Category Archives: Game Logs

Halo Fest 2020 – Spartan Assault

The Story So Far: 6 months after the Didact was defeated the UNSC Infinity embarks on a mission to return to the Forerunner Shield World Requiem and reclaim it from Jul’Mdama’s rogue Covenant faction. As part of a massive combined force, including over 300 SPARTAN-IVs led by Commander Sarah Palmer, Spartan fireteams engage in various operations on Requiem’s surface. During one such mission, fireteam Crimson recovers a mysterious Forerunner artifact. Later investigating it aboard the Infinity, head engineer Dr. Glassman appears to be disintegrated by the artifact. In his absence, Dr. Catherine Halsey is temporarily released from custody after being arrested for war crimes, including her role in the SPARTAN-II program, and brought onboard to continue the investigation. During her research, Dr. Halsey begins communicating with an unknown entity who she eventually pieces together is Jul’Mdama himself. Caught in the act, Halsey is placed back into custody though not before reaching out to Jul’Mdama to offer her assistance with unlocking the Librarian’s AI imprint. As a result, combined Covenant and Promethean forces lay siege to the Infinity, appearing to abduct Dr. Halsey in the process. Brought to the Librarian’s shrine, Halsey is able to unlock and enter it before Jul’Mdama can intervene. ONI learns of Halsey’s betrayal and orders her assassination with Commander Palmer departing to handle it personally. Captain Lasky orders fireteam Majestic, who are already on Requiem, to rescue the doctor instead. The Librarian shows Halsey another artifact called the Janus Key, which can provide the real time location of all Forerunner technology, and gives it to her in hopes that it can be used to propel humanity’s evolution forward. Pulling her out of the shrine, Jul’Mdama snatches one half of the Janus Key from her just as Palmer and fireteam Majestic arrive. In the ensuing chaos Halsey passes the other half of the Janus Key to Majestic, Palmer wounds her, and Jul’Mdama absconds with her. As his fleet begins to jump away, Jul’Mdama deactivates the slipspace anchors holding Requiem in place, pulling it into a nearby sun. The Infinity is able to free itself from the artifact’s hold and jump away just in time.

With 343 Industries continuing to grow Halo as a full “transmedia” franchise, more of the type of spinoffs Microsoft first tried with Halo Wars seemed inevitable. Unlike Halo Wars though, 2013’s Halo: Spartan Assault wouldn’t be limited to a niche genre on a single platform; Spartan Assault was an easy to pick up and play twin stick shooter that was eventually available for Windows and iOS mobile devices, Xbox One and Xbox 360, and Windows. I’m not sure whether Spartan Assault’s sales actually reflected being both more approachable and more available but, given that it was quickly followed up with a sequel the following year, it seems likely.

“While the gameplay is a little repetitive there’s plenty of variety in the maps.”

I can’t say I have any particular fondness for twin stick shooters myself but these kinds of genre spinoff games are always intriguing to me. Still, never much of a mobile gamer, Spartan Assault flew completely under my radar and I honestly didn’t know that it was released on anything other than mobile devices until spotting it in the Xbox Store just a few years ago. Indeed, it’s that version I played for this playthrough; the Xbox One version on my Series X. Notably, this also marks the first time I’ll be covering something entirely new to me as part of Halo Fest 2020 and that remains the case from here on out. Kind of weird given how rooted in nostalgia this whole thing is, eh?

Spartan Assault actually does a fairly good job at taking a great deal of the core Halo formula and cramming it into a twin stick shooter mold. You play as a single Spartan wandering around on foot spraying down Covenant forces en masse with a variety of weapons. Included are staples like your Mjolnir armor’s recharging shield and a two weapon limit, with many of Halo’s iconic weapons showing up, and even armor abilities making a prominent appearance. One of the bigger twists to the genre is the lack of unlimited ammo, though scavenging from weapon racks, ammo crates, and fallen enemies should keep that from ever being more than a minor inconvenience. You’re sometimes given a UNSC Scorpion or Grizzly tank (though oddly no Warthogs) and hijacking Ghosts and Wraiths is an option as well. Overall, it all feels sufficiently “Halo”.

“Everything is better with tanks!”

