As you may have noticed, US mag Game Informer dropped a shipload of Halo 4 details from orbit over the weekend. Rather than reporting on everything piecemeal, we've rounded up the pick of the new info for your attention. Happy browsing.
1. It runs on redesigned Halo: Reach technology
First things first: the techno-trappings. Rather than the proprietary engine 343 Industries built around Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary's recycled Bungie code, Halo 4 runs on a pimped-out, juiced-up Halo: Reach engine, equipped with new lighting and shader systems. It supports true HD 720p and Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing, for a smoother look, and animation fidelity has been kicked up a notch with new motion and performance capture. Combat Evolved Anniversary's multiplayer component also called on Halo: Reach technology, so 343's had plenty of practice with the code. Your jaw will be dropped.
2. The Covenant are back
Of course they are. 343 wants returning players to feel immediately at home when they pick up the pad, and what easier way to achieve that than by serving up a few familiar faces to blast? Master Chief awakens from cryosleep to find the human-Covenant ceasefire apparently broken, with the wrecked Forward Unto Dawn under siege by Elites, Jackals and Grunts. Struggle through to the vessel's hull, and you'll have the opportunity to gawp at an entire alien fleet. Except you won't, because Master Chief doesn't gawp. He merely looks upon things with an air of heroic reserve.
3. You'll get to kill ancient races
But the Covenant isn't the only, nor even the most serious threat. After leaving the Forward Unto Dawn via unknown means, you'll descend to the innards of the mysterious Requiem facility. Constructed umpteen millennia ago, Requiem is basically a massive, heavily shielded time capsule; it's a Dyson Sphere enclosing an artificial planet, populated by lifeforms thought destroyed when the Forerunners unleashed the Halo ring network against the rampaging Flood. Naturally, not all those lifeforms will be friendly. 343 says we can expect a new, more complex and intelligent enemy faction - founded, like the Covenant, on relations between unit types that players can exploit, but considerably more testing. You may even end up sticking it to the Forerunners themselves. After all, they've waged war on humanity before.
4. The story-telling has moved on
A modest touch, this, but Halo 4's cinematic direction is a lot less disruptive. A majority of cutscenes take place in first-person, and you'll retain control (over the camera, for instance) during certain chinwags.
5. Planet-sized caves are the new Halos
Thanks to Requiem's unique architecture, Combat Evolved's famous skybox has given way to something equally far-fetched but a lot more, shall we say, cosy. In place of a tapering loop of Forerunner geography, you've got an omnipresent ceiling. Huge, sculpted stalactite-type structures stab down at a boggling primeval fastness. Bring your inner anthropologist.
6. You'll have to save Cortana from herself
As we theorised, Cortana's possible descent into Rampancy - the volatile penultimate stage of an AI's life cycle - will be a crucial component of Halo 4's plot. "It's about finally moving their relationship beyond the realm of video game exposition," comments O'Connor, not very informatively. "And what it really means to have your only friend be more human than you, but be an artificial intelligence. And what it means to your place in the universe to be put into a position where you have to deal with her Rampancy. You literally rescue her in Halo 3, but her jeopardy was geographical rather than existential." Halo 4: Analyse This Mode confirmed.
22 comments so far...
stryder84 on 10 Apr '12 said:
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO to the call of duty style F**KED up lvlling system its ruined the ME3 multiplayer and it will ruin this because instead of "what rank are you?" it will be "how many times have you...?" and im sick of that s**t i really am so if anyone from oxm is gunna read this pass it on DO NOT WANT CoD STYLE MULTIPLAYER LEVELLING!!!!!!!
bamozzy on 10 Apr '12 said:
The only things I need to know are
1) Is it any good (compared to all other Halo games)?
2) When is it released?
Bezza89 on 10 Apr '12 said:
Eugh! I hate point by point replies but I must say;
1 - The halo reach engine is really poor, and has the framerate of a giraffe with >20fpsitis. I hope to god they have really 'juiced' it up. 343i best not have done Halo Ann, I thought that was Saber Interactive, as the engine in online co-op also runs at maybe 5 fps.
