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Every time someone spreads a leak, an angel loses its wings

Every time someone spreads a leak, an angel loses its wings. At least that’s what I’m assuming is happening, considering my backside is suddenly bare. Oh yes, there’s no longer any junk above my trunk, I’ve lost the adonk from my badonk, and Sir Mix-A-Lot no longer likes me.

Despite the absence of flying apparatuses, my spirits are still soaring. Why, you ask? Because in less than three weeks, you will finally have Halo 4 in your hands. Whether you start with Campaign, Spartan Ops, or the multiplayer mayhem that is War Games, you will soon be embarking upon an adventure – one that we’ve spent years crafting for you, and one that we hope you’ll enjoy immensely.

Regardless of whether your road to launch includes getting touched by a spoiler, nothing will compare to the moment you feel the familiar weight of the Battle Rifle in your hands as you’re welcoming back your old friends, the Master Chief and Cortana. Speaking of the Chief, I can neither confirm nor deny that in Halo 4, he decides to mix things up a little. I can tell you, however, that he just may attempt to shoot his way out.

Enough small chat, though. We have a lot we have to cover, in not a lot of time. This week’s topics include Meltdown (one of the multiplayer maps shipping with Halo 4), the Mantis (dat mech), a complete list of Halo 4 skulls (now with pictures!), Halo-themed pumpkin patterns (in case you’re planning on carving a jack-o'-lantern this year), and a few other interesting tidbits. Shall we begin? I think we shall!

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Evolution of the Master Chief

As the video game industry advances, so does its tools and techniques, and that is readily apparent when looking at the Master Chief’s evolution over the past ten years. Each iteration of our favorite Spartan super-soldier has been distinctive yet similar, but don’t confuse design with canon – the Chief is the Chief, just with the details and idiosyncrasies based on what each time period and toolset has to offer. So embiggen the picture above by clicking on it, and enjoy the walk down Master Chief Memory Lane. Just don’t wander off too long, because some brand new Meltdown screenshots are anxiously awaiting your attention.

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Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto

Much like a Hunter, our studio is made up of many moving parts right now. So many, in fact, that it’s near impossible to keep up with everything.

Last week delivered a new book (Halo: The Thursday War, by Karen Traviss), the chance to win some amazing prizes (Halo 4 Soundtrack Remix Contest), and the premiere of our live-action web series (Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn). Between the new Forge information and video prologue for Halo 4’s Domain Terminals (both of which were released yesterday), along with the second episode of Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn (which releases Friday morning at 3AM PT), this week is slated to be just as crazy. Some would even call it cray cray (Frankie, I may or may not be looking at you).

Enough with the recap, though. You’re well aware of the fact that the next 26 days will be chock-full of new and exciting Halo stuff (“stuff” being everything from a new BTS [NYCC!] to a new trailer [DAVID FINCHER!] to an out-of-this-world launch event [UNDISCLOSED LOCATION ON EARTH!]), so let’s slow it down a bit and talk about just one thing, that one thing being the Halo 4 progression system.

Wait, I just realized I used “out-of-this-world” and “undisclosed location on Earth” to describe the same place. I also used an overabundance of both parenthesis and brackets in a single sentence. Apparently I’m just that good. /takes a bow

Anyway, back to the Halo 4 progression system. While we’ve discussed bits and pieces of it, there has yet to be a comprehensive breakdown of the entirety of that system in a single place. I would say that’s about to change, but everybody knows I’m not all that comprehensive. So here comes a semi-comprehensive breakdown of the Halo 4 progression system! (Hey, don’t look at me like that. I could just talk about eels or how Josh Holmes was recently interviewed by a robot named Darren who had spaghetti spatulas for hands. I’ll spare you both stories, though, ‘cause I’m nice like that. You’re welcome.)

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Halo 4 Progression System

The UNSC Infinity is your gateway to the Infinity Multiplayer experience in Halo 4 and serves as the center of your Spartan career. Here you will build your custom Spartan-IV super-soldier, and progress your multiplayer career across both Spartan Ops and War Games modes. You’ll start your career as a Spartan-IV, with a limited amount of choices. As you level up, that will slowly unfold into a large amount of choices. The pace with unlocks will be regular, but not so fast that it causes confusion.

