Halo 4

"Wake up, John."

- Official tagline

Halo 4 is the seventh installment in the bestselling Halo franchise for the Xbox 360. A teaser trailer shown at Microsoft's E3 Media Briefing on June 6th, 2011 confirmed that Halo 4 is to be the first installment in a new trilogy of games, which was identified as the Reclaimer Trilogy during Halo Fest at PAX Prime 2011. Set four and a half years after the events of Halo 3, Halo 4 will continue the story of John-117 and Cortana left abandoned on the remains of the. The two survivors drift endlessly towards the mysterious world of Requiem and the ancient evil within. Halo 4 is the first game developed by 343 Industries, the management team in charge of the Halo franchise, and will be published by Microsoft Studios; it will be released worldwide on November 6th, 2012.

Plot
"Set in the aftermath of Halo 3, Master Chief returns to confront his own destiny and face an ancient evil that threatens the fate of the entire universe. Halo 4 marks the start of a new trilogy that begins with its release in 2012."

- Official summary

Halo 4 marks the return of John-117 as a playable protagonist after three Halo games focusing on different sets of characters. Having been lost in space for five years after the finale of Halo 3, John-117 and Cortana, adrift aboard the wreckage of the UNSC frigate Forward Unto Dawn, find themselves near Requiem, the Forerunner Dyson sphere first seen in the Legendary ending of Halo 3.

The story of Halo 4 will be heavily focused on mystery, exploration and discovery, and has been described as being grand in scope and scale. Forerunner elements will be featured extensively. It has also been suggested that the game will reveal how humanity and the UNSC have adapted to the post-war world, particularly how they have co-opted Forerunner technology. The former subject species of the Covenant Empire return in the game, with the supposed Sangheili allies and their former Unggoy subordinates, turned enemies, have banded together and engage with John-117 in combat. However, the Covenant are taking a backseat to an entirely new antagonist, which has been said to be a "threat beyond anything that Master Chief has faced before."

Beginning approximately on July 20th, 2557, four years and seven months after the armistice ending the Human-Covenant War, a prologue cinematic will educate new players and refresh fans on the events leading up to the present day. Cortana, laying silent for years, notices that the ship's intruder alarms have activated and attempts to wake John-117 from cryo-sleep. Cortana notifies him that in his sleep, she rewrote the firmware of his MJOLNIR Mark VI armor, upgrading the HUD, armor capabilities, while giving a new overall appearance. With the intruders spreading to multiple decks, John slips Cortana's chip back into his neural interface and upon opening a sealed hatch, unpressurized rooms rip him from the deck and send him into vacuum. After climbing up an elevator shaft, suddenly, a Sangheili swordsman comes charging at the Spartan supersoldier. After a brief close quarters engagement with the soldier, he kicks him down the shaft to his death. John questions the AI construct on why his once-formidable allies have attacked them, to which she has no answer. After fighting the Sangheili and their "repatriated" Unggoy subordinates, John makes his way to the aft observation deck, viewing a large Covenant fleet surrounding the Forward Unto Dawn while multiple boarding crafts dock with the heavily damaged frigate. Shortly after, John and Cortana make a crash-landing on the Forerunner Dyson sphere Requiem.

Unlike Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 4 is designed to be part of a three-game arc from the beginning. In addition, 343 Industries is aiming for more complete connectivity among all of their future media than that of the original trilogy; the Forerunner Saga and Kilo-Five Trilogy novels, and the Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary terminals have been stated as "definitely" having "resonant connections" to Halo 4's story. The third and final Forerunner Saga novel, with the working title of "Silentium", is expected to be released in January 2013. Frank O'Connor noted that Silentium will be released after Halo 4 for "specific strategic reasons" likely referring to the connectivity of the game and the novel. A live action series, Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, will provide a backstory for several characters set to appear in the game; this series will consist of five episodes totaling 75 minutes.

Characters

 * Cortana
 * John-117
 * Unidentified UNSC Infinity officer
 * Majestic Squad

Equipment and technology

 * Active Camouflage
 * Artificial Intelligence
 * Smart AI
 * Promethean Vision
 * Hologram
 * Jet Pack
 * MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor
 * Upgraded Mark VI
 * Unidentified light variant
 * Sangheili combat harness
 * Zealot variant
 * Shield world
 * Unggoy combat harness

Locations

 * Requiem
 * Unidentified Forerunner solar energy facility
 * Unidentified gas giant
 * Civilian orbital manufacturing facility

Organizations

 * Acheron Security
 * Misriah Armory
 * Sangheilian Armed Forces
 * United Nations Space Command
 * UNSC Marine Corps
 * UNSC Navy
 * Naval Special Warfare Command
 * SPARTAN-II Program
 * Office of Naval Intelligence
 * SPARTAN-IV Program
 * Majestic Squad
 * Unidentified Covenant organization

