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Played this game at my friend's house just last weekend. I was expecting a repeat of Halo 3's story (a snoozefest) with Reach's poor character development (killing off people I honestly don't really care about). What I got was an incredibly polished game with great gameplay, cool weapons, and a surprisingly deep plot.
I have to say (and I was surprised by this myself) that this will be the third Halo I will own, and I might venture to say that I will buy the next game, too.
I thought this was going to be a weak reboot of a dying series, but 343 has successfully breated new life into this series. Just my opinion, of course. Haters will still hate and fanboys will still drool, but I have to say that I enjoyed this game much more than I was expecting to.
My ratings:
Graphics/Animation: 10/10. Fantastic. By far the most polished and smooth Halo games (or hell, games period) I've seen in a long time. Actually made me forget at some points that I was playing a game. The fully utilized motion capture to really bring all the characters to life. This game on a big-screen HD.... mmmm. I am seriously impressed.
Story: 6/10. Very good. Needless to say, they really delved into the relationship between Cortana and the MC, and did a hell of a job with it. I have to applaud 343 on their decision to try to humanize the MC, because it could have backfired and blown up in their faces. My only gripe is that the villian was kind of cookie cutter and had kind of a lame reason for wanting to commit xenogenocide. That and the Covenant were kind of thrown to the side, with not a lot of mention of any of the various factions... they are just kind of faceless monsters again, without any of the interesting political and social ramifications of various species' actions like in Halo 2. That, and also the Spartan IV's were thrown into the mix with no introduction to newbies to the series. If you didn't read the books or know the extended lore, you'll probably have no idea what they're doing there.
Voice Acting: 9/10. Awesome. Sometimes a bit over-the-top, but it never FEELS over-the-top. Jen Taylor nailed it as Cortana. You can really feel her turmoil as she tried to keep it together in front of the MC. All the voice acting in Halo 4 was top-notch, but Cortana stands out the most because she's in your ear the entire game as you attempt to navigate the Forerunner structures.
Gameplay: 8/10. Great. Arguably the most important aspect of all of this is the gameplay. I can honestly say that this is like they took almost everything from the fans' requests and implemented it in a fun but balanced manner. The main weapons are there, and everyone gets to pick from their favored sets. Plus new weapons keep things fresh, though functionally they are very similar to the ammo-type Convenant weapons (which kind of makes sense, considering Conenant tech is based off of Forunner tech). Sometimes there tend to be too many weapons on the ground but it's certainly better than never being able to find ammo. While some people might complain about the "recharging" health, I personally like it. I hate having to micromanage an HP bar while dodging bullets and lasers. Some of the new attachment abilities (like in Halo Reach) return, but now running is an inherent skill and not something you have to equip (thank God).
Overall: 8/10. Great. What I expected going in was them just milking this series, but what I got was a lot more than "just another sequel". Great voice acting, fantastic animation and graphics, and a well put-together and thought-out storyline makes this my favorite Halo game to date. Not to mention great gameplay that fixes all of my old complaints about the weapons system (minus the 2-weapon limit). Yes, that even includes the first Halo. I'm actually looking forward to the next installment in this series, and that's something I haven't thought since Halo 2 was announced back in 2004.
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