When designing the progression system for Halo 4, our primary goal was to give progress more meaning, and in order to do that, the player’s progress has to impact gameplay. In Halo 4, we primarily do this by allowing the progression system to modify the weapons and abilities the player can take into battle, empowering player choice, and exposing more elements of the sandbox to more players.

As you progress through your multiplayer career, you unlock items that allow you to build the character and experience you want. The things you really desire, such as the Battle Rifle and DMR, you’ll gain access to fairly quickly. Some of the more difficult choices you’ll face, such as which Specialization to tackle first, come later. All of these things give you the ability to tailor your experience and focus on your favorite parts of the sandbox more than ever before.

How quickly you progress through your career will partly depend on your skill. Skilled players will rank up faster, as you get more XP for winning matches. It’s also worth noting that quitters do not get game completion XP. They can progress commendations and challenges, but they will not get partial XP at the end of the game (AHEM).

Below is a breakdown of the Halo 4 progression system.

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Halo 4 goes gold

Gold Halo 4 wallpaper, made by the amazing minolta1034

486 days ago at E3 2011, we introduced Halo 4 to the world, lifting the veil on our closely-guarded secret with a heart-pounding trailer featuring the return of the Master Chief.*

Exactly 365 days later, at E3 2012, we gave media and fans alike their first true taste of the game with a Campaign demo and never-before-seen enemy face. Er, I mean race.

Now the countdown really begins, because Halo 4 launches in a mere 34 days. I measure time in Halo Bulletins and according to my calendar, there are only five left – one of which is this one. Let’s just say the number of topics still left to discuss when compared to the number of Bulletins slated to be published before launch do not match up.

Yes, there’s still a lot you don’t know. What, you didn’t think we’d tell you everything, did you?...

Speaking of things you may not know, Halo 4 recently went gold (!!1!one!!1!). Bonnie Ross, General Manager of 343 Industries to some and Lady Boss to others, wrote up her thoughts about both that particular milestone and also the evolution of our studio. You’ll get to read her part-insightful, part-reflective words later in this Bulletin but for now, how about we take a deep dive into a topic we haven’t had a chance to properly discuss yet, like Halo 4’s brand new Flood mode?

Flood

Brand spankin’ new Flood screenshot 1!

Flood is the spiritual successor to Infection, a fan-favorite game type from Halo 3 and Reach. Our goal was to recreate it and push the mode to be new and different from previous versions. As both War Games and Spartan Ops fit within the fiction of the UNSC Infinity, we wanted to use Halo fiction in this mode too, which led to us to create the Flood form in Multiplayer. Flood-converted humans are much faster and focus on melee attacks, so they were a natural fit for Infection’s successor.

Halo 4’s Flood mode is a round-based, ten-player game. It is a true asymmetric experience with the added twist of dynamic teams; this really changes things up as each game is different, especially in the incredibly intense and high-action final seconds.

At the beginning of each round, two players spawn as Flood forms and eight players spawn as Survivors. Survivors are standard Spartans equipped with shotguns and magnums, while Flood move very quickly and can only use a melee attack. When a Survivor gets killed by a Flood, the Survivor will convert and respawn as a Flood. The round ends if a Survivor makes it to 3:00 or if all players are converted to Flood.

One of the things we concentrated on for War Games was establishing player roles in Multiplayer, so we put a great deal of attention into being the King, Flag carrier, Grif, etc. Being the final Survivor is another role we focused on, and it’s a very intense experience having nine other Flood rush at you. Some (and by some, I of course mean David Ellis) would even say it’s poo-inducing.

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Halo 4’s Promethean Weapons

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Lately we’ve been focusing on the weapons in Halo 4. We’ve covered both the UNSC and Covenant arsenals, and today we are featuring the Forerunner side of things. In total, there are seven Forerunner weapons, including the Pulse Grenade. One of the best components of Halo has always been the combat sandbox, so it was both scary and challenging to create a whole new suite of weapons from scratch that were interesting, unique and balanced with the rest of the offerings.

