Despite switching to a new developer, the latest chapter in the story of the Master Chief looks and feels great. Unless you’ve been following the story from the first game – and even if you have, it would definitely be to your benefit to also have read some of the books – the campaign’s story is going to have you constantly saying to yourself, “I have no idea what’s going on right now, but I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing because I think that’s what I’m supposed to be doing.” Between not entirely understanding who I was fighting or even why I was fighting them, the campaign left a lot to be desired from a pure story standpoint, but it still gives you that same great feeling of donning the Spartan Armor and being a complete and total bad ass.
Spartan Ops is the episodic multiplayer-focused game mode that is made up of hour-long (depending on skill level and difficulty level, and number of players) missions that show off just how technically great Halo 4 is, without confusing anyone in the process. They’re typically small levels with a voice from one of your superiors saying, “Spartans, we need so and so for such and such purposes, take care of it.” You charge through the level and kill any enemies in sight. With each episode comes a short video related to the Spartan Ops campaigns that explains a little of what’s going on. Caution: 343 Studios has admitted – and you can definitely feel this as you play through Spartan Ops – that this game mode is specifically designed to be played with more than one person involved. While it’s possible to play through Spartan Ops solo, thanks to infinite lives, I’d recommend playing with as many friends as possible to avoid getting too frustrated with it.
Multiplayer is multiplayer, The Forge still allows you to create your own levels. I won’t bother to go into much detail about either because if you’ve played Halo games before than you’re going to be familiar with both. The lack of Firefight is apparently causing some unrest in the Halo community, which I’ll admit is odd: it seems like shooters these days have to have a game mode which allows players to fight off wave after wave of attackers (see Gears Of War, Left 4 Dead, Call Of Duty: Black Ops, etc.), but it’s not one that necessarily broke the game experience for me.
Despite the story taking one confusing twist and turn after another, 343 Studios really picked up the ball that is the Halo franchise and ran with it. The story behind the game is better than the story in the game: 343 is made up of Halo nerds who were brought in entirely to work on what is arguably Microsoft’s biggest and most important franchise. If you’re looking for another Halo multiplayer experience, Halo 4 will provide that, undoubtedly. If you aren’t familiar with the story and that’s what mainly hooks you on games, do your research on the Halo universe or you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. Halo 4 receives a respectable four out of five stars, with the hopes that in the future, 343 makes the story a little easier to follow, and maybe puts Firefight into the next game to appease the masses.