I connected with Halo 4 unlike any game in the series before it. Halo 4 lets us in, just a little, into the psyche of battle-weary Master Chief who, up until now has suppressed his human side. This time, too, Master Chief seems to be coming to grips with his human side and prepared to make his own decisions, rather than do what his superiors tell him. It helps that Cortana is voiced, again, amazingly, believably, by actress Jen Taylor.
Master Chief suggests a solution: “Don’t make a girl a promise you can’t keep” she replies. “I won’t recover from rampancy ,” Cortana tells the Master Chief as her behaviour gets more and more erratic. She’s old now: most constructs only last seven years service but she’s into her eighth year.
Right off the bat, Halo 4 is visually stunning game with a level of richness and detail in the environments I’ve not seen in the series before.Įmbedded all through the game, though, is the relationship between Master Chief and Cortana. Halo 4 is also a game about a new enemy, the Prometheans. The UNSC ship they’re on is under attack from a rogue group of Covenant who have abandoned the peace treaty between their race and the Covenant. Set four years after the Halo event, the game’s opening salvo begins with the Master Chief being woken from five years of cryo-sleep by Cortana. This is the only Halo game where I really connected with the Master Chief and Cortana. For me, though, this is the best Halo game yet: better than Halo 2, better than Halo 3. There was no doubt that 343 had a lot of pressure to deliver a great Halo experience, especially after the phenomenal job former custodian Bungie did.
That said, Halo 4 feels like a Halo game should, plays like a Halo game should but 343 have infused it with a little of their own DNA. And what a great first step this game is, even if it feels a little familiar at times. It opens: “Every great journey begins with a small step. They’ll do anything for each other and Halo 4 is about Master Chief and Cortana and the bond they share.Īt the end of Halo 4, there’s a message from 343 Industries, the fledgling studio embarking on the new Halo trilogy, just before the credits roll. They share an inseparable bond, the sort of bond that could only be formed when you’ve experience what the boy – Master Chief – and Cortana – the girl – have experienced. Not a love story where boy meets girl, they date for a bit then elope off together, ladder in hand, but one where the boy is a hardened soldier, who does what he is told without question and can wield a DMR rifle like no other, and the other is an artificial construct, who acts like a mother, a sister and a confidant to the boy. Apologies if I haven’t.Īt it’s very heart, Halo 4 is a kind of love story. Oh, I have touched upon Halo 4’s Spartan Ops content or multiplayer: I haven’t had time to look at those yet.Īlso, I’ve done my best to avoid spoilers – I think I’ve succeeded. Read it and let me know if I’ve succeeded or whether you think I should have just done a traditional review. Halo 4 is about the relationship between Cortana and Master Chief and I wanted to get that across. I didn’t want to tread the tried-and-true. I could have done the traditional “gameplay, graphic, sound, MP” review but I didn’t want to. I’ve approached this review of Halo 4 differently from other reviews.
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