Developed as a mobile game first, each mission takes no more than 10 or 15 minutes to complete, with many clocking in closer to 5 minutes. Between that and the lack of anything more than simple objectives like “destroy this emplacement” or “hold this point” there really isn’t a ton of challenge here. While there is a stripped down but otherwise familiar skull system, there isn’t any kind of selectable difficulty level either. Instead, the challenge is in earning a star rating based on your score at the end of each mission. In most missions earning a bronze star is effortless, though you’ll need to intentionally chase as many kill streaks and multikills as possible to get beyond that. The other way of doing this is via in-app microtransactions in the form of score boosts and temporary special weapon unlocks. Thankfully, these microtransactions (and indeed chasing high scores in the first place) can be easily ignored if you prefer, and purchasable with in-game experience points if you’re desperate to use them without laying down cash for the privilege.

Graphically Spartan Assault doesn’t come close to representing what the Xbox One can do. While serviceable, I’d argue that the Halo game it shares the most in common with, Halo Wars, shows a much higher degree of polish. The soundtrack fares better, with the original Halo trilogy’s soundtrack being an obvious influence. It’s just a shame you don’t get to hear more of it. A bigger complaint I have is that certain button assignments and other UI choices make it obvious that the controls definitely don’t appear to have been designed from the ground up with a gamepad in mind. That’s not to say they’re horrible, but they never clicked with me in a truly satisfying way which is kind of make or break for a twin stick shooter in my opinion. I also find it shocking that, despite being a common feature of both the Halo series and this entire genre, the campaign completely lacks cooperative play. There was a mini cooperative-only campaign that introduced a Firefight-like wave defense mode against our old friends the Flood added to the console releases, but even that lacks local co-op. Definitely a huge missed opportunity.

“The dryness of the mission briefings makes sense in context.”

Taking place sometime before the Infinity returned to Earth after the end of the Requiem Campaign (as described above) Spartan Assault is framed around a TACSIM training simulator that lets Spartans experience historical battles. The campaign covers the events of the Battle of Draetheus V, and follows the exploits of SPARTAN-IVs Edward Davis and Sarah Palmer. A motion comic style cutscene (similar to some of the ones we’ve seen in the terminals of earlier games) narrated by the Infinity’s quirky AI Roland sets up each operation, while each mission therein is presented by a strategic map and a couple of paragraphs of text that dryly describe each scenario.

Given that this is a side story that actually takes place out of chronological order, I’ll go over the plot here. While I’m fairly vague in these summaries they do still contain spoilers, so skip the next paragraph if you want to avoid them.

The Story: A splinter fleet of Covenant forces led by Sangheili Merg Vol appeared over the research colony of Draetheus V and launched an assault on its moon, X50. Spartans Edward Davis and Sarah Palmer rallied the UNSC defense, fortifying its primary research facility as well as setting up anti-air defenses to target incoming Covenant dropships. While successful in slowing the attack, Meg Vol’s fanatical forces still quickly overwhelmed them and established a solid foothold on X50. Spartan Palmer departed for Draetheus V to assist with its defense which soon escalated to targeted strikes against Covenant officers and an organized counter offensive resulting in a large armor engagement in which both sides suffered great losses. Meanwhile Meg Vol’s true goal became clear as it was discovered that X50 was not a natural moon but a massive Forerunner structure capable of building and destroying entire planets. With the support of the UNSC Eminent Domain and its marines, Spartan Davis was able to fight through the Covenant’s lines to the Forerunner control structure. UNSC technicians successfully disabled the weapon, though not before Merg Vol had already begun to unleash its devastating power against Draetheus V itself. Back on Draetheus V, Spartan Palmer’s efforts shifted to assisting with the evacuation of the planet, commandeering numerous Covenant troop carriers. With Meg Vol still at large on X50 and not being able to contact Davis who had been killed in action in a ferocious Covenant counterattack, Palmer headed back to X50 to hunt for the rogue Covenant leader. After a vicious battle, Palmer subdued and killed Vol. With his faction now leaderless and in retreat, the survivors were able to evacuate the system.

“He’s no Master Chief, but Spartan Davis did save an entire planet.”

Spartan Assault’s plot retreads a lot of familiar ground, especially on the heels of playing through Halo 4 and its Spartan Ops campaign. I can’t say it adds very much either; I’d personally hoped to learn a little more about Sarah Palmer given that she was already an established character but, as was increasingly the trend, 343 saved that for elsewhere. Still, the details of Palmer’s heroics during the battle of Draetheus V are certainly impressive and surely contributed to how she ended up as the Commander of Spartan Operations on the Infinity. Overall, while not all that significant to Halo’s overarching plot, the story of the Battle of Draetheus V at least doesn’t feel out of place in the canon.

