Halo 4 Multiplayer (Infinity) First Impressions

I've been playing a lot of Halo 4's Infinity Multiplayer recently, and I've been meaning to get round to doing a brief review of it. Althought I still haven't progressed past SR-50 and unlocked the specializations yet, I've got a feel for all the game modes and maps. So without further ado, let's begin!

The Game Modes

First thing's first, I have to applaud 343 for their addition of Flood. Flood is a game mode where 1 or 2 players begin "infected" with a zombie virus, and only able to use a sword, but also able to move incredibly fast. The objective is to infect all the other team, as anyone you kill comes over to your side. Anyone who played Halo 3 will remember the custom zombie games people used to set up, as ways to promote their custom maps or just for funsies. They were always a good laugh, the only problem was they were hard  to find with Halo's lack of "search customs games" feature (something that's still missing!). It's a brilliant game mode, invented by the player base, and it's great to see the developers acknowledging that and serving the fans. The other game modes feel very similar to Halo 3, which isn't a bad thing at all, they're fast, competitive and balance (most of the time). The only game mode that has balancing issues, in my opinion, is the Big Team Slayer games. They just feel too hectic, and for some reason the people I play with seem to feel the need to play on Valhalla (Ragnarok, meh whatever) over and over again. This gets irritating, it's the smallest map and it just gets crowded. Its fine to play it once in a while, but it gets to the point where I have to leave the lobby and join another game mode when people are voting for it round after round after round. The new Conquest game mode is great too, it's very Battlefield-esque, and I like that you can redirect the fight by putting up defenses. Holding off a horde of enemy players through 1 passage when you have strong barriers up makes for some interesting battles.

The Maps

I really like that they included shiny new versions of the Halo 3 maps, along with brand new ones to play on. It feels natural, like a progression rather than being thrown into an entirely new competition where everyone knows everything about the map but me. I also like how weapon drops are displayed on the HUD, it gives everyone a fair chance rather than those who know where weapon spawns are having the edge.The map voting system sucks, as I expressed earlier. It could really do with a little tweaking, and I hope 343 address it.

The Shiny New Features

I fanboy'd myself into oblivion when I discovered all the new features this game has. From the new weapons, all the way to the specializations. There are a few things I don't like but they are heavily outweighed by those I do. I'll start with the negatives so we can finish on a good note. The game feels like it's made a slight shift towards a Call of Duty playstyle, and that scares me a little. The addition of killcam, care packages, "purchasing" weapons and the "SR-x" system (which is a shameless rip off of the prestige system) are all things lifted directly from CoD. From a business viewpoint I can see why this was beneficial, CoD has a massive number of players, and trying to attract those players to Halo with similar features is a clever marketing technique. However, this does feel like a slight kick in the head for us older fans. If we wanted to play CoD, we'd play it. Halo should stick to what its good at and not lift these boring annoying features out. It doesn't add replay value, it's just annoying. Now, rant over, onto all the amazing things 343 added. My favourite thing has to be the improvements to Forge, I've made countless maps already and I'll continue to make countless more. It's always been a great feature to allow players this level of customisation and I have to tip my hat off to 343 for doing Bungie justice, it was something I was very worried about.

The new personal player customisation is great too, and I like the addition of loadouts. Getting to pick your starting weapons is great, and I really like the armor abilities (HOLLA TO MA JETPACK, got me outta so many tough situations). It's added a lot of fun and unpredictability to the game, as you never know what abilities the player you're fighting will be packing. Armor customisation is great too, you can flick through the lobby and everybody's spartan looks different. There's so much choice and they're all so well designed. It's all down to personal preference, there's no "elite" armor that all the pro's wear. Finally, the addition of specializations is great, it lets the player be better at something they enjoy doing, and I really can't wait to unlock them.

Overall, I really have to applaud 343. As I said earlier, I was really nervous they wouldn't be able to live up to Bungies standards of bringing the Halo community together. But they really have. I thought they'd screw up forge and file share, but they just made it better. Really, if you haven't picked up Halo 4 yet, its worth it just for the multiplayer (the campaign is gorgeous in its own right, unfortunately I have yet to finish it!)