The 2012 video game Halo 4 was created by 343 Industries and released by Microsoft Studios for Xbox 360 consoles. The story revolves around Master Chief, a super-soldier with special powers, and his digital assistant Cortana as they face mysterious dangers on an ancient planet filled with ruins. In this game, you control Master Chief who fights against a new enemy group that broke away from the Covenant alliance of alien forces, plus even more deadly robot warriors known as the Prometheans. Halo 4 introduces fresh weapons, enemies, and gameplay options that were not in any other titles before it.
The development of Halo 4 started in 2009 and continued until September 2012. This was the first time 343 Industries took charge of creating an original title within the popular Halo series, which had previously been handled by Bungie, the franchise’s creator. As part of their work, the team explored the Forerunner fiction in the game universe, leading to a new setting, enemies, and main villain being designed. Characters and assets from previous games were also revamped, with motion capture used for animations in cutscenes. The team aimed to add more human elements to Halo 4’s story by focusing on the relationship between two of its main characters, Master Chief and Cortana. To achieve this, they dug deeper into their characters’ interactions. Many external studios worked together with 343 Industries to bring Halo 4 to life, and in total, over 350 people contributed to the game’s creation.
The official announcement of the game took place at Electronic Entertainment Expo 2011 (E3) on June 6. Before it hit stores, Microsoft revealed that this new title was the most costly game they had ever developed up to that point. To build excitement, the company organized several promotional events and released videos, including a live-action movie called Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn. When Halo 4 was launched, it earned $220 million on its opening day and went on to make $300 million in its first week – a record-breaking amount for the series. In the first 24 hours after its release, more than one million people played the game on Xbox Live. Critics generally gave the game positive reviews and it received numerous nominations and awards from the press. Later, Halo 4 was re-released as part of Halo: The Master Chief Collection for the new Xbox One console in 2014, and also came out on Windows computers in 2020. This success led to another game, Halo 5: Guardians, being released in 2015 exclusively for the Xbox One.
In Halo 4, Master Chief takes on an enemy Promethean Knight with his assault rifle during the campaign mode.
Halo 4 is an action-packed video game where players mostly see things from first-person. However, when using certain tools or machines, like weapons and vehicles, the camera switches to third-person for a better view. The player’s screen shows important details about their armor, such as how much protection they have left, what guns they’re carrying, and helpful directions to goals and objectives. A special display also warns about nearby enemies, friends, and vehicles that are close by. This new game features the alien species from before, but now they’re against Master Chief instead of being his friends. It introduces a new type of enemy called Prometheans, which are machines made by an ancient alien civilization. There are three kinds of these enemies: Knights lead the group and are considered the strongest; Crawlers are weaker and often work in groups to attack; and Watchers help out and can even save their friends from getting hurt or bring them back to life.
Halo 4 includes upgraded versions of human and Covenant weapons from previous Halo games, as well as new ones for humans, Covenant, and Prometheans. The game also features special equipment called “armor abilities” that can be reused, which were first introduced in Halo: Reach. These armor abilities include autosentry, a protection shield, Promethean vision, which makes it harder to see enemies, a healing field that helps players get better quickly, and a thruster pack that lets the player jump far across the ground. Some old abilities are back, like camouflage, jetpacks, and holograms that make a fake copy of you run towards an enemy. In Halo 4, sprinting is also available again, but now it can be done without using any special equipment. New to the series are two new multiplayer games: Oddball and Grifball.
In Halo 4, you can play through the story or campaign mode either by yourself or with friends on the same console using split-screen. You can also join forces with up to three other players online via Xbox Live. Unlike in Halo 3, where each player controlled a different character, in Halo 4 everyone plays as Master Chief. To add some extra challenge and excitement, you can turn on “skulls” which alter the gameplay experience – for example, making enemies tougher or changing how non-playable characters behave. The campaign also comes with special terminals that provide more background information through videos shown in the Halo Waypoint app on Xbox 360.
In Halo 4’s multiplayer mode, called “Infinity”, players get to be their own Spartan-IV super-soldier. They can level up and earn points by winning matches and challenges, which unlocks cool stuff like custom appearances, new guns, armor powers, and upgrades. As they rise through the ranks, they unlock more cosmetic and gameplay-changing features for their Spartan. One of the multiplayer modes is called War Games, where players compete against each other in different game types, like team deathmatch or capture the flag. War Games can be played with up to 16 people online and also has four-player split-screen mode on Xbox Live. In Halo 4, players can join some multiplayer matches while they’re still playing. Spartan Ops is a special type of game where you play through story-driven episodes with missions that have different goals. It’s like a mini-storyline that you can play solo or with friends. Instead of Firefight, which was in earlier Halo games, Spartan Ops has 10 episodes with five levels each, and the first five came out every week after the game launched. The last five episodes were released later in 2013.
