Halo 4 will be released in November, and developer 343 Industries recently talked about Halo 4's new enemies: the Prometheans. Adding a new foe to the series was a priority for the studio, with the Covenant very familiar to players by now.

"We aimed to create something that could stand alone and be as engaging as The Covenant has been before," Holmes said. The studio asked what an enemy beyond The Covenant would look like.

"We didn't want them to look like monsters, because they're not monsters," executive producer Kiki Wolfkill. "We didn't want them to look like robots, because they're not robots." The Prometheans are a Forerunner AI, the creators of Halo ring.

The aim was to make the Prometheans feel heavy and intimidating to the player.

"The Forerunner have been the source of mystery in the Halo 4 franchise," creative director Josh Holmes said. Throughout Halo campaigns players have seen nods to Forerunners through architecture and enemies like The Sentinels.

Discussing the Promethean Knights, Watchers, and Crawlers, the studio said that players will need to consider how to approach the enemies. The Knight gets progressively stronger, starting at a "little bit" more powerful than Elites, while Watchers can regenerate Knights, and Crawlers attack in packs. It sounds considerably more varied than previous Covenant enemies. With the Knight's ability to teleport across the environment, Watchers grabbing and chucking grenades, and the Watchers' feral nature, the enemies sound a fresh challenge.

To face the Prometheans, some weapons have dual functionality; for example, the Light Rifle has options to fire a spread and a three-round burst when not scoped, like the Battle Rifle, and the single-shot of the DMR is used when zoomed. Killing Prometheans causes them to dissolve from the area shot.

"It really feels like we're making a sequel to Halo 3, and that's exactly what we set out to do," Armand Triore added. Halo: Reach felt like a stopgap to many while waiting for Halo 4. "We're not just threatening one corner of the galaxy -- we're threatening everything."

Halo 4 releases November 6 on Xbox 360. The trailer (below) does not reveal a wealth of information about the campaign itself.