Halo 4's release is fast approaching and developers 343 Industries released a multiplayer video-documentary (or "vidoc") explaining the philosophy behind the changes in Halo 4.

In a new video (below), 343 talked about expanding the story beyond the in-game mechanics, building a story across Halo 4's modes from campaign to multiplayer. The story is woven via UNSCY Infinity, a new peacetime ship home to the Spartan-IV program, the Spartan players' control in multiplayer and Spartan Ops. In campaign, the ship crash lands, as shown in the E3 2012 demo, while in multiplayer it releases Ordnance Drops with weapons.

"Something we really wanted to do with Halo 4 was bring a new perspective to Halo multiplayer," said Creative Director Josh Holmes.

"We knew we wanted to expand the audience as much as possible while satisfying the core," Multiplayer Lead Designer Kevin Franklin added. The "core" refers to long time Halo players: the competitive audience.

Rather than spawning players with the same weapons, like in past Halo games, players now create loadouts. The loadouts will consist of a primary and secondary weapon, grenade type, armor ability, and two passive abilities that grant in-game modifiers. However, Team Slayer Pro is a launch playlist, confirmed by hands-on reports and screenshots. It forces players into picking preconfigured loadouts, including a Battle Rifle, Assault Rifle, or Designated Marksman Rifle. Every player spawns with one grenade, can pick up grenades, sees increased movement speed, and does not have armor abilities.

"The gameplay mechanics are consistent across every mode, so they don't change," the developer explained. Halo 4 features a progression system, unlocking weapons, abilities, and cosmetic upgrades as players rank up. The developers discussed this system in a recent blog post.

Players will also get rewarded for kills, "style," assists, and completed objectives, which fills up the Ordnance Meter, giving players the option to spawn one of a power weapon, power up, or grenade type. Five kills, a Killing Spree, gets a Drop; however subsequent Drops become harder to earn.

Drop-in and drop-out is confirmed, meaning sessions can be joined in progress. Whether the feature moves to competitive playlists or Team Objective is unknown.

Capture the Flag also sees a controversial change. Now players pick up the flag automatically and are committed. Players will also have the Magnum in the right hand, which removes the ability to juggle flags, change roles as the developers want the focus to be on a single player.