This is the news millions of Halo fans have waited for: Halo 4 is on the way. Yes, Halo 4 has been confirmed by Microsoft to be in development.
The next three Halo games, designed to take players on a decade-long journey, will collectively be called the “Reclaimer Trilogy.”
The much anticipated Halo 4 will be the next blockbuster installment in the Halo universe, the iconic franchise that has shaped entertainment history and defined a decade of sci-fi themed, first person shooter gaming.
Set in the aftermath of Halo 3, the super soldier Master Chief returns to confront his own destiny and face an ancient evil that threatens the fate of the entire universe. Cortona, the cool AI from the previous Halo games, seems to have gotten a little bit of a makeover, though I’m not too sure whether that new haircut looks too good on her. Cortona’s brilliant as a genius sidekick, but it’s time we got some real action from her, right?
Anyways, the planet both Master Chief and Cortona are seen heading towards at the end of Halo 3, when completed on Legendary difficulty, and at the end of the Halo 4 E3 2011 trailer, is a “very mysterious” Forerunner planet on which we will see a different aspect of the alien architecture that we’ve seen in previous games.
In an interview with senior art director Kenneth Scott, he mentioned:
“We’re investing heavily in the look and feel of Forerunner. The thing that connected people initially way back in the first halo experience is that mystery. That’s where a lot of our pressure on the art team is going right now. We want the player to feel that initial experience of discovery.”
“You’ve lived with the Forerunner for 10 years now, and three, four games. What do we do to move it forwards so it still connects the player with a mystery but it hasn’t fallen into the abstraction that will happen over that period of time? There’s a lot of push there.”
Frank O’Connor comments further:
“You’ve lived with inert, static Forerunner abandoned structures. It’s going to be really interesting to see a different aspect of Forerunner engineering and Forerunner architecture when it’s not completely inert and dead and empty.”
Cut off from human civilization, it is likely that there will be greater character development in both Master Chief (John) and in Cortona; in the first Halo trilogy, we did not really see much depth to the character of Master Chief aside from fighting. However, with Master Chief sticking his hand out for humanity, this story will be expounding on the classic American trait of rugged individualism. The Halo trilogy, beginning with Halo 4, will be a perfect reflection of Man versus the Wild, but unlike some other stories, this time mankind is going to be doing some serious butt kicking.