Other features for playing other games include Forge, a tool that lets you make changes to multiplayer maps from Halo 3. Like War Games, it can be played in two-player mode on the same screen or online with Xbox Live. Using this tool, players can add new spawn points, weapons, and items to existing maps or create their own using canvas tools. The Forge feature has been improved in Halo 4 with a “magnet” that helps connect different pieces together easily. Another new feature is Theater mode, which lets players record games and save clips of highlights from their matches. This feature also allows players to capture screenshots of recent games played in War Games or custom games. In addition, Halo 4 includes a system for sharing files with other players, so they can share video clips, photos, customized maps, and special game modes.
Story Background and Characters The year 2557 brings us to Halo 4, four years after what happened in Halo 3. More details about the past show that humans were just one of many advanced civilizations out there hundreds of thousands of years ago. Humans had gotten into trouble with a huge alien parasite called the Flood during this time. They also came into conflict with an even more powerful alien race known as the Forerunners, who believed in taking care of other races and keeping them safe. After fighting for centuries, the Forerunners finally defeated the humans and took away their technology and empire. But instead of letting the humans just be poor, the Forerunners decided to fight the Flood themselves, too. They tried everything they could think of before deciding it was time to blow up an array of weapons that would kill all life in the galaxy so the Flood couldn’t eat it anymore. When the fighting is over, the Forerunners started new life again and spread some of their own people out into the galaxy.
In the far-off future, around 26 centuries from now, humans faced a huge threat from an alien group called the Covenant. The Covenant thinks that the ancient beings known as Forerunners are gods and they worship them. The most skilled human warrior, Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, along with his smart computer friend Cortana, played a crucial role in stopping the activation of powerful devices called Halos. They also prevented a deadly Flood outbreak from spreading throughout the galaxy again and defeated the Covenant, which ended the war. By the end of Halo 3, Master Chief and Cortana found themselves lost in space on a damaged spaceship called Forward Unto Dawn.
The ship Forward Unto Dawn heads toward an unknown planet, later discovered to be the shield world Requiem. When Cortana wakes Master Chief from his long sleep, they’re ambushed by forces from a new Covenant faction that has formed overnight. The survivors of Forward Unto Dawn are sucked into Requiem’s gravitational pull and crash-land inside its interior. As Chief and Cortana explore this strange world, they fight off hostile alien warriors called Promethean Knights and other enemy forces. But soon, Cortana starts to malfunction because she’s experiencing a decline in her mental abilities due to being too old for her programming. The problem is called “rampancy” – it happens when artificial intelligences like Cortana reach their limit of time before they stop working properly. Chief vows to take Cortana to Earth, where his creator might be able to fix her failing system. Meanwhile, Cortana intercepts some strange messages from a human ship called the UNSC Infinity, who picked up Forward Unto Dawn’s distress signal. She tries to warn them away from Requiem’s gravity well, but gives Chief incorrect information about what he should do instead. What she intended to disable were supposed communication jammers, but in reality, she freed an ancient warrior known as the Didact. The Didact believes humans are unworthy of leadership and decides to take over both the Prometheans and the Covenant faction’s forces to attack another ship called Infinity that got pulled into Requiem by its gravity well.
The Chief establishes communication with Infinity and assists in defending against the Didact’s assault. Chief and Cortana suggest launching an attack on the Didact when he is most vulnerable, but Captain Del Rio from Infinity orders them to destroy the gravity well so their ship can escape. During this operation, Chief receives contact with a mysterious Forerunner known as the Librarian – who is also the wife of the Didact and protected humanity in its past. The Librarian explains that the Forerunners had differing opinions on how best to fight against the Flood. After failing to find an immunity for biological beings from the parasite, the Didact utilized a device called the Composer to convert his soldiers into Promethean Knights who were immune to infection. In order to have more warriors, the Didact forcibly converted humans he captured into Prometheans before being halted and imprisoned by the Librarian. The Librarian, who has guided humanity’s growth, accelerates the Chief’s evolution in order to make him resistant to the Composer’s effects.
After destroying the gravity well, Del Rio gave orders to return to Earth, questioning the reliability of Chief and Cortana’s testimony. The Master Chief refused to follow these orders and instead stayed behind to confront the Didact. Despite disobeying his commander, Chief decided to protect his artificial companion Cortana from being destroyed because it had malfunctioned. Together with Cortana, they tried to disrupt the Didact’s ship, but their efforts were unsuccessful. The two then pursued the Didact to a Halo ring called Installation 03. Meanwhile, the Covenant attacked Ivanoff Research Station where the Composer was now located. Chief defended the station against the attack, but the Didact managed to steal the Composer and use its powers on the station, ultimately killing every other individual there except for Chief.
The chief and Cortana use a fighter jet to track down the Didact’s spaceship heading towards Earth. With the help of other ships from Infinity and the home fleet, the chief lands on the Didact’s ship with a powerful nuclear bomb. Cortana creates fake copies of herself that go into the computer systems of the Didact’s ship, overloading its defenses and giving them an opening to attack. However, before they can finish off the Didact, he orders his Composer robot to start creating people at a new city called New Phoenix on Earth. Thanks to Cortana’s help, the chief is able to defeat the Didact, who falls into a special portal under the Composer robot. The chief then sets off the bomb, but just in time, Cortana saves him by stepping in front of it. Unfortunately, this means she sacrifices herself for his sake. Later on, the chief is rescued by a team and taken back to their base in Infinity where he is filled with sadness after saying goodbye to his friend Cortana.
