There’s a new Halo game out in the wild. Well, okay, fine, there’s an old Halo game out — again. Halo: Campaign Evolved, a remake of 2001’s Halo: Combat Evolved, is a modern-day reminder that the original Halo game was…pretty dang good! Bungie’s Xbox launch title was a stunning display of moody tone, a massive step forward for level design, and the overall experience still holds up today. But as Halo fans wade into the nostalgia pool, I can’t help but think that Halo is far from the best Halo game. That honor goes to Halo 4.

Released in 2012 during the twilight of the Xbox 360 era, Halo 4 marked a major shift for the series. Bungie had moved on, and the nascent 343 Industries, which had released a remaster of Halo: Combat Evolved in 2011, continued carrying the Halo torch. Players widely criticized it at the time for “CoD-ifying” Halo, for playing around with lore, and for showing a more emotional side of protagonist Master Chief.

Those are all the reasons Halo 4 rules.

Throughout the original trilogy, Master Chief is stoic. Sure, he cracks the occasional clever one-liner, but is largely a man on a singular mission: protecting humanity against an existential extraterrestrial threat. Halo 4 opens that up, focusing more on the bond between Chief and Cortana, the AI construct who’s accompanied him, quite literally in his head, through all three games. At the end of Halo 3, their enemies vanquished and humanity saved, Master Chief and Cortana are left abandoned in deep........

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