A Personal Breakdown of H4

I am that casual player you hate.

I find bloom irritating, but workable. I used armor lock to cry for help. I would likely AR and then melee you back in 2007. I didn’t even bother keeping my stats from Halo 2. I think camping the rockets is awesome. I will also desperately pelt you with the DMR if you’re in the warthog.

I’ve been seeing a lot of people claim that some how Halo 4 was built up specifically to please me. I don’t see anything particularly wrong with that. A game that is made just for me and my ilk? A game to test the tempers of those that would dedicate large quantities of their waking hours to the game? It sounds stellar to me.

Just one problem.

I don’t buy it.

If the claim that Halo 4 was built specifically for me and my terrible game playing habits, then I should see a drastic improvement in my scores over earlier games, right? I mean, there are those that think Reach should have helped me out the most.

So why then this particular spread of statistics? Behold the gaming reputation of a casual player:

Halo 3 stats overview:
http://www.bungie.net/stats/halo3/careerstats.aspx?player=TheWindClaw

Halo Reach stats overview:
http://www.bungie.net/stats/reach/default.aspx

Halo 4 stats overview:
https://app.halowaypoint.com/en-us/Halo4/thewindclaw/wargames/

One of the first things I think people should take note of is how insignificant the differences are between each of the game’s recorded statistics. Aside from a gameplay change between Halo 3 and Halo Reach (I stopped punching people as often as I did), my recorded statistics are roughly the same. If Reach or Halo 4 was built for me, wouldn’t there be an improving trend in my statistics? Wouldn’t I be dominating more often and enjoying the sweet succulent taste of auto-pilot victory? The trend seems to suggest a staggering no. In fact, I would go so far as to say that there is no trend in my recorded statistics.

I will acknowledge that Halo 4 has issues, and stands a fair amount of criticism. I do think that the DMR is too effective versus the other primary weapons. I do think the BoltShot needs to be reconsidered as a single shot kill weapon. I also find that I enjoy using the funky grenade perk that both increases my blast radius while reducing the amount of damage I take.

But don’t say the game was built for me. It feeds me ego too much.

its not built for casuals the people who dont like it just need someone to blame.

I fear that may be the case. I am always perplexed by complaints of changed mechanics from previous titles… Yet those titles still exist, yes? Why not just play the older title?

The only response to that I get is a lacking population.

But wouldn’t that same ‘lacking population’ be every bit as enthusiastic for the title as the criticizer is? I admit that they love the older titles more than I do. They should have at it. Heck, there are people that jury rig Halo 2 to go online. I just occasionally settle for friends that pop on over and hit up split screen for that one.