After the credits rolled, the Didact announced that the Forerunners were the guardians of the galaxy and had been carrying the weight of responsibility for its care. He also warned that humanity was the biggest danger to the galaxy’s stability. Later, when Master Chief took off his armor on the Infinity spaceship, it showed just how tough he had become if the player had completed the game with the hardest level chosen.
Six months after the New Phoenix incident, the UNSC Infinity returns to Requiem. The Prometheans and Covenant forces led by Jul ‘Mdama remain active in the area. Sarah Palmer, commander of the Spartan-IVs, sends teams to clear out Mdama’s followers and set up research bases inside Requiem. Fireteam Crimson recovers a mysterious object that was found by Mdama’s people while they were excavating it. The Infinity scientist, Doctor Glassman, goes missing after studying the device. The mastermind behind the Forerunner technology, Catherine Halsey, is brought to the Infinity due to her expertise. She is guarded by soldiers and Spartans, including Gabriel Thorne, who lost his family in a Didact attack on Earth. While studying the mysterious object, Halsey starts receiving strange messages from an unknown sender. The source of these messages is Mdama, who captures Glassman and forces him to work on a device that might contain the Librarian. Palmer arrests Halsey for talking to Mdama, but she uses a special code to make Infinity’s computer help her. Halsey tries to negotiate with Mdama to find the Librarian together; however, Roland, Infinity’s AI, breaks free of her control and has guards come after her. The Prometheans invade Infinity, capture Halsey, and teleport her to Mdama’s base. Serin Osman orders Infinity captain Thomas Lasky to kill Halsey, but he is hesitant to do so. Palmer decides to go to Requiem to find and stop Halsey; Lasky tells Fireteam Majestic to rescue Halsey from Mdama’s place.
Halsey enters the Forerunner device and talks to the Librarian. The Librarian hands Halsey two important pieces called the “Janus Key”, which helps find all Forerunner technology in space, and tells her to use it to help humanity advance. When she gets the key, Halsey leaves the device and ‘Mdama takes half of it from her. Halsey gives the other piece to Fireteam Majestic. Just then, Palmer shoots Halsey in the arm before a Promethean teleports both ‘Mdama and Halsey away from the base. The enemy forces escape the planet by setting their ship Requiem to crash into the sun. At the same time, Fireteams Crimson and Majestic manage to disable devices that hold up Infinity to Requiem, so they can escape before it gets destroyed. Meanwhile, Halsey, who has lost her arm, is willing to work with ‘Mdama.
In October 2007, shortly after the release of Halo 3, Bungie, the company that made Halo, left its parent company Microsoft. Microsoft kept all the rights to Halo, while Bungie continued making new Halo games until 2010. During this time, Microsoft created a special team, called 343 Industries, to handle the Halo franchise and develop future games for it.
In 2008, Microsoft reached out to Starlight Runner Entertainment while they were still building their team, asking for their help with creating the “Halo bible”. Starlight Runner is a company based in New York that specializes in developing and producing transmedia franchises. Their task was to review all content related to Halo, refine it, and make sure it was clear and easy to understand for everyone involved in making Halo games and media. Frank O’Connor, who worked on the “Halo bible” project at Bungie before joining 343 Industries as the director of the Halo franchise, contributed to its creation. Unlike the previous trilogy, the story behind Halo 4 was designed from the start to fit into a larger game series arc. The script and story were written by Christopher Schlerf and Holmes. Furthermore, 343 Industries aimed to create more connections between their future media projects; they linked Halo 4’s storyline to the Forerunner Saga and Kilo-Five Trilogy novels, as well as using terminals in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary to provide background information on the Forerunners.
343 started small with about a dozen people on staff, but expanded to nearly 200 during its development. The game’s development team consisted of former employees from more than 25 top-notch studios. When it came time to hire new staff, companies weren’t allowed to tell them they’d be working on Halo 4. Frank O’Connor, the head of franchise development at 343 Industries, explained, “We hired people who didn’t love Halo for various reasons, but what really meant was that ‘they had a great idea’ to contribute to the game. They were eager to prove it and passionate about making it happen.” This enthusiasm helped the team grow rapidly, which ultimately created challenges. Since they were committed to meeting a deadline, the development team made “necessary mistakes,” as Kiki Wolfkill, executive producer of Halo 4, said. The team faced production difficulties, mainly due to their inexperience working together and bottlenecks in development. Nine months before launch, the developers rearranged their workflow and gave individual teams more independence. This was because many employees came from different backgrounds, making it harder for them to find common ground. Josh Holmes, creative director of Halo 4, remembered a moment when the team realized they were on the right track. It happened early in development when they successfully completed a section of the game that resembled traditional Halo gameplay. Despite positive feedback from testers, the prototype was discarded because it felt too familiar, but this showed the team’s potential for collaboration.
