✅ Subscribe: ua-cam.com/users/BenPlaysGames 🖱 Support the channel: www.patreon.com/ben_plays_games If the first clip of Master Chief and Cortana talking about rampancy sounds weird to you, that's because it is. I had to use AI to remove the cinematic's backing track in order not to get a copyright claim.
Oh my God, they were speed running the first half of halo CE to get to their replacement for the flood (so you can add 343 Guilty Spark to the list) which explains why this mission always fealt so inexplicably uncanny to me. I've spent a lot of time in the CE campaign, and especially that first half. I think something about cueing familiar moments from each of those first 6 levels in such a short space of time unnerved me subconsciously in a way I don't think they were intending. Like my brain was trying to settle into familiar areas, but by the time it was comfortable and ready to go, I was already leaving
* After the AotCR-style bridge, you cross an open area on foot, enter a Forerunner structure, and encounter a new non-Covenant enemy. You escape them by teleporting out. * In your teleporter destination, you wade through boring hordes of the new enemy faction, in a security complex designed by the Librarian. * Another teleport sends you to a dimly lit canyon, where the Covenant appear again. The new enemy appears as well, resulting in three-way battles. You can use Ghosts and Banshees to move around, ultimately disabling three power cores before teleporting out of this place too. * After some teleport mishaps, you're wading through an undergrowth canyon, dealing with both kinds of enemies, heading towards an elevator that can lift you up to a disabled ship the new enemy faction is trying to gain control of, in an effort to reach an UNSC officer. * In a crashed UNSC ship, you use a vehicle to travel through a service corridor full of enemies.
I know what you’re trying to reference but these are the most vague parallels. When a halo game takes place on a forerunner planetoid and the green man fights aliens and ancient cosmic enemies 🤯
Exactly my thoughts. Though you forgot to mention the activation of a forerunner system that you thought would help, but instead leads toward our destruction, when you are betrayed by the main forerunner antagonist.
This was always my favorite mission in Halo 4, simply because it tried (with varying success) to copy the feeling of the older Halo games. The long opening section without combat, the vast landscapes and vistas, the asymmetric combat against the Covenant, a genuine sense of mystery and wonder… it felt like it was actually TRYING to be a Halo game, albeit with a new spin, and in many ways it succeeded (most of its shortcomings coming down to Halo 4’s core gameplay and overall story). Once the Prometheans got introduced, though… that’s when things started going downhill FAST.
You're right in that the Prometheans are the biggest problem. I really, really dislike them as an enemy and, in fairness, I've tried desperately hard to get to the point I enjoy fighting them. An exercise in futility, I think! Someone else here made the point that 343 Industries seemed to be rushing to get to them and I'm inclined to agree - another couple of Covenant centric levels before they joined the fray would have been no bad thing.
I concur. The prometheans could have definitely used more buildup, maybe some foreshadowing like the flood had in 343i Guilty Spark. Just think. Shadows in distance if you pay attention. Radar detects crawlers you can't engage or see. You see flashes of teleportation far away. Then you get the sequence where a knight pounces on you. More buildup. More creepy-pasta. Reminds Player of The Flood since they were made to fight it.
While I agree with the criticism of the level itself, I ultimately feel like the *game* Halo 4 (mechanics, ai) is letting it down. Imagine this level in Halo 3, I think it could have worked quite well. Very interesting with the parallels to early CE levels! Thanks for making another great video as always!
Always a pleasure, Torb! Halo 4's AI and the constant need to switch weapons have always been my two biggest issues gameplay wise. Combat has this weird mix of repetitive fighting and fannying about trying to find guns that feels incredibly disjointed to me. It's a bit of shame, as I actually don't dislike the gunplay as much as some people do. The actual act of shooting enemies I think is quite crisp, even if the lack of recoil is perhaps overly generous. There is a third issue, I suppose, which is how badly vehicles are utilised, but I try to block that from my memory haha. The way they're used is such a massive drop in quality from Bungie's work except for perhaps the final part of Reclaimer after exiting the portal, which isn't half bad. The rest though...
343i echoed Halo CE quite a bit in Halo 4, both in the specific level structure you've noticed here, and in the broader narrative structure of Halo 4. It reduces the Covenant back to only the CE groups - Grunt, Jackals, Elites and Hunters, it puts Chief and Cortana in isolation for much of the game, and it takes you on a journey of rising and falling hope - recovery in the first third, a semblance of success at the midpoint, then a disaster and increasing despair before a heroic ending. There's relatively similar parallels in Halo 5 to Halo 2, as well, and until Infinite I had a running joke that we'd get an Anniversary game, then 343i's imitation of the same game
We still kind of get a 3/Infinite parallel, including the Brutes, the equipment, a fight to stop an activation, bossfights with a monitor, etc. Though what's even more interesting, imo, is the way 343's 3 games mirror the Forerunner Trilogy of novels, even despite all the course corrections. Right down to Infinite: a ring lost in space (the SAME ring, in fact) with multiple stranded factions, a buried cosmic threat, humans being tortured, a traitorous AI and their new counterpart meant to defeat them. That's almost exactly a scenario from the Forerunner novels, and the same is true for much of 4/5 too.
A beautiful world with an amazing reveal of the world after you leave the crash site. Definitely a great level with a nice warthog run through fields of green. The Covenant definitely suffered from the new artstyle, Grunts most of all. They lost the silly cuteness and become weird crab things that lost their charming squeeky voice.
