Features:

  • The Master Chief returns to battle an ancient evil bent on vengeance and annihilation. Humanity and the universe will never be the same again.
  • The Reclaimer Saga Begins: Experience the dawn of an epic new Halo adventure, solo or split screen with up to three friends
  • Go Beyond the Story: Halo 4's Infinity Multiplayer features a vastly expanded suite of multiplayer modes, weapons, vehicles, armor abilities, a new loadout and Spartan-IV player progression system.
  • Edge-of-your-seat Entertainment: Immerse yourself in Halo 4's graphics, sound and epic game play including a mysterious and deadly new class of enemies*
  • *Online multiplayer and Spartan Ops missions require Xbox LIVE Gold membership (sold separately).
Cortana, give those schematics...!!!

Well what can I say about this game, one of the most anticipate game in the year, give some improvements on the game's mechanic, also is the start of a new trilogy followed by the Halo 5: Guardians, well this edition is the standard and now I will review the game, is an amazing master piece in the graphics, one of the better Xbox 360 games in the graphical sense, the controls are better, the vehicles more easy to drive and attack, the new enemies are just like the covenant but with steroids, and the history is the beginning of a new saga that makes the Halo experience more playable and enjoyable. The multiplayer is good to, it seems a lot like the Halo 3 combined with the Halo 2 multiplayer, a little touches of Halo ODST from my point of view, but is very fun to play Halo in the multiplayer, is remarkable to say that the experienced players will love this, is so familiar and they just be felling to coming home.

Halo 4: A Genre Defining Franchise, Redifined

My first Halo game was Halo 3: ODST. I first played I when a friend came over and showed it to me. I was astounded. I had heard Halo was good, but not this good. Since then I've played Wars, Reach, and the Anniversary Edition. I have to say the best out of those three was Reach. With its stellar campaign and it's chaotic multiplayer, I thought Halo 4 would have a hard time beating it. I was wrong, very, very wrong. Halo 4 exceeds all expectations and shatters my idea of a good game. It combines the most emotional story of the Halo series, the best graphics that have been seen to this very day, and exciting new changes to multiplayer, to create the best Halo game that I have ever played, heck the best game I've played to date, which Borderlands 2 had the honor of being before. You hear this a lot, but Halo 4 is really Cortana's story. You see, after 7 years an AI becomes rampant. It's been 8. When an AI becomes Rampant, it literally thinks itself to death. So you can imagine how Cortana feels. Your main mission, throughout the story is to get Cortana to Dr. Halsey so she can be fixed. This goes hand-in-hand with defeating the Didact and getting Infinity off of Requeim. The Promethean enemies are so much fun to fight. I wonder how I stood fighting these Covenant after fighting the Prometheans. The new enemies are tactically smart, and aren't anything like the Covenant. For spoiler related reasons, I will move onto the robust, new multiplayer. Multiplayer is less vehicle based, and more gun based since the guns are now so much more awesome. Each gun has brand new sounds, and some of them look different, too. I love the new sound of the Assault Rifle. Now with all these new Promethean weapons, that are extremely powerful and fun to use, I never use vehicles, and this is coming from a person who loved to drive vehicles. Instead of choosing large, expansive maps, like I would in Reach, I choose small, close up maps. I hated the guns and loved the vehicles, Halo 4 flipped that around, and it's a very good thing. Now there are Loadouts, which include Primary, and Secondary Weapons, Grenades, and Abilities. Their are plenty new weapons, both Promethean and UNSC to make the formula feel newer. Now there are more Abilities than ever before. The Run ability has been disabled, instead you can run by simply pressing on the joystick. The Armor Lock is gone, too. In fact, the only ones that they still have is Jetpack, invisibility, and the ability in which you make a duplicate. The new multiplayer is a refreshing new turn for the franchise. This game looks stunning. It feels stunning. Everything about this game is stunning. From its emotional story, to it's groundbreaking multiplayer, Halo 4 is what I dreamt what Halo should be. Looking back at ODST again, I feel like, what was great, is now archaic. 343i has accomplished something no other company could, even Bungie.

Biased Halo fan review.

