This is all coming from a skeptic of 343i's current advancements in the series and is completely opinionated. WARNING WALL OF TEXT
When I first saw the trailer, I was pretty mad; I was completely content and satisfied with Halo 3's ending and the cliffhanger on which the Legendary ending and Master Chiefs story had finished upon. From then, I had no desire of a new continuation on the franchise.
I'll admit, that through further development and the reveal of the gameplay and impressive- to say the least- trailer I think Halo 4 is going to be good.
A few criticisms however, In comparison to the previous instalments, I've found the enemies to be lacklustre in appearance. I dislike the Elites especially and quite a few of the promethium units; The elites seem to have gone down the Gears 3 route of having all their sleeve's removed and I'd would have much preferred their heads to have had that tumour removed since Halo: Reach, they looked quite squat and stocky as apposed to the 8ft tall wrecking crew that we saw them as in previous Halo's. The rest of the Covenant in the gameplay looked good however.
Covenant weapons and vehicles look a bit strange however, and have gone from representing an entire multicultural juggernaut with a variety of colour to plain and samey deep purple, this fills the role of the already taken UNSC W/V that are a gun metal grey and khaki to represent the industrialised, efficient war machine that the UNSC had to become, so I don't really see where 343i are coming from there, reducing the colour palette 'n all.
The new Forerunner Promethian units look impressive as well; following the forerunner style and staying in keeping with the game style, whilst diversifying the game play in general, their 'human like' skull teasing their origin (please forgive if I make any uninformed mistakes, as I have not taken the time to buy and read the forerunner series of books) . The same goes with the new weapons, stylish and incorporating new way's to play.
Style wise, I very much like how 343i are going their own way, It's fresh and appealing graphically, going a stretch further from the realism in armour that the originals aimed to make (excusing Halo: CE's cardboard armour for the marines, H4's we are yet to see) I don't, to be brutally critical, I hate: Chief's Armour. I understand it's 343i's decision and how they want it, but it does not scream to me 'Master Chief from Halo' He looks like a power ranger, a quote from Frank 'o Connor I believe was: "We wanted to make his armour more [military] and more 'Tank like'. Really? So why does he look like the S.T.A.G tank from Saint's Row: The Third? (Bad game btw) instead of an Abrams from Battlefield 3?
Let's talk about the HUD for a second, I took two things from the demo; Hit markers and Skype calls. Let's not delve too deeply about the CoDification (sincerely hoping 343i back the frak away from that already FUBAR territory) of Halo's multiplayer and hopefully not campaign, as I believe a game should stand completely up on it's own by it's campaign. (obviously MP details are yet to be released and nobody is going to get to play it till launch, cause 'hiho!', no Beta, and H:R's doomed MP is not being managed particularly well with 343i endorsing their direct rip Halo: Anniversary all over the damned place) so, hit markers can be useful, but really aren't necessary as you really ought to be able to see what your bloody well shooting at.
'Skype chat' now, -as I'm calling it anyway- Is your comm. We have never seen so much use of opening 'windows' on a Mjolnir HUD, usually it's in the books, and limited to text, so I don't mind it that much. Cortana uses it, and that's not what I'm diggin', you see when someone as important as Cortana is in your head you should really ought to know- as she is now the one character to watch in the new trilogy- whom she is, so why do we need to see her representation floating creepily around close to a 'camera' in cyberspace, suspended like the creepy car in Inspector Gadget? Another window is opened later on and it's the Cap. of the Infinity, I suppose I can't tell if we'll see him again so it would however be a good idea to at least get a good 'ol spy at our new ally, if not a brief one. Cortana never opens the window in the demo after the first time she talks, so I guess that's good, and as long as we don't have our screen filled with a conference call in the midst of battle that'll be fine. But why not make it more discreet.
Sound, It goes without saying that sound quality has to be the best in a game, the new guns sound great; futuristic and yet retaining the familiarity to the old series, the soundtrack sounds great, if not for the style especially apparent in trailers, the sudden burst of an 'Inception' esque instrumental, simultaneously flashing teases of gameplay, then followed by silence, and again, and again. I'd very much like to see a new sound, a motif to the forerunners if you will, but I also want it to sound 'Halo'. Keep those monks locked up in a cage for too long and their singing voice'll get rusty.
So that's my gist on my impressions only the future of my favourite franchise (obviously lacking MP) that has been put in the hands of a handful of old faces from Halo's development and climax at Bungie and the new dev's who will hopefully bring a brighter, better future to the beautiful game. I severely lacked in hope for this game to succeed upon its announcement, but now I feel it has a good future ahead of it and all the best to 343i, the game looks good, so for the multiplayer we'll have to wait and see.
So, what is your opinion on Halo 4, based on the current demo and E3 reveals?
Link to E3 demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1E m1MiiqT9A