Halo 4 (PC) review friv game - It's all in now

Released in November 2020, Halo 4 is the final game in Halo: The Master Chief Collection for PC. We tell you about this outstanding shooter in our review.

Halo 4 marks a new era in the series: it is the first game from the developer Friv2Online Studio in the lineup, released after Bungie parted ways with Microsoft (development was handed over to 343 Industries), and at the same time the beginning of a new saga, which was continued in Halo 5: Guardians and will be developed in Halo Infinite.
So, after the events of Halo 3, four years have passed, spent by Master Cheef in cryosleep. During this time, Cortana went a little "crazy": AIs are designed to last for seven years and shouldn't exist as long as Cortana did.

But this is not the main problem of the partners. They are brought to the planet Requiem, where they find new enemies - the Forerunners, who built the very space rings. Once they have already thrown people back to the Stone Age, now they are ready to step on the warpath again, and this time to bring the matter to the end.
Thus begins a seven to eight hour long story campaign, during which Master Cheef and his companion will experience many adventures. 343i did an excellent job of providing players with the usual Halo kaleidoscope of events, where the scenery changes at the speed of light, and the protagonist dashing against groups of enemies on earth and in space.

Now, however, the friv game's scenario has become a bit more personal, focusing not only on global events, but also on the relationship between Master Cheef and Cortana. Surprisingly, the duo of a modified super-soldier and a maddening AI was incredibly lively, and I was able to believe in both Cheef's affection for Cortana, his helplessness towards a problem that can't be solved by force, and the humanity of the artificial intelligence. After Halo: Reach, this is probably the most emotional story in the lineup.
What, however, can not be said about the events associated with the main villain. He, on the contrary, turned out to be as flat as you can imagine an antagonist. He does not evoke sympathy, most of the campaign exists somewhere on the sidelines and, perhaps, it is even good that Halo 4 does not have a full-fledged boss-fight with his participation.

The introduction of a new race in the story allowed the developers to please the players with new enemies and weapons. The Forerunners feel more intelligent than the Covenant, and their fighters work well in conjunction with each other: the agile and fast four-legged creatures prefer to engage in close combat, while the armored knights shoot from afar, teleport and summon support drones.
The new guns are stylish looking, with lots of moving parts, but not as effective as we'd like them to be: the assault rifle has a very wide spread, and the rifle with a telescopic sight is practically useless without it.

I had to change barrels very often, because the enemies still absorb bullets like sponges, and the ammunition supply runs out almost instantly. More than once I had to run around the battlefield in search of derelict weapons, dodging the shells of enemies, being on the verge of death. This adds excitement to the gameplay, but the survivability of opponents is sometimes annoying.
Halo 4 is the last friv game in the series for Xbox 360, and it is noticeable that it squeezed all the juices from the "iron" console. The remaster looks very cool, and is able to compete even with some modern projects. This game became the most beautiful in the collection, and until the release of Halo Infinite it will remain unrivaled in terms of graphics on MS. What is pleasing, it contains a large number of settings, due to which you can achieve an optimal balance between performance and picture quality.

And in terms of sound the shooter can disappoint. Finally, Russian-speaking gamers got voice-overs and subtitles in their native language, and the surround scene allows you to determine the enemy location by ear. At the same time, weapons sound somehow unconvincing, and the volume of separate tracks is not balanced in some places.
This is forgivable for single player, but not very pleasant in multiplayer battles. The network component, by the way, got new maps and modes, and players have access to some gameplay features, like rewards for a series of kills. On the one hand it motivates to stay alive as long as possible, on the other hand it increases the gap between skilful and not so experienced players. This, however, is a fair situation for a competitive shooter, so I can only advise you to improve your skills.
Halo 4 provides a pleasant experience. The campaign is rather short, but it doesn't manage to bore, the plot confidently switches between global events and personal experiences of the heroes, shootouts are still vigorous, and in multiplayer you can always find rivals. The friv game puts a beautiful point in "The Master Chief Collection", and now we just have to wait for the continuation of the franchise, which we hope will be released this year.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection is available for free on PC and Xbox for Xbox Game Pass subscribers.