343 Industries has released their first making-of video for Halo 4. These kinds of things usually come when we’ve had a lot time to review features of the game as opposed to having seen one teaser trailer and been kept in the dark for the past six months. Either way, it seems that this video is actually the announcement trailer for a lot of new things, so take a look and then see if you can find all the tiny details we could below.
The biggest thing to notice is that we’ve been given the game’s first screens of actual multiplayer gameplay. While they don’t look worlds above what we’ve seen in Halo: Reach, it is clear that the models they’re using are absolutely top-quality with more polygons than have ever been used in a Halo game. We’re also about seven years into the Xbox lifespan, so we can’t expect to have graphics that are insanely better. That said, if those Xbox 720 rumours hold true, Halo 4 will almost definitely be a launch title. What a way to sell systems that would be.
Other multiplayer features include a “compelling reason for red spartans to be fighting blue spartans,” according to Frank O’Connor, Franchise Development Director at 343 Industries. He also states that we will see a sort of fiction behind the multiplayer arena as well as the traditional slayer action we’re used to seeing. This could be interesting and will certainly add to the experience of fantastic multiplayer as it already is.
There are new Spartan IVs that look like they’d be bots in the multiplayer campaign, but are not nearly fleshed out enough in the video for us to make any sort of prediction about their role in the game. They do look pretty awesome and robotic, though.
Another thing that jumped out at me in the game are some new mechanics. Melee attacks look relatively the same (we didn’t get any taste of assassinations, so we don’t know if they will even return, but it seems a safe bet that they will), and running and gunning looks relatively unchanged. But there were some parts where you see a first-person view of Master Chief (read: only his hands) trying to pry open a set of doors. It is unclear as to whether this is a cutscene or movie, or an event that you control. I have a feeling it is actually a player controlled event, but I will say that if 343 Industries uses any sort of quick-time events in Halo 4, I will be sorely disappointed.
Music has long been a major part of the Halo series, so far as my calling it one of the biggest reasons to own Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach. It seems like the new audio director, Sotaro Tojima, has gotten his hands around a lot of meat in regards to Halo 4’s audio. They’ve recorded over 100 themes and audio pieces so far, and have a new team doing all the audio. I have to say, my biggest trepidation about this game is when I heard that Marty O’Donnell would not be doing the audio for it, but seeing the care with which Tojima has handled the music so far, I’m confident the game is in good hands. Watching the trailer, you can get a good feel for how the music sounds, and so far, it is nothing short of epic.
Also, for those of you who care (which is probably most of you if you’re Halo fans): the battle rifle is also back.
All in all, it seems like the team at 343 has actually got quite a bit of their work done, and that’s where they need to be to hit their Holiday 2012 ship date. For a game that has been in development for a long time, we know very little about it, and while this video explains a ton, there is exponentially more we have yet to find out. Like, well, the entire single player campaign. How did he get that jetpack?