Interesting analogy huh? Either you entered this post to see what I have to say, or you wanted to see if I was stoned or not. Now, for those who have played oddball in Halo 4 you know the announcer says “Your team dropped the ball.” or something along the lines of that. Well, it’s kind of a play on words, considering that saying “dropped the ball” means that you messed up. You had the chance to see something through, but you “fumbled”. When you drop the ball in Oddball you mess up, you no longer have possession. What does this have to do with anything? Well, 343i, you dropped the ball.
Had Reach been more in tune to a classic experience then it would have been the best Halo game yet. It would have had rock solid gameplay, a good Forge, Theater, Custom Game support, all these things. What do I get from the impression of Halo 4? That 343i is not ready to handle Halo. In fact the Campaign shows it great. The audio during cutscenes is compressed, the terminals seem like an after thought considering you have to watch them on Halo: Waypoint. Good luck people with no Internet! Launch support was utter chaos. Nobody knew what they were getting with what edition game they got until three weeks before the game came out, you never answered any of our concerns with anything other than “Play the game”, and you gave us Spoilers to the campaign numerous times without warning. (Anyone remember the Didact attacking Chief script leaked in a Vidoc?)
Come Multiplayer and it’s quite evident how unprepared you were. There’s a massive lack of Playlists, balancing issues you assured us weren’t there, and the fact that no matter how much we tell you that there’s broken elements to your game you haven’t answered us. Not even a peep. You haven’t even told us to “Shut up and play the game”. There’s nothing you have done to address any of the issues we are bringing to light. No Theater patch, an extreme lack of Custom game options, DMRvBR balance issues, and a progression based multiplayer system. You said this would be the most customizable Halo game to date. LIE! You can’t do half the things you could in Reach or Halo 3, hell, Halo 2 had more customization then Halo 4. You said the DMR would be a harder to use weapon relying on aim and a good hand, with less aim assist and magnetism. LIE! I tested the DMR and BR both in custom games with a guest. The DMR has the same amount of Aim assist and magnetism as the BR, with twice the range, and no spread or recoil. Great balance right? You said you were listening to the fans for Halo 4! We wanted a ranking system, with weapons strewn across the map and fighting for map control. We instead got a progression ranking system, unlockable weapons to use in loadouts, and random power-weapon spawns! At least we are getting CSR later on.
343i, you messed up. You know you messed up, we know you messed up, admit that you did and tell us your working on it, and actually work on it. This game is great, it just needs to be polished. This game has the potential to be the greatest Halo game to date, but you dropped the ball. Current devs make games based upon thinking that if somethings broke, we’ll patch it. Stop being lazy and make the game great from day 1, not have if fixed by thirty patches that take away massive memory on our hardrives.