2/3 - I don't mind the covenant being enemies, as long as it's within reason to the story, but they best not bring the flood back, ever and just have NEW enemies in addition.
4 - I agree with Steven Speilberg, Half Life has the best form of cutscenes in any game as they don't take control away from the player and as such you don't feel like it's a cutscene and is just more immersive as a result. I find CoDs restriction of player control a horrible influence on most games and hope to jebus they don't follow suit and whack qte's in either.
Everything else sounds really good, and the FREE spartan ops sounds pretty cool and a nice way of combatting the preowned market. CoD style unlocks have ruined the ME3 mp a bit, I hope it doesn't result in a similar effect on Halo.
MrCoolJoeCool on 10 Apr '12 said:
This is pretty sweet glad to see that they are finally evolving the multiplayer cause it has been getting really old.
Also I hope the covenant is not the main enemy or at least split and a faction is on your side.
Waffles2541 on 10 Apr '12 said:
I sorry, did I see that correctly, but it says no firefight?
That was possibly the best bit in Halo: Reach. The madness you could get up to in that mode was great. Is this Spartan Ops the replacement, if so will it work a bit more like ME3 multiplayer, as in there will be objectives to complete throughout the mission rather than the simple 'slaughter everyone and everything' approach.
Also, will there be a Forge World-like map for all those forgers out there. Here's hoping it does!
And will the Flood appear at all (i really hope not, i hate fighting them)
ridinglikesatan on 10 Apr '12 said:
I hate what they've done with the MP, stop trying to pull in retarded CoD fans with shitty mechanics, you won't pull them, as BF wasn't able to, stick with loyal Halo fans and the rest will follow
At117xx on 10 Apr '12 said:
Unless 343 pulls something amazing out of the bag between now and launch I will not be buying Halo 4. The first page of this article was sounding quite interesting, but then the multiplayer portion makes it sound as if the Halo franchise is being butchered. If everything posted here is true the multiplayer will be a joke. The worst things for me were; sprint being standard for everyone, instant respawn (WTF!?!?!) and random heavy weapon drops. This practically removes the entire competitive edge to the multiplayer and makes it seem as if the design team do not know what they are doing. Map knowledge is one of the key strategies to Halo gameplay and seperates good players from great players.
To have a remote chance of saving this, 343 needs to come in with a robust and rewarding skill based ranking system like H2 and 3.
I keep wishing at the back of my mind that this article is just some kind of bad joke.
Nathman on 11 Apr '12 said:
OK 343 Industries and OXM heres my thoughts.
First, yes 343 you will have to make some changes, to make the game stand out and to make the loyal Halo fans like you because there is a lot of pressure. I love the sound of the game it looks and sounds great but, I think that you have gone a bit far in the wrong direction and thats towards Call of Duty.
Engine - I don't mind you using the Halo: Reach engine, but I think to start a new trilogy you should have made a new engine, but your probably keeping this engine to keep it feeling like Halo which you need to do, so this is fine.
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Enemies - I agree with 'Bezza89' thats it's fine to bring the Covenant back, if it works with the plot of Halo and I would love to see some new characters and the Forerunners they are the race every Halo player wants to meet, even if they want to kill us, so well done with this, I hope it works well.
Cinematics - I would love to see some first person cutscenes in Halo. It would help to feel like we are John, but don't go overboard with too many cut scenes or you will kill it. I have confidence that you will find a good balance.
SkyBox - Halo invented the SkyBox so keeping it is a must, it better be bigger and better than ever to even be close to the expectations, I like the sound of whats to come so it's great
Plot - The plot is still a mystery but we all saw that Cortana was going to be a main part of it. As she is increasingly in all Halo games including Reach, so this will keep me thinking until the game comes out.
Firefight - I don't mind firefight being gone, even though it was awesomely fun to play in Halo 3: ODST. But it's being replaced by Spartan Ops so not all is lost.
Multiplayer Plot - In three words "I LOVE IT" a reason for the red to be fighting the blue is great, (Rooster Teeths Red vs Blue just came to mind) anyway it is a great idea it was always needed, well done!
