I actually won this game in a contest on a gaming website back in the day, together with a brand-new XBOX 360 in the Halo 4 design. This should have been one of the happiest days in my life, since I never owned a home console before and had always dreamt of having one for myself. But sadly, this stroke of luck happened only after I was already starting to lose my passion for video games. My computer broke down shortly before and I was drawn to other interests. I ended up rarely using the console and only played a couple of games on it before giving it away.
One of these games was, of course, Halo 4. I was a big fan of the series, especially Halo: Reach, which to this day is one of my favorites. So, I really tried to like this game. I played through the campaign multiple times, alone and with different friends in co-op, like we always used to do with the previous entries. But it just never seemed to click with any of us. On the contrary, it slowly but surely dawned on me with each successive playthrough, just how uninspired and boring this game truly is. My last playthrough was with a friend who was unimpressed from the start. I remember vividly how I kept trying to convince him – and myself, for that matter – that we were having a good time. Before each new mission I used to say: "Now just wait for it, this time something cool will happen." But it never did.
It was a clumsy attempt on my end to pretend like we could recapture the excitement of the original games again, just because on the surface the situation looked similar to what we experienced before. I was unwilling to realize that even something as robust a foundation as the shooting mechanics from Halo could become stale and generic when they are detached from any sort of engaging stakes, interesting novelties, or even basis competent game design. It was exactly how it must have felt like for the developers at 343 Industry when making this game.
One of these games was, of course, Halo 4. I was a big fan of the series, especially Halo: Reach, which to this day is one of my favorites. So, I really tried to like this game. I played through the campaign multiple times, alone and with different friends in co-op, like we always used to do with the previous entries. But it just never seemed to click with any of us. On the contrary, it slowly but surely dawned on me with each successive playthrough, just how uninspired and boring this game truly is. My last playthrough was with a friend who was unimpressed from the start. I remember vividly how I kept trying to convince him – and myself, for that matter – that we were having a good time. Before each new mission I used to say: "Now just wait for it, this time something cool will happen." But it never did.
It was a clumsy attempt on my end to pretend like we could recapture the excitement of the original games again, just because on the surface the situation looked similar to what we experienced before. I was unwilling to realize that even something as robust a foundation as the shooting mechanics from Halo could become stale and generic when they are detached from any sort of engaging stakes, interesting novelties, or even basis competent game design. It was exactly how it must have felt like for the developers at 343 Industry when making this game.