A team of 350 people worked together to make the game, including contractors. In early 2011, 343 Industries hired an independent video game studio called Certain Affinity to help with the development of Halo 4. Certain Affinity had already worked with Bungie and 343 Industries on previous Halo games, creating multiplayer content for those titles as well. The studio then went on to create a special mode called Forge, developed some levels and modes with their partners at Bungie and 343 Industries, and made several multiplayer maps for the game.
Halo 4 and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary were both officially revealed on June 6, 2011, at the E3 2011. This marked the beginning of the Reclaimer Saga in the Halo series. A team of nearly 200 people led by creative director Josh Holmes started building the game back in 2009. Before its release, Microsoft Studios Vice President Phil Spencer said that the Halo franchise was one of the most significant entertainment products for his company and that Halo 4 was their most expensive game ever made. At E3 2012, a preview of the game’s campaign was shown, which turned out to be a crucial moment in development since it was the first time anyone had seen the game publicly. The positive response lifted everyone’s spirits as they were unsure how players would react. On July 7, 2012, a sneak peek at Halo 4’s Forge mode was shared by 343 Industries and Certain Affinity at RTX, which took place at the Austin Convention Center. A few months later, on September 26, 2012, O’Connor announced that the game had finally been completed.
After Halo 4’s announcement, O’Connor shared some exciting updates about the game’s characters. Both Master Chief and Cortana would undergo significant changes in their appearances, with some changes aimed at improving graphics and others influenced by the story. The studio wanted to depict Master Chief as incredibly heavy and imposing, highlighting one of his notable traits – his massive 800-pound (360 kg) armor. To achieve this look, the team studied how the Spartans’ armor was redesigned in Halo: Reach, which were significantly bulkier than previous games. Character and concept artists started sketching new designs for Master Chief, which would later be turned into three-dimensional models to analyze from every angle. The team would then go back to creating sketches to make adjustments and repeat the process until they had a solid foundation for Master Chief’s appearance. Next, they focused on adding finer details to his look.
During the concepting stage of Halo 4, O’Connor decided that exploring the Forerunner fiction would be the best direction for the franchise to take. Before that, the story was mostly unknown to players, thanks to 343 Industries’ involvement in the series. This led to the creation of a new enemy group called the Prometheans, who were warriors from the ancient Forerunner empire. Since the Forerunners themselves had never been featured in previous Halo games, creating their appearance took time and effort. The art team made many drawings of different character models before settling on one that fit the overall look of the franchise. Their goal was to make the Prometheans both scary and believable, so they could evoke a sense of Forerunner architecture and language from previous media. When a Promethean Knight dies, it disappears into thin air where it was last shot, which also happens when enemies are killed by certain Promethean weapons. From a gameplay perspective, designing the Prometheans required them to fit in with the sandbox game environment. To achieve this, the team aimed to make them adaptable and unpredictable in combat. For example, a Promethean Knight can suddenly reappear or vanish into space, which changes how players fight against them.
Holmes wanted Halo 4’s campaign to include more human elements in its storyline. To achieve this, his team created a secondary storyline that explored Master Chief’s relationship with Cortana, his AI partner, who would gradually lose her mental abilities due to advanced dementia-like symptoms. The development team found that Halo 4’s narrative was quite complex and difficult for new players to follow, making it hard for them to jump into the game without prior knowledge. They realized that adding such a deep storyline to an action-packed game like Halo 4 would be extremely challenging and considered dropping this idea during production. However, Holmes strongly believed in including this element; he was inspired by his mother’s own struggles with dementia, which began shortly after the game’s development started. This personal experience motivated him to create an emotional story that would perfectly convey the characters’ feelings and experiences.
The artwork for Halo 4 shows off the incredible architecture and scenery on the Forerunner planet, Requiem. The game’s senior art director, Kenneth Scott, said that the visual style in Halo 4 is more connected to the expanded universe stories and seems more mature than before. When creating the game, the artists focused a lot on the look of Forerunner technology because the story highlights their advanced knowledge and achievements. In addition, the developers added more diversity to the structures built by the Forerunners, including working Forerunner tech and old, abandoned structures that were present in previous games. The majority of the game’s scenes are lit using static lightmaps, which allowed the art team to achieve realistic lighting with complete global illumination and ambient shadows. Image-based lighting also helped to make each scene look more real and connected.
The cooperative Spartan Ops mode initially started out as a Firefight-type game mode, similar to Halo: Reach’s multiplayer experience. However, it evolved into something unique, featuring various mission types that focused on objectives rather than just fighting enemies in waves. As development progressed, the team made significant changes to incorporate a storyline that connected all of Halo 4’s multiplayer features. The primary goal was to design missions suitable for four-player co-op gameplay. To achieve this, the Spartan Ops team collaborated with the narrative department to integrate storylines and cinematic events seamlessly into the game mode.
