Halo 4 review: Jumping head first without a Bungie (and loving it)
Most Halo fans (myself included) were nervous when they found out another company was taking up the mantle of telling Master Chief’s story—a story many thought closed. But after 343 Industries' excellent handling of Halo: Anniversary, I was cautiously optimistic for Halo 4, and that optimism paid off with some pretty awesome dividends.
Halo 4 begins right where Halo 3 left off, with Master Chief floating through space in a damaged spaceship with only his borderline insane companion Cortana. After impacting a Covenant ship, Master Chief is jolted awake and once again begins his wholesale slaughter of anything non-human, this time after landing on a Forerunner planet infested with old sentient Forerunner machines.
With these new enemies come countless new strategies. One enemy resembling a dog from hell made a habit of rushing me while simultaneously shooting me. Other larger enemies (called Knights) made a priority of physical attacks while deploying airborne enemies that fired down on me from the sky. With the new enemies, Halo 4 introduces some truly incredible new guns with which to take them out. Though these new weapons mostly fell in to the typical classes (shotgun, sniper, assault rifle), each brought its own unique function to the table. Further, many of the attachments featured in Halo Reach make a return this time around.