Spartan Ops - Right.. I like that it will add to the story and plot (You State), and I love that there will be five more every week (That's a lot of work for 343 there), but I am wondering if it will work or not so fingers crossed.
CoD Unlock System - Why... I don't understand how or why you would add this, in a standard Halo game everyone has the same load-out and weapons so that the fight is equal/fair. Then skill and tactics are the key part of the match. With some bigger weapons on the map (Rocket Launcher and Sniper Rifle), so that players can fight over them to get an advantage. If you allowing the player to start with a weapon of their choosing, this will change the gameplay completely and I think in a bad way. I don't know how you will sell the weapons because there are only a few, even with whatever new weapons you add. I'm watching what you do in this area...
Power-Ups/Respawn - I don't know what to think about the weapon drops, in Halo the fixed locations of the larger weapons were part of the game. If you make them apear in random locations you are going to change the gameplay of the match drastically, this may be a good thing but I think that this is not Halo, I would keep both in multiplayer to be on the safe side.
Overall I think that 343 Industries will deliver the goods, if they don't they will know about it like with ME3 by EA, personally I think the endings fine they made the game, so they get to decide the ending(getting off topic).
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Good Luck and can't wait
- Based on this information alone and no other sources.
PabzMiah on 11 Apr '12 said:
Really?!!
1.
343i is actually going to fail their career and projects on making this Halo 4. Copying from another gaming product is seriously wrong, and fans or new fans/customers will think that 343i is a "copy-cat" side or "copiers". The CoD ranking system is okay and it completely matches with there games, but with Halo, it sounds wrong and plus it's propper boring on ranking up like this kind of way. This will be ruined if this happens "straight", it doesn't actually sound right at all.
2.
It's good that the covenants are back in game, but the flood are dead and gone from Halo 3 so im hoping that they will never return back which is good but 343i should make some different enemies to come into the game to make this game a little much better and get the experience upto much higher. If the flood returned, then Halo 4 story will be ruimed because on Halo 3, they have died, all of them are dead and gone.
3.
The multiplayer classical features shouldn't be the same anymore because this has gone on for "4/5" years now and we are all expecting something more different, stylish & flexible/enjoyable.
4.
The ranking system should be more better and different but can't/cannot be the same as cod. 343i should think and make something better then before because it's 2012 baby.
5.
Halo 4 should this feature called: "Bots Game" or something similiar to that name. This, because, alot of users will be loving this kind of gametype on playing with the bots "earning credits, rewards...etc" or maybe even ranking up. Playing with bots such as "covenants or team mates soldiers"...etc will make the games experience alot higher then the actual game experience.
6.
Halo 4's campaign maps should be more better rather than outside maps or big outsided maps such as a field (eg: blood gultch). Some Halo 4 campaign maps should have "inside levels, inside buildings, offices, hospitals or houses" to make the game abit better for campaign experience. The campaign old experience has gone for 6 or 7 years and theres still no changes. Some maps like the real shapes and systems in real life buildings (eg: casino colours).
7.
The cortana-missing article and map of the story has failed because we already saved her from Halo 3 and how can this be happened? Masterchief was sleeping at his sleeping facility/place and cortana was with him all this time and she suddenly goes away from him (or in different maps) cause masterchief never fails his objectives or missions and he never fails to protect the innocent cortana. This cannot be changed, cortana should remain with the chief at all time, maybe we save the captain because he hasn't experienced with the chief on Halo 2 or Halo 3 (eg: hasn't walked with the chief and shooting the covenants...etc). Maybe he should be missing and locked up in a covenants palace, ship or secret place...etc.
Bungie has made this game much better and the best game out for 360. 343i should learned alot of things from them and we all hope that they make this game much BETTER and not copy of something else just-because they like others products systems. My words are always true and I hundred percently know how each and every shooting game works for couple of months or two. Read all of them seven articles above and take action if necessary.