Before settling on the final list, the team made concepts for approximately two hundred weapons. One of the biggest struggles was figuring out the high level vision and what made these alien weapons different from the Covenant and Brute weapons seen in past games. The vision we had for the Forerunner weapons was that they should feel technologically superior while still maintaining mechanical elements that made them visceral and relatable. We wanted them to evoke a sense of wonder and awe in the hands of players, similar to how you feel when you encounter Forerunner structures in the game. We also wanted them to be adaptive – both to the user and with regard to how they can be used.

The Scattershot was the first Forerunner weapon where everything started to click. Originally codenamed the “Spread Gun”, the Scattershot started off life as a rapid-fire shotgun that fired off a barrage of five projectiles in a symmetrical diamond pattern. The team started experimenting with having the weapon form around the player using it. We tried a couple different things, but ultimately, the concept of having the weapon assemble upon pick-up really resonated with the team. It also helped solve some other design issues we had around the drastically different Forerunner character models and how they would utilize the same guns that the player would eventually be able to use. For example, in the case of the Scattershot, the gun forms slightly differently to accommodate the Knight arms in that it actually attaches to the end of their forearm. We also started experimenting with adding more grounded elements to the weapons so that there was a unique juxtaposition of “super sci-fi futuristic” with components that were relatable to modern day weaponry. In the case of the Scattershot, that included trying out a hinge-action reloading animation and using more traditional individual cartridges that mimic how a traditional shotgun works.

On the gameplay side, we took a high level abstract concept of “adaptive weaponry”, considered how we could apply that to the gameplay itself, and started posing the question, “How can we extend the functionality of a shotgun and give it some added gameplay depth?” This is ultimately what led to the bouncing projectiles. In addition to functioning like a normal shotgun, it also had the expanded capability of allowing players to ricochet shots in tight spaces and use the weapon in a way that is distinct from the UNSC shotgun. You can see this theme infused in some of the other Forerunner weapons as well – the Bolt Shot and LightRifle both have dual firing modes, and the Pulse Grenade can be used tactically in several different ways.

The final component that really helped pull everything together with the Forerunner weapon subset was the work that the Audio and Visual FX teams did. We had a concept of “hard light” tech that powered the Forerunner weapons, but this meant different things to different members of the team. Originally, this concept was meant to be used as a kick-off point for the projectiles themselves but as the FX guys played around with it more, they came up with things like the animating light panels on the sides of guns. The Scattershot was pretty impressive prior to this – it had the bouncing projectiles, the really cool animations on the gun, and the satisfying gameplay, but the light panels really pulled everything together and made it stand out that much more from the other weapons. The other big “a-ha” moment involved the incineration effect that was being developed for the Knights death effect. We started integrating a similar effect into the weapon gameplay to add one final piece of flair, and that is a large part of what makes the Scattershot, Binary Rifle, and Incineration Cannon so satisfying to use.

Take a look at the seven Forerunner weapons in action by watching the following (new and wubby!) video, which features a sample from the 14-track remix album (not the original soundtrack).

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Au is on the horizon

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Our eyes are bloodshot, our work areas are full of empty energy drink cans, and our beds have filed a formal request to spend more than two hours per night with us. Our spirits remain high, though, because we're almost there.

As we work around the clock to put the finishing touches on Halo 4, our studio is focused on three main things: finding bugs, fixing bugs, and arranging a cage match between Caitie and Hoop (two of our developers on services). Actually, we’re trying to arrange a triumvirate of events, which includes the aforementioned cage match, a Gangnam Style dance off, and a Nerf war but either way, my money is on Caitie. Primarily because I like the thought of keeping my money.

Our PR and Marketing teams are also going full speed ahead, as they prepare to kick things into overdrive. I snuck a peek at their calendar for the next few months, and let’s just say they have more than a few surprises up their sleeves. Some of those things you will see in stores, others will aid you in your eternal quest for nourishment, and a few of them have the potential to blow your mind. (I say potential because they will blow your mind if you like awesome things, but maybe not if you don’t like awesome things. Take that as you will.)