Ranks, titles, and types

 * Aristocrat
 * Master Chief Petty Officer
 * Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
 * Minor
 * Sangheili
 * Unggoy
 * Promethean
 * Sangheili Zealot
 * Unggoy Storm

Species

 * Crawler
 * Human
 * Forerunner
 * Kig-yar
 * Sangheili
 * Unggoy
 * Watcher

Vehicles

 * Boarding craft
 * CCS-class battlecruiser
 * Cyclops Mark II
 * M12 Force Application Vehicle
 * Type-25 Troop Carrier
 * Type-26 Ground Support Aircraft
 * Unidentified Pelican variant
 * Type-26 Ground Support Aircraft
 * Unidentified Pelican variant
 * Unidentified Pelican variant

Weapons

 * ARC-920
 * BR85 Heavy Barrel Service Rifle
 * M9 High-Explosive Dual-Purpose grenade
 * M45 Tactical Shotgun
 * M395 Designated Marksman Rifle
 * MA5D Individual Combat Weapon System
 * Sniper Rifle System 99-Series 5 Anti-Matériel
 * Type-1 Energy Weapon/Sword
 * Type-25 Directed Energy Pistol
 * Type-51 Carbine
 * Unidentified/undesignated weapons
 * Assault carbine
 * High explosive weapon
 * M6 Personal Defense Weapon System variant
 * Rocket launcher variant

Gameplay and design
Halo 4 is being developed for the Xbox 360 console. The game's creative team, which comprises nearly 200 individuals who have been developing the game for nearly two years, is led by creative director Josh Holmes. The game will continue the Halo series' tradition of inspiring wonder in the player while providing engaging, visceral gameplay. The game will utilize much of the "sandbox" that has been featured across all six prior Halo games and other media, in addition to introducing new characters, weapons, vehicles, and other elements. The game's "sandbox" and overall style are meant to be evocative of Halo: Combat Evolved moreso than of later installments. Dual wielding will not be featured in the game. Forge, the multiplayer map editing feature first included in Halo 3, is confirmed to be in-development and will be returning for Halo 4.

The narrative design team of Halo 4 is headed by Armando Troisi, who previously worked on Mass Effect and its sequel, along with an in-house team of writers. The original draft of the Halo 4 script was written by Chris Schlerf, who has also had major influence on the script since then. Brian Reed, who wrote the 2010-2012 graphic novel adaptation Halo: Fall of Reach, is also part of the writing team and has made significant contributions on the story.

The art director for Halo 4 is Kenneth Scott. He described the visual style of Halo 4 as being more ingrained in the expanded universe fiction, and more "mature" than before. With the game's increased focus on the Forerunners, the artists have invested heavily on the look and feel of Forerunner technology. It has also been stated that there will be more diversity to Forerunner structures, including fully active Forerunner technology as opposed to the mostly inert and abandoned structures seen in the earlier games.

John-117's experience and the player's experience are meant to be intertwined, with the Master Chief essentially serving as the player's avatar within the Halo universe. John's character will also be explored and developed in more depth than in the prior games, and the relationship between John and Cortana will be heavily featured and greatly expanded.

With the increased focus on the character of Master Chief, the Halo 4 art team has redesigned his MJOLNIR armor from the ground up. The first look into the redefined armor, which differs considerably from the suit seen in Halo 3, was seen in the announcement trailer, generating a considerable amount of confusion and speculation among fans. 343 Industries later stated that the design seen in the trailer was not the final version. The final iteration was later seen alongside the first Halo 4 gameplay reveal following Microsoft Spring Showcase 2012. It has been stated that the changes in the design are mostly cosmetic and were made with the intent of giving the suit a more functional look in order to suit the new art direction of the game. In a fictional context, the difference in the suit's appearance is explained by a complete overhaul performed by Cortana while John was in cryo-sleep.

Motion capture, first implemented in the series on Halo: Reach, was used during the production of Halo 4. Recording began prior to the release of the Making Halo 4: First Look video in Los Angeles, California, with material for the character Cortana and a man playing an unidentified character filmed; recordings have been done as recently as the week of April 29th, 2012.

Audio
Sotaro Tojima, best known for his work on Konami's Castlevania: Circle of the Moon and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, serves as Halo 4's audio director. The team has performed many live audio recording sessions, several of which occurred in Tasmania, Australia. Some of these recording sessions have taken place in generally inhospitable environments, such as underwater, in fire, and in ice, through the use of specially designed microphones; other recording sessions have utilized "home made" explosives. Tojima intends for the game's audio to be clearly grounded in the Halo universe, though to also have a more realistic quality than in past titles. A video was released on February 23rd depicting 343i recording weapon and explosion audio alongside the U.S. Army Special Forces. Weapons such as the M4 carbine, Mk.17 SCAR-H, M240 general purpose machine gun, M107 sniper rifle, M2 heavy machine gun, and the M72 rocket launcher were used in the recording.

