I've spent a fair bit of time playing Halo 4 over the past couple of weeks. Not as much as I would have thought though, as the game is fairly short and sweet assuming you know what you are doing (and by that I mean: have played any other Halo game before). Be prepared for a few spoilers if you want to read on. Fair warning.
My first impression of the game was pretty good as I played it in four player co-op on Heroic difficulty. Playing any game in co-op is always a blast, regardless or sometimes in spite of the game itself, and this was no different. Though I will say that the on rails vehicle sections involving the Ghost (across the crumbling planet) and jet thing were frustrating due to bizarre checkpoints, insta-death areas and the fact a Ghost can seemingly flip itself on a perfectly flat surface. Good times.
Anyway, I loved the combat, the new weapons and the auto-sentry. It is also a lovely looking game and the storyline and ending were all really well done too. I will say that the game should scale to the number of players though. Having four people makes things an absolute joke on pretty much every difficulty and that's a shame. If you play Legendary difficulty solo, then a couple of Promethean Knights can be a challenge - do that same section with four guys and they are dead before you even know they were there.
I also did the first two lots of Spartan Ops in co-op as well, and we breezed through them all on Legendary. Again making the argument that a team of four pretty much breaks the campaign/Spartan Ops stuff. It's like an official cheat code or something. Having done all of that I just had the online stuff and my solo run of the campaign to finish off. By this point though I really liked what I'd seen, things were familiar enough to make me feel at home whilst offering enough new tweaks and enemies to keep me interested.
The online modes were more of a mixed bag, but that generally comes down to your own skill set and who you end up playing with. I played a bit of SWAT (as I'd enjoyed it on Reach) and found myself getting hammered by players far better than I will ever be. Some guys were ranked at level 50+ within days of the game coming out and after a month or so they will probably be the only ones left too, meaning it won't get any easier. Still I finished up a couple of matches to unlock some challenges and then moved on.
Next up was Capture the Flag, but again my team seemed unable to communicate or work together. I did well personally, defending the base and saving the flag from capture multiple times, but we lost time and again. It seems no one talks anymore and party chat has killed the ability to play team based multiplayer games with strangers. Instead it was just five people running around doing their own thing. So when you end up against a team with at least two people actually working together you get stuffed.
Bored of that I then moved onto Dominion.
Best. Mode. Ever.
Finally, here was a mode that gave you simple rules and pretty much forced you to act like a team regardless of communication. I did plenty of matches on my own but also played a bunch of games with friends with equally good results. In the space of a couple of days I went from having 1 online win to my name to having over twenty (along with the achievements) plus a bunch more challenges done.
I love that defending bases is as important as attacking them. I love building turrets and snagging power weapons when they drop in. I love plasma stunning mechs and blowing the crap out of them. I love that you can win a match in just over a minute if you are quick/good enough. I generally love this mode and, if I continue to play Halo 4 online, this is the mode I'll be going for. After a few days playing I think I've won about 75-80% of my Dominion matches and even when I've lost it has been a close run thing and still plenty of fun. Long may it continue.
After getting the online stuff done I then went back to doing my solo Legendary campaign. The game is much more challenging and interesting on your own, and tactical use of weapons often comes into play. That being said I'm not sure if it is the 'hardest' Halo ever as some people claim. I pretty much breezed through the whole game without too much trouble and even the last few sections, that contained multiple Knights, weren't too bad in my opinion. On the first few levels I even had some of the skulls on so I could complete certain challenges and it didn't make things that much trickier.
What I did find, was that if you kept most enemies at a distance (and this is especially true of vehicles like Wraiths) you can pummel them mercilessly without much response. The AI can be a bit dense, and if I used a Lightrifle and sentry combo I could easily deal with Knights from afar without fear of reprisal. It almost feels like cheating when you find a safe spot, kill everything in sight and then move on.
Having polished it off today, I was pretty happy with the game as a whole. It's great in co-op (but too easy) and playing it solo gives you much more of a challenge. The online arena is as great as ever, and I love Dominion (did I mention that?) in particular. I also like doing the challenges and Spartan Ops stuff as well, but feel like they are a touch too easy even on your own.
As it stands I'm a rank 26 in terms of my Spartan, and I should be able to get over 30 easily with the challenges (I'm currently at 19 and need at least 25) and Spartan Ops left to do. How much time I spend on the game after I complete it in a couple of weeks, depending on how hard the last Spartan Ops achievements are, will probably depend on whether my friends are playing the game or whether any future DLC turns up with achievements.
Don't get me wrong, I like the game, but I have a bunch of other titles to play too.
If I can get this bad boy done, along with Lego Lord of the Rings (another superb game), then I'll just need one of either Tomb Raider Legend and Halo ODST in order to hit 300 completions. At that point I'll be a couple of hundred points away from 300k as well. Hurrah!
No comments:
Post a Comment