Axis Animation, based in Glasgow, helped 343 Industries create detailed computer-generated imagery for the Spartan Ops game mode’s cinematics. Axis has made animations for several video games, including the award-winning trailer for Dead Island. To make each episode of Spartan Ops exciting, the team at Axis shot and edited scenes live on camera using performance capture. They then used cameras from the live-action shoot to create a performance-based version, before capturing more scenes with computer-generated cameras to provide more options for the editorial team. The shading team at Axis used software called Houdini to generate environments in 3D animation, which helped make the cinematics look realistic. For sound design and final mixing, Axis worked with Savalas, a Glasgow-based audio post-production company. Facial motion capture was used to transfer actors’ movements and expressions into the game’s cinematics for both Spartan Ops and campaign modes. The team captured performance footage at Giant Studios and collaborated with Cubic Motion to develop a special facial motion capture solution that helped preserve the actors’ expressions during animation creation.
The animation studio behind Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary’s terminals got a second chance to create more animations for Halo 4. The Terminals in Halo 4 have a unique artistic style, which made it appealing to gamers who were familiar with this type of artwork. Ian Kirby, president of The Sequence Group, thought that style would be a great fit for the game’s visuals. In addition to making the terminals look cool, their work also appeared in one of the main cinematics of Halo 4. To save time and money on traditional motion capture methods, The Sequence Group came up with a clever solution using twin Microsoft Kinect infrared sensors.
The new game uses most of the “sandbox” from previous Halo games and other media, along with introducing new characters, guns, cars, and more. The game engine has been heavily changed to work better on modern computers. Unlike its predecessors, Halo 4 can run smoothly at a high resolution, making it look sharp and clear. When you buy the game, it comes in two parts – one for playing the game itself and another just for playing multiplayer with friends. To play the multiplayer part of the game, your computer needs to have at least 8GB of extra space on a USB stick or an Xbox hard drive. The first disc is used to launch the game, while the second disc has all the multiplayer content you need to start playing right away. Unfortunately, the game’s creators couldn’t get the special Theater feature working for the campaign and Spartan Ops at launch because of some technical problems and big changes to the engine.
Just like in previous Halo games, 343 Industries has a tool that tracks players’ progress in Halo 4. Players can check their game history, character development, and other fun statistics right inside the game or on the Halo Waypoint website. A team at 343 Industries used special software called Windows Azure to send player data from Xbox Live to big databases where all the info is stored. Also, players can look at their data using an app called SmartGlass on the Xbox.
Musician Neil Davidge created the soundtracks for the video game Halo 4. Davidge is famous for working with the band Massive Attack and composing music for movies. When making the soundtrack, Davidge aimed to add a little bit of love to it as well as incorporate more electronic elements while keeping the game’s style intact.
Sotaro Tojima was famous for his work on popular video games like Castlevania: Circle of the Moon and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. He took charge of sound at Halo 4, which meant he oversaw all the audio parts. The team held many live recordings in different locations, including Tasmania, Australia. Some of these sessions were really hard to do because they were set in extreme conditions like underwater or in flames and ice. To help them record in these tough spots, they used special microphones that could withstand anything. The team also experimented with “home-made” explosives to get the sound they needed. Tojima wanted Halo 4’s audio to feel super realistic and connected to the game’s universe, unlike previous titles which had a different style.
Music composer Kazuma Jinnouchi, who had previously worked at Konami, joined 343 Industries in 2011 while working on Halo 4. He added several extra music tracks to the game during that time. Later, he became the main composer for the game’s sequel, Halo 5: Guardians, which came out in 2015.
Some actors from the previous Halo games are coming back to play their main characters again in Halo 4. Steve Downes, who plays Master Chief, and Jen Taylor, who plays Cortana and Halsey, will be returning. This was the first time Taylor and Downes recorded together, which made things a bit more exciting because Downes had to fly all the way from his hometown of Chicago to the recording studio in Washington instead of just going to the usual place.
The new characters in Halo 4 will have their voices acted out by different people. Mark Rolston will play Captain Andrew Del Rio, while Darren O’Hare will play Thomas Lasky. Jennifer Hale will play Sarah Palmer, and Adrienne Barbeau will be Dr. Tillson. Keith Szarabajka will be the voice of the Didact, Travis Willingham will be Jul ‘Mdama, and Lori Tritel will be the Librarian. Some famous people like Conan O’Brien, Andy Richter, and Jason Bradbury are also going to be in Halo 4.
People who work at a company called Rooster Teeth Productions are also going to make appearances in some of the game’s storylines. They’re going to play characters from their own TV show called Red vs. Blue, which is a part of the Halo universe called Spartan Ops.
In January 2012, McFarlane Toys made an exciting announcement: they would be creating action figures for the popular video game Halo 4. This would introduce new characters, weapons, and vehicles from the game to fans worldwide. Todd McFarlane, CEO and founder of McFarlane Toys, was thrilled to be working with 343 Industries, a team of talented developers. McFarlane also promised that his company would expand its existing figure line, which would be rebranded as Halo Universe.
Later in February 2012, another toy company, Mega Brands, revealed a new product series in their Mega Bloks Halo Universe collector’s line. At the same time, both McFarlane Toys and Mega Brands showcased their figures at the American International Toy Fair in 2012. Jada Toys launched a line of Halo 4 die-cast toys in August 2012, while Sideshow Collectibles introduced a premium figure of Cortana.
