 Industries made an outstanding first game, there is
room for many improvements, in their defense however, some of these issues were
present since the first Halo title.
While the driving
section of Halo were delightful, they also were a pain as the different
vehicles handling was poor and should you ever run over as much as a cigarette
bud, you will find yourself in the air and upside down before you could say
“poor physics”. Halo 4 suffers the same affliction and in a game with such a high
level of polish, this problem tends to stand out. Additionally, these driving
section also mean that you need non player character to ride shotgun or man the
gun turret or simply back you up or, just make noise, Halo 4 actually managed
to make this part even worth than previous Halo games, allies are slow, useless
if they react at all and are hardly even following you or taking part in the
fight.
Thankfully, Chief
keeps to himself and Cortana most of the game, there are only a few of these in
the game.
Halo 4 other afflictions
comes from the Promethean weapons, while the studio managed to make the Covenant
weapons more appealing and keep the Human weaponry as effective, the Prometheans
weaponry and grenades however, while looking great, remains a mystery to me,
they feel terribly unbalanced from one weapon to the next and have little to no effect on their own creators,
requiring a ridiculous amount of ammo to crawl you way out of trouble and while
Halo doesn’t allow you to have a lot of ammo on harder difficulty, you often trade for an even less
effective weapon, until you run out of ammo as well, creating situation in
which you will scramble to cover wandering “What now ?”.
Lastly, one
capital part of the Halo experience seem to have gone missing, the musical
score. It has changed and while the new composition has it’s own merits, a Halo
game missing it’s theme is like a Star Wars Movie missing it’s John Williams
music, something feels terribly wrong.
All things
considered, Halo 4 is one of the best shooter we’ve seen this year and one of
the best Halo game thus far. 343 Industries made their case quite brilliantly,
staying close to the original, while improving upon it. While some ghosts from
previous Halo games still linger and some parts went missing, there is room improvement
over what remains a very solid and enjoyable title.
Art
sources:
No comments:
Post a Comment