As an old-school Halo fan, dating back to when the original Halo was released, I feel obligated to put my 2 cents in towards the game's impression on me. I'm not going to be one of those people that automatically call "Reach" out and call it a terrible game, I've enjoyed EVERY Halo game and not one of them is any less amazing than the last, but this is clearly the successor to Halo 3, whereas Reach was more of a spin-off, as was ODST. Halo 4's feel and look is closer to Reach in terms of gameplay mechanics, but now with the Spartans looking more cleaned up and the return of the BR as well as a mind-blowing campaign featuring the Master Chief, this was more than worth the money. PROS: 1.) The choice between Battle Rifle and DMR. After 300+ hours of Reach it's hardly surprising I prefer the precision long-range weapon for my standardized loadout, but the BR has it's advantages. 2.) Player customization is better than ever, and with the new addition of weapon skins to unlock (though time-consuming, so take that with a pinch of salt) it's even more rewarding to level up and now originality is actually possible. Reach: "Hurr hurr, look at mah prosthetic arm, i'm so cool!" 3.) New Promethean technology to add to the fun. Though "Light Rifles" (Promethean equivalent to the BR/DMR) are hardly a favourite among the battlefield, there are other choices such as the Bolt-shot and Incineration Cannon that add some surprises to the gameplay. 4.) Amazing campaign with the reward of using Master Chief's signature Mark IV armour in multiplayer (along with the visor colour) and a challenge system that's not dissimilar to Reach's challenge system, where it gives more reason than ever to replay campaign missions. There're obviously more positives, but chances are anybody reading a review have played previous titles, so no need to cover a lot of that. Halo is Halo. Now, 150+ hours of gameplay later, I know what's wrong with the game, and i'm not going to sugar-coat it. CONS: 1.) Tried playing this with my Australian friend just as I have for every Halo installment since Halo 2 and our connection was dreadful in everything except matchmaking. Similar to Anniversary edition for Halo CE, terrible netcode for cross-country connections. Spartan Ops was unplayable, as well as campaign. The matchmaking appears to be the only good netcode in Halo 4, which makes enough sense, I suppose. 2.) Promethean vision: an armour ability new to Halo 4 and one that spoils gameplay even worse than "Armour Lock" from Reach. It quite literally breaks the game in most scenarios. It has a tell-tell sign of revealing the user on the radar as well as a loud noise signalling that it's been activated, but when an enemy Spartan can see you behind a wall from a decent distance, AND have his guns preemptively aimed at you as they walk around a corner because they can see you as a glowing hot target on their screen, and it kind of.. just.. maybe ruins any type of strategy you may of had. Nowadays with 7.1 surround-sound gaming headsets and 60-70in. television screens, the last thing I need is people seeing me through walls and lining me up with a gun that probably would of destroyed me anyway, had I not been as obvious. 3.) Bloom's still an issue. Not as prevalent as Halo: Reach, but when your life is dependent upon raw skill and pinpoint accuracy, the last thing you need is a dose of luck caused by the probability of a headshot when the shots get closer together in a panic. Many a time have I been in the scenario where both the enemy and I have razor-sharp reflexes and perfect accuracy, but when it comes down to that final shot, bloom will betray you. Consider this: 4 shots to kill, less than 3 seconds to shoot all 4 bullets if shot as quickly as possible, but then forced to rely upon one's own luck to deliver the 4th shot as the bloom is already enlarged by then.. OR, pace your shots in order to deliver the final shot and not rely on luck. The difference is a split second and if the spammer is lucky enough he'll win every time, whereas the one pacing the shots will come up short. In most cases it's not enough to influence a game if one person is clearly better, but when 2 people are fighting and fairly balanced, bloom will strike. Conclusion: Halo is my favourite first-person shooter series and always will be near and dear to me, and even with it's faults it's still 5/5.

Best Halo yet!

I haven't been a fan of the Halo franchise since the first game. Microsoft made a good choice in going with a new developer. The game plays much more like Call of Duty or Battlefield than any of the others. The way the guns feel and sound resembles call of duty instead of halo 2. Sprinting is no longer a perk and instead you can sprint just like you would in other shooters (with limits). In multiplayer you unlock perks by ranking up as well as completing challenges (for example get 500 melee kills and get a new helmet). It has the standard 5 customizable load-out system of most other games in the genre, including armor abilities (like jet packs), combat abilities (like fast reloading) and choice of grenades. I play this for the multiplayer aspect. The story wasn't anything special. I'm assuming you also have to read the books or know the story for it to make sense. It seemed like there was a lot of unexplained stuff even for those who played all the other games.

