Worth the time

I'd been feeling nostalgic and decided to go on a Halo marathon. I finished 1-3 and felt it was finally time to see if 4 was as bad as all the hype claimed. It is a bit of a departure from their formula, I find. There's a good deal more "Press X to X" to be had, which feels more like CoD than Halo. The story is more confused- the main campaign never explains why you're fighting elites again. The end is anti-climactic, you wind up fighting the same three monster types for the last two levels, with no real "final encounter." There's a strange amount of weapon overlap, with the BR, scoped Magnum, Covenant Carbine, and two new weapons filling the same niche, the DMR and Light Rifle. My biggest complaint is the Spartan Ops: without an Xbox Live subscription, I couldn't even play the extra solo missions, which left the story feeling very empty. There is a lot of good to be found, however. The armor powers are a better system than the one-use equipment from 3. The graphics are great, although with perhaps a bit too much blinding HDR. The gameplay is fun, and isn't that the ultimate goal? It's challenging without being needlessly difficult. It definitely wasn't as good as the first three, but it was worth a few bucks to pick up used.Read full review

Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned