Halo 4 Came out 10 years ago today. what happened?
After the OG Halo trilogy ended, the game had an incomprehensibly huge shoe. From Bungie to 343 Industries, this is truly the beginning of a new era for sci-fi series. Bungie set out to develop a whole new universe (you may have heard of it) because it had ended its story with plenty of exuberance and rhetoric.
343 is about working as a mix of builder and interior designer, building an extension to a luxury home and seeing if it can replicate (or even develop) the entire structure. who knows? Maybe if it’s done right, the franchise can shine a full decade later?
Fast forward to 2022 and hosting studios are completely screwed. There’s no denying that Halo Infinite’s campaign is a brave step toward an open world. The narrative leap of the past 10 years 343 is quickly over, and the Master Chief embarks on his next big, split-screen-free adventure. Multiplayer is something else entirely, with truly premium base gameplay, but as it finds itself in a dreary live service hell, and a money-hungry cosmetic ecosystem, it’s constantly unleashing frustration and frustr ation. user group.
So what’s up with this energy? Building a brilliant bridge between the old work Bungie did and the 343’s new ideas, without giving up what made the original game great? This is best exemplified in the weaponry, which has been greatly expanded in Halo 4. The SAW stands out as an enhanced assault rifle with more punch that fits well into existing arsenals. Railguns too – oh my god, railguns! This gun has the same charm as the spear gun in Halo Infinite, but with more gravitas and feedback.
Granted, that’s not the case for some of the other additions — notably the Prometheus gun. Visually, they are great. Elaborating on the Forerunner-inspired technique we’ve seen before, vibrant oranges and all sorts of floating little things are all over the place. It’s a unique look that still stands out. As far as what they’ve added in terms of gameplay…you get a slightly different shotgun that lacks that legendary power and falls in the Boltshot on Magnum in most ways, while Suppressors fire uninteresting ammo. You’ll have to give up the Prometheus Sniper and Incinerator Cannon though – they’re cool, even if they’re superfluous with existing weapons.
On the campaign side, 343 has done a good job of introducing new enemy factions, trying to capture what a post-Halo 3 Covenant will do, and give our fans a real reason to stay focused on what’s going on in the Halo universe, Post Bungie. The studio did this by digging into the huge unknowns established in previous games, taking the Master Chief to unique worlds we’ve never seen before, and (arguably) messing with Cortana. How did I like it before? Hmm, okay. However, it does set the stage for a new plot that does offer something for the Master Chief and players, rather than wading through the stagnant worlds that Bungie has already visited, exploring from pole to pole, and then soaring into the sky.
But multiplayer is pretty good. Some really great maps have been introduced into the game, such as Adrift, Exile, and Haven. Gosh, Haven is so good. All the game modes people love – I remember losing days in SWAT or Big Team Battle. I remember building tons of Spartan armor, unlocked by leveling up to obscene levels or by completing really tough Commendations that push you toward unique goals that mix things up. Hey kids, in the old days you could actually unlock these things through in-game feats. wild, right? There’s also no battle pass in sight, only DLC map packs that allow you to spend money on new content – wild.
Spartan Ops may be the first experience of field service hell in the Halo series. In lieu of Crossfire, this is a series of weekly PvE content updates that you (and maybe some friends) can make to keep up with the post-battle narrative. Spartan IV and Halsey started talking nonsense. If you’re going to tell people this – a steady medium covering lacking the pulse of energy that makes Halo unique, wearing a Halo aesthetic like a skinned face on a horror movie monster – would better represent a decade from now Series line… Well, Lenny’s going to get a call for this series, and I’ll be at the front with a shotgun as the once-shiny gem on the Xbox Emerald Crown looks away and dreams of rabbits.
Fast forward to today and we don’t even get that. If we did, it would be released every two months, with each release evaporating before our eyes as a victim on the altar of FOMO. The game also features Forge, which later iterations will ignore, and the game in general doesn’t fight for your time against an industry full of time vampires. When I was 14, it seemed to me that this was the starting line for truly exciting times in Halo. I won’t even finish Halo 5 in a few years. In a few more years, I’m just looking at Infinite with sadness.
In hindsight, Halo 4 was definitely the start of an exciting new era for Halo. A man behind a business with a new vision, new ideas and passion.
In Halo 4, we saw the glory of this effort. Back then, it was literally like waving the Titanic from the shore, smiling and glorifying into the icy waters.