Four voice actors have so far been announced for the game. Jen Taylor, voicing the A.I. Cortana, and Jeff Steitzer, the multiplayer and firefight Announcer, have confirmed on Facebook that they will again be reprising their roles for Halo 4. On the April 17th, 2012 episode of the TBS late night comedy show Conan, hosts Conan O'Brien and Andy Richter announced that they'll be voicing Navy deckhands lifting crates aboard the advanced warship Infinity towards the end of the story.

On April 11, 2012, the composer for Halo 4 was announced to be Neil Davidge. Davidge first started in his role as the future composer in late 2010, eventually having his first meeting with 343i laying out his ideas for the music of the game. After the meeting, Davidge began writing 20 to 30 pieces that would be the base of the Halo 4 score, in which he officially began working on it in August 2011. Davidge has since stated that over four hours and an estimated 300 pieces. Composing Halo 4 is noted as being split into four distinct "tiers," each consisting of central themes for a handful of missions. Many of the key compositions were recorded and completed in January 2012 ahead of 343i's completion deadline. Though still grounded in the Halo universe, the score for Halo 4 will be taking a new direction from Martin O'Donnell's composition in previous Halo titles.

Multiplayer
The competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes of Halo 4 are grouped together into a mode known as Infinity, which is tied to the Halo series fiction and runs parallel to the campaign story. In Infinity, players take control of SPARTAN-IV supersoldiers serving aboard the advanced warship, UNSC Infinity.

Competitive multiplayer, known as "War Games," pits players against one another in adversarial combat training in simulated environments in the advanced combat deck of the Infinity. However, due to the emphasis on the SPARTAN-IV commandos, players will not have the option to use Sangheili soldiers for their multiplayer character.

343 Industries is aiming to provide a "brand new experience" in Halo 4 multiplayer. This includes a reworking of the series' traditional balance system. For example, the class progression system will be more extensive; unlike in the prior games where multiplayer armor permutations were simply aesthetic, in Halo 4 custom armor will have an effect on gameplay. Players will also be able to customize their loadouts. It has also been stated that multiplayer gameplay will be "much more fast-paced, more intense and visceral" than in the prior games. Weapon pickups on maps will also be marked on the player's heads-up display.

Spartan Ops
Spartan Ops is a secondary campaign that replaces the Firefight mode featured in Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach. Much like traditional campaign cooperative play, Spartan Ops will allow up to four players to participate in weekly objective-based episodic missions; Missions will intertwine directly with events in the main Halo 4 campaign, expanding on the story of the UNSC Infinity and her crew, who will interact with John-117 during the series. Compared to a season of a television program, each "episode" of Spartan Ops will feature cinematics and five playable missions complete with new events, characters, locations, and gameplay challenges. 343 Industries will be supporting additional Spartan Ops missions for months after launch of the game and unlike Reach challenges, players will have the opportunity to play from the beginning of the episodic campaign regardless of when they started playing. The first "season" will be included with the price of the game, though 343i has not ruled out charging players for additional Spartan Ops seasons. Frank O'Connor has stated that it will "bridge the gap" between the events of Halo 4 and the future release of its sequel Halo 5.

Multiplayer maps
Unlike Halo: Reach, where the original multiplayer maps were shared in the campaign as gameplay spaces, all multiplayer maps in Halo 4 will be purpose-built for multiplayer alone much like in the first three Halo games. Frank O'Connor has stated that the names of the two known multiplayer maps are only placeholders and will be revealed at a later date.


 * Warhouse
 * Wraparound

Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn


Announced on April 30th, 2012, Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn is a five-episode live-action series with a total runtime of 75 minutes, making it one of the longest marketing programs for any game in history. Forward Unto Dawn will chronicle the life of a UNSC officer from his/her days as a cadet all the way to 2557 aboard the. John-117 is noted as being an inspiration to the protagonist and will appear in the film in an as-yet unknown fashion. 343i's business director, Matt McCloskey, stated that Forward Unto Dawn will allow the franchise to "make Halo accessible for people who haven't played the games." Both McCloskey and Frank O'Connor noted that the series will flesh out the fiction of the universe, particularly Halo 4's. Viewers will be given background information on the various events set prior to the upcoming game and the characters set to appear in it, as well as being introduced to new elements and expanding on old ones.

Forward Unto Dawn will be released prior to the worldwide launch of Halo 4, first as a short weekly webseries exclusively on Halo Waypoint and Machinima.com and later in its full 75-minute form on other devices. A 90-minute extended edition is included with the limited edition for Halo 4. The cast and crew for the film will be revealed at San Diego Comic-Con 2012 in July.

