Finish the fight. Five years on, the misguided marketing hook for Halo 3 still irks those who stuck with Bungies strung-out storytelling and cryptic iambic prophesying only to find that the climax didnt deliver. The war might have been won (honestly, it was hard to tell) but our hero was left drifting in distant space. It wasnt an end, it was an abandonment.

The most important thing that Halos new guardians at 343 Industries get right is a return to the fictional foundations of the original. Master Chief is our hero, Cortana is his unusually well-scripted AI companion, and hes fighting a war for Earth and mankind thats so unambiguous we neednt worry about his own lack of humanity we can just get on with the precise, technologically advanced killing.

At least we could if Halo 4 would let us. The Chiefs comeback might be a return to old ways and a tacit admission that Bungie strayed into unsatisfying chin-stroking territory but it also raises the issue of humanity early on, with a prologue cutscene regarding the original purpose of the Spartan programme.

Its an issue that doesnt go away. When we rejoin the Chief, hes been in stasis for four years, while the unsleeping Cortana has developed signs of rampancy, a form of AI dementia. She is losing her mind, and the awoken Chief sets out to save it by returning her to Earth the augmented superman and his artificial soul on an odyssey home.

The major obstacle to this homecoming is a Forerunner planet, which pulls the pairs derelict ship to its surface, where they discover a great threat to mankind. Its of the kind thats big enough to merrily drive an uncomplicated narrative, and the sort that other sequels have lacked. Our heroes also encounter a new race of enemies called Prometheans. Their design parallels the three-tiered structure of the Covenant, with towering Knights looking very much like semi-digital Elites, joined on the battlefield by fluttering drones and, in the place of the comical Grunts, packs of canine units with weaponised heads.
If this sounds like the formula of Halo: Combat Evolved, that seems to be the plan. Halo 4 might not recapture the wonder of that first ringworld, but its not for want of trying. The game presents us with another mysterious environment in the Forerunner planet, which is at first pointedly drab as if making a glib comment on Halo 3s muddy Flood bowels before exploding into a series of lush, colourful scenes.

The trump card is the same as always: a sense of solidarity in movement and aiming that makes weighty sense of fighting through the bio-enhanced body of a supersoldier. And Halo 4s focus is tightly pulled onto close-quarters encounters, highlighting this kinetic accomplishment. The grand staged battles favoured by the preceding sequels are gone, replaced by tightly mapped fights with small clusters of Prometheans and Covenant; the lessons of Assault On The Control Room have been learnt and are repeatedly put into practice.

Not that things are exactly the same: Master Chiefs choice of weaponry has expanded. An inclusive approach means the punchy, hierarchy-inverting pistol appears alongside its erstwhile replacements, the Battle Rifle and DMR, while the Promethean arsenal provides shotgun, rifle and sniper variants. The increased range of rechargeable power-ups has a greater tactical impact, though. These now boast a front-facing hard light shield and a Promethean sentry bot to be selected alongside the existing hologram, jet pack and power of invisibility, depending on your preference.

These powers are also the focal point of a multiplayer game thats slowly losing its identity. The bold, simple template of old featured no variable loadouts and no rechargeable powers, instead relying on a beautifully balanced weapon set and accomplished controls. This slowly eroding system has now been nudged a little closer to frenetic Call Of Duty standards thanks to the inclusion of sprinting for all players, item drops as a reward for kill streaks, and customisable loadouts. At the core remains the solid, steady hand of Halo, but those hoping Halo 4 would roll back Reachs intricacies and deliver an alternative to the current wave of console shooters will be disappointed.

Still, if theres work to be done with the multiplayer then Halo 4s campaign, and thus the series overall sense of purpose, is back on track. Perhaps resolving just one problem at a time is the most we can expect. 343 Industries has certainly done that; Halo 4 isnt a reinvention so much as a recalibration, a common-sense repair to a drifting narrative, with a hero who is now back in play and back at his best. Halo 4s biggest victory is that it gives us Master Chief back.

I give Halo 4, a total of 5/5