Halo 4: An Ancient Evil Awakens, and I’m Excited About It

I was first introduced to the Halo franchise in high school by a friend of mine who was quite the gamer. I was instantly addicted, and spent most of my visits to his house sitting in front of his television killing Elites. Then Halo 3 came out, and my friend went away to college, and I was left Xbox-less and alone, with nothing to satisfy my Spartan cravings. So I went out that day and purchased an Xbox 360 and Halo 3 and played nothing but that game for almost a year.

Halo: ODST and Halo:Reach were the scars on the face of the Halo franchise (with Reach being substantially better than ODST, but nothing to write home about), and Bungie had made it very clear that 3 had been the end of the Master Chief and Cortana story. Until Halo 4 was announced, that is. And at this year’s E3 convention, 343 Studios released a lengthy live action trailer and gameplay video of the upcoming fourth installment in the Master Chief series.

The video showcased a few juicy details, the likes of which any hardcore Halo fanboy or fangirl would pee their Mjolnir armor over. First, the gameplay showed a few new weapons, apparently made by the ancient creators of the Halo rings, the Forerunners. And, it appears the Forerunners, who were nothing but long-dead creatures that certain Covenant members worshiped in the first five games, may actually be making an appearance in Halo 4.

And it also looks like our favorite AI, Cortana, has gone a little bit bonkers. In the video shown at E3, Cortana states that most AI’s fizzle out after 7 years, and Cortana was commissioned ten years prior. It seems like Halo 4 will touch on the mental state of a rogue AI, and Cortana may become the bad guy–which is seriously just awesome.

I’m excited to have a new Halo coming out, one that follows Chief and Cortana instead of trying to get us to connect to new characters like ODST and Reach attempted to do.

I’m ready to suit up in John-117 armor and get to killing some Covenant. Or perhaps, Forerunners?

 

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