Old time gamer loving this current hit

I played pong while in high school. That is how old I am. I've completed the campaign on Normal, then again on Heroic, and now I am about half way through Legendary. I started on Heroic and had to back it down to Normal. I was not a long time Halo player. I played a little halo 1. That is about the extent of my experience with halo. I decided to give this a go and found Normal to be playable for me. Oh, I prefer RPG adventure games like Skyrim but wanted to give the first person shooter a go. At the normal setting it was a challenge but I was making steady progress. Then I tried Heroic, some aspects were easier (I knew what was to come) but there were things I did in Normal that would not work and I had to find a new tactic or hone a new skill. All in all, Heroic felt about the same challenge as normal and playing a second time was still fun. Legendary is a whole new level of challenge. Again, some aspects now are downright simple and easy. Some things once you learn them and master them become simple. Love head shots and I use the skull with the kids cheering. That is hilarious and fun addition to the game. However! I am taking much much longer to work from check point to check point on legendary. Facing multiple promethean knights is very challenging. My tactics had to change. I die too quickly if vulnerable, I need to make sure the flyers are gone, the little dog like beasts are cleared out, etc. Oh and the prometheans have good weapons but there is nothing more fun than a plasma pistol overload to take down the knight's shield then whip out the next weapon of mass damage and finish him off. Sometimes you don’t try to clear them all out in Legendary. Just get to the next objective and keep moving. Great game. I was worried about it not coming from Bungie but is no reason to be concerned. I asked my son about how the fame felt and he thought it might be a tad bit easier to master than previous versions from Bungie but for me it is just right. I’m struggling with legendary and that is exactly how it should be. I did my first assassinate in legendary and I started to jump on ghosts and kick out the enemy to take over the ride. What a blast! Now if I can figure out how to more accurately throw my grenades. Love this game. I am having a blast and I am an old timer gamer from the 70s that played pong.

343 did it right.

First off: Don't listen to what anyone says about Halo 4 being like Call of Duty. It's not. Sure there are loadouts and perks and support packages, but in my opinion those are not owned by Call of Duty. You can't have rights on a game standard. Now, onto the game. I will start off with the multiplayer because I find it RIDICULOUSLY fun, and the majority of Halo players play multiplayer much more than the campaign. I have never been good at any of the other Halo games' multiplayers, because I never found any weapons or if I did find a weapon spawn point, someone had gotten to it first. In Halo Reach this was a big problem for me. Sure I got a few kills here and there, but it never was... fun. But it has all changed now. There are still hidden weapons around the battlefields, but now there is this thing called ordinance drop. Basically if you get enough kills, you get to pick one of 3 advantages that will be shot down to the ground from an invisible frigate. Usually these choices are either a really exceptional weapon ( Railgun, anyone?) or a new set of grenades or a abilty perk, like superspeed or a health boost. This has changed the game for me, and now I am usually at the top of the leaderboards. Sometimes first, but seldom past 6th. I was skeptical at first because Bungie, the legendary creators of Halo, sold Halo to a new developer, 343 ( it was that and the fact that 343 is a character in the Halo games who is a complete backstabbing bastard). But alas, I was not disappointed with 343. They aren't better than Bungie, but they certainly aren't worse. I loved the new graphics engine and the new armor looks(MUCH better than Halo Reach armor. If you don't believe me, go look at the CQC armor. Bleh). So, Multiplayer concept, check. Multiplayer Maps: The maps on Halo 4 are freaking incredible. Ravine is stunning, filled with forerunner tech mountains and grassy knolls. Impact is just breathtaking, as you are in space. But the most spectacular map by far is RAGNAROK. Ragnarok is a remake of a classic Halo 3 map called Valhalla. It. is. Beautiful. There is a spire on each side of the map, with a sea behind one and a mountain behind the other. Marvelous. I never felt that any f the maps were too small, but I think that Adrift could use some work. Multiplayer Rating 5 Stars Campaign The campaign in Halo 4 was a little iffy in my opinion. When you start out you fight the classic aliens called the covenant. They are about the same. Grunts, Jackals, Brutes, Drones, Elites and the like. I didn't like the elite's new makeover. They look too... pale-ish. Play it and you'll see. But now there is a new alien species. Yep, a whole entire freaking species to worry about. They are called the Prometheans. They are silver and orange robot-alien things. They come in 3 types, Knight(Tall, dark, and incredibly frustrating when they teleport), Crawler(just about as annoying as drones. They are like dogs, fast and agile and like grunts, fun to punch in the face), and Watcher(Watchers fly around like drones and can revive dead Knights. Yeah.). The campaign was iffy because of these new aliens. Oh, and they removed the FLOOD from the campaign. Yep. The missions were okay, but these new alien willt ake awhile to get used to. Campaign rating 3Stars Spartan Ops Various missions that involve Prometheans and covenant. It was okay. 4 Stars. So, overall, Halo 4 is a marvelous game, five stars, if you like both the multiplayer and the campaign. But if you are buying it only for the single player, 3 stars. Thank you for reading.