In November 2012, Funko released action figures of Master Chief, Cortana, and Spartan-IV as part of their Pop! Vinyl toyline. In June 2012, Mad Catz Interactive announced that they had partnered with Microsoft Studios to create a Halo 4-branded gaming headset. This product shipped in October 2012.
343 Industries and Microsoft teamed up to create an art book called Awakening: The Art of Halo 4, which was published by Titan Books and came out on November 6, 2012. This special book features all sorts of concept art and sketches along with comments from the artists at 343 Industries themselves. A very limited edition of this book was also made, and only about a thousand copies were available worldwide. Another book, called Halo 4: The Essential Visual Guide, was created by 343 Industries in partnership with DK Publishing and released on September 24, 2013. This book has lots of annotated artwork and detailed profiles of characters, things to use, and places within the world of Halo.
Microsoft teamed up with PepsiCo once again, having done so before when they promoted Halo 3. In the US, players got extra experience in Halo 4 by buying Mountain Dew and Doritos and scanning codes found on the packaging using a mobile app game called Halo 4: King of the Hill Fueled by Mountain Dew. The offer started on October 15, 2012, and could be redeemed from websites set up by PepsiCo. In the UK, players who bought Mountain Dew between September 24, 2012, and December 4, 2012, might win Halo 4 games, Xbox 360 avatar items, or even a trip to Seattle to visit Microsoft’s studio. The company also partnered with Pizza Hut in the UK; people who entered through their official website could win Halo 4-themed prizes. This contest ran from October 22, 2012, to December 30, 2012, and participants received a free code for a Halo 4 Xbox avatar outfit. American Express helped Microsoft promote Halo 4 by offering deals to eligible card holders in the US and UK. Those who linked their cards with their Xbox Live accounts got coupons and credits, plus extra rewards when they reached certain achievements in Halo 4. As an added bonus, people who watched at least thirty minutes of the 2012 presidential debates on their Xbox 360 could get Halo 4 armor for their avatars.
On October 31, 2012, Microsoft teamed up with Liechtenstein Marketing, a government-owned company, to create an exciting event for fans and journalists in the countryside of Liechtenstein. The Gutenberg Castle was turned into a fortified area where people got to try out Halo 4 for the first time ever. A nearby farm became a space where a military base was set up by the United Nations Space Command. Meanwhile, Balzers Quarry was transformed into an action-packed battlefield where actors spent two hours acting out an epic adventure with fifteen participants.
The promotional video for Halo 4 was unveiled with a trailer called “Awakening” at E3 2011. The movie was directed by Joseph Kosinski, who had previously worked with animation company Digital Domain on the commercial for Halo 3. Together, they created special effects using Digital Domain’s expertise. The trailer is set on a UNSC warship called Forward Unto Dawn during the opening scenes of Halo 4. It shows Master Chief waking up from a long sleep by Cortana as the ship drifts towards Requiem. The trailer was recognized in two award categories at the AICP Show and NEXT Awards in 2012: Visual Effects and Design.
On April 30, 2012, it was revealed that a web series called Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn would air on Machinima Prime and Halo Waypoint before Halo 4’s release in late 2012. The show started playing on October 5, 2012, and consisted of five 15-minute live-action segments. This project was led by director Stewart Hendler, which turned out to be Microsoft’s biggest investment in a live-action promotion. The series takes place in the year 2526, 31 years before the events of Halo 4 at the beginning of the Human-Covenant War. The main character Thomas Lasky is portrayed mainly by Australian actor Tom Green in this web series, which also connects with the plot of Halo 4’s campaign and Spartan Ops mode. In later parts of the series, the Master Chief appears and is played by actor Daniel Cudmore.
At E3 2012, Microsoft showed off Halo 4 with an exciting event called “The Commissioning”. The whole thing was filmed over two and a half days, then spent four weeks in editing to add special effects. The music for the trailer was created by Neil Davidge. The video also features a big spaceship called the UNSC Infinity being pulled into the heart of a planet called Requiem. In the live-action part of the event, actor Mark Rolston played the role of Captain Andrew Del Rio.
On October 18, 2012, Microsoft released a special preview for the upcoming video game Halo 4. The preview, called “Scanned,” was shown on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and gave fans an exciting look at what was to come. This exclusive trailer was directed by Tim Miller and produced by renowned film director David Fincher. It combined computer-generated imagery (CGI) with live-action sequences, giving viewers a thrilling glimpse of the game’s action-packed world. The trailer featured Master Chief, who is normally invincible, being restrained by a protective force field while an enemy approaches him. The enemy then starts to probe John’s mind in search of his strengths and weaknesses. A live-action segment follows, showing brief moments from John’s past, including his childhood abduction, the procedure where he became a super-soldier known as a Spartan-II, and his first time putting on his advanced MJOLNIR armor. The preview then cuts to scenes of John battling Promethean Knights, before returning to him still restrained, face-to-face with the enemy Didact. Just five days later, on October 23, 2012, another teaser trailer was unveiled, this one showing off gameplay footage from both the single-player campaign and multiplayer modes.
