Halo 4 Critic Reviews

Halo 4 is an emotional rollercoaster, an amalgam of epic scenes and memorable surprises with clockwork-perfect gameplay and a stunning artistic/technical production. The Halo everyone was waiting for.

343 Industries have done a remarkable job at continuing the Halo legacy. They've gone all out, creating a fantastic sequel that brought forth a major focus on storytelling while upping the visual and audio direction to a level that will be tough for anyone to rival with these few remaining years of the current console generation.

The developer launches the best kind of protest, which is to wave an impressive, throbbing shooter in your face. Trust me, you want this.

A truly spectacular game. Of all of the possible results that may have sprung from the circumstances that now surround the development of the Halo franchise, Halo 4 is the most welcome (and surprising) imaginable.

The visuals have been massively overhauled to make this the best looking Halo, if not the best looking 360 game to date.

It's also hard to deny that Halo 4 is a hell of a visual step up for the series. Part of that comes from the art design, featuring bright, neon like colors that infuse the new world of Requiem with inorganic life. But the texture work and character models are a step above what Reach produced, and help to show that that 360 still has a trick or two up its sleeve from a power perspective.

Unless Black Ops II or Far Cry 3 manage to revolutionize the genre in astronomical ways, Halo 4 is the clear frontrunner for best first-person shooter of 2012. Heck, it may very well be the best game you play all year.

Halo 4 is something really special. Not only is it a first-rate exclusive for the good old 360, it's also a shining example of the kind of technical excellence that's still possible on the elderly hardware. It's one of these games that justify the decision to buy this console. 343 Industries has gone ahead and obliterated my qualms about the brand's change to another developer than Bungie. Now there's only one thing I want: More.

If you're a Halo fan, you've probably already pre-ordered and purchased this game and thankfully the game more than lived up to its hype. Even if you have never played a Halo game before, it's still one of the best first person shooters on any console.

Halo 4 is a masterstroke everyone can and should celebrate, and its two guaranteed sequels instantly make the next-generation Xbox a must-own system, with Halo 5 its most anticipated title. Halo has been rebuilt. It has been redefined. And it has been reinvigorated. The Xbox's original king has returned to his rightful place on the throne.

The new benchmark for shooters across all platforms.

This is THE best Halo game yet, and although the campaign in short, there's an abundance of content to keep Halo 4 in your disc tray.

By far their greatest success lies in a more nuanced realization of the series' main protagonist, Master Chief, and while the campaign works exceptionally well as a stand-alone narrative, it leaves our hero in a place that opens the story to exciting new possibilities in the next two installments.

Beneath its sometimes bombastic layer of blockbuster-level polish, Halo 4 hides a complicated heart filled with intelligent sci-fi and a surprising amount of humanity and soul. Count us in for Chief's next outing. We'll be ready.

Halo 4 is most like the original Halo, where the novelty and wonder of exploring something really alien and different is a key factor. While Halo 4 continues the series' tradition of iteration on its own design more successfully than any one of its predecessors, that sense of awe, of discovery, has been light since the first game, and I didn't realize how much I missed it until I played Halo 4.

343 Industries delivers one the best Halo games ever created thus proving that this studio is perfectly capable of handling Microsoft's legendary franchise.

Halo 4 is a new age in Halo franchise. 343 Industries improves some elements like multiplayer options and map design, and hits a new level in visuals. It features a frantic and varied campaign, but more close combat than big battles.

Welcome back, Halo. It's been a long, long five years.

A natural evolution of the series that sets the groundwork for new episodes. There are no huge innovations, but it sticks to its core development and Halo fans will love it. A great campaign and and immense multiplayer – with the promise of free weekly content – will keep us busy for a long while. A must-have without any doubt.

Those who were worried about 343 Industries' ability to fill Bungie's Shoes can take a deep breath, since they almost completely succeeded. If they are able to innovate this formula further the new Halo trilogy will have a bright future.