New York Daily News
This new game will still feel like a Halo game — that's the benefit of having some Bungie vets on the 250-strong development team — but 343 Industries will put its own spin on things. Franchise director Frank O'Connor, who's worked on the series since Halo 2, promises that this game will have a more "visceral" feel and a deeper level of immersion.
343 Industries showed off only a snippet of gameplay this week, but O'Connor's edicts are noticeable even in this brief playtime.
The difference between Halo 4 and Halo Reach (the final Bungie title) is stark. Halo 4 will take place on a far darker color palette, and it will feature the most robust engine in the series' long history. At its core, the new engine is built from the template that Bungie created in Reach, but many things have been redone "from the ground up," O'Connor says, and plenty of new code has been written.
343 Industries will usher in the next level of Halo titles with a darker game. It's evident in these early moments, and O'Connor says it will be seen throughout. While the Chief will eventually wind up on the planet below (Requiem), much of the game will play out on the Forever Unto Dawn, O'Connor says.
Other details are also improved, subtly deepening the gameplay experience. Dash down a hall (yes, there's a dash button now) and you will hear the Chief panting in his helmet. Weapons, which once had a distinctly sci-fi sound, now fire with stronger audio impact; your rocket launcher's missiles finally reverberate, and even your rifle shots have a greater amount of pop. Both weapons were fare more satisfying, although I didn't fire — or even see — a Needler.
The entire game has visuals that rival — perhaps even exceed — the vast abilities of EA's Frostbite 2 engine.
"Reach looked really good, but we've had the benefit of hindsight, and the benefit of time," O'Connor says. "We had a little bit of luxury in that we weren't churning through consecutive game project after consecutive game project. We had about a year to just do some prototyping. And it's really paid off well."
Despite that, there will be no 3D or Kinect feature set.
O'Connor says the team found that far more players engage in campaign aspects of a shooter over competitive ones. So 343 goes through great pains to generate a stronger "campaign" effect throughout its Spartan Ops and Infinity Change modes.
Both modes will have story elements that tie it back to the main game, but, unlike EA Games' poor decisions in the Mass Effect coda (and that company's cheap cash-grab of a move to add a beautiful but sloppy iPad game that tied back "war assets" to the main title), Halo 4's multiplayer modes seem far more pure.
"Each of the aspects — Spartan Ops, Campaign, and War Games — got equal weight, so it can all play a role," he says.
Every mode in Halo 4 has some story element. War Games, which will include all your standard competitive multiplayer modes, operates on the premise that the Spartans amongst themselves, skirmishing on a battleship as they prepare for battle.
Spartan Ops is even more ambitious, a full cooperative multiplayer experience that promises to be an ultra-deep campaign in its own right, with its own deep story. Each week, O'Connor says, 343 will release a new chapter in the Spartan Ops saga. The entire collection of "episodes," each complete with their own cutscenes, will function as a package, it will help to bridge the gap between Halo 4 and the inevitable Halo 5.
O'Connor says the entire package will be playable solo. But it's meant to be played with up to four-player coop. Even better, O'Connor says, 343 is committed to making the entire first season of Spartan Ops a completely free experience.
"The Spartan Ops is all included in the price of the game, at least for the first season," he says. "Obviously, if we make more seasons, we'll have to figure out a way that makes business sense.
"When we announced Spartan Ops a lot of people were waiting for that ball to drop, but it's all part of the package."
"We're really happy with the way it looks," O'Connor says. "And the level you saw is one of the more sterile. It starts to look grander and grander as you get deeper into the game.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/system-update-halo-4-preview-glimpse-return-master-chief-article-1.1068510
