Back at E3 2011 Microsoft made the shocking announcement that there would in fact be another Halo game, but we haven’t heard or seen much of Halo 4 since then. Well, that changed yesterday when Microsoft released a short video detailing the making of Halo 4. Don’t worry, the video’s not all talking heads telling you how rad Halo is — there’s also quite a bit of in-game footage. Hit the jump to check ‘er out…
If for some reason you don’t want to/can’t watch the video, here’s a little Halo 4 primer — it’s the first in a new trilogy and also the first to not be developed by Bungie (instead it’s being handled by 343 Industries, a studio set up by Microsoft specifically to handle the Halo franchise). The game will feature the return of Master Chief and according to 343 they’re looking to delve more deeply into his character and backstory. Halo 4 is set to arrive fall of 2012.
My impressions based on that video — the game’s certainly more visually impressive than the other Halo games this generation, and it looks like they’ve added a dash of Metroid Prime with the increased agility of Master Chief. I’m not exactly a Halo aficionado though — what do you guys think? Here’s another Halo 4 screenshot to look at as you mull over your response.
Why Master Chief…I don’t recall your armor textures being so…detailed before.
That’s not all the Microsoft news we’ve got for you. That Halo 4 video was first shown to the gaming press last week at Microsoft’s “Spring Showcase”. Hit up page 2 to read about some other stuff Microsoft unveiled at the press event…
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Honestly I was underwhelmed. But it’s too early to make a definitive call. I’m a hardcore Halo fan, and what I saw of the campaign looked good, but the multiplayer looked like a rehash of Halo 3. And the look of the new Spartans didn’t make me think “Halo” it made me think, “Halo Rip-off.”
I actually had decided way back that I was gonna jump off the franchise when it left Bungie’s hands. I don’t see anything revolutionary to change my mind. But as I said, to early to tell.
And did anybody else pick up on some passive-aggressive “screw Bungie” vibes? The bits where they were talking about not just importing campaign environments to the multiplayer and the part about how there will actually be a reason the red and blues are fighting as before there wasn’t any (why do we need that anyway?) It seemed like a back-handed way of saying, “Bungie did a terrible job with these qualities.”
Yeah, they seem to be very very very cautiously taking the “we’re a new team and we’re doing new things!” PR approach. Probably orders from on high — Microsoft wants people to think of Halo as their series, not Bungie’s, so they can’t just take the “we’re staying true to the vision of Bungie” approach, even if that’s what most fans would prefer they say/do.
I had to keep my sound off while I watched this. Was the real-time face wrinkling thing supposed to be a joke given that all the characters they showed were wearing full face helmets?