By the way, Halo 4 launches in less than 50 days. If you’re not ready, I suggest you get ready, and what better way to do that than by learning about the Covenant weapons you will soon have at your disposal?

Halo 4’s Covenant Weapons

The Covenant weapons in Halo 4 presented us with an interesting design challenge. Traditionally, they haven’t been as popular as their UNSC counterparts, and they get much less use across the board. From a high level, we still wanted them to feel alien, futuristic, and technologically advanced (or at the very least, foreign) when compared to human weaponry, but we also wanted them to be equally viable choices.This was not an easy problem to solve.

There are a lot of gameplay specific reasons why Covenant weapons function the way they do. The blue/purple/pink color schemes and higher-pitched sound effects are intended to contrast the UNSC weapons and make enemy fire stand out. The projectiles are intentionally slower so that when fighting AI, the player is able to react and dodge them. They also tend to drain shields faster than armor health because it adds tension and creates situations where the player feels like they are escaping a fire fight by the skin of their teeth. In short, the weapons were designed to be fun to fight against, and some of these properties work against making them fun to use.

So how did we resolve these issues? On the aesthetics side, we felt like the shiny textures, bright colors, and flawless models of the past made them read a bit too toy-like, so we tried to make everything slightly more grounded. We did that by showing more wear and tear (such as scuffs and imperfections) and using new textures that made the guns look like they were created from hard metallic alloys (instead of plastic). The audio for all Covenant weapons went through several iterations until they felt a bit more punchy and visceral, while still sounding alien. As far as gameplay goes, we changed the weapon properties to make them better equivalents to UNSC weaponry. For example, the projectile speeds are drastically increased when the player uses them so that they are easier to hit targets but when AI fires them at the player, they are slower so that they are still fun to dodge. Finally, we spent a lot of time on the interface components. Two such examples are the zoom scopes, which were made to have a much more alien feel when using the guns, and the digital displays and reticles use of a similar alien language.

Halo 4 features nine Covenant weapons, with a mix of old and new. Take a look at them in action by watching the following (brand new!) video, and then we’ll chat a bit about how they feel when you’re using them on Halo 4’s virtual battlefields.

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Pressing Matters

Select members of the press from around the globe have been visiting the studio the past two days, October 11 is New York Comic Con, and November 6 will be the day you take Halo 4 for its first official spin in your disc tray, plus a few surprises we can’t talk about just yet. We’re ready for these things… are you?

While you won’t see the results of this week’s press visit until late September, we do have a very special treat for you today in the form of a brand new behind-the-scenes video. The majority of you have probably stopped reading and are now frantically scrolling, searching for that magical play button. For the two of you that are still reading (thanks, Mom and Dad!), I thought we could talk a little about why we invite the press to our studio.

Over the past several months, we’ve worked hard to get Halo 4 into the hands of as many people as possible. From being playable at events to hosting numerous community parties to inviting fans to participate in private playtests, we’ve used every available opportunity to get, and then implement, player feedback. We can only reach so many individuals in person, though so we try to give the press regular sneak peeks at the game so they can share what we show them with all of you. Think of it this way: We want to reach out and touch every single of you, and press visits help us with that, if only virtually.

Enough about our wandering hands, though. Let’s talk about the return of the Forerunners, shall we?

The Return of the Forerunners

As soon as we started concept work on Halo 4, we started looking at potential big pillar features. One of the things that came up early on was a good way to refresh the overall campaign experience, so we decided to create a new enemy race, applying the fundamentals of what makes Halo work to them. While we understand the importance of the Covenant’s role in the game for continuity purposes, we didn’t want to focus solely on those particular species. Thus, the idea for the Prometheans was born.

There were a bunch of initial ideas the team had come up with, but the real spark of where they’re at today came around discussions we had about if the sandbox is ultimately what differentiates Halo from every other FPS, then what does it mean to the way the legacy AI works and how can we make that better? That very quickly evolved into a theme of adaptive AI.

