Halo 4

2025-06-02
I love Halo but this is the worst one. Robot enemies feel like trash to shoot, worse skinned versions of classic weapons, AI getting lobotomized producing eunuch Elites that can’t even flank, and not even a whiff of that “Silent Cartographer” good shit with its mix of shooting and vehicle sections. Hey, at least we got that “Give me that chip” meme.

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For sure this is my least favorite Halo. Let's start with what I didn't enjoy about it and then move on to what I did enjoy about it.

First off, it's a Halo game so let's start with the combat. They introduced some new guns, and while they're initially kind of cool, it ended up in the same boat as previous games where I just wanted to have a battle rifle and a shotgun the whole game but was forced to use basically skinned versions of those guns.

The AI noticeably seemed dumber from the previous games. I know this one was done by a new studio so maybe they started fresh but in the end it didn't feel great. It seemed like I could just shoot at Elites and they wouldn't really take cover or try to flank me or anything.

In addition some of the enemies had really obnoxious one-hit-kill weapons. This was especially noticeable during the last sequence of the last level where I literally would have to fight like 10-20 enemies and THEN get one shot buy this one guy. Happened like 5 or 6 times at two separate parts and it quickly devolved into me loathing the game.

The story was another kind of weak part here. I could see what they were going for with revealing the origin of Cortana and the Master Chief and how they were basically blueprints that had been seeded by the Forerunner to stop this ultra evil dude you who, of course, accidentally release in the course of the game. As a villain he's pretty 1 dimensional and just wants revenge and destruction.

I will say the weapon he uses which basically has the ability to vaporize all organic life is super cool. That's a baller weapon that really puts the fear of god in you as he's about to wipe out the entirety of Earth in hours with it.

The story brings me to what I thought the game did the best: bring some pathos to Halo. You really get a great sense for the relationship between Master Chief and Cortana. And both of their continued disconnect from humanity. The tiff Chief has with the Admiral or whatever who basically wants to arrest Master Chief for insubordination really characterizes this well as well. Losing Cortana at the end actually had some emotional weight which for me is a new feeling for this series.

All in all I had a good time but I wouldn't really have interest in replaying this one.