In the end, Spartan Assault feels like a fairly typical budget spinoff game. It’s decently executed and relatively fun to pass the time with, but ultimately a fairly mediocre experience for anyone who isn’t a big fan of the twin stick shooter genre (who I’d imagine would have a heap of their own criticisms beyond the ones I brought up.) Still, as a unique experience within the franchise that’s quite quick to play through, it was an enjoyable enough diversion. I wouldn’t say you should avoid it, but it’s entirely skippable.

Halo Fest 2020 – Spartan Ops

The Story So Far: Adrift for over 4 years, the crippled UNSC frigate Forward Unto Dawn is pulled towards a mysterious object. Cortana wakes the Master Chief from cryosleep and the pair discover that they’re being attacked by a splinter fleet of Covenant loyalists led by the Sangeili Jul’Mdama. Without warning the object opens and violently pulls all nearby ships into it. Crashing onto the interior surface of what they learn is the Forerunner Shield World Requiem, Cortana picks up a faint signal from another UNSC ship, the supercarrier Infinity. Attempting to warn the Infinity of Requiem’s gravity well, the pair unwittingly release an ancient Forerunner warrior leader, the Didact, from stasis. The Didact resumes control of his army of defensive constructs, the Prometheans, with Jul’Mdama’s faction also falling into his ranks. Barely escaping, Master Chief and Cortana reach Infinity’s crash site where Master Chief rallies the UNSC defense, forcing the Didact into retreat. Aboard the Infinity Captain Del Rio dispatches a force to disable Requiem’s gravity generators so that the Infinity can escape. In the process the Master Chief is lured to a Forerunner facility where he’s contacted by the AI imprint of an ancient Forerunner called the Librarian. Explaining that the Didact intends to use a device called the Composer which had been used to digitally conscript living beings, including humans, into Prometheans to fight against the Flood, she insists that he must be stopped. Upon returning to the Infinity, Captain Del Rio observes Cortana’s instability and orders Master Chief to surrender her, ordering his arrest when he refuses. Instead, the Infinity’s executive officer, Commander Lasky, aids the Chief by procuring Pelican gunship for him. The Didact departs Requiem aboard his flagship, the Mantle’s Approach, though the Chief and Cortana make it just in time to stowaway on an accompanying Covenant dropship. Later hijacking the ship, the pair head to Ivanoff Station, a research facility where the Composer has been relocated. They find the station already under assault and attempt to sabotage the Composer before the Didact can reclaim it. Failing, they witness the Didact unleash the Composer on the station to devastating effect. Master Chief and Cortana then arm a Broadsword fighter with a HAVOK nuclear missile and pursue the Mantle’s Approach as it heads for Earth. Crashing into the ship’s interior, Master Chief takes the warhead and continues to fight his way to the Didact on foot. Confronting him, Cortana distracts the Didact for long enough for the Chief to manually arm the warhead. Cortana is able to teleport the Chief safely off of the ship but sacrifices herself in the process. Master Chief is later found and brought back aboard the Infinity where he quietly mourns the loss of Cortana.

“Oh goody, more Knights…”

Replacing the popular Firefight wave survival mode first introduced with Halo 3: ODST and iterated on with Halo: Reach, Halo 4 included a separate episodic co-op oriented campaign called “Spartan Ops”. 343 Industries might have opted to do this as part of an effort to canonize Halo 4’s multiplayer (AKA “Halo: Infinity”) with competitive modes being presented as war games conducted aboard the UNSC Infinity. Similarly, and the reason I wanted to cover Spartan Ops despite not talking too much about multiplayer during my Halo Fest posts is that, unlike Firefight, the Spartan Ops campaign actually includes a full story, taking place just after the events of Halo 4.

Back in the day I had started to work my way through Spartan Ops by myself on “Heroic” difficulty but quickly discovered that it was definitely tuned for 4 person cooperative play. Between this and that it still retained much of Firefight’s wave survival gameplay (and you were fighting damned Prometheans a lot of the time to boot) it was quite the slog. I think I made it as far as episode 2 before burning out, and I believe this is a huge reason for that negative impression of Halo 4 I’d been carrying around for almost a decade now. Going back to the campaign in 2021, I decided that cranking my difficulty down to “Easy” would probably be a solid first step in meeting my goal of making it all the way through this time.

“What can I say? The Warthog never gets old!”