Our goal was to design a type of enemy that is highly adaptive from a tactical standpoint, basically transforming the player’s idea of how the world and combat works in order to try and gain the upper hand. If these are advanced beings, it seems like they would be intimately connected with the world they made, so the Prometheans can manipulate their environment and themselves in a way that makes them part of it. That is where you get to the final end result of Forerunners being able to spawn in and out of the world, spawn other creatures, phase back and forth, and environments moving around. They are able to manipulate things in a way we haven’t seen before, and they complement existing mechanics and change the way the player engages in the combat encounter.

According to Scott Warner, Lead Designer on Halo 4, creating an entire new enemy class was a daunting task. We started with, for all intents and purposes, a blank canvas where anything could happen. There was a super-brief glimpse of Forerunners in Halo Legends, but we wanted to do something different from that so we took as much as we could from already established Forerunner language and put it on the Prometheans. For instance, when you see a Knight idle, there are small and large bits attached at the elbows that are not physically connected but linked in a different way. They have a mystique, a gravity-defying look, similar to Forerunner structures.

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Let’s talk about PAX, baby

My voice is nowhere to be found, my feet hurt, and I’m beginning to exhibit flu-like symptoms. In the gaming industry, that can only mean one thing: another event has come and gone. And it was definitely a good one!

Last weekend, within the walls of the Washington State Convention Center, we revealed a brand-new Halo 4 map (Exile), we announced the return of Grifball (disease officially caught), we had CTF playable for the first time on the floor (introducing the Flagnum), and we shared insight into the storytelling aspect of Halo 4’s Campaign (omg, spoilerz). If you are unfamiliar with this particular event, PAX Prime is a Seattle show exclusively for gaming, and during this year’s three-day extravaganza, massive amounts of chocolate were consumed, hands were requested (and accepted!) in marriage, and Halo 4 was played. A lot.

Some of the greatest moments of the event happened on the floor. The main part of our booth featured 5v5 CTF on Exile, so numerous large groups patiently waited for their chance to check out the newest Halo 4 multiplayer map. Cliff Bleszinski, along with a handful of fellow Gearheads, stopped by to play a trio of rounds (Hi, Quinn!). Some of our friends from Bungie also indulged in a little CTF, facing off against a determined team of all-powerful Ninjas. We can neither confirm nor deny which groups came out on top. We can say, however, that good times were had. At least, that’s what we deduced from observing the steady stream of spherical objects bouncing off the helmets of the recently deceased.

If you missed the news coming out over the weekend, take a second to get caught up by checking out the CTF and Exile screenshots, and then watching the Halo: Reborn panel. Go ahead, we’ll wait. For a few minutes, anyway…

Now that you’re up to speed, let’s chat a bit about CTF, shall we?

Halo 4 CTF

We recreated CTF as an all-new experience for Halo 4. Our goals early on were to create a fresh and exciting experience, focusing heavily on team play and being the flag carrier. If you didn’t get a chance to play the new CTF over the weekend at PAX, here are some elements of the new CTF experience.


Flag Carrier Experience – Picking Up the Flag

This is easily the biggest addition to CTF in Halo 4, and we’ve made it a huge focus and priority to develop. Before we run through the changes, let’s talk about becoming the flag carrier, which is an experience in and of itself.

The first thing you’ll notice about being a carrier in Halo 4 is you’ll automatically pick up the flag. Unlike a weapon, you won’t need to hold or press a button to take the flag. We extensively tested different flag pick-up methods and settled on this one as it gets you into the action very quickly. While there will be occasions when you accidentally pick up the flag, we feel this is worth it as you can now easily grab the flag from a tough-to-reach location with just a touch, and there’s a very natural feel to the transition. We’ve also carefully tuned the flag pick-up radius, so you’ll need to be right on top of the flag to grab it.


Flag Carrier Experience – The Flagnum

The moment you pick up the flag, you’ll hold the flag in your left hand and draw a Magnum in your right. The Magnum allows you to defend yourself in combat and joust other flag carriers. We’re still working with the exact tuning of the flag carrier’s Magnum, but we’re hoping to give the flag carrier a slight damage boost. As in previous Halo games, your melee attack will still instant-kill. You can’t switch weapons while holding the flag, and there are unlimited reloads on the Magnum. We’ve also added a brand new assassination called the “Flagsassination”.

