Bungie made each of the original Halo games only 3 years apart, same as 343. The launches weren’t always perfect, but still very successful. Halo 3 launch, you had - A solid campaign, ranked and social split and many playlists to suit different types of players, and plenty of custom game options with forge also. As well as a brand new theater mode. There were so many goodies to try out, and they had just as much, or as little, time as 343 have had.
The reasons why Halo 5 population was bound to start increasingly dropping after that launch -
1. No ranked and social split.
I’m sorry, but the same amount of casual players will not stick around if they are put up against competitive players and try hards.
This game is very fun for people who love a challenge and like the competitive side of halo, but it’s not fun for people who just want to kick back and relax. Sure, I know there’s Warzone, but that’s really not enough for a lot of Halo casuals who have been here for years.
And also the fact that BTB is ranked is not going to go down well either. It should have been social.
There NEEDS to be a ranked and social split in Halo!!!
2. Poor ranking system + Matchmaking
The matchmaking is very quick, but I guess the price we pay is players who are miles apart in experience and skill being matched up with each other. It seems you need to make it all the way to Onyx before you are split apart from the rest of the players.
But you cannot seriously expect Diamond players vs Unranked or casual players to make a good game.
We need the original style Halo ranks. 1-50. This ranking system wasn’t perfect, but your rank was far more rewarding, and you didn’t get such a huge split between ranks very often.
You’d be like a 25, and you might get matched against 22’s or 28’s, but that’s about it, and to make it anywhere near the higher ranks, you needed to be good. There was no question. Diamond is the second highest rank, yet I’ve seen very average players achieve this rank. In Halo, getting to rank 35 was seen as a fantastic achievement, it was literally that difficult.
And I never heard of a legit rank 50.
3. Restrictions with custom games, and no forge at launch.
Sorry but Forge should have been available at launch. Forge was a completely new concept to Halo when Bungie brought out Halo 3, yet they managed to get it done and dusted inside of those 3 years they had. 343 have failed to do that, despite Forge not being new to Halo.
Also, custom game options are again poor. Casuals will miss their fun custom game experiences. There’s too many playlists that we all love gone from the game, and infection game types on forged maps were very popular.
I know you might say “it’s coming in december”, but is that good enough? Well, for me, I can wait, but many casuals do not stick around to find out. They either get a really fun game, or they move on to something else, and they’ve probably move to Black Ops or Star Wars Battlefront, two games that offer a more laid back experience.
