Review
Played on: Xbox 360Released: 2012
One of the most famous gaming series is back! This time, Bungie is exchanged for 343 Industries. The story of Master Chief continues from Halo 3's legendary ending, five years ago. It may be a different developer, but it certainly is classic Halo to the core.
MS has put considerable effort in picking out the industry's finest developers and putting them in 343 Industries. There are even people from the Metroid Prime series here, and it shows. Halo 4 surpasses all expectations!
There have been a few Halo releases between Halo 3, in 2007, and this latest entry in the main series. We got a different angle on Halo 3's story, through the eyes of ODST soldiers, in Halo 3's spin-off Halo ODST, review here. Followed by that we have Halo Reach, review here, which told the story of one of humanities early and decisive battles against the Covenant on planet Reach, prior to Master Chief's first story in the original Halo.
We even received Halo Wars, review here, a real-time strategy game in the same vein as a Command & Conquer title. All these releases, great titles in their own right, showed the quality and budget MS puts into the franchise.
Yet, we've all been dying to find out what happened to our hero Master Chief and his relationship with Cortana continued.
The first thing you'll notice about Halo 4 is how stunning it looks, it truly is a beautiful game. Clearly built with years of Xbox 360 hardware experience and benefiting from pushing the console further than most others. Together with Microsoft's other exclusive for winter 2012, Forza Horizon, it's one of the best looking games on any current console.
What really stands out, is the attention to detail in the visuals. From shiny, reflective surfaces, to the strong contrast from beams from light sources, to volumetric effects like dust particles in the air. Impressive depth, scale and attention for the small details. All the familiar weapons, vehicles and enemies from the Halo universe have been redesigned and look better than ever!
The fantastic art direction is further backed by the introduction of seeing things from Master Chief's helmet visor. An idea taken directly from the Metroid Prime series and it works incredibly well. It feels like you truly are Master Chief behind the visor of the iconic helmet, looking at the amazing world outside.
Halo 4 may be slightly smaller in open areas than Halo 3, somehow the latter conveyed even larger scale to it's battles, but Halo 4 compensates with far more attention to detail and effects. That doesn't mean Halo 4 won't blow your mind with some massive scenes. It also adds lots of variety, both environmental and with gameplay, just the kind of quality level Halo 3 and Halo Reach offered back when they released.
The story is conveyed well, more to the point and cinematic than before. It still has the mystery that surrounds a typical Halo story but does so in a more explanatory way. The characters have more personality and the relationship between Master Chief and Cortana is beautifully depicted. Bringing out your emotions later on in the story.
The first thing you'll notice about Halo 4 is how stunning it looks, it truly is a beautiful game. Clearly built with years of Xbox 360 hardware experience and benefiting from pushing the console further than most others. Together with Microsoft's other exclusive for winter 2012, Forza Horizon, it's one of the best looking games on any current console.
What really stands out, is the attention to detail in the visuals. From shiny, reflective surfaces, to the strong contrast from beams from light sources, to volumetric effects like dust particles in the air. Impressive depth, scale and attention for the small details. All the familiar weapons, vehicles and enemies from the Halo universe have been redesigned and look better than ever!
The fantastic art direction is further backed by the introduction of seeing things from Master Chief's helmet visor. An idea taken directly from the Metroid Prime series and it works incredibly well. It feels like you truly are Master Chief behind the visor of the iconic helmet, looking at the amazing world outside.
Halo 4 may be slightly smaller in open areas than Halo 3, somehow the latter conveyed even larger scale to it's battles, but Halo 4 compensates with far more attention to detail and effects. That doesn't mean Halo 4 won't blow your mind with some massive scenes. It also adds lots of variety, both environmental and with gameplay, just the kind of quality level Halo 3 and Halo Reach offered back when they released.
The story is conveyed well, more to the point and cinematic than before. It still has the mystery that surrounds a typical Halo story but does so in a more explanatory way. The characters have more personality and the relationship between Master Chief and Cortana is beautifully depicted. Bringing out your emotions later on in the story.
Adding to the cinematic feel are some incredibly animated and amazing looking faces on characters. A Halo story has never been this gripping and focused before. The ending is incredible.
That said, the overarching story, is difficult to grasp. Especially the part with the new, high-tech, alien race and their connections to the lore. It's is a heavy story that, sadly, takes for granted you're familiar with the Halo literature in books.
That said, the overarching story, is difficult to grasp. Especially the part with the new, high-tech, alien race and their connections to the lore. It's is a heavy story that, sadly, takes for granted you're familiar with the Halo literature in books.
Gameplay is great, as usual, and feels instantly familiar to any previous Halo player. It retains the realism orientated gunplay from Halo Reach, but mainly feels like a typical old-school shooter. Guns are fired from the hip and the amount of enemies on screen really count up.
It's classic, fire and dodge, gameplay you fondly remember from classics like Quake and Unreal. It's more about your movement abilities, than the trigger reflexes of modern shooters. It's hardly realistic, but man, is it fun!
While the story won't take very long to complete. there's a ton of content for multiplayer. In fact, the multiplayer comes on a whole extra disc that needs installing! It offers everything from close combat, with weapons only, to large open area battles.
While the story won't take very long to complete. there's a ton of content for multiplayer. In fact, the multiplayer comes on a whole extra disc that needs installing! It offers everything from close combat, with weapons only, to large open area battles.
In addition, there's a huge "Spartan Ops" coop mode, with it's own story, cutscenes and content being added, ever so often, on Xbox Live. It's a huge coop mode for those wanting to play even more than just the main story, albeit in a far more repetitive and less cinematic nature.
