Halo, one of the first FPS games released to a console back with the release of the original Xbox, it has, and continues to be a revolutionary game. In its newest game, Halo 4, it continues to impress.

Halo 4 has went through many changes since the previous game, Halo: Reach. One of the most apparent changes is that it was created by 343 Industries, rather than Bungie. Bungie gave the rights of Halo over to 343, and with Halo 4 being the first Halo FPS by them, they are off to a great start.

There were several major changes to the gameplay that were done with Halo 4. First of all, there are now load outs which you are able to fully customize. Rather than how it was in Halo: Reach where you could only choose your armor ability, you can now choose your primary weapon, secondary weapon, grenade type, armor ability, and two armor modifications. The armor modifications are new to the series, and change things from giving you more ammo, to a larger sensor range. Another big change they made to the gameplay is that you can now sprint with any load out. Sprinting was first introduced to the series in Halo: Reach where it was an armor ability, but now you can use sprint without having it take up your armor ability slot. Aside from these changes, there is now also melee bleed through, instant respawning, plenty of new weapons, new armor abilities, and small tweaks on movement speed, weapon damage, and jump height.

With Halo 4, 343 introduced a new game mode called Spartan Ops. It serves as a replacement to the firefight game mode, and is also a four-player cooperative mode. In Spartan Ops, you are a Spartan onboard the Infinity ship and are sent down to the Forerunner world named Requiem to complete various missions. In Spartan Ops, you use the load outs and armor you use in regular multiplayer.

343 managed to create an excellent expansion to the campaign following Master Chief, which was meant to be at an end with Halo 3. Awakened from cryro sleep by his advanced AI named Cortana, Master Chief finds himself aboard half of the Forward Unto Dawn UNSC frigate, which was where we left off with in Halo 3. The ship is under attack by an alien group known as the covenant, while orbiting a Forerunner world that has yet to be discovered by man kind. The story continues with Master Chief fighting for survival, and again the survival of the human race against a dangerous new enemy.

The graphics engine has also received a major overhaul, now with improved textures and better lighting and animations. 343 was able to find a way to improve the graphics, while still making it work with the limited memory of a console.

Overall Halo 4 is an amazing game and I rate it 9.5 out of 10. The only cons to the game are a noticeable amount of lag when playing Spartan Ops online, and fewer customization options for custom games.