In October 2012, a visual effects company called Framestore worked with an advertising agency called McCann London to create special TV ads for the video game Halo 4. The commercials aired on television on November 9, 2012; they showed real-time information about how many people were playing Halo 4 online, with accuracy within just five minutes of when they went live on TV.
The video game Halo 4 was released globally, excluding Japan, on November 6, 2012. In Japan, it came out three days later, on November 8. Initially, Microsoft sold the game in two different versions – “Standard” and “Limited”. The Limited Edition package included virtual items for Xbox avatars and special Spartans inside the game. Players also got extra maps to play multiplayer with and some cool stuff that would be added later.
Along with those extras, players got a longer version of an action-packed video series called Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn and a special document about the UNSC Infinity team. When it first came out, only two special jobs were available for everyone who bought the game. But if you had the Limited Edition, you also got eight more options to choose from.
However, later on, Microsoft decided to share those extra special jobs with players in other countries who played multiplayer together at launch. For everyone else, they would have to wait a bit longer – and then gradually get access one by one as the months went by.
Microsoft created an exclusive Xbox 360 package with the game Halo 4, which came out at the same time as the game. The special package includes two controllers that were custom made just for it, a copy of the regular edition of Halo 4, a wired microphone, some extra content that you can only download from this bundle, and a special Xbox 360 console with a big hard drive inside. Also, Microsoft said they would release a separate controller that looks different from the one in the main package.
In October 2012, Microsoft revealed that their security teams and law enforcement were looking into whether some Halo 4 content was accidentally leaked online. Jessica Shea, who heads up community relations at 343 Industries, told fans to be careful not to see any spoilers about Halo 4 on social media. O’Connor made a point at the New York Comic Con event that people shouldn’t worry if they saw leaks of the game or footage – it wouldn’t affect how the game is released or promoted. He also acknowledged that when big-name games like this are uploaded without permission, it’s almost unavoidable.
Over ten thousand stores worldwide opened their doors for the midnight launch of Halo 4 in forty countries. The night before its release, a huge illuminated logo was flown over London’s River Thames from the Greenwich Peninsula to Tower Bridge. This massive logo was designed and built by a team of more than fifty people and took around eight weeks to create. After the game was released, New Zealand censors made some surprising decisions – they declared many copies of Halo 4 illegal because it had an age rating of R13, meaning only people aged 13 and above could buy it. However, many copies that were already on sale with no age restrictions were actually in trouble because they didn’t follow the country’s laws about buying videos and games for minors.
On February 5, 2013, players could download a digital copy of Halo 4 through Xbox Live Games on Demand. Later, on October 8, a special game package called a “game of the year edition” was released. This package included extra content like season passes and downloadable items, as well as some pre-order bonuses and special virtual decorations for characters.
Halo 4 made a huge amount of money on its first day, earning $220 million. In its opening week, it made even more – $300 million. This was a new record for the series and beat Halo: Reach’s $200 million sales from its launch. Many people played Halo 4 on Xbox Live within 24 hours of releasing the game, with over one million players joining in.
Halo 4 came out number one on the UK video game charts and became the eighteenth biggest launch in the country, but it didn’t beat the sales records of Halo 3 and Halo: Reach. A company called NPD tracked video game sales in the US and found that Halo 4 was the second most sold game of November 2012. It was also the third most sold game of December 2012 and the year overall.
In the United States, Halo 4 became the best-selling game from Microsoft Studios when it came out. In 2012, Halo 4 was the third most popular game on Xbox Live in terms of how many unique players joined every day.
After releasing Halo 4, it offered downloadable content (DLC) that users could download from the Xbox Live Marketplace. The platform included three War Games map packs, each with three different maps, which customers could buy individually or purchase together with the Halo 4 War Games Pass. In some versions of the game, like the Limited Edition edition, the pass was already included and available for purchase on the Marketplace. The first map pack, called “Crimson Map Pack”, became available on December 10, 2012. People who received special early access to special features got free access to the Crimson Map Pack for a short time. Later, other maps like the “Majestic Map Pack” and “Castle Map Pack” were released – the “Majestic Map Pack” came out on February 25, 2013, followed by the “Castle Map Pack” on April 8. A new map called Forge Island was made available to Xbox Live users for free on March 29. Microsoft also released additional DLC later that included three bundles: one containing two multiplayer maps and early access to a special game mode, another with steampunk-themed skins, and the last with new armor options.
In addition to map packs, the game receives regular updates for its matchmaking playlists. These updates bring balance changes, tweak sandbox options, and fix small technical issues. A major update was released in December 2012 to address various problems with the game. The season-long Spartan Ops campaign took a short break that month and started again on January 21, 2013; the latter half of the season became available for free download from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Later, on January 29, an in-game search tool was added to help players share files within the game; a web-based version of the Halo 4 file manager was released on February 27, 2013. Finally, on April 8, 343 Industries introduced a ranking system that allows players to compete against one another in a skill-based format similar to what’s found in earlier Halo games like Halo 2 and Halo 3.