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When good playtests go bad

In order to aggregate data from numerous types of gameplay situations, we conduct regular take-home tests, and it was during one of these domestic assessments that our current favorite catchphrase was born. Let me explain.

Many of us here at 343 love playing Halo, but if there’s one thing we love more than that, it’s winning. While our domiciliary playtest sessions exist for a multitude of reasons (one of them being to observe the effects of various real life gaming situations—such as dropped connections, latency, and nagging spouses), we play to win—while gathering the relevant data, of course.

During one such recent session, our online battles brought us to an outdoor map that features a centrally located, multi-level building. It’s a place that strategic, communicative teams want to lock down and control. (That’s what some people around here say, anyway. The rest make their opinion known through the nicknames of each floor–Jerk 1, Jerk 2, and Jerk 3.) After Red Team successfully secured the advantageous center structure, Blue Team found themselves spending more time on the respawn screen than actually playing. That led to one particularly irate person abruptly and purposely leaving the game. Afterward, that individual emailed their experience to the other playtest participants, making sure to call out their fury-filled reaction. Well, a variation of their fury-filled reaction, I should say, because there was a single, extraneous letter discreetly nestled within their message. We assumed it was extraneous but who knows, actually…maybe they really did take out their indignation by sewing bed covers. And if that’s the case, “rage quilt” was the exact right term to use.

Enough about angry crafters, though. Let’s talk about PAX, baby!

PAX Prime 2012

In less than 48 hours, the doors of the Washington State Convention Center will open and thousands of people will descend upon the previously pristine venue, anxious to experience something that can only be described as a gamer’s utopia. We were down there this morning, and the early booth inspection revealed very cool and visible signage hanging from our portion of the ceiling and several super comfy game stations, quietly waiting for the impending flood of Halo fans.

Within our booth this weekend, we’ll be featuring a few different game types (one that is already announced but will be playable for the first time at an event) and a few different maps (one that will be unveiled for the first time on Friday). Panel-wise, we also have a few things up our sleeve. If you like brand new behind-the-scenes videos, especially ones that focus on storytelling, you should go. If you like demos of not-yet-confirmed game types on beautiful, brand new maps, you should go. And if you just want to know more about Halo 4, let’s just say you should go.

PAX is going to be flagtastic. And that’s all we have to say about that.

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It’s no longer hot in herre

Frankie feeds the masses

Last week, while the mercury in the thermometer soared, we huddled up to our computers and crunched away, battling our way through both heat and producer-driven deliverables. This week the sweltering conditions may have subsided but we continue to crunch, keeping our laser-like focus on the quickly approaching finish line.

With less than 80 days until launch, the various teams across the studio find themselves at different stages of completion. Animation is wrapping things up, working only on the occasional misplaced pinkie. Localization is in a similar state as they drop in the last of their multilingual text strings. Some parts of the game are (for all intents and purposes) complete, such as audio and achievements. We’re going to touch on both today, so let’s cut the chit-chat and dive into the first of the aforementioned alliterative subject matters, shall we?

Halo 4 Original Soundtrack and Special Edition Remix Album Coming Oct.22

Halo is defined by a lot of things. It's defined by the stories of the universe, by the quality and immersion of the graphics, by the constituents of the community that play, share, compete and create in the Halo sandbox, but to me, one of the most memorably definitive aspects of the game is and always has been the music.

We've talked a lot about the transition between Marty O'Donnell's unforgettably inspiring and foundational music - and the new, radically different approach being taken by our new composer, Neil Davidge.

Both envelop and engage the player, grounding him or her in a universe and an atmosphere quite unlike any other game series. Both use large orchestras, traditional movie score elements at times – and both explore other genres and styles within those areas. But Marty’s scores lean towards cinematic, orchestral, occasionally metallic, whereas Neil’s skillset leans more towards electronica, at least in terms of instrumentation. It’s not an apple to orange comparison, but they’re different enough to feel distinct stylistically, even to someone who’s never heard either artist before.

