I’m not going to start out by saying I’m a Halo veteran, or a true halo fan etc etc. But I’ve played the Halo games and I’ve played Halo 4 and I have some things to say about the multiplayer. I don’t expect 343i to read or respond, and I don’t expect anyone from Waypoint to read or respond because it is a long read, but I feel it’s necessary to express myself after the last few nights playing online (I have been online consistently since Nov 6th).
For lack of better words, the multiplayer has issues that causes the whole experience to be frustrating and rage inducing when you come up against decent opponents. Everyone loves killing n00bs but once you are fighting some players who know what they’re doing, that is when the flaws of the multiplayer become apparent.
I’m going to skim across some issues.
Something is off with the aiming or hit detection. In Halos past, most recently Halo: Reach I could enter a DMR duel with another player and win constantly and either have some shields left or be on my last shot. In Halo 4 it seems like the duels are way too close to call all the time and I’m always on my last shot. Also, does anyone notice dying super quickly, but when you try to kill someone you could put 6 to 8 shots in them and they won’t die?
Instant Respawning shouldn’t be in objective gametypes (and possibly slayer). Try playing Oddball on Haven with a decent team and you could get triple or over kills and right when you’re about to get to the enemy ball carrier, the entire team is back to support him. It makes it a frustrating game to play since you don’t have any breathing room and players can come rushing back after making mistakes and dying.
The range of the radar (before the perk to increase it) is too large. Have you noticed this? In past Halo games the range of the radar was smaller. Now it’s a very long range and even shows when enemies will be on the radar before they are. In the past you could crouch sneak up to a player but now because you have a much larger range to sneak past, you’ll get picked off by opponents or noticed before you get close to an enemy.
Is there a lag issue online? In the past Halos, even Halo: Reach I haven’t noticed much hit detection issues, or issues with weapons. In Halo 4 I’ll pick up a Scatter shot and shoot 2 to 3 times and not kill someone, yet they will shoot me once from a decent range and kill me. Very strange.
Join in Progress system doesn’t work well. It’s starting Big Team Matches 6 vs 2, or I’ll join matches like on Exile where I’m on the losing team and the other team has both the Tank and the gauss hog. That’s not fun.
Map control is gone. Ragnarok is all about sitting where you are, shooting players when they appear and having power weapons dropped at your feet. It’s boring sitting in one place because you get more progress that way. You’re unable to move late into the game because of ordnance drops players have two or more sniper rifles and pick you off easily. Forget about flanking or stealth attacks because you get killed easily by others from across the map with the DMR.
Flinching, instead of unscoping when being shot, also ruins map control. It’s near impossible to gain ground on snipers or DMR users when you can’t knock them out of scope when gaining ground on them. They can just fire away from their camping location and you can’t do anything but try to kill them before they kill you. You can’t suppress them since they can just keep firing at you.
Dominion is a very hard game mode to play. The amount of power weapon drops in each base make taking a base ridiculously hard. Especially when combined with the issues above (like radar range).
The boltshot is insanely powerful. Last night I shot someone twice with a DMR and moved in to hit him in the back. He had enough time to switch to the Boltshot, charge it up, turn around and kill me. That’s not right.
Complex is a bad map and the only one with map control. You control this map by getting on top of the middle building and now the enemy team can’t do much but spawn in the open and die.
There is too much customization. This one is hard to explain. In the past Halo games there was only a finite number of encounters you could come up against. Someone with a rocket launcher, sniper, shotgun, etc. Now there is so much customization, you try to attack someone and who knows what they will have? You’re sneaking up on someone, they have Promethean vision, he saw you because you don’t have camo, you’re bombarded with grenades and die. You manage to get the drop on someone, he has a shotgun and an incineration cannon from ordnance, you die. Someone got a SAW from an ordnance drop, you don’t have Hard light shield and you die because how else do you counter that weapon in such a short time span?
The vehicles are near useless now because they take damage so easily. Try using the banshee on Ragnarok even when the enemy team doesn’t have a Mantis and you get shot down near immediately. Warthogs are shadows of their former selves and can’t kill anything before they are destroyed by the numerous ordnance drop power weapons.
The UI is cluttered and not intuitive. Why can’t I see who the other players are in a party with?
What I’m saying is that this multiplayer is frustrating. It’s frustrating because there are so many issues that prevent it from being truly great and enjoyable. It becomes an issue of going online to play and dealing with so many frustrating gameplay moments that it becomes not fun to play anymore in such a quick time. Yes I got my butt handed to me over the last few days, because of many of the issues listed above. When things become out of your control and you are in situations online where you know “Yep, I’m dead…” over and over, it is not fun anymore.
That’s all I have to say about this. I’d like to hold my breath and assume the above issues will be fixed but I doubt it. It’s just a video game and I’m not going to be a drama queen and say I’m never playing Halo again or 343i wronged me in anyway. I’m just going to do something else that’s fun instead of playing Halo multiplayer.
Thank you for reading.