During Spartan Ops’ mid-season break, Microsoft organized a free-to-participate Halo 4 tournament called the Halo 4 Infinity Challenge in collaboration with Virgin Gaming. Players who wanted to join had to sign up on the Halo 4 Infinity Challenge website, which would give them a chance to win prizes. In July 2013, 343 Industries announced another tournament, also called the Halo 4 Global Championship, this time partnering with Virgin Gaming. This second tournament lasted for five weeks and offered a grand prize of $200,000. The competition started on July 5 at RTX 2013 and then continued on Xbox Live on July 15. Finally, the championship finals took place on September 1 at the 2013 Penny Arcade Expo, where a live stream was broadcast, hosted by Larry Hryb, Blair Herter, and Jessica Chobot.
Halo 4 was brought back to stores as part of Halo: The Master Chief Collection for the new Xbox One system on November 11, 2014, and for computers running Windows on November 17, 2020. A follow-up game called Halo 5: Guardians came out for the Xbox One on October 27, 2015.
Reception Critical Reception for Halo 4 was overwhelmingly positive, as evidenced by its high rating on review aggregation website Metacritic. This site gave it an average score of 87 out of 100 based on 87 critic reviews. Many reviewers praised 343 Industries’ first attempt and considered it a solid addition to the series. IGN’s Ryan McCaffrey wrote that Halo 4 was the best game in the series so far, even better than its Xbox 360 counterpart for 2012, and he described it as “a groundbreaking success for the entire first-person shooter genre.” Eurogamer’s Wesley Yin-Poole had some doubts about changes to the formula at first, but he thought that 343 Industries’ greatest accomplishment was staying true to the Halo spirit. He was excited to see what the developer would do next with Halo 5 and expected them to make even more changes while still maintaining the series’ unique charm.
Halo 4’s storyline received broad praise from critics. Reviewers loved seeing Master Chief back as the main character, and the bond between Master Chief and Cortana was highly commended. Game Informer writer Mike Mahardy said that the characters were improved significantly, making their relationship feel more realistic and understandable for players. The same critic also felt that the story in Halo 4 was more engaging than the ones from previous games.
One person who enjoyed the storyline was Chris Watters of GameSpot. He thought that the return of Master Chief and Cortana was one of the game’s highlights, saying it was an exciting and emotional experience. GamesRadar agreed that the narrative was captivating and praised the campaign’s structure as better than its predecessors. IGN reviewer McCaffrey lauded the game’s visuals, animations, and movements.
McCaffrey also thought the gameplay mixed different elements well, including on-foot battles, vehicle sequences, quiet moments with the characters, and key interactions between Master Chief and Cortana. While some critics appreciated the new sound, others had mixed feelings about it. Neil Davidge’s music was seen as bold but not necessarily adding much to the game.
However, 1UP.com reviewer Jose Otero wasn’t so sure. He felt that the ending of Halo 4 didn’t make a lot of sense and thought some plot points were missed entirely. Many critics agreed that the storyline could become confusing at times and might be hard for new players to follow.
G4 and Official Xbox Magazine both said that the plot got complicated in certain parts. Adam Rosenburg, G4’s reviewer, also mentioned that while the soundtrack had some memorable moments, he was disappointed with Neil Davidge choosing a different theme than previous games.
Michael Gapper of Computer and Video Games compared Halo 4 to Halo 2. He felt that the Xbox 360 hardware limited the game’s campaign in the same way it did for Halo 2 on the original Xbox. Although the game looked amazing, this detracted from its overall scale and spectacle. The small spaces in the gameplay led to few options during battles, making them less challenging.
The competitive multiplayer aspect of Halo 4 received praise from critics. GameSpot’s Chris Watters enjoyed the new armor abilities and gameplay changes in multiplayer, particularly the enhancements to Custom Game options and level editing in Forge. CVG’s Gapper said that the scoring system was a major improvement, as it acknowledged individual contributions to objectives and completed tasks more fairly. He believed this change made Halo 4 multiplayer stand out from its predecessors. In contrast, Polygon writer Arthur Gies highlighted Dominion as the best new game mode introduced to Halo multiplayer since Xbox Live was launched. Additionally, he noted that the multiplayer component became more accessible to casual players without compromising the gameplay for core fans.
Reception for Spartan Ops was divided with some people liking it while others were disappointed. Some reviewers didn’t like that it replaced the cooperative Firefight mode because their favorite part was going on missions together as a team. The problems with Spartan Ops included short and not very long missions, which made it feel like there wasn’t enough to do after finishing each one. However, some reviewers thought that the game’s pre-episode scenes were really good and helped create some interesting story ideas for future episodes and seasons. A gaming critic from Eurogamer didn’t think much of Spartan Ops because it repeated the same environments too many times at the start of the season, making the missions feel like a chore. He also thought that Spartan Ops was not as exciting as Firefight mode, calling it a “subpar” alternative to its predecessor. On the other hand, another gaming site found that even though the short length was unusual, playing Halo with friends in Spartan Ops was still fun and allowed for more co-op gameplay opportunities than expected.
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