I see many people complain about Halo 4 but, to be honest, I think everyone is missing the biggest problem with Halo 4: the lack of any originality or identity. But wait, I know what you are all thinking, both Halo 4 hater and lover.
‘What do you mean the game is not original? The game is completely different to past Halos! Sprint, armour abilities, loadouts, ordinance drops. How can you say Halo 4 is not original!’
Well all I see are how Halo 4 is different but I don’t say how any of it is original. All the new stuff is taken from Call Of Duty and you would be a liar to say otherwise. Now, in a way, that’s fine with me because, shock and horror, I like Call of Duty. In fact, I’m a Call of Duty fan. But here’s my problem: I want to play Halo, which I also love, and not a wannabe Call of Duty. Because I’m a Call of Duty fan, I think I can see how much this game blatantly rips off Call of Duty more than most because it extends beyond mere loadouts and sprinting.
If you take out the Call of Duty imitation what does Halo 4 do new? The Prometheans and Pelican flying? I would include the Mantis too, despite the blatant Metal Gear influence. These parts are great! Even Dominion, which is a Battlefield Clone game mode, feels like a Halo take on the formula and good fun. I think most people would agree that the new enemies, vehicles, game modes and art designs are the hillight of Halo 4. But beyond these few additions I cannot name anything that is original or feels like a continuation of Halo. I have played Modern Warefare 1, 2, Black Ops, Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Battelfield 3 and, sorry 343, but loadouts and pointstreaks (let’s be honest: that’s what ordinance drops are) are NOT new. They have been done to death by Call of Duty years ago and they hardly impress me, a hardened Call of Duty fan.
This leaves me with a big problem. The game is essentially Halo Reach that is copying what Call of Duty has been doing years ago. Even with the campaign qtes that Call of Duty did all the way back with Call of Duty 3! You would be a liar to say the qtes, like the one with the Didact, are not ripped straight from Call of Duty 3. Sure, Shenmue was doing Qtes long before Call of Duty, but Halo 4’s Qtes are done in almost the identical style of Call of Duty.
Even worse, the game modes that made Halo original are now gone. Race has been removed entirely and Grifball is not available for Matchmaking. Why the heck is Grifball not up yet? Why is Extraction not on Matchmaking? Why can’t I play the Campaign VIA Matchmaking? 343 say they aren’t ready and there are only two options. Either the game is basically a glorified Beta that isn’t even ready yet, or it’s to push the Infinity mode and cement the Call Of Duty influence. I want to play Halo! Black Ops 2 is sitting around whenever I want to play Call of Duty! I don’t need Halo 4 to be a lame wannabe Call of Duty.
But there is hope! Realistically, 343 CAN fix some of this. I ask of two main things from 343:
- Put some ‘action sack’ type playlists in
These playlists, in a way, define Halo. Grifball, obviously, being the face of them. They have always been something no other console FPS has done. I can’t play Action Sack with Black Ops 2! I want the identity of Halo back and you can do it 343.
- Make the upcoming map packs feel original
I don’t know how you are going to do this but dazzle us. I don’t want dull map dlc with nothing new in it. I’m no Halo 3 fanboy by any means, but I remember how awesome the sand forge level was for it’s time. Do something original and great like that.
I think these requests are reasonable. I’m not requesting unrealistic massive changes to the game which I know are not possible. Just please, give me Halo back. I already have my Call of Duty whenever I want to play it.
The irony is I like Halo 4 and know it has potential! Make sure it isn’t squandered to become a wanabe Call of Duty for it’s lifetime.