Announcement Trailer
Released during Microsoft's E3 2011 media briefing, the trailer depicts Cortana awakening John-117 from cryo sleep on the wreckage of Forward Unto Dawn, followed by John securing Cortana's storage chip and rushing through the wreckage to witness the ship being pulled into an enormous opening on the surface of Requiem.

Concept Art Glimpse
A video presenting several pieces of concept art was initially presented at Halo Fest and was subsequently released on Halo Waypoint. The trailer presents concept art of an Earth-like alien world, several location drafts which feature buildings and ships that follow the Forerunners' style of architecture and design, concepts of the Forward Unto Dawn 's wreckage, and some concepts of the unidentified planet. Two of these images were repurposed as the cover art for two of the Forerunner Saga novels, Cryptum and Primordium.

Gameplay reveal
This video revealed the first in-game footage of Halo 4 along with various gameplay elements. The video shows the most recent design of John-117's MJOLNIR armor and introduces the BR85 Heavy Barrel Service Rifle. The video goes on to show various clips of multiplayer with new elements revealed. Two multiplayer maps are revealed along with the first visual appearance of the SPARTAN-IVs. The video is presented and narrated by various 343 Industries employees.

Composing Worlds
This video reveals the music composer of Halo 4, Neil Davidge, and focuses primarily on the score's production process. It is stated that the musical score of Halo 4 will depart significantly from Martin O'Donnell's established works.

Game editions
The North American (ESRB) and European (PEGI) cover art for Halo 4, seen here, was unveiled on May 14th, 2012 through a series of 32 "puzzle pieces" given to various community members by 343 Industries. It depicts John-117 kneeling in his upgraded MJOLNIR armor with a MA5D assault rifle at the entrance to the Requiem Dyson sphere. To his sides, the crashing remains of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn, which is visually upgraded from its previous incarnation in Halo 3, and a CCS-class battlecruiser with other debris surround him.

Announced on May 16th, 2012, 343 Industries revealed a collector's edition for Halo 4. The Halo 4 Limited Edition has been noted as "maximizing your multiplayer experience," which in-turn will expand on the fiction of the Halo universe like many aspects of the game as a whole. The Limited Edition is presented in a large, minimalistic grey case that is adorned with an updated United Nations Space Command insignia; the game itself will be included in a smaller silver tin case that features similar artwork to the larger case and is embossed with futuristic artwork. It is currently available for pre-order alongside the standard edition and will be available for purchase worldwide on November 6th, 2012 starting at $99.99 (USD). 343 Industries has confirmed that there will not be a "Legendary Edition" for Halo 4, citing that they didn't want consumers to have to choose what version-specific ancillary items they'd receive.

Figurines
McFarlane Toys have announced two waves of action figures, vehicles, toy sets, and other products for Halo 4. The first series, set for release in August 2012, will feature four 6-inch carded figures, which include returning characters John-117 and a Sangheili Zealot and two new inclusions into the Halo universe, the Unggoy Storm and a Spartan Warrior ; a larger boxed product, featuring an up-scaled John-117 and accessories within a frozen cryopod will also be available. Released alongside Halo 4 in November will be the second series, including a figure of Cortana and a SPARTAN-IV soldier with two new enemy types, the Crawler and Watcher ; another large boxed product regarded as being an "enemy unlike anything before" will be released in Holiday 2012. McFarlane will also be releasing a Halo 4 series under their "Micro Ops" line, which includes smaller non-character figures made specifically for battle recreations. Re:creation will be producing replica figures and die cast vehicles based on content from the game, including a highly detailed 14-inch M12 Warthog vehicle.

Books
Awakening: The Art of Halo 4 is a hardcover art book first announced on May 8th, 2012. The book will be published by Titan Books with a release date of November 2nd, 2012. This fourth retail art collection from the Halo universe will include 192 pages of colored illustration used during production to create the vision of Halo 4 and will include commentary by 343 Industries artists and developers.

Five novels released from January 2011 to January 2013, though not specifically game merchandise, are intertwined with the story and expanded universe introduced in Halo 4. Set thousands of years in the past, the Forerunner Saga and its three novels Cryptum (Jan. 4th, 2011), Primordium (Jan. 3rd, 2012), and the upcoming Silentium (Jan. 2013) deal with the events leading up to and during the Forerunner-Flood war up to the "present day." The Kilo-Five Trilogy, consisting of Glasslands (Oct. 25th, 2011), The Thursday War (Oct. 2nd, 2012), and an unannounced third novel, chronicles the months following the end of Halo 3 and will bridge the gap between the original Bungie trilogy and the Reclaimer Trilogy.

Trivia

 * When recording dialogue as Sergeant Major Avery Johnson for Halo 2, David Scully humorously said, "In Halo 4, I get a woman!"
 * When asked whether or not, Certain Affinity will be assisting with multiplayer maps for Halo 4, Frank O'Connor stated that he values their service and he would hire them to assist with the production multiplayer maps for Halo 4.