While still not a total cakewalk, there were a few things unique to Spartan Ops that made it a bit more tolerable. For one, weapon racks and ammo crates are generously placed throughout each map. Sure, you may still need to grab a Covenant or Promethean weapon from time to time, but you’ll have the option of using UNSC weapons without worrying about running out of ammo much more often than in Halo 4 proper. There are also special ordnance drops that are given to you during many missions, usually when there’s a particular reason you might need a special weapon; rocket launchers being dropped for you just before a pair (or multiple pairs) of Hunters show up is a common example. You also get to use your multiplayer loadouts which means access to your choice of basic weapons and grenades, equipment, and special “tactical packages” and “support upgrades”. Finally, being multiplayer oriented, you simply respawn if you die rather than having to jump back to your last checkpoint. Nice!

Gameplay wise, your fireteam is dropped into an area and issued a linear string of objectives, coming one at a time to appear more dynamic. For instance, you might be sent to a waypoint, then told to activate a McGuffin, then told to defend the area against a few waves of enemies, then told to reach the extraction point and… oh no, reinforcements! Better defeat a few more waves so you can extract! You get the point. In the first 5 episodes this gets very formulaic and very repetitive very quickly. Even more so when you consider that the same 8 maps are featured multiple times in those 25 levels, and many of them are based on sections from the main Halo 4 campaign or are straight up taken from multiplayer in the first place.

Episodes 6 through 10 greatly improve things by introducing a new batch of maps which feel purposely crafted to be used this way. They also do a better job of varying the gameplay, though the tradeoff is that some chapters end up feeling more like single player campaign missions than Firefight-like scenarios. That said, all 10 episodes have some cool moments, including some awesome vehicle-centric sections. It should also be noted that Spartan Ops doesn’t suffer from the issue of having confined, linear levels that I mentioned in my Halo 4 post. Even some of the small maps feel very open which is refreshing when coming straight from the main campaign.

“Palmer and Majestic capture another Forerunner artifact.”

Presentation is another story. Individual chapters start and end with short in-game cutscenes and there are numerous radio communications from your mission handlers about your objectives throughout. Most notably, the biggest story beats are told via lengthy, beautiful rendered cutscenes created by Axis Animation that kick off every new episode and focus on a core cast of characters, many of whom you’ve already met in Halo 4. Honestly, say what you will about Halo 4, but these cutscenes are peak Halo awesomeness in my opinion and I’d love an entire series done this way.

The story itself is quite good too. Untangled from the legacy of Master Chief’s story and the perceived lore complexities of introducing the Didact and the Librarian, I’d suggest perhaps better than Halo 4’s. I definitely got pretty into it in any case. For one, I know he didn’t originate with Halo 4, but I thought Jul’Mdama was a great, more grounded antagonist. I also like getting some insight into the SPARTAN-IVs and the idea of Dr. Halsey feeling somewhat left behind as more advancements are made without her (which I feel is a more realistic narrative than making her cartoonish traitor.) Hell, I even started to like Sarah Palmer by the end of the campaign thanks in large part to the way her relationship with Lasky is depicted. The 10 episode story arc has a satisfying enough conclusion while also leaving some major developments wide open and begging for a sequel. I don’t know if one was actually planned or not, but sadly, a second season of Spartan Ops would never arrive, leaving the story to need to be fully resolved elsewhere.

“Fun times in the corridors of the Infinity.”

All in all, Spartan Ops is a pretty damn cool batch of bonus content that I doubt a lot of Halo fans have experienced. While I’m not sure I can heartily recommend it to solo players, there were numerous chapters that stuck out to me as likely being incredibly fun when played cooperatively while I was playing through. That said, in the exceedingly likely event that you’re unable to convince even a single buddy to play through this huge 50 mission campaign with you, watching a compilation of its awesome cutscenes is still an absolutely worthy investment of your time and that, at least, gets that my recommendation.

Next up, something completely different…

Halo Fest 2020 – Halo 4

The original Halo trilogy had been wrapped up for over 5 years and Bungie’s last two Halo releases, excellent as they were, were side stories. Now with Halo 4 we were getting an actual sequel, but the first crafted entirely by 343 Industries. Could they execute at anywhere close to Bungie’s level? What new ideas would they have to push the series forward? Most importantly to many fans, what would become of our beloved Master Chief?