Halo 4 is a truly an amazing package. It feels more Halo than ever, tells a story in movie-like fashion, lending ideas from the sci-fi genre and the visuals really impress technically. It's one of those games that renews an old formula and excels, with few weaknesses other than a fairly short main campaign.
It's an incredible thought, that MS have kept the quality of the series on every single Halo. 343 Industries should be proud of this release. Halo 4 is amazing and it's never made me feel more like actually being the Master Chief himself!
Halo 4 is a truly an amazing package. It feels more Halo than ever, tells a story in movie-like fashion, lending ideas from the sci-fi genre and the visuals really impress technically. It's one of those games that renews an old formula and excels, with few weaknesses other than a fairly short main campaign.
It's an incredible thought, that MS have kept the quality of the series on every single Halo. 343 Industries should be proud of this release. Halo 4 is amazing and it's never made me feel more like actually being the Master Chief himself!
Review
Played on: Xbox 360Released: 2012
Doom may be one of, or the most, famous video game ever and it's third instalment is an overlooked classic in my eyes. Good then, that John Carmack and his team decided to give this entry a new chance, tweaking it up and releasing it under the BFG Edition title.
Doom 3 was originally released at a difficult date. It had to go up against Half-Life 2 and Far Cry. Two releases that easily pulled attention compared to Doom 3. Mainly because of their larger maps and more original gameplay.
However, Doom 3 is criminally overlooked technically. What it lacks in open areas and modern gameplay, it compensates with amazing lighting, visual effects and challenging, old-school, shooting mechanics.
D3's strength lies in it's gameplay. It really feels like a first person shooter from the early days. There's no covering, there are no iron sights and there definitely is no auto-healing. It's about man against monsters.
D3's strength lies in it's gameplay. It really feels like a first person shooter from the early days. There's no covering, there are no iron sights and there definitely is no auto-healing. It's about man against monsters.
It shows no remorse, beings tough and pushing your skills constantly. Just when you thought you were getting to grips with it's monsters, it introduces new types of enemies. Pulling your senses straight back in and pushing you to rethink your attack method.
It may be hard but it never feels unfair, there's a rewarding feeling when finally getting past a difficult area. It forces you to actually get better at playing the game, but in a natural way. Modern games rely to much on rewarding you with some fancy cutscene, holding your hand constantly with healing mechanics and endless checkpoints.
It may be hard but it never feels unfair, there's a rewarding feeling when finally getting past a difficult area. It forces you to actually get better at playing the game, but in a natural way. Modern games rely to much on rewarding you with some fancy cutscene, holding your hand constantly with healing mechanics and endless checkpoints.
The variation in enemies is one of D3's strong points. Each one requires a certain approach to take down, often with a preferred gun for the job. The huge bosses, which are scary but cool to encounter, end up being just normal enemies that come in groups later on! At times, areas seem impossible to get through, simply because there are so many enemies coming at you.
However, you quickly learn how to play skilfully, just how you used to play these type of shooters back in the day. It's all about moving around, dodging shots and using corners to hide behind. Limited ammo doesn't make things easier either and actually helps build the tension. Though never on a survivor horror level, more as a way of making the player utilise other guns were there\s still ammo left.
I played the game with a friend and we were constantly asking each other to get back the controller and play. The gameplay is surprisingly good, considering it's lukewarm welcome back in the day. Carmack insisting the game be 60fps on console helps a lot to compensate the sluggish feel Doom 3 has been criticised for.
Talking about tension, Doom 3 actually is quite scary at times. At the beginning it feels like a slow-paced survival horror with zombies, like a Resident Evil in first person if you will. Combined with a weak gun and a few bullets at your disposal. This pacing quickly changes to far more crowded and full on gunfights with nasty monsters further on. But, somehow, it always seems to be able to calm things down and build atmosphere again.
Sure, it uses the "spawn an enemy in a locked room behind you" trick to scare the crap out of you, but it works and it keeps you on your toes. The excellent lighting from your torch, gun muzzle and enemy parts, like their eyes, creep the hell out the dark and scary corridors.
Doom 3 isn't without faults though. It's a fairly dated looking title now, although the lighting is fantastic and holds up well. The environmental variation is terrible and only later levels become more varied, a portal to hell comes to mind. There are too many endless, futuristic, space corridors though.
Talking about tension, Doom 3 actually is quite scary at times. At the beginning it feels like a slow-paced survival horror with zombies, like a Resident Evil in first person if you will. Combined with a weak gun and a few bullets at your disposal. This pacing quickly changes to far more crowded and full on gunfights with nasty monsters further on. But, somehow, it always seems to be able to calm things down and build atmosphere again.
Sure, it uses the "spawn an enemy in a locked room behind you" trick to scare the crap out of you, but it works and it keeps you on your toes. The excellent lighting from your torch, gun muzzle and enemy parts, like their eyes, creep the hell out the dark and scary corridors.
Doom 3 isn't without faults though. It's a fairly dated looking title now, although the lighting is fantastic and holds up well. The environmental variation is terrible and only later levels become more varied, a portal to hell comes to mind. There are too many endless, futuristic, space corridors though.
The story is really basic, hardly serving any purpose, I lost the interest immediately. But hey, it's Doom, there's a portal to hell on Mars that opens up and nasty creatures coming out. It doesn't need a rocket science story. The voice overs are completely forgettable too, this game is about gameplay and atmosphere built through what you see and do.
Doom 3 stands it's test of time surprisingly well, it really shows that gameplay can easily win over story. An achievement worth mentioning, in today's gaming world which focuses far too much on fancy cinematic presentation. I recommend the game if you want a challenging and scary shooter to test your skills.
