Halo 4 put Master Chief back in the fight after a four-year silence, and it did so by handing the franchise to a new studio and asking players to care about a relationship that had always been background noise. The result is a shooter that looks and moves better than anything Bungie shipped, even when its new ideas do not all land.
Master Chief and Cortana, Four Years After Halo 3
Halo 4 is a 2012 first-person shooter developed by 343 Industries and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360. It is the studio’s first original Halo title. Bungie created the franchise and handled the main series before this. Development started in 2009 and ran until September 2012.
The story picks up in the year 2557, four years after Halo 3. Chief and Cortana were left stranded in unknown space aboard the wreck of the Forward Unto Dawn. They encounter unknown threats while exploring Requiem, the planet of an ancient civilization.
A New Faction, and the Prometheans
The player takes the role of Master Chief, a genetically enhanced human supersoldier, and battles a faction that splintered off from the remnants of the Covenant. The Covenant was a former military alliance of alien races. The game also adds a new enemy: the Prometheans, Forerunner AI constructs.
There are three types. Knights lead the group and are the deadliest of the Promethean forces. Crawlers are weaker and often attack in packs. Watchers offer support and can shield or revive Promethean allies.
343 Industries chose to explore the Forerunner fiction inside the Halo universe, which led the team to design a new setting, enemies and main antagonist. Existing characters and assets were recreated from the ground up, and motion capture was used for cutscene animation.
Armor Abilities and the HUD
Combat runs mostly from a first-person perspective, switching to third-person for certain weapons, abilities and vehicles. The head-up display shows shield status, current weapons and abilities, and waypoints. A motion tracker detects allies, enemies and vehicles within a certain radius.
Armor abilities return from Halo: Reach. New ones include the autosentry; the hardlight shield, which raises a protective barrier similar to a riot shield; Promethean vision, which cuts environment detail and shows hidden players as silhouettes; a regeneration field that heals nearby players and can emit a short-range kinetic blast; and the thruster pack, which launches the player several feet horizontally.
The Chief and Cortana at the Center
A goal for the story was to incorporate more human elements, and the developers went deeper into the Chief-Cortana relationship to get there. Motion capture was used for animation within cutscenes, and existing characters and assets were recreated from the ground up.
Where Halo 4 Wins and Where It Does Not
The Cortana material is the reason to play this. That decision carries the campaign. The Prometheans are the weaker half of the bargain. Knights, Crawlers and Watchers read as a checklist of roles, and the new weapons and modes never quite settle into the rhythm the Covenant fights already had.
The Campaign’s Real Problem
Halo 4 is the most confident Halo has looked, and the least certain about what it wants its enemies to be. The Forerunner turn gives the series a bigger stage and a thinner roster of foes. What holds is the pair at the center.
KEY FACTS
– Release year: 2012
– Developer: 343 Industries
– Publisher: Microsoft Studios
– Platforms: Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC
– Setting: 2557, four years after Halo 3
– Score: 8.8/10
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