If Halo 4...

And just exactly what is the legacy of the Halo franchise?

"Exactly" could take a while to describe, but, in general, the legacy of highly playable games. Halo 4 seemed more like "one step up and two steps back."


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You spell God with a G, I spell Nature with an N. Capital. - Frank Lloyd Wright

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Granted, Halo 4 bore many fingerprints betraying the fact that it was made by someone other than Bungie. There were a number of things about it that I didn't like.

Indeed. They changed some things uneccessarily, such as "storm rifles" instead of plasma rifles, mixing DMRs with battle rifles, and worst of all not even including the iconic Halo music.

But overall I enjoyed it. I played through the campaign, I dunno, four times I think. Great level design, great sense of action and control.

Not to say it was not enjoyable at all, but I found myself disappointed in a Halo release for the first time since I was introduced to the game. I played it twice through but found myself, for my Halo fix, going back to classis like 2 and 3.

I have to disagree about action and playability, though, but I imagine these things come down to taste. But I hated the changes. To remove dual-wielding was a crime. Dual was arguably the best innovation in Halo since the original release. Next was the excruciatingly long time to regenerate the shields; it became far too slow-paced for my tastes. Also the "feel" overall seemed off in so many ways. When I went back to H3 after playing H4 for a while, I couldn't believe how much nicer a feel it had. Seemed 343 took all the mistakes that Bungie made in Reach and kept them in H4, without correcting any of them, but only expanding on them.

The thing that irked me the most was that they brought the Covenant back. One of the biggest points of Halo 3 was that the war was over. 343 should have had the balls to create an all new trilogy with all new enemies.

Eh. I'm divided on that one. In theory I would agree with you wholeheartedly. But if the enemies we got were just more Prometheans or similar, it would have not been an improvement. I liked the scenes in H4 with the Covenant far better than the inorganic feel of the Prometheans.

Also the Promethean weapons seemed a cop-out. If introducing a whole new arsenal, couldn't they have added something unique? Instead they were almost direct knock-offs of the plasma pistol, the DMR, the assault rifle, the sniper rifle and a very small tweak to the fuel rod cannon. Don't get me started on those awful grenades. The only unique weapon to this release seemed to be the sticky detonator, which I did like. Things like the saw just seemed stupid.

It was the playability which brought this one down, to me.

My hype for Halo 5 is the least ever for me for any upcoming Halo game. I actually think it looks like it's going to be a great game.

The way they're setting up the story seems interesting, however it begs a HUGE question why MC is going rogue and can't confide in anyone. I just hope they treat that well. Also playing as Locke brings to mind the one dark cloud surrounding H2 - namely playing as another character too much. Again, not necessarily a problem but it could be. Lastly there are all too many questions about playability, and whether they fixed the H4 problems (slow shield regen, no dual-wielding, etc). Alas, though, from what I've heard, these problems might not only be not fixed, but there are a lot of silly mods, such as stretching out the levels to accommodate sprinting (which is the wrong solution), and adding really dumb features like "kill cams".

Again, we'll have to wait and see, but this, in addition to the badly broken MCC reputation, it leaves many of us wondering if it will be better or not... as opposed to wanting to rush out and buy a One just to play it. As I feel now, I'm more likely to get into a PS4 and expand my games rather than just upgrade my existing platform.

If I hear differently about H5, maybe I'll change my mind.... 




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You spell God with a G, I spell Nature with an N. Capital. - Frank Lloyd Wright

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I have similarly had my concerns about Halo 5.

I love the franchise but Halo 4 was just a little off. Enjoyable but the motivation seemed to be to get to the end of the level, to get the 'thing' rather than to experience the level, if that makes sense.

Losing the split screen co-op worries me. From what I've seen of the graphics they don't look that amazing that they couldn't possibly be recreated in a split screen. The idea of playing through the campaign with my brother over Christmas has sadly been removed unless of course we could justify now buying two new consoles rather than one.

I just hope that 343 have the courage to really take the game forward and make some leaps rather than 'copping out' with slightly better graphics and slightly bigger multiplayer maps. That, in my opinion, simply isn't enough to wrestle back the mantle of great game.

On the plus side, the music from the game that they have released is pretty damn good and has been doing a stellar job in firing me up for the game. I also have to take my hat off to the #Hunt the Truth ad campaign which has been involving and entertaining.

The jury is still out and I'll be sifting through the reviews to find a semblance of opinion through the haters and the larger review sites that are compelled to offer a better review to secure future exclusives.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.


Small moves Ellie, small moves

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While I disagree with your favorable opinion of H4, it seems even the most favorable approaches to H5 still leave one wanting.


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You spell God with a G, I spell Nature with an N. Capital. - Frank Lloyd Wright

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