4:30 Well said. I always felt that 343 overemphasized the graphics and this hurt Halo 4 the most in gameplay. People wouldn’t have minded the art style changes so much if the overall game loop and levels were better.
Leaving the opening crash site through the cave with the music in the background as the towers in the distance start moving is one of my favourite halo game moments.
Fun fact, Halo 4's Covenant enemies were designed by the same person who designed them for Halo: Reach and Halo: Infinite (Glenn Israel), and to this day he feels it was an acceptable and natural progression of his previous work. He claims to still be very proud of it.
@@Christian-o8t9n He might be referring to the more alienish depictions from Reach as opposed to 3 (the lack of english-speaking, the more distinct shapes and skintones, the beedy, pupil-less eyes, etc) and the progressively-more alien looks in Halo 4.
In Assault on the Control Room you don't have to take down a Banshee without damaging it. You just have to rush the one on the last bridge section before the Elite gets in. I don't even think it's possible to kill just the driver in a Halo CE Banshee in campaign.
He's referring to a speedrunning trick that forces an elite out of the first banshee you encounter, allowing you to steal it and skip 90% of the level. If you use it you can complete the entire level in about 5 minutes
Bungie's halo levels always felt like a fun arcade. Lots of stuff to shoot, lots of routes and emergent gameplay, and later they added the scoring system which confirmed that feeling. By contrast, 343 levels feel a bit like a mass effect mission or something like that. Very space opera, no real setpieces, that sort of thing.
Not to mention their is barely anything interesting or mysterious about their games, or at least that’s what I felt when playing. And I can’t for the life of me remember a single song (except Walk softly from H5 and whatever the start menu song in H4 is called) or map name it’s all just, meh. I really liked infinite gameplay though.
@@Guranga93For me the Sangheilios missions and music was amazing in Halo 5 like the song Warrior World. I also liked the first Blue Team mission. The rest are decent or lame.
Lots of the issues with Halo 4 (which even then, is one of my favorite halo games) happened because it had a 2 year production cycle. Honestly it is impressive 343 did such a good job with the time Microsoft gave them.
I didnt have an xbox or friends who played Halo during the years when Halo 4 was released. As such, i've only played this once or twice for short periods. This game has a bit of mystique for me because of that. It's a frankly gorgeous game and it's fascinating to watch this vid and see what kind of corners had to be cut in order to attain that level of sohpistication. I'm no graphics expert by any means but in my limited personal taste, I think Halo 4 still looks terrific even today even if it's more of a surface level (heh) beauty
Very nice video. I recently played a rebalance of Halo 4, notably including changes to AI, and I found myself very much enjoying this level. It’s too bad the AI took such a hit because otherwise I think people would have been able to see the good things it offered
At 4:20 I don't think the xbox 360's power was really to blame for halo 4's lack of scale in the bigger vehicle sections or ai. That's just the fault of 343. Other games with better graphics pulled off big vehicle sections on the xbox 360 such as the crysis1,2 and 3 games. I think you're underestimating what that console could pull off.
343 always showed the potential to match Bungie. They have managed to successfully replicate all the aspects of a really good Halo game, but just never managed to do it all at the same time.
No I liked the Prometheans, however I will admit they are better in Halo 5. Although they explained the gameplay differences from H4 to H5 as “upgrades” Personally I like to imagine that there isn’t much difference between them in-universe. Chief was just strong enough to tear their arms off and punch them to death. Spartan Locke could not.
I hate it that most modern games always try to be more realistic or look at our new shiny paint with 300% better graphics it feels so narrow i miss when a lot off games kind of had a charm to how they look for example i would love something releasing today and Looking like halo 1 a certain type of magic feels lost or at least i feel like it but i still like halo 4 for what it is
I actually really enjoyed this mission, it gave me the same vibes as CE mission “Halo” when you step out into the light. I guess it was from nostalgia I got from playing this mission as a kid.
A little while back I did a play though of this game on legendary and all I can say is that the enemy ai is *mean* on the highest difficulty. They often chased me around when I was low on shields, and there’s pretty much no margin for error with hunters as they pretty much instakill you if they hit you (with their melee attacks at least) Can’t wait for the level Forerunner!
I played one or two older levels (still working on building up a library of 4K Halo footage) and man alive, the difference in Warthog speed is brutal when returning to 4. Feels like your driving through treacle!
@BenPlaysGames I think the gas cans are a cool addition, I will say that much...but it looks and sounds so bad. Makes sense man. Got to cover all Halo, the good and the extremely bad haha
Maybe I’m the exception but I’ve rarely encountered stupid AI with the Covenant. They seem almost but not quite as good as Reach Covenant AI. Then again maybe it’s because I play on Legendary or Heroic most of the time
I still like the first three missions of halo 4. They do a half decent job of setting up an interesting story and have good gameplay points. The wreckage at the start of the game as hidden weapons all around. The mission is actually fairly long having lots of different environments to fight in
It's funny that 343i overcorrected over Reach's hunters and made 4's pushovers because in 5 & Infinite, those things are nightmares. It makes me think that they may have overcorrected again in response to 4's being too easy.
Anything past Bungie Halo's don't exist to me. Played them all obviously but LOL. Anyway, i was playing Halo CE the other day (original graphics always) and thought to myself "damn i have been playing this for 23 years, and I'm still not bored". It doesn't feel like its aged much, apart from graphics of course but i refuse to play the overblown OTT remastered graphics.
