Right before classes started a few weeks ago I decided to start playing Halo 4. Given the amount of games I ended up getting on Black Friday last year it was a bit tough to decide what to play next, but I thought that since the next Halo isn't coming for a while (and probably will only be on xbox one), this seemed like a good game to play for the story.

This was the first Halo game I've played on the Difficult right from the start, everything else has been Normal difficulty in the past. It actually wasn't that bad! I kind of wish I was on Legendary setting for those additional achievements :-)

In any case, the game starts where the Master Chief left off, in space, coming out of stasis because their derelict ship (forward unto dawn if I remember correctly) has encountered the Protheans.  Of course, so have the covenant fanatics.  And of course this is where all the fun starts!  Because I started the game on a higher difficulty than usual this game was very touch and go.  I did small parts of the game every weekend for a few weeks and saved frequently.  The problem with this approach was that I didn't really get to enjoy the story that much because there were large gaps between cinematic sequences, unlike the Modern Warfare sequences and gameplay.  That said, I still knew what was going on (more or less) and it was an enjoyable story.  The biggest thing I loved: NO FLOOD!  I had gotten sick of the flood over the past four games, so I was thankful that we didn't have them.  Good riddance!   The other awesome thing about this game: using mechs!  Scorpions, airplanes, warthogs and robocop type mechs you climbed into... they were all very much fun! The thing that most annoyed me about the game was at the end. I am bummed that Cortana sacrificed herself to save the Master Chief. All I have to say is that they better find a way to bring her back in the next Halo.

As far as achievements go, this game was quite, quite, low! I only got 13 out of 86 achievements (15%) which  gave me 160 gamer points (out of a total 2000). It would appear that I just got the basic achievements for finishing the story. Had I gone with Legendary setting, I could have gotten a few more achievements, and of course had I played coop then there are more.  But, I am generally not a coop player (not that I have someone to play coop with, so I won't be getting those any time soon.  It also appears that many achievements seem to be Spartan Ops related, so since I don't have xbox live, I won't be getting those any time soon.

All things considered, I did like this game a lot!