I love Halo. Have all of the games (except Halo Wars), and have been a fan ever since I was a little kid playing Combat Evolved on the original Xbox (you know? the REAL "Xbox One" Microsoft!?)
Anyway, I agree that Halo 4 was disappointing. I don't think it's a bad game, in fact I think it's fun. It's just that, Reach set a really high bar for the amount of content a Halo game could have.
A campaign mode with great moments and sandbox gameplay, making it endlessly replayable? Check.
Addictive split-screen and online multiplayer that is endlessly customizable? Check.
Forge mode, theater mode, and...FIREFIGHT MODE!? CHECK!
No Firefight mode and "Spartan Ops" *gag reflex* are by far Halo 4's biggest offenses. This creates a serious lack of content.
Firefight added so much replay value. You can customize it any way you want, and just massacre waves of Covenant. And you didn't have to have an Xbox Live membership to enjoy it! Halo 4 ditches this great mode for Spartan Ops. Oh God, Spartan Ops... First off, yes, I realize this was intended to be played with friends. I get it...
BUT! If you give me the option to play by myself (which it does), then I expect some appropriate difficulty scaling. Does it do that? ABSOLUTELY NOT! There are hundreds of times you'll just walk into a room, then suddenly have like 35 thousand Prometheans just beam in and kill you. There's so many of them, you can barely react effectively! I spent more time getting angry with Spartan Ops than enjoying it. Oh, and you can't watch Campaign levels in Theater Mode. WOW, I apologize for the long post! I guess this was just sort of pent up lol