My biggest complaint about Halo 4 appears here: the Warthog sounds awful. In CE, 2, 3, and Reach, it had a smooth diesel-electric sound that was unique and futuristic. From here on out, it sounds like a Japanese tuner car from a Fast and Furious movie. Sad.
Interesting new microphone! As some feedback I think I like your old microphone better. Was this recorded while traveling or is this your new setup? Great content of course, but I know not all commenters are this kind of nerd and I am sure you would be curious what people think.
My headphones actually broke and haven't had time replace them yet - so, the setup is the same but I was hearing the recording through a different pair! I'd guess maybe the change is sound is a result of that, it's hard to judge if everything's the same when every set of headphones has a different sound profile.
@@BenPlaysGames oh that is fascinating. And I know this all too well - I’m designing some open source 3D printable headphones and subtle design changes can make a big difference in sound quality! Thanks for the reply and I hope you get your kit sorted soon.
@@BenPlaysGames ahh dang that's a shame, I know it works for halo 2 classic and I think odst as well. One thing I remember from halo 3 was if you fast forwarded at all it would just stop the music for the rest of the cutscene which made things.. uncomfortably quiet lol
After Halo 3, the games became like Alice In Chains without Staley. They looked and sounded the same. But in our heart of hearts, we knew something was amiss. Cheers!
Still waiting for someone to touch on the hidden Phantom full of tough special op elite snipers, that pops up after you pick up your camo, when you go back to the big field. Anyone else find it? What do you think?
You said there were no more simularities to CE after the bridge but i beg to differ, in the ending cutscene you meet a new foe the prometheans, just like in guilty spark you meet the flood. In the next level after requiem is like the library with repetitive fights and over frowded linear areas Then you have 2 betrayals in the relays being shut down, keys when fighting covenant and prometheans at once Finally the maw in the ghost run replacing the warthog tun. Inshort the furst 3 levels of halo 4 are a sample retelling of halo ce, just so much worse
The TV series? Nah, I think you're good - will be a long time before anything in 4 becomes relevant, if they manage to get that far. I think you need to go into 4 with the expectation that it's a good FPS, but not a good Halo title. I've said before that I reckon it would have been extremely popular if it was the first entry in a different series, as it can still be pretty entertaining at times, and I stand by that.
Halo 4 isn’t nearly as bad as people think. Some people are just 343 critics I don’t exactly like them myself and am very bungie biased but halo 4 was a pretty good game and you should definitely play it if you have not. Best way to play is couch co-op with friends or family and if (sadly) you don’t have anyone to play with it’s still nice to play.
@ysGames Thanks for the perspective. Re: "this series" I meant your Halo 4 level breakdowns. I came late to the series via the MCC. I was able to play most of the rest of the games before I watched your breakdowns but stopped at 3/ODST. I was standing around in the cell phone store waiting for the customer service rep and the Halo show was playing in the background. Well... oof. Lots of pretty colors at least (in that scene I saw. I think there was a brute?)
Just curious why you say the Hunter's are visually unappealing in H4? (11:08) This feels like an odd criticism to me cause I don't think they are really any different at all from other Halo's? Maybe I'm missing something. On the computer intelligence in Halo 4, it's weird how stupid enemies are in games these days. At least FPSs. I feel like this era of gaming that H4-5 released in I don't remember a single FPS PvE game where the PvE enemies were "smart." Most of the FPS PvE things I play nowadays seems just as stupid since this 2012 era to now. Granted I don't really play much PvE FPSs other than like Borderlands 2/3 and Destiny 1/2 anymore.
Why are there UNSC weapons on the AothCR-esque bridge? That's always really bothered me, there is just a crate of BRs, a rocket launcher, and a shotgun. Did they fall of a space ship that crashed in the starting area? Every other Halo can always use the excuse that some group of marines got to the area before you, but H4 is so Chief focused they can't really do that. It's just something that has always bugged me.
I do rather like Halo 4 and this particular level. Wish there had been an extra bridge part though but it's rather good I feel despite ammo issues of course
Covenant were definitely less interesting to fight in this game but... man, I would take a million covenant with Halo 4 AI over fighting one group of prometheans. That being said, I remember being really bothered by shooting at elites again. The handshake between Arbiter and Admiral Hood was such a good end point for elites and humans. To just suddenly be fighting them again in this game, especially without significant narrative build-up to it, just felt wrong to me.
I did as well. Never really bothered me aside for the fact Watchers could ressurect enemies forever. Think they should have made Watchers disappear once they ressurect. Kinda like giving their life to ressurect someone else.
@@BenPlaysGamesYes I’m convinced part of the problem is that Halsey looks so young. They confirmed that the anime style worked better with a younger Halsey despite her being older. Even in previous episodes where Halsey is shown she looks older and of course she never had blonde hair.
I take every chance I get to shit on 343, but that is only when it comes to the story, and lore,especially the Forerunner lore(completely brain dead retcon when it comes to them). When it comes to gameplay and multiplayer however I haven’t really been that bothered with it I’ve had fun with it. Could definitely been better though.
@filipgaecki5480 I mean. OP correct me if I am wrong...but I think they are more on about content creators who brown nose 343. Not so much individuals who enjoy 343 Halo games.
I’m just curious as to what difficulty you played on? On Legendary, me personally, I did not think the covenant acted stupid. Sure far from the smartest, but still a definite challenge.
