Sights Locked on Halo 4
Every fps fan has eyes locked on target as they soak every detail about the upcoming Halo 4 release. The 4th installment to this legendary franchise is the debut of the 343 Industries after they took over the development of the franchise from Bungie, and even in this early demo it shows. The first hands-on play took place at Comic-Con this past week, and the fact that this is a brand new Halo title from a different producer shows. Players who have spent hundreds of hours behind a Spartan (or elite, if that was your thing) will notice that while still Halo, this is a very different game.
Two of the known multiplayer modes were shown off at SDCC: four-player Spartan Ops (A weekly episodic set of co-op missions) and War Games (Traditional multiplayer). Spartan Ops is a fresh step in the Halo franchise and should give players plenty to do as a group once they have demolished campaign. War Games will be like multiplayer of the past: Players everywhere doing their best to kill players everywhere.
Regardless of what mode you wind up devoting time to, the fact that Master Chief has had a re-work will become very apparent. First: He has substantial weight now. Lore aside, the Chief is no longer an agile little runner and will not be nimble as he was. Do not expect to defy gravity with your vertical leap anymore. 343 is also claiming aiming is playing a larger factor in the game, and will be less forgiving to those who don’t aim (only took 4 games to do that…). Grenades are only having their effectiveness lowered, so players shouldn’t die as much frag spam as they had been. (As long as people die to a plasma stuck to them, I’ll be a happy gamer)
The game has now given players a much needed sprint button, letting everyone have basically a free sprint armor-ability. Melee attacks are also a lot stronger (as if the game needed this), and 343 is claiming “will launch people quite some distance if attacks are timed just right.” So…just like before, but now with it being intentional instead of just bad player connections?
The HUD has also been upped, with damage indicators changed from a full-screen oval to a single arrow pointing the exact direction. Finally, the radar is getting an indicator to let you know if an enemy dot is above or below you (again, only 4 games to get this…).
The HUD also one new feature that is sure to be the brunt of flamewars everywhere: Ordnance drops. Players now have a small box in their HUD that fills up with kills, and will offer the player a drop that contains one boost, whether weapon or ability. Players can steal these if you aren’t careful. And this in no way at all has ever been done in another popular fps title. Ever.
Almost all of the old weapons are back on top of players now having access to the forerunner weapons. Maybe we’ll even get the true halo magnum back, so ‘pistol-sniping’ can be a thing again. Here’s being hopeful, and as always: Frog blast the vent core, players.
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