Thank You
http://www.pabzmiah.co.uk/
Organic Carrot on 11 Apr '12 said:
I would say "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY" but I am worried with the loss of firefight and the annoying CoD like multiplayer. Everything else should work perfectly if it is done right.
Bionic_Pingu on 12 Apr '12 said:
Looking at all the comments no one wants the COD like MP. this is why companies need to listen to the gamers out there, I'm sick of games reaching out to COD fans. Halo was its own game which made it unique but they are mashing ideas from other games and ruining the experience. A couple of people have pointed out that randomizing weapon spawning unbalances the game. weapon loadouts? please..... the reason why COD has done so well is because it is mostly a copy and paste job with bits of tweaks and graphics improvement which means they haven't made big changes because they are keeping the core. i think halo should of kept the core from halo 2-3 but noooo. It's the MP I'm worried about most, the campaign will brill since it is chief again.
hayz on 14 Apr '12 said:
Halo is my online game of choice because of it's differences to games like COD. Halo's online gives everyone the same fair chance at the start of every game, everyone can choose an armor ability meaning the winning factor remains skill, as opposed to COD's "you've played enough to unlock extra killing tools". This article worries me, or rather it should, the fact is though, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this, is that if Halo 4's multiplayer turns out to be a bonafide COD clone then I will continue to play Halo Reach's brilliant multiplayer. One last thing, Bungie would never bastardise Halo's MP mechanic to mass appeal it. Do right by us, 343.
T-meredith on 14 Apr '12 said:
Might as well call it Call of Halo...
Flook666 on 14 Apr '12 said:
Another no to Call Of Duty style mechanics here.....The reason I like Halo is because it's balanced from the start and you have to battle it out for the rocket launcher, etc.... Changing this is a mis-step of massive proportions! Probably....
Why do I get the feeling there'll be loads of DLC to put back Halo 4 to what it should be after all the fans complain upon release?
XXgoryeliteXX on 20 Apr '12 said:
Stop f**king up my halo ever since reach halo doesn't mean anything to me the only reason i own a 360 is for halo otherwise i would be playing on pc 343i no more Cock of duty make it like halo 3 if you f**k it up im sorry but im done with halo and 360 and start gaming pc
XXgoryeliteXX on 20 Apr '12 said:
Stop f**king up my halo ever since reach halo doesn't mean anything to me the only reason i own a 360 is for halo otherwise i would be playing on pc 343i no more Cock of duty make it like halo 3 if you f**k it up im sorry but im done with halo and 360 and start gaming pc
Dudz Navi on 6 May '12 said:
Ok this is my first post on any gaming media websight that isnt a "clan" site and my spelling is terrible so bear with me :p
so first things first Halo 4 is the first halo game by 343, so i exspect alot to go rong and alot to go rite. but lets not forget that Halo and COD may be 2 differant games but the developers do share ideas so no one is stealing ideas from one another they are just trying to make both games better for everyone involved.
So lets get down to it what do i think of the cod style LVL up system..... personaly i think it worked well for COD and so it has potential for Halo but at the same time in COD you dont have sheilds, so I'm not shure how this will work out in Halo. I think as long as you cant make a weapon do more damage then it shouldent ruin gameplay to badley. My oppinion of all game lvl up systems is that it should be based on skill not just a badge that says "hey look i have no life as i play this mutch" getting to lvl 50 in halo 3 (not hard to get) but not everyone got there lvl 50 in COD everyone will get there eventually even if they are terribad players. (this alos makes match making pointless as players will not be matched by skill)
But the main thing that sets Halo apart from most FPS games on the Box is FORGE mode and we havent heard mutch about whats happening to that. The only reason I still play halo is because there is always a new map or game type for me to try out. This idea of a holodeck sounds good though. Can i make my own hills and stuff? can i shape a map from a blank empty space??? 343 I NEED ANSWERS PLOX!!!
on a personal note: the preveiw trailer for Halo 4 (the one where he wakes up) ...... if he has been asleep for all that time....and he diddnt have a JET PACK when he went in to sleep.... WHERE DID HE GET THE JET PACK and dont get me started on how his armor changed shape and colour...... c'mon guys
But to wrap this up I will be getting Halo 4 no matter what i mean i kind of haft to dont I
bamozzy on 6 May '12 said:
For me Halo has always been more about the campaign than the multi-player. That has always been the most important part of a Halo game. I am glad to see Master Chief returning and hope that 343 make a great campaign with an epic story line. I am sure that 343 will also make a great 'Halo' multi-player and NOT a CoD clone in Halo clothing.