The Great Halo Series/Story Continues

I have enjoyed and continue to play Halo 1 for the PC both in campaign and multiplayer modes. My favorite game type is Capture the Flag and my favorite map is Bloodgulch. I am a poor slayor player. This is why I like Halo 4. I'm not as comfortable with the Xbox controller as I am with the keyboard and mouse and the Halo multiplayer games are too complex for me to be effective. But now you can chose Capture the Flag instead of being randomly put into games. This allows weaker players such as myself to at least contribute in the multiplayer games. There are a few glitches but Halo 4 graphics are top notch. Campaign is very fun, although the Prometheans get a little tiring after awhile. The storyline is very moving and the voice acting spot on. They have replaced the Firefight mode, which was really fun, with the Spartan ops. The Spartan ops comes with a weekly video which is great along with 5 new missions. Although this is fun, and it helps build up your rank/skills, I feel firefight was better. You also don't get any credit for finishing the campaign. I don't know why they did that. Halo 4 is exciting and is worth the $60 price tag and a purchase of an Xbox console if don't have one. Halo 1 for the PC was the greatest game ever designed and it's multiplayer mode is still going strong. Halo 2 PC suffered some with Vista but it's multiplayer is still alive but just barely. If you go online around 5 am EST, the foreign players come on and they're tough. The Halo series keeps evolving and each new one is worth the price. I just hope 343 Industries keeps their multiplayer mode the same so you can chose which game type you want to play. Lastly, Halo 4 would make a great Christmas gift for a friend or family member.

one of the best games for 360 in a while

i will admit, im not a hardcore gamer, when i do get bored which is not often, i will play COD with my friends or whatever, i honestly cant tell the difference between the newest cod and the one from a couple years ago, they all just seem the same. guess that could be said about halo too but they dont crap out halos every year. this game is not as magical to me as the 1st couple halo games, but its hard to repeatly make the same game awesome as the original. usually after the 1st one or two of a game i quit buying it because its more often then not just the same game with new pretty colors and barely different story. i think halo 4 has enough new features to keep me interested longer then average, and i actually stop and play this game insted of play only when nothing better to do. for now. the campain was above average too. to me these days this makes it a 5 star game. i really like that it was 40 bucks shipped for a new game, i have a hard time giving up $59+ tax for a game in the store. one of my favorite things about halo, you can jump in and play once and a while without getting totally slaughtered buy some people that are fart stained to there couch 11 hours a day playing the game so they can have the highest level and best weapons to kill the easiest. its a little more of a level field on halo games.

Cortana looks too human, wtf happens at the end? (Spoiler? maybe, but no details)

Awesome game, true to the trilogy, makes me wish I had saved a few of the little flood guys to unleah on the Prometheans. The Bolt pistol is awful, the Needler kicks even more butt than it used to. The Plasma Rifles/Repeaters are gone, so are the Revenants. The Wraiths are amzingly slow and hard to aim. The marines can't drive the Warthog to save their lives, but are amazing shots (thank GOODNESS they fixed this). Cortana is hot, but she's just design, glowy, none of the numbers/symbols scrolling along her body, matrix style like the book description. She's got wide hips and would have no trouble in child birth. The ending is rather bizarre, and it leaves you wondering. Spartan Ops is really cool, and the BEST thing about Halo 4 is once you rank up a few times you can choose your own weapons for the start of each mission instead of the Assault Tifle (Yay!) (Loadouts under Spartan hub)

it has been said...

I am a long time fan of the Halo series. BUT...I can't tell you what color Mastercheif's cyber underwear is like some of these game heads(when do you guys work or leave the house???)or what Hair Dye Cortana is now using. Much could be said about her...but this is a family site. Wow! Smokin!!!! all I know is that Halo 4 (and I am VERY late to the party getting it)via the graphics, sound, gameplay is even better than Halo 2. You cannot go wrong with Halo 4. The franchise is honored by 343's pick up of halo. I'm not like many gamers where I am super beyond game slave...but the one game I keep coming back to is Halo. I am glad to have them and they are in a special section of my games box. I try not to let myself 'be completed by' ANYTHING or any game in the cyber world. Rather be streetluging down a mountain, kayaking or ... But halo gets me pretty out there sometimes!

Full Reviews