As with the last several games, I’d really only played through Halo 4’s campaign once, at launch, though unlike those games I didn’t come away with an extremely positive impression of it. Instead, as I alluded to in my original brief mention of it here, I mostly appreciated it for simply allowing me to revisit a franchise I loved. While I did a fair amount of random matchmaking early on, the days of spending countless hours playing splitscreen and LAN games with family and friends were ancient history. Without those kinds of more enduring memories, Halo 4 is where the series stopped feeling quite so special to me. On top of that, for years now whenever I thought about its campaign I’d often remember it as a bit of a tedious slog. Oof!

“Master Chief and Cortana, 2012 style.”

As with almost everything else I’ve covered as part of Halo Fest 2020 up to this point, I replayed Halo 4 on “Heroic” difficulty as part of the Xbox One’s Master Chief Collection on my Series X. The MCC version of the game doesn’t receive much of an upgrade but, as with Halo: Reach, Halo 4 was already an incredible looking game in the first place. In fact, I’d commented that Reach might have been one of the Xbox 360’s best looking games, and while I think I still favor it artistically, Halo 4 surpasses it.

While Halo 4’s graphics might have been a technical feat, some major aesthetic shifts were less positively received. Bungie tweaked their designs with almost every iteration of the series but 343 took it a lot further. Front and center, Master Chief’s iconic armor was given a major facelift, with a far more futuristic design yet a more gritty and realistic texture and a darker color scheme. Cortana’s new design was particularly jarring, with her model looking far more voluptuous and, well, straight up nude. While I wouldn’t go as far as to say that I dislike her new look, I can’t help but find the choice just a bit questionable. On the sound design front we no longer have Marty O’Donnell working on the soundtrack for the first time in a mainline Halo game. That’s not to say the new soundtrack, which goes in some very different directions, is anywhere close to being bad, but it feels entirely underutilized and nowhere near as notable a part of the whole experience as it did in, say, Halo 3 for example.

“Not really what you want to see first thing after waking up…”

As with Halo: Reach, the campaign features a nice variety of different environments and of course, per Halo tradition, multiple vehicle-centric sections including a couple featuring the new Mantis mech suit. There’s also a level that feels very similar to the Falcon level from Reach where you instead pilot a Pelican gunship, and in a similar throwback to Reach, one that feels like a Star Fox level in which you fly a Broadsword fighter. There’s also a section featuring something of a super-sized Elephant from Halo 3’s Sandtrap multiplayer map called a Mammoth.

One issue with Halo 4’s level design is that there is a major lack of large open areas, especially problematic in those vehicle dominant sections. Really, as a whole the campaign’s levels are rather linear, complete with invisible walls and out-of-bounds kill timers. If you don’t attempt to explore or get too creative you may not even notice, but those hardcore Halo players who like to wring every last drop of gameplay out of each game will definitely be turned off by this. I was also surprised to see some QTE-like interactions very early in the campaign. These don’t make a reappearance until the final boss fight, and while QTEs don’t particularly offend me, having a game that doesn’t really rely on them end with one did feel a little anticlimactic.

“The only thing better than a tank is a tank filled with Spartans.”

I already mentioned the Mantis and the Broadsword, so yes, Halo 4 absolutely continues the trend of featuring a variety of new and updated vehicles and weapons. In fact, it goes even further than previous games by making changes to practically every piece of equipment at your disposal. They’ve also been renamed to designate that, canonically, they’re supposed to be different, newer versions of the classics we know and love. There’s also some new additions, like the Covenant Storm Rifle, the UNSC SAW, and the UNSC Railgun. More notably, there’s the huge addition of a whole arsenal of Promethean weapons. For the most part, these feel like counterparts to UNSC and/or Covenant weapons, but given that ammo can be fairly scarce and you’ll be fighting Prometheans most of the time, you’ll likely end up using them whether you want to or not, and you may not, as several of them are fairly lackluster. I’m looking at you, Pulse Grenade!

Halo 4’s equipment system has also seen some changes. While it works more or less the same as Reach’s Armor Abilities, it now includes several totally new abilities like the Autosentry, Hardlight Shield, Thrusters, and Promethean Vision, in addition to some Reach favorites like my beloved jetpack. The ever controversial Armor Lock is gone, while Sprint is now a standard ability anyone can do.

The new Mantis is badass, thouh not badass enough to shoot down the Cryptum, unfortunately.

“The new Mantis is badass, though not badass enough to shoot down the Cryptum, unfortunately.”