It does sound that they are 'borrowing' some aspects of CoD but until we see how these are implemented into the game, we cannot say if it will be overall detrimental or not. I am confident that it will still feel and play like a Halo game should though. These additions may bring a refreshing aspect to the game and move the multi-player forward. (I am not saying it will but it has the potential) I am sure no Halo multi-player fan wants the exactly the same multi-player they have had - just on different maps. I am sure that they also want the game to'feel' and 'play' like a Halo multi-player should first and foremost.
This will be 343's first Halo game on their own but it isn't the first time ever that they have been involved with Halo. I am certain they want to make the series their own now BUT will keep the traditions that Bungie established. They are not going to 'alienate' the Halo fans as this is their target customer.
No doubt we will get to se more and learn more in coming months but I must say I am looking forward to its release in November...
Dellboy on 9 May '12 said:
Havent been keeping upto date much on this site so i'm pleased to see there is quite a lot of information on Halo 4.... not all of it seems good though.
It seems like 343 are definately pandering to pressures to make this game more in the style of COD. As many have mentioned here Halo has its own gameplay, with power weapons on maps, equal footing on loadout weapons, and a once great MP ranking system (halo 2 + 3). These IMO are things that dont need to be tinkered with too much.
I thought the big changes to Halo 4 would be more graphical/gameplay, with the game getting an update to 60fps, or a unlimited sprint (which i'm glad to see theye have included), or the change of controls to include basic ironsights.
I miss the Halo 2/3 ranking system where everyone had their rank from 1 - 50, which could go up or down, depending on performance. It gave you something to work for. Not like current reach/COD where you can just keep playing/prestige and rank up to the top (this shows no skill, just hours of gameplay invested)
Not all seems bad, i'm glad to hear that the jetpack/shields add ons return, that sprint has become standard, that the story looks solid, and brand new weapons are being included. I appreciate that change is essential for Halo to keep it fresh and challenging, but too much tampering to what makes the franchise unique could turn away loyal fans, who choose to play Halo for all of the reasons that have been mentioned by everyone
Army_GoOp_117 on 24 May '12 said:
stop saying its like cod its not, also 343 are not copycats so for everyone who says its like cod and they are copy cats f off. 343i is doing fine
bamozzy on 24 May '12 said:
Nobody has said it is like CoD but there are CoD style elements being introduced to the Halo franchise. 343 maybe 'borrowing' from that franchise but I have no doubt this will still play like a Halo game and NOT like CoD. Unfortunately all FPS shooters are going to be compared to CoD due to the fact of its popularity and success - Halo 4 will be no exception. I also think it will be compared to Black Ops 2 as they are both released in the same month (a week apart)
I have no doubt that Halo 4 will still play and feel like a Halo game should even if there are elements that can be found in other games - they certainly aren't unique. What sets Halo apart from others is the story and game play feel (I include Multi-player). It could have the whole CoD multi-player aspect (it won't) but would still feel different because of the way Halo plays.
Certain things are very generic in gaming but when something 'new' to a franchise is added, it is very often likened to some other game that has that aspect. I am sure that if CoD added something that was Halo-esque it would draw comparisons with Halo but it certainly wouldn't play or feel the same.
People use comparisons to explain a system but that doesn't mean that it is going to feel or play like that but gives you an idea of what it is.
Either way I am really looking forward to the return of Master Chief and hope that 343 will bring something Fresh and New to the franchise but still keep it true to the Halo Universe.
BlackXRaptor on 26 Sep '12 said:
I fail to see where you got the idea that 343i are going to have the 'Prestige' levelling mechanic in their multiplayer... Or am I wrong have they announced anything like that