I am certain that when the game ships in November, the comparisons and contrasts between old and new Halo music will have huge energy, passion, and opinion fueling them. But there's something else we've been working on as a creative outgrowth of the game soundtrack.

Neil Davidge is a pretty legendary figure in the electronic music scene, not just for his work with Massive Attack but also for his compositions and collaborations with other digital and traditional artists. So when Neil approached us with the idea of working with other famous electronic musicians, DJs, and composers to create a completely unique collection of remixes and directly inspired re-imaginings of some of the game's new themes, we jumped at the chance.

These remixes won't be appearing on the main soundtrack disc - we felt that the entire purpose of an Original Soundtrack is to capture the feel, the atmosphere, and the moment-to-moment feelings of the game itself, so the OST disc will remain entirely devoted to the main game themes and tracks (including some truly incredible supplemental themes from our own in-house composer Kazuma Jinnouchi).

So just to make sure it’s perfectly clear – the OST, the Original Soundtrack, will be presented just like a movie soundtrack and stand alone, on its own disc. It will be replete with soaring themes, inspirational tracks, emotionally compelling melodies and a soundscape we are genuinely excited about.

But we wanted to do something more. Something experimental and cutting edge and extraordinarily awesome.

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It’s getting hot in herre

Findles meets the Halo 4 Hover-Hand All-Stars!

The temperature outside is 80 some-odd degrees today, and the temperature inside is similarly balmy. Between the sun beating down on our studio and the hot pockets of air generated from thousands of machines that rarely reach a sleeping state, our working conditions have reached a near sauna-like level. The scorching days and sweltering nights are not slowing us down, though. The audio team is one week away from having content in across the board, cinematics is nearly polish-complete, and we’re continuing to push hard toward ZBR.

At this stage of the game (pun totally intended), playtests tend to become slightly more compartmentalized. The time for significant changes and alterations has passed, and tweaking and fine-tuning has moved front and center as we focus on finalizing each individual component that comprises the totality of the Halo 4 sandbox.

Halo has a history of evolving with every iteration in the franchise. Keeping the essence of Halo while building upon that foundation requires a thoughtful and deliberate hand, and we’ve worked hard to craft an experience that consists of not only fan favorites, but also new features that deliver a fun and satisfying gameplay experience. One of those new features is Specializations. Specializations were originally revealed in the announcement of the Halo 4 Limited Edition, but details were sparse. So, it’s time to dig a bit deeper into this particular aspect of the game.

WARNING: Numerous words and images inbound…

Halo 4 Specializations

The UNSC Infinity, the largest starship in the UNSC fleet, is your gateway to the Infinity Multiplayer experience in Halo 4 and serves as the center of your Spartan career. Here you will build your custom Spartan-IV super-soldier, and progress your multiplayer career across both Spartan Ops and the multitude of competitive War Games modes.

Halo 4 has fifty levels. Once you have advanced through the standard fifty levels, you will get the option to enlist in a Specialization. You can choose the order in which you tackle unlocked Specializations. However once you select one, you must advance through it completely before enlisting in a separate Specialization.

Specializations allow you to enlist in specific rank paths. These paths are composed of ten levels each. As you level up through these dedicated paths, you will unlock armor sets, emblems, visor colors, weapon and armor skins, and armor mods – which provide even more options to customize your Spartan-IV to fit your preferred role on the battlefield.

These armor mods will work exactly like all other tactical and support mods in the game. They are not tied to specific armor for each Specialization, so you don’t have to wear the armor to use that particular mod. They enhance a small part of the sandbox (meaning good players will still be good, and not good players will still be not good), allowing people to play the style they want to play and experience the parts of the sandbox they like on a more frequent basis.

We consider Specializations end-game content because even if you have “access” to all of them on day one, you will still need to reach level 50 before you can enlist in any Specializations. Think of them as giving you control over extending your level cap.

Two Specializations – Wetwork and Pioneer – will be available to all players when the game launches, and the rest will gradually be made available in the months following launch. We will be keeping a close watch on player participation post-launch and will roll out the additional six Specializations when the player base reaches certain milestones. There will also be playlists available that do not utilize loadouts or armor mods.

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