I think halo 4’s AI are pretty good, they are really smart in combat, if I had to give the title to worse AI, that title easily goes to halo 5 guardians, I was very disappointed seeing AI dumb down and glitchy, I was very happy to see smart AI back into halo infinite!
@@minizimi3790 i honestly never knew that, most of the time I would just charge anyway, but at least if you take cover, it makes legendary easier, I think that’s a good change!🙂
Not exactly the case. Halo CE Forerunner tech seemed futuristic. It’s Halo 2 specifically where there was a lot of ancient human or Forerunner structures. Same with Halo Legends The Babysitter. Look at the Forerunner tech in Halo Wars. Again quite futuristic looking
Halo 4 was all unearned fan service, strange and unneeded retcons to canon and horrifically garbage gameplay. I feel the same way about it as a Halo product as I do the TV show.
This franchise is in desperate need of a hard retcon back to after H3. Not because I think everything 343 have done is total garbage (except lore and story) but generally because their is no start,middle or end. They made books to expand on their games lore because their writers or whoever’s fault it was couldn’t write a cohesive story to save their life that could take place over the course of three games. The reveal of the Didact is the biggest disappointment in the entire franchise, instead of us finally over the course of three games hearing about and it being heavily implied and outright told to us in H3 that humans *are* Forerunners we get this vampiric looking alien and humans were instead space Indians or some shit. Wtf 343😑. And he gets killed of in the same game but not really, he survived and gets killed again for the second time (in a f&#@ing book starting to see a pattern here) but actually not really…..again only to have his story end in another book. A+ storytelling. I’m not gonna pretend like Bungies storyline is absolutely perfect in every aspect but they told a story that were explained in the games (for the most part) and had a start,middle and end. And yes I know my comment is a bit all over the place it’s 02:56 here 😅🥱🥱😴
The new Halo book is actually really good, you should pick it up and try reading it. Btw, Bungie changed the lore themselves and decided that humans and forerunners are different species. Watch the H3 terminals ( I’m sure you know this).
I think 4 and Infinite (Infinite especially) do have some redeeming qualities, even if they're not up to the standard of Bungie's work. I generally struggle to tolerate 5, although some of the level design combined with the quicker movement and extra abilities can still make for some fun encounters.
@@spartanjohn-1176 Thats your opinion if I compare halo 3's vehicle and weapon textures to Halo 4, Halo 3 looks better, same with Halo 3's GOD tier lighting
the fact that the first warthog in the game forces you to jump out of it immediately upon first enemy contact because you dont have a gunner speaks volumes. They put story(a story i found terrible personally) over gameplay. other than with co-op what the hell is the point of having a warthog there? you also barely use it too. I believe this is also the first level where the legendary difficulty's lack of ammo starts to rear its ugly head. Halo 2 made you feel weak because you are weak. halo 4 made you weak because you have no ammo.
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If the first clip of Master Chief and Cortana talking about rampancy sounds weird to you, that's because it is. I had to use AI to remove the cinematic's backing track in order not to get a copyright claim.
Oh my God, they were speed running the first half of halo CE to get to their replacement for the flood (so you can add 343 Guilty Spark to the list) which explains why this mission always fealt so inexplicably uncanny to me. I've spent a lot of time in the CE campaign, and especially that first half. I think something about cueing familiar moments from each of those first 6 levels in such a short space of time unnerved me subconsciously in a way I don't think they were intending. Like my brain was trying to settle into familiar areas, but by the time it was comfortable and ready to go, I was already leaving
Exactly! It's too much of a coincidence, in my view, for it not to have been intentional. Or, maybe it was done on a subconscious level.
I wasn't aware Halo 4 was required to be Halo CE
@@INFILTR8US The point is it tried to be. We wouldn't compare it to CE if it didn't obviously try to replicate it
* After the AotCR-style bridge, you cross an open area on foot, enter a Forerunner structure, and encounter a new non-Covenant enemy. You escape them by teleporting out.
* In your teleporter destination, you wade through boring hordes of the new enemy faction, in a security complex designed by the Librarian.
* Another teleport sends you to a dimly lit canyon, where the Covenant appear again. The new enemy appears as well, resulting in three-way battles. You can use Ghosts and Banshees to move around, ultimately disabling three power cores before teleporting out of this place too.
* After some teleport mishaps, you're wading through an undergrowth canyon, dealing with both kinds of enemies, heading towards an elevator that can lift you up to a disabled ship the new enemy faction is trying to gain control of, in an effort to reach an UNSC officer.
* In a crashed UNSC ship, you use a vehicle to travel through a service corridor full of enemies.
Holy shit bro
🤯
I know what you’re trying to reference but these are the most vague parallels. When a halo game takes place on a forerunner planetoid and the green man fights aliens and ancient cosmic enemies 🤯
Exactly my thoughts. Though you forgot to mention the activation of a forerunner system that you thought would help, but instead leads toward our destruction, when you are betrayed by the main forerunner antagonist.
boring hordes of new enemy faction describes the flood perfectly
This was always my favorite mission in Halo 4, simply because it tried (with varying success) to copy the feeling of the older Halo games. The long opening section without combat, the vast landscapes and vistas, the asymmetric combat against the Covenant, a genuine sense of mystery and wonder… it felt like it was actually TRYING to be a Halo game, albeit with a new spin, and in many ways it succeeded (most of its shortcomings coming down to Halo 4’s core gameplay and overall story). Once the Prometheans got introduced, though… that’s when things started going downhill FAST.
