PART ONE: PLOT
"Wake up, John."
After four years adrift in cryo on the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn, the Master Chief, Spartan John-117, is awoken by Cortana, his Artificial Intelligence companion. Orbiting a giant Forerunner Shield World and being beamed by a high intensity sensor scan of unknown origin, Master Chief seeks answers, only to find a Covenant fleet standing between him and freedom.
Interrupting the fight, a gravity well from deep within the giant metal Shield World pulls the Dawn and the Covenant fleet crashing down onto its surface, the shipwrecked Chief and Cortana must find a way to return to Earth in hopes of stopping Cortana's Rampancy, the state of hyper-thinking that AI's go into before they ultimately die of it.
But when Master Chief unwittingly unleashes an ancient evil on the galaxy, he must choose between his loyalty to Humanity or his love for Cortana. And there isn't much time left....
PART TWO: THE REVIEW
The story has always been a fresh, new sci-fi tale, filled with brave Spartan super-soldiers, duty-bound Marines, the fanatically religious and genocidal Covenant, and the all-devouring parasite, the Flood. But Halo 4's story plot has completely knocked all the other games' plots out of the park.
Cortana is dying. She has been the Chief's only constant friend and companion through four games and longer, but now she is succumbing to Rampancy, the state in which AIs literally think themselves to death at the end of a seven year life span. Cortana is still trying to suppress Rampancy at eight years. But it's a losing battle, and she knows it.
In previous Halo games, Master Chief has always been a man of very few words and very little emotion, shown killing countless hordes of aliens and space zombies with scant remark. Granted, he is a genetically, physically and mentally augmented Human, kidnapped at the age of six and made into the ultimate killing machine, but we hardly know the guy. Until now.
When he learns of Cortana's Rampancy, a flood of emotional development unfolds. And when he has to choose between her and Humanity, even more so. Despite Cortana's advice: "Don't make a girl a promise you can't keep," Chief stops at nothing to return her to Earth, to Dr. Catherine Halsey, the woman who created her, and who alone can save her.
Chief and Cortana show deep feelings of friendship and loyalty towards each other throughout the game, but despite how most people talk about them being romantic, I don't feel like they are. First of all, Cortana is an AI (Not that that affects her personality). Second, they never profess love toward each other. The closest thing to an expression of love is a small moment when Cortana 'touches' Master Chief's chest armor.
So no, I don't think they LOVE each other, but I do think they (Lowercase) love each other, having been through so much together. And I like that better than a romance: two aging friends facing the threat of goodbye forever and fighting to stop it happening.
Anyway, I've never sympathized and been able to get into Master Chief or Cortana's heads better than now, and I am amazed by the incredible, emotional storytelling involved in a video game of all things.
The game controls will be familiar enough for any previous Halo players, with a few tiny tweaks.
Also, a great new element in the game are the new alien/robot enemies, called the Prometheans, who are both a unique and a tough new force to be reckoned with.
The Campaign/story mode is pretty short level-wise, featuring only eight levels in comparison to older Halo games that had up to fourteen levels, so it can get boring if you've played it as many times as me, but the cutscenes are amazing, and keep you immersed. I've beaten the story mode on the highest difficulty three times already, and I still like it.
The Multiplayer mode is another story. 343 Industries, the company newly made in charge of Halo's future, has changed the Multiplayer a good bit, and I'm not totally sold yet that it's for the better. Instead of all players starting with the same weapons and charging for the most powerful weapons on the map, 343 has set up a new Class based way to play, meaning everyone can start out with any weapon but a power weapon, which changes the former Arena Style Shooter feel dramatically--meaning they've made it more like Call of Duty, a Class Style Shooter.
Additions to gameplay such as Weapon Markers (marking weapon placements), Grenade Indicators (indicating a grenade coming at you), Armor Abilities (Jet pack, shield, etc.), Tactical and Support packages have very much changed the way Multiplayer plays. But playing against other players online or offline is still a lot of fun.
The game mode 'Spartan Ops', a smaller scale story mode taking place after Halo 4's events, is a great addition, adding more replay value to the game, allowing players to earn XP and level up their Spartan, along with getting to shoot a lot more aliens on the way. Unfortunately, to play online multiplayer or Spartan Ops, you need an Xbox Live Gold membership, which I sadly don't have as it costs some cash.
Players can still Forge (A Halo-exclusive map-editing game mode), and better and more efficiently than ever, with a larger Forge budget and larger selection of materials.
I would change some things about the game, mainly making the campaign longer and Spartan Ops available offline, but other than that, I really enjoy playing this game and hope to be able to play online soon.
PART THREE: CONTENT REPORT
There is a little language in the game, but the only words I've heard are the d, b and h word, the b word only used once and the others very occasionally, but the Marine troops can talk, too, and although I haven't heard them curse, there may be a few instances of them doing so.
When playing online Multiplayer, if you have an Xbox headset, you can hear and chat with other players, who often will curse a lot using every word in the vocabulary, or talk about inappropriate/offensive yucky stuff. Which is why I don't have a headset.
The game is a violent shooter game, rated M for Mature, and you spend its entirety shooting aliens and robots. There is blood: red from humans, blue, purple, orange or black from aliens, but it isn't exaggerated or splattered everywhere. It stays pretty tame.
Last and probably most concerning is the fact that the AI Cortana appears nude. Though there is no vivid physical detail, and she is a blue, glowing Artificial Intelligence, she stays looking rather short of clothing through the game. No characters react, remark or make note of her lack of clothing, not even Master Chief. You can avoid looking at her by skipping cutscenes with her in them, looking up, down or away when you insert her matrix chip into consoles, or walk around and find something else to shoot while she hacks the enemy ships' mainframes and all that lovely stuff that AIs do.
As it is an M rated game, suggesting players 17 and up, it would be a good idea for parents to preview the game before allowing their younger gamers to play it.
As is the case with all media.
PART FOUR: RATING AND CONCLUSION
I give the game four stars. I highly applaud the storytelling and the path 343 is taking the tale of Master Chief, and the gameplay is very fun. However, because of my iffiness about the new Class based Multiplayer and my frustration at not being able to play Spartan Ops offline, along with a short campaign and a bit less replay value, I'm giving it just four stars, for 'very good' not 'perfect'.
But despite that, I'm still playing the game almost a year after its release and having a great time with it. I strongly recommend it to sci-fi fans, familiar Halo fans, or gamers in general. It's fun, it's Master Chief and Cortana, and the graphics and story have had a HUGE facelift.
So go ahead and buy it--and tell me when you beat the Campaign on Legendary. 'Till then, my gamer tag is 'Headshothank117'. I'll see you on the virtual battlefield.
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