If you’ve not played Halo 4, you’re probably wondering what in the hell a “Promethean” is. In short, they’re a new variety of enemy that you’ll be fighting along with our old Covenant pals. There are three main varieties of Promethean. Crawlers, canine-like cannon fodder enemies that sometimes appear in pretty large groups. Watchers, which are flying Sentinel-like enemies that aren’t a huge source of damage but project shields onto their allies and can even resurrect other dead Prometheans. They also annoyingly love to dodge and dart away before you’ve managed to finish them off. Finally, there’s Promethean Knights. An Elite or Brute-level enemy, these assholes are bullet sponges who can wield a variety of weapons, including some high damage ones. They also love to dodge and even teleport away mid-fight, recharging their shields, which is goddamn annoying when you’re trying to finish one off. More frustratingly, these guys almost always have Watchers around them and can even spawn them themselves, which means extra shields you have to contend with and the possibility of coming back to life after you’ve killed them. Argh!

Prometheans are, in short, not fun. I feel like 343 was trying to capture the more interesting aspects of fighting the Flood, yet missed the mark. Knights might be fine if they only made rare appearances, but in some sections they’re absolutely everywhere. Eventually towards the end of my playthrough I’d developed the reckless but effective tactic of charging them with a high rate of fire weapon and trying to empty a magazine directly into their faces before they could teleport away. Those types of weapons tend to burn through ammo though, and, as mentioned, ammo for UNSC weapons is fairly scarce which makes the best candidate for this the Promethean Suppressor. Much more importantly, the shielding and resurrection abilities of the Watchers means they’re always going to be your priority target, and that leads to favoring mid to long range so you can pick them off from safety, which is, yeah, not the Suppressor’s strength. Beyond these issues, I wouldn’t say Halo 4 isn’t overly difficult, but when you add in the fact that so many areas are, yet again, set up like Firefight style wave defense arenas it can be damn tedious.

“100,000 years of self-reflection and yet, still a dick.”

While Halo 4’s story is probably better than most Halo fans give it credit for, I personally don’t love the direction they took it in. First we have the new antagonist, the Didact. My problem with this plotline is that it totally kills the enigmatic nature of the Forerunners and their murky relationship with humanity (at least, as presented in-game.) With that, 343 Industries has had to really complicate the story to work this all in. Backstory that lived mostly in other media is now vital to the games and, worse yet, is clumsily presented, with the bulk being explained in a single, absolute lore-dump of a cutscene. Finding the hidden terminals on every level and watching their associated cutscenes is practically required to really understand what in the hell is going on, at least if you haven’t been keeping up with the books and the comics.

Hinted at in Halo 3, the other piece of the story is Cortana’s emerging rampancy. It’s a minor part of Halo 4’s plot overall, but it definitely affects how the Chief and Cortana are characterized. Beyond being more chatty than ever before, their flirty quips take on an almost awkward tone, as if 343 is suddenly trying to present their relationship as somehow… romantic?! Still, despite the risk of Master Chief developing a personality, I don’t feel like anything he says is out of character. He’s still the same stoic man of action. His actions, on the other hand? It didn’t occur to me until I wrote up the plot summary for Halo 4 for my next post, but he and Cortana fail constantly in this game. Practically every major story beat involves them utterly fucking up. Well, I guess that’s one approach to humanizing a character!

“Warthog run? Nah, how about a Ghost run? Bop!”

If it’s not obvious by this point, Halo 4 is a divisive game. A lot of the Halo fanbase considers it to be utter trash. As with Halo: Reach, some of that comes from the multiplayer community, who felt like things like custom loadouts and ordinance drops were desperate attempts to chase the Call of Duty crowd. While there is no shortage of genuine criticism of the game to be made, there’s also a lot of silly toxicity around the 343 Industries handoff that muddies the water. The ironic part is that much of what fans bash 343 over in Halo 4 is them continuing exactly where Bungie left off with Halo: Reach. Personally, replaying it again, I enjoyed it a lot more than I’d remembered. In fact, I suspect it was Spartan Ops, not the Halo 4 campaign itself, that soured my impressions of the game so much. I’ll be talking about that in my next post.

Bonus live-action media time! “Scanned” is a trailer for Halo 4 released just after Forward Unto Dawn started being released, also on Halo Waypoint. It depicts Master Chief being restrained by some sort of field and being scanned by what we’ll come to find out is the Didact. As the scan probes his mind, it zooms into scenes showing John as a child being abducted by ONI, his later SPARTAN-II augmentation, and being suited with his Mjolnir armor. It then fast forwards to Master Chief engaging a group of Promethean Knights before being subdued. This one is definitely very cool!