You're right in that the Prometheans are the biggest problem. I really, really dislike them as an enemy and, in fairness, I've tried desperately hard to get to the point I enjoy fighting them. An exercise in futility, I think!
Someone else here made the point that 343 Industries seemed to be rushing to get to them and I'm inclined to agree - another couple of Covenant centric levels before they joined the fray would have been no bad thing.
I concur. The prometheans could have definitely used more buildup, maybe some foreshadowing like the flood had in 343i Guilty Spark.
Just think. Shadows in distance if you pay attention. Radar detects crawlers you can't engage or see. You see flashes of teleportation far away. Then you get the sequence where a knight pounces on you.
More buildup. More creepy-pasta. Reminds Player of The Flood since they were made to fight it.
I am playing through the games with my sister. Her reaction: what happend to the grunts!?!
They're less cute and cuddly and more creepy and lizard like haha.
Such a great comment.
@@BenPlaysGames Shark Frog crossbreeding
343 happened…
All the covies got the lizardman treatment in Halo 4.
Ben doing everything in his power to NOT play RE6 again.
What's Resident Evil 6?
😂😂😂
it's your canon event. 🙃@@BenPlaysGames
It's RE6, can you blame him?
Understandable
While I agree with the criticism of the level itself, I ultimately feel like the *game* Halo 4 (mechanics, ai) is letting it down. Imagine this level in Halo 3, I think it could have worked quite well. Very interesting with the parallels to early CE levels!
Thanks for making another great video as always!
Always a pleasure, Torb!
Halo 4's AI and the constant need to switch weapons have always been my two biggest issues gameplay wise. Combat has this weird mix of repetitive fighting and fannying about trying to find guns that feels incredibly disjointed to me. It's a bit of shame, as I actually don't dislike the gunplay as much as some people do. The actual act of shooting enemies I think is quite crisp, even if the lack of recoil is perhaps overly generous.
There is a third issue, I suppose, which is how badly vehicles are utilised, but I try to block that from my memory haha. The way they're used is such a massive drop in quality from Bungie's work except for perhaps the final part of Reclaimer after exiting the portal, which isn't half bad. The rest though...
343i echoed Halo CE quite a bit in Halo 4, both in the specific level structure you've noticed here, and in the broader narrative structure of Halo 4. It reduces the Covenant back to only the CE groups - Grunt, Jackals, Elites and Hunters, it puts Chief and Cortana in isolation for much of the game, and it takes you on a journey of rising and falling hope - recovery in the first third, a semblance of success at the midpoint, then a disaster and increasing despair before a heroic ending.
There's relatively similar parallels in Halo 5 to Halo 2, as well, and until Infinite I had a running joke that we'd get an Anniversary game, then 343i's imitation of the same game
We still kind of get a 3/Infinite parallel, including the Brutes, the equipment, a fight to stop an activation, bossfights with a monitor, etc.
Though what's even more interesting, imo, is the way 343's 3 games mirror the Forerunner Trilogy of novels, even despite all the course corrections.
Right down to Infinite: a ring lost in space (the SAME ring, in fact) with multiple stranded factions, a buried cosmic threat, humans being tortured, a traitorous AI and their new counterpart meant to defeat them. That's almost exactly a scenario from the Forerunner novels, and the same is true for much of 4/5 too.
@@Mega-Brick when history repeats itself
A beautiful world with an amazing reveal of the world after you leave the crash site. Definitely a great level with a nice warthog run through fields of green.
The Covenant definitely suffered from the new artstyle, Grunts most of all. They lost the silly cuteness and become weird crab things that lost their charming squeeky voice.
4:30
Well said. I always felt that 343 overemphasized the graphics and this hurt Halo 4 the most in gameplay.
People wouldn’t have minded the art style changes so much if the overall game loop and levels were better.
Leaving the opening crash site through the cave with the music in the background as the towers in the distance start moving is one of my favourite halo game moments.
Problem is you HARDLY get any of the scenery at all in the entire rest of the game except for those few beginning moments
Fun fact, Halo 4's Covenant enemies were designed by the same person who designed them for Halo: Reach and Halo: Infinite (Glenn Israel), and to this day he feels it was an acceptable and natural progression of his previous work. He claims to still be very proud of it.
How the f*** was that natural?
@@Christian-o8t9n He might be referring to the more alienish depictions from Reach as opposed to 3 (the lack of english-speaking, the more distinct shapes and skintones, the beedy, pupil-less eyes, etc) and the progressively-more alien looks in Halo 4.
quite sad
I think the boring enemy’s and dumbed down Ai is one of the biggest problems with halo 4
In Assault on the Control Room you don't have to take down a Banshee without damaging it. You just have to rush the one on the last bridge section before the Elite gets in. I don't even think it's possible to kill just the driver in a Halo CE Banshee in campaign.
He's referring to a speedrunning trick that forces an elite out of the first banshee you encounter, allowing you to steal it and skip 90% of the level. If you use it you can complete the entire level in about 5 minutes
@@NoMoreCrumbs oh that I didn't know
This is my favorite Halo game, and this might be my favorite level. It has good variety and pacing.
After the bridge there is that vaguely pyramidic structure, sorta like the control room pyramid
Bungie's halo levels always felt like a fun arcade. Lots of stuff to shoot, lots of routes and emergent gameplay, and later they added the scoring system which confirmed that feeling.
By contrast, 343 levels feel a bit like a mass effect mission or something like that. Very space opera, no real setpieces, that sort of thing.
Not to mention their is barely anything interesting or mysterious about their games, or at least that’s what I felt when playing. And I can’t for the life of me remember a single song (except Walk softly from H5 and whatever the start menu song in H4 is called) or map name it’s all just, meh. I really liked infinite gameplay though.
@@Guranga93For me the Sangheilios missions and music was amazing in Halo 5 like the song Warrior World. I also liked the first Blue Team mission. The rest are decent or lame.
@@Guranga93 arrival in halo 4?
Not a fan of H4 but appreciate this video!
Pleasure's all mine mate!
Lots of the issues with Halo 4 (which even then, is one of my favorite halo games) happened because it had a 2 year production cycle.
Honestly it is impressive 343 did such a good job with the time Microsoft gave them.
I didnt have an xbox or friends who played Halo during the years when Halo 4 was released. As such, i've only played this once or twice for short periods. This game has a bit of mystique for me because of that. It's a frankly gorgeous game and it's fascinating to watch this vid and see what kind of corners had to be cut in order to attain that level of sohpistication. I'm no graphics expert by any means but in my limited personal taste, I think Halo 4 still looks terrific even today even if it's more of a surface level (heh) beauty
Very nice video. I recently played a rebalance of Halo 4, notably including changes to AI, and I found myself very much enjoying this level. It’s too bad the AI took such a hit because otherwise I think people would have been able to see the good things it offered
At 4:20 I don't think the xbox 360's power was really to blame for halo 4's lack of scale in the bigger vehicle sections or ai. That's just the fault of 343. Other games with better graphics pulled off big vehicle sections on the xbox 360 such as the crysis1,2 and 3 games. I think you're underestimating what that console could pull off.
Reach's hunters on laso are hilariously indestructible
343 always showed the potential to match Bungie. They have managed to successfully replicate all the aspects of a really good Halo game, but just never managed to do it all at the same time.
Cope
@@jamesquinn6662 nope, just an observation. I save my cope for Titanfall 2.
No I liked the Prometheans, however I will admit they are better in Halo 5. Although they explained the gameplay differences from H4 to H5 as “upgrades” Personally I like to imagine that there isn’t much difference between them in-universe. Chief was just strong enough to tear their arms off and punch them to death. Spartan Locke could not.
Halo CE had peak AI, each games AI was noticeably more and more stripped down for performance reasons.
I hate it that most modern games always try to be more realistic or look at our new shiny paint with 300% better graphics it feels so narrow i miss when a lot off games kind of had a charm to how they look for example i would love something releasing today and Looking like halo 1 a certain type of magic feels lost or at least i feel like it but i still like halo 4 for what it is
It's not a modern game. It's over a decade old.
I actually really enjoyed this mission, it gave me the same vibes as CE mission “Halo” when you step out into the light. I guess it was from nostalgia I got from playing this mission as a kid.
A little while back I did a play though of this game on legendary and all I can say is that the enemy ai is *mean* on the highest difficulty. They often chased me around when I was low on shields, and there’s pretty much no margin for error with hunters as they pretty much instakill you if they hit you (with their melee attacks at least)
Can’t wait for the level Forerunner!
Love the title of the video 😂❤
Oh the hog. My baby. What did they do to you 😂
I played one or two older levels (still working on building up a library of 4K Halo footage) and man alive, the difference in Warthog speed is brutal when returning to 4. Feels like your driving through treacle!
@BenPlaysGames I think the gas cans are a cool addition, I will say that much...but it looks and sounds so bad.
Makes sense man. Got to cover all Halo, the good and the extremely bad haha
Maybe I’m the exception but I’ve rarely encountered stupid AI with the Covenant. They seem almost but not quite as good as Reach Covenant AI. Then again maybe it’s because I play on Legendary or Heroic most of the time
Cortana only calls him "Chief". Girl, you've basically mind-banged already call him John, geezes cheesemus
Was unaware about 343s contextual dialogue in Halo 4 could you include this in future examinations Ben?
I honestly wish they would have put more thought into making a new "Covenant" enemy.
This was the mission I knew Halo was dead
I had almost forgotten how disappointed I was with 4 and how much I still hate it until watching these videos
I still like the first three missions of halo 4. They do a half decent job of setting up an interesting story and have good gameplay points. The wreckage at the start of the game as hidden weapons all around. The mission is actually fairly long having lots of different environments to fight in
It's funny that 343i overcorrected over Reach's hunters and made 4's pushovers because in 5 & Infinite, those things are nightmares. It makes me think that they may have overcorrected again in response to 4's being too easy.
Best looking 360 game
Anything past Bungie Halo's don't exist to me. Played them all obviously but LOL. Anyway, i was playing Halo CE the other day (original graphics always) and thought to myself "damn i have been playing this for 23 years, and I'm still not bored". It doesn't feel like its aged much, apart from graphics of course but i refuse to play the overblown OTT remastered graphics.
My biggest complaint about Halo 4 appears here: the Warthog sounds awful. In CE, 2, 3, and Reach, it had a smooth diesel-electric sound that was unique and futuristic. From here on out, it sounds like a Japanese tuner car from a Fast and Furious movie. Sad.
Interesting new microphone! As some feedback I think I like your old microphone better. Was this recorded while traveling or is this your new setup? Great content of course, but I know not all commenters are this kind of nerd and I am sure you would be curious what people think.
My headphones actually broke and haven't had time replace them yet - so, the setup is the same but I was hearing the recording through a different pair! I'd guess maybe the change is sound is a result of that, it's hard to judge if everything's the same when every set of headphones has a different sound profile.
@@BenPlaysGames oh that is fascinating. And I know this all too well - I’m designing some open source 3D printable headphones and subtle design changes can make a big difference in sound quality! Thanks for the reply and I hope you get your kit sorted soon.
I could've sworn mcc had the option to turn off music volume?
It does, but it doesn't work during cinematics. Thought I'd found the answer to my prayers until it didn't work haha.
@@BenPlaysGames ahh dang that's a shame, I know it works for halo 2 classic and I think odst as well. One thing I remember from halo 3 was if you fast forwarded at all it would just stop the music for the rest of the cutscene which made things.. uncomfortably quiet lol
Those graphics look really good.
It's a stunning game for sure. I've been fortunate enough to be able to play it at 4K with very high FPS, and it holds up incredibly well to this day.
After Halo 3, the games became like Alice In Chains without Staley. They looked and sounded the same. But in our heart of hearts, we knew something was amiss. Cheers!
Still waiting for someone to touch on the hidden Phantom full of tough special op elite snipers, that pops up after you pick up your camo, when you go back to the big field. Anyone else find it? What do you think?
You said there were no more simularities to CE after the bridge but i beg to differ, in the ending cutscene you meet a new foe the prometheans, just like in guilty spark you meet the flood.
In the next level after requiem is like the library with repetitive fights and over frowded linear areas
Then you have 2 betrayals in the relays being shut down, keys when fighting covenant and prometheans at once
Finally the maw in the ghost run replacing the warthog tun.
Inshort the furst 3 levels of halo 4 are a sample retelling of halo ce, just so much worse
Should I have played this game before watching this series? Is there a right way to have fun with this game despite the ups and downs?
The TV series? Nah, I think you're good - will be a long time before anything in 4 becomes relevant, if they manage to get that far.
I think you need to go into 4 with the expectation that it's a good FPS, but not a good Halo title. I've said before that I reckon it would have been extremely popular if it was the first entry in a different series, as it can still be pretty entertaining at times, and I stand by that.
Halo 4 isn’t nearly as bad as people think. Some people are just 343 critics I don’t exactly like them myself and am very bungie biased but halo 4 was a pretty good game and you should definitely play it if you have not. Best way to play is couch co-op with friends or family and if (sadly) you don’t have anyone to play with it’s still nice to play.
@ysGames Thanks for the perspective. Re: "this series" I meant your Halo 4 level breakdowns. I came late to the series via the MCC. I was able to play most of the rest of the games before I watched your breakdowns but stopped at 3/ODST.
I was standing around in the cell phone store waiting for the customer service rep and the Halo show was playing in the background. Well... oof. Lots of pretty colors at least (in that scene I saw. I think there was a brute?)
Just curious why you say the Hunter's are visually unappealing in H4? (11:08) This feels like an odd criticism to me cause I don't think they are really any different at all from other Halo's? Maybe I'm missing something.
On the computer intelligence in Halo 4, it's weird how stupid enemies are in games these days. At least FPSs. I feel like this era of gaming that H4-5 released in I don't remember a single FPS PvE game where the PvE enemies were "smart." Most of the FPS PvE things I play nowadays seems just as stupid since this 2012 era to now. Granted I don't really play much PvE FPSs other than like Borderlands 2/3 and Destiny 1/2 anymore.
Why are there UNSC weapons on the AothCR-esque bridge? That's always really bothered me, there is just a crate of BRs, a rocket launcher, and a shotgun. Did they fall of a space ship that crashed in the starting area? Every other Halo can always use the excuse that some group of marines got to the area before you, but H4 is so Chief focused they can't really do that. It's just something that has always bugged me.
Yeah, you can see a portion of the Dawn crashed there instead of the main impact area.
For something that bugged you for so long you seem to not pay attention at all lol. There is a piece of Dawn there. It's weapons from the crashed Dawn
I do rather like Halo 4 and this particular level. Wish there had been an extra bridge part though but it's rather good I feel despite ammo issues of course
Covenant were definitely less interesting to fight in this game but... man, I would take a million covenant with Halo 4 AI over fighting one group of prometheans.
That being said, I remember being really bothered by shooting at elites again. The handshake between Arbiter and Admiral Hood was such a good end point for elites and humans. To just suddenly be fighting them again in this game, especially without significant narrative build-up to it, just felt wrong to me.
Am I the only one that really enjoyed fighting the Prometheans?
Yes
I did as well. Never really bothered me aside for the fact Watchers could ressurect enemies forever. Think they should have made Watchers disappear once they ressurect. Kinda like giving their life to ressurect someone else.
@@filipgaecki5480 no you'd didn't, anyone who says they enjoyed fighting are lying or nostalgia blind
@@crashbash8549 ah yes. "I disagree with something so it must be a lie". Very mature
1:55 that was the cringiest line in all of Halo Legends.
And that’s saying something
There's definite sexual tension between Halsey and Chief in that episode, which is super creepy when you consider the circumstances!
@@BenPlaysGamesYes I’m convinced part of the problem is that Halsey looks so young. They confirmed that the anime style worked better with a younger Halsey despite her being older. Even in previous episodes where Halsey is shown she looks older and of course she never had blonde hair.
I always bring the ghost to kill the hunters. But yeah, 343 halos suck. I am glad you are not a 343 simp like a lot of people.
Here here 😊
I take every chance I get to shit on 343, but that is only when it comes to the story, and lore,especially the Forerunner lore(completely brain dead retcon when it comes to them). When it comes to gameplay and multiplayer however I haven’t really been that bothered with it I’ve had fun with it. Could definitely been better though.
@@Guranga93 I think 4 has its moments. I was not a fan of 5 at all, and infinite was a let down unfortunately. It just feels to repetitive.
Guess I'm a simp then becouse I like Halo 4 really much. Oh well. Guess I will wear it proud
@filipgaecki5480 I mean. OP correct me if I am wrong...but I think they are more on about content creators who brown nose 343.
Not so much individuals who enjoy 343 Halo games.
I’m just curious as to what difficulty you played on? On Legendary, me personally, I did not think the covenant acted stupid. Sure far from the smartest, but still a definite challenge.
This really should have been a Xbox One launch title, rather than restricting it to 360's hardware.
Hunters SHOULD be tanky mini bosses like in reach.
I think halo 4’s AI are pretty good, they are really smart in combat, if I had to give the title to worse AI, that title easily goes to halo 5 guardians, I was very disappointed seeing AI dumb down and glitchy, I was very happy to see smart AI back into halo infinite!
If you duck behind cover, they will never ever pursue you.
@@minizimi3790 i honestly never knew that, most of the time I would just charge anyway, but at least if you take cover, it makes legendary easier, I think that’s a good change!🙂
@@joshfoustcommunity8928He’s not joking lmao they will literally forget you are there or exist. It’s quick too it’s fucking weird
Halo 4 has the best aesthetics
Halo Reach has the best gameplay
That is all.
"reach Best gameplay" 😂😂😂😂
343 did NOT understand that forerunner structures are NOT futuristic, they are supposed to be “ancient” and “epic”
Not exactly the case. Halo CE Forerunner tech seemed futuristic. It’s Halo 2 specifically where there was a lot of ancient human or Forerunner structures. Same with Halo Legends The Babysitter. Look at the Forerunner tech in Halo Wars. Again quite futuristic looking
They’re both
You misspelled halo infinite in the title****
Halo 4 was all unearned fan service, strange and unneeded retcons to canon and horrifically garbage gameplay. I feel the same way about it as a Halo product as I do the TV show.
Og halo and your opinion is garbage
This franchise is in desperate need of a hard retcon back to after H3. Not because I think everything 343 have done is total garbage (except lore and story) but generally because their is no start,middle or end. They made books to expand on their games lore because their writers or whoever’s fault it was couldn’t write a cohesive story to save their life that could take place over the course of three games. The reveal of the Didact is the biggest disappointment in the entire franchise, instead of us finally over the course of three games hearing about and it being heavily implied and outright told to us in H3 that humans *are* Forerunners we get this vampiric looking alien and humans were instead space Indians or some shit. Wtf 343😑. And he gets killed of in the same game but not really, he survived and gets killed again for the second time (in a f&#@ing book starting to see a pattern here) but actually not really…..again only to have his story end in another book. A+ storytelling.
I’m not gonna pretend like Bungies storyline is absolutely perfect in every aspect but they told a story that were explained in the games (for the most part) and had a start,middle and end.
And yes I know my comment is a bit all over the place it’s 02:56 here 😅🥱🥱😴
I'd love to see a retcon back to Halo 3. I don't like what they've done with the successive games and characters at all.
The new Halo book is actually really good, you should pick it up and try reading it. Btw, Bungie changed the lore themselves and decided that humans and forerunners are different species. Watch the H3 terminals ( I’m sure you know this).
Bungie retconned Forerunners being humans themselves
Comment 145, at least we know where we are now
Got i forgot just how bad the colour and lighting was in thia game
I hate Halo 4,5,Infinite and 343 because I love Halo
Exactly
I think 4 and Infinite (Infinite especially) do have some redeeming qualities, even if they're not up to the standard of Bungie's work. I generally struggle to tolerate 5, although some of the level design combined with the quicker movement and extra abilities can still make for some fun encounters.
@@BenPlaysGames I can agree with you on that, I played 5 once and I never even bought it lol.
number company bad
I’ve nothing good to say.
No, you are right, it's man made.
That’s a running joke in my circle about Halo 4: the early levels are a nice call-back to earlier Halos, but the further you go the worse it gets.
I did not like Halo4 it did not feel like halo. At all. Don't even ask me about halo 5. That game does not exist for me.
"It's visals are gorgeous" the game looks worse than Halo 3
U need glasses because halo 3 is ugly
@@spartanjohn-1176 Thats your opinion if I compare halo 3's vehicle and weapon textures to Halo 4, Halo 3 looks better, same with Halo 3's GOD tier lighting
@@YigitCanAydinSS no lol, u need a doctor
the fact that the first warthog in the game forces you to jump out of it immediately upon first enemy contact because you dont have a gunner speaks volumes. They put story(a story i found terrible personally) over gameplay. other than with co-op what the hell is the point of having a warthog there? you also barely use it too. I believe this is also the first level where the legendary difficulty's lack of ammo starts to rear its ugly head. Halo 2 made you feel weak because